"The cold neutrality of an impartial judge."--BURKE.
The jury were out.
They had been out four hours, but the crowd in the closely packed
court-room still kept its ranks unbroken, and even seemed to grow more
dense; for if, here and there, one person went away, two from the
waiting throng of those in the halls and about the doors immediately
pressed their way in to take the vacant place. The long warm summer day
was drawing toward its close. The tired people fanned themselves, but
would not go, because it was rumored that a decision was near.
Outside, the fair green farming country, which came up almost to the
doors, stretched away peacefully in the twilight, shading into the grays
of evening down the valley, and at the bases of the hills. The fields
were falling asleep; eight o'clock sounding from a distant church bell
seemed like a curfew and good-night.
If one had had time to think of it, the picture of the crowded
court-room, rising in that peaceful landscape, was a strange one. But no
one had time to think of it. Lights had been brought in. The summer
beetles, attracted by them, flew in through the open windows, knocked
themselves against the wall, fell to the floor, and then slowly took
wing again to repeat the process. With the coming of the lights the
crowd stirred a little, looked about, and then settled itself anew. The
prisoner's chances were canvassed again, and for the hundredth time. The
testimony of Anne Douglas had destroyed the theory which had seemed to
fill out so well the missing parts of the story; it had proved that the
supposed rival was a friend of the wife's, and that the wife loved her;
it had proved that Mrs. Heathcote was devoted to her husband, and happy
with him, up to the last hour of her life. This was much. But the
circumstantial evidence regarding the movements of the prisoner at
Timloesville remained unchanged; he was still confronted by the fact of
his having been seen on that outside stairway, by the other significant
details, and by the print of that left hand.
During this evening waiting, the city papers had come, were brought in,
and read. One of them contained some paragraphs upon a point which, in
the rapid succession of events that followed each other in the case, had
been partially overlooked--a point which the country readers cast aside
as unimportant, but which wakened in the minds of the city people
present the remembrance that they had needed the admonition.
"But if this conversation (now given in full) was remarkable," wrote the
editor far away in New York, "it should not be forgotten that the
circumstances were remarkable as well. While reading it one should keep
clearly in mind the fact that the subject of it, namely, Captain
Heathcote, was, in the belief of both the speakers, dead. Had it not
been for this belief of theirs, these words would never have been
uttered. He was gone from earth forever--killed suddenly in battle. Such
a death brings the deepest feelings of the heart to the surface. Such a
death wrings out avowals which otherwise would never be made. Words can
be spoken over a coffin--where all is ended--which could never be spoken
elsewhere. Death brought together these two women, who seem to have
loved each other through and in spite of all. One has gone. And now the
menacing shadow of a far worse death has forced the other to come
forward, and go through a cruel ordeal, an ordeal which was, however,
turned into a triumph by the instant admiration which all rightly minded
persons gave to the pure, noble bravery which thus saved a life. For
although the verdict has not yet been given, the general opinion is that
this new testimony turned the scale, and that the accused man will be
acquitted."
But this prophecy was not fulfilled.
Five hours of waiting. Six hours. And now there came a stir. The jury
were returning; they had entered; they were in their places. Rachel
Bannert bent her face behind her open fan, that people should not see
how white it was. Miss Teller involuntarily rose. But as many had also
risen in the crowded room, which was not brightly lighted save round the
lawyers' tables, they passed unnoticed. The accused looked straight into
the faces of the jurors. He was quite calm; this part seemed far less
trying to him than that which had gone before.
And then it was told: they had neither convicted nor acquitted him. They
had disagreed.
Anne Douglas was not present. She was sitting alone in an unlighted
house on the other side of the little country square. Some one walking
up and down there, under the maples, had noticed, or rather divined, a
figure at the open window behind the muslin curtains of the dark room;
he knew that this figure was looking at the lights from the court-room
opposite, visible through the trees.
This man under the maples had no more intention of losing the final
moment than the most persistent countryman there. But being in the habit
of using his money, now that he had it, rather than himself, he had
posted two sentinels, sharp-eyed boys whom he had himself selected, one
in an upper window of the court-room on the sill, the other outside on
the sloping roof of a one-story building which touched it. The boy in
the window was to keep watch; the boy on the roof was to drop to the
ground at the first signal from the sill, and run. By means of this
human telegraph, its designer under the maples intended to reach the
window himself, through the little house whose door stood open (its
mistress having already been paid for the right of way), in time to hear
and see the whole. This intention was carried out--as his intentions
generally were. The instant the verdict, or rather the want of verdict,
was announced, he left the window, hastened down through the little
house, and crossed the square. The people would be slow in leaving the
court-room, the stairway was narrow, the crowd dense; the square was
empty as he passed through it, went up the steps of the house occupied
by Miss Teller, crossed the balcony, and stopped at the open window.
"Anne?" he said.
A figure stirred within.
"They have disagreed. The case will now go over to the November term,
when there will be a new trial."
He could see that she covered her face with her hands. But she did not
speak.
"It was your testimony that turned the scale," he added.
After a moment, as she still remained silent, "I am going away
to-night," he went on; "that is, unless there is something I can do for
you. Will you tell me your plans?"
"Yes, always," she answered, speaking low from the darkness. "Everything
concerning me you may always know, if you care to know. But so far I
have no plan."
"I leave you with Miss Teller; that is safety. Miss Teller claims the
privilege now of having you with her always."
"I shall not stay long."
"You will write to me?"
"Yes."
People were now entering the square from the other side. The window-sill
was between them; he took her hands, drew her forward from the shadow,
and looked at her in the dim light from the street lamp.
"It is my last look, Anne," he said, sadly.
"It need not be."
"Yes; you have chosen. You are sure that there is nothing more that I
can do?"
"There is one thing."
"What is it?"
"Believe him innocent. Believe it, not for my sake, but for your own."
"If I try, it will be for yours. Good-by."
He left her, and an hour later was on his way back to his post at the
capital of his State. He was needed there; an accumulation of
responsibilities awaited him. For that State owed the excellence of its
war record, its finely equipped regiments, well-supplied hospitals, and
prompt efficiency in all departments of public business throughout those
four years, principally to the brain and force of one man--Gregory
Dexter.