THE TRIAL
The day of his trial came as a welcome change to Harold. He had no fear
of punishment and he hated delay. Every day before his sentence began
was a loss of time--kept him just that much longer from the alluring
lands to the West. His father called often to see him, but the boy
remained inexorably silent in all these meetings, and the minister went
away white with pain. Even to his sister Harold was abrupt and harsh,
but Jack's devotion produced in him the most exalted emotion, and he
turned upon his loyal chum the whole force of his affectionate nature.
He did not look up to Jack; he loved him more as a man loves his younger
brother, and yet even to him he would not utter the words young Slocum
had flung at him. Lawyer Talcott had asked young Burns to get at this if
possible, for purpose of defense, but it was not possible.
The court met on the first Tuesday in September. The day was windless
and warm, and as Harold walked across the yard with the sheriff he
looked around at the maple leaves, just touched with crimson and gold
and russet, and his heart ached with desire to be free. The scent of the
open air made his nostrils quiver like those of a deer.
Jack met them on the path--eager to share his hero's trouble.
"Please, sheriff, let me walk with Harry."
"Fall in behind," the sheriff gruffly replied; and so out of all the
town people Jack alone associated himself with the prisoner. Up the
stairs whereon he had romped when a lad, Harold climbed spiritlessly, a
boy no longer.
The halls were lined with faces, everyone as familiar as the scarred and
scratched wall of the court room, and yet all were now alien--no one
recognized him by a frank and friendly nod, and he moved past his old
companions with sullen and rigid face. His father met him at the door
and walked beside him down the aisle to a seat.
The benches were crowded, and every foot of standing space was soon
filled. The members of the First Church were present in mass to see the
minister enter, pale and haggard with the disgrace of his son.
The judge, an untidy old man of great ability and probity, was in his
seat, looking out absently over the spectators. "The next case" to him
was _only_ a case. He had grown gray in dealing with infractions of the
law, and though kindly disposed he had grown indifferent--use had dulled
his sympathies. His beard, yellow with tobacco stain, was still
venerable, and his voice, deep and melodious, was impressive and
commanding.
He was disposed to cut short all useless forms, and soon brought the
case to vital questions. Naturally, the prosecution made a great deal of
Harold's bad character, drawing from ready witnesses the story of his
misdeeds. To do this was easy, for the current set that way, and those
who had only _thought_ Harold a bad boy now _knew_ that he was concerned
in all the mischief of the village.
In rebuttal, Mr. Talcott drew out contradictory statements from these
witnesses, and proved several alibis at points where Harold had been
accused. He produced Jack Burns and several others to prove that Harold
liked fun, but that he was not inclined to lead in any of the mischief
of the town--in fact, that he had not the quality of leadership.
He pushed young Burns hard to get him to say that he knew the words of
insult which Slocum had used. "I think he used some girl's name," he
finally admitted.
"I object," shouted the prosecution, as if touched on a hidden spring.
"Go on," said the judge to Talcott. He had become interested in the case
at last.
When the lawyer for the prosecution cross-examined young Burns he became
terrible. He leaned across the table and shook his lean, big-jointed
finger in Jack's face. "We don't want what you _think_, sir; we want
what you know. Do you _know_ that Slocum brought a girl's name into
this?"
"No, sir, I don't," replied Jack, red and perspiring.
"That's all!" cried the attorney, leaning back in his chair with
dramatic complacency.
Others of Harold's companions were brow-beaten into declaring that he
led them into all kinds of raids, and when Talcott tried to stem this
tide by objection, the prosecution rose to say that the testimony was
competent; that it was designed to show the dangerous character of the
prisoner. "He is no gentle and guileless youth, y'r Honor, but a
reckless young devil, given to violence. No one will go further than I
in admiration of the Reverend Mr. Excell, but the fact of the son's
lawless life can not be gainsaid."
Slocum repeated his story on the stand and was unshaken by Bradley's
cross-examination. Suddenly the defense said: "Stand, please."
Slocum arose--a powerful, full-grown man.
Bradley nodded at Harold. "Stand also."
"I object," shrieked the prosecution.
"State the objection," said the judge.
"Keep your position," said Bradley sternly. "I want the jury to compare
you."
As the prisoner and the witness faced each other the court room
blossomed with smiles. Harold looked very pale and delicate beside the
coarse, muscular hostler, who turned red and looked foolish.
Ultimately the judge sustained the objection, but the work was done. A
dramatic contrast had been drawn, and the jury perceived the
pusillanimity of Slocum's story. This was the position of the defense.
Harold was a boy, the hostler had insulted him, had indeed struck him
with a whip. Mad with rage, and realizing the greater strength of his
assailant, the prisoner had drawn a knife.
In rebuttal, the prosecution made much of Harold's fierce words. He
meant to kill. He was a dangerous boy. "Speaking with due reverence for
his parents," the lawyer said, "the boy has been a scourge. Again and
again he has threatened his playmates with death. These facts must
stand. The State is willing to admit the disparity of strength, so
artfully set forth by the defense, but it must not be forgotten that the
boy was known to carry deadly weapons, and that he was subject to blind
rages. It was not, therefore, so much a question of punishing the boy as
of checking his assaults upon society. To properly punish him here would
have a most salutary effect upon his action in future. The jury must
consider the case without sentiment."
Old Brown arose after the State had finished. Everyone knew his power
before a jury, and the room was painfully silent as he walked with
stately tread to a spittoon and cleared his mouth of a big wad of
tobacco. He was the old-fashioned lawyer, formal, deliberate; and though
everybody enjoyed Bradley Talcott's powerful speech, they looked for
drama from Brown. The judge waited patiently while the famous old lawyer
played his introductory part. At last, after silently pacing to and fro
for a full minute, he turned, and began in a hard, dry, nasal voice.
"Your Honor, I'm not so sure of the reforming effect of a penitentiary.
I question the salutary quality of herding this delicate and
high-spirited youth with the hardened criminals of the State." His
strident, monotonous tone, and the cynical inflections of his voice made
the spectators shiver with emotion as under the power of a great actor.
He paced before the judge twice before speaking again. "Your Honor,
there is more in this case than has yet appeared. Everyone in this room
knows that the elopement of Dorothy Burland is at the bottom of this
affair, everyone but yourself, judge. This lad was the accepted
sweetheart of that wayward miss. This man Slocum is one of the rough,
loud-spoken men of the village, schooled in vice and fisticuffery. You
can well imagine, gentlemen of the jury," he turned to them abruptly,
"you can well imagine the kind of a greeting this town loafer would give
this high-spirited boy on that morning after the night when his
_inamorata_ disappeared with a married man. The boy has in him somewhat
of the knight of the old time, your Honor; he has never opened his lips
in dispraise of his faithless love. He has refused to repeat the
insulting words of his assailant. He stands to-day at a turning point of
his life, gentlemen of the jury, and it depends on you whether he goes
downward or upward. He has had his faith in women shaken: don't let him
lose faith in law and earthly justice." His first gesture was on the
word "downward," and it was superb.
Again he paused, and when he looked up again a twinkle was in his eyes
and his voice was softer. "As for all this chicken roasting and melon
lifting, you well know the spirit that is in that; we all had a hand in
such business once, every man Jack of us. The boy is no more culpable
now than you were then. Moreover, Excell has had too much of the
mischief of the town laid on his shoulders--more than he deserves. 'Give
a dog a bad name and every dead sheep is laid at the door of his
kennel.'
"However, I don't intend to review the case, y'r Honor. My colleague has
made the main and vital points entirely clear; I intend merely to add a
word here and there. I want you to take another look at that pale,
handsome, poetic youth and then at that burly bully, and consider the
folly, the idiocy, and the cowardice of the charge brought against our
client." He waited while the contrast which his dramatic utterance made
enormously effective was being felt; then, in a deep, melodious voice,
touched with sadness, he addressed the judge:
"And to you, your Honor, I want to say we are old men. You on the bench
and I here in the forum have faced each other many times. I have
defended many criminals, as it was my duty to do, and you have punished
many who deserved their sentences. I have seen innocent men unable to
prove their freedom from guilt, and I have known men who are grossly
criminal, because of lack of evidence--these things are beyond our
cure. We are old, your Honor: we must soon give place to younger men. We
can not afford to leave bench and bar with the stain of injustice on our
garments. We can not afford to start this boy on the road to hell at
seventeen years of age."
He stopped as abruptly as he had begun, and the room was silent for a
long time after he had taken his seat. To Harold it seemed as though he
and all the people of the room were dead--that only his brain was alive.
Then Mrs. Excell burst into sobbing. The judge looked away into space,
his dim eyes seeing nothing that was near, his face an impassive mask of
colorless flesh. The old lawyer's words had stirred his blood, sluggish
and cold with age, but his brain absorbed the larger part of his roused
vitality, and when he spoke his voice had an unwontedly flat and dry
sound.
"The question for you to decide," he said, instructing the jury, "is
whether the boy struck the blow in self-defense, or whether he assaulted
with intent to do great bodily injury. The fact that he was provoked by
a man older and stronger than himself naturally militates in his favor,
but the next question is upon the boy's previous character. Did he carry
deadly weapons? Is he at heart dangerous to his fellows? His youth
should be in mind, but it should also be remembered that he is a lad of
high intellectual power, older than most men of his age. I will not
dwell upon the case; you have heard the testimony; the verdict is in
your keeping."
During all this period of severe mental strain Mr. Excell sat beside
Lawyer Brown, motionless as a statue, save when now and again he leaned
forward to whisper a suggestion. He did not look at his son, and Harold
seldom looked at him. Jack Burns sat as near the prisoner as the sheriff
would permit, and his homely, good face, and the face of the judge were
to Harold the only spots of light in the otherwise dark room. Outside
the voices of children could be heard and the sound of the rising wind
in the rustling trees. Once a breeze sent a shower of yellow and crimson
leaves fluttering in at the open window, and the boy's heart swelled
high in his throat, and he bowed his head and sobbed. Those leaves
represented the splendor of the open spaces to him. They were like
messages from the crimson sunsets of the golden West, and his heart
thrilled at the sight of them.
It was long after twelve o'clock, and an adjournment for dinner was
ordered. Harold was about to be led away when his father came to him and
said:
"Harold, would you like to have your mother and me go to dinner with
you?"
With that same unrelenting, stubborn frown on his face the boy replied:
"No--let me alone."
A hot flush swept over the preacher's face. "Very well," he said, and
turned away, his lips twitching.
The jury was not long out. They were ready to report at three o'clock.
Every seat was filled as before. The lawyers came in, picking their
teeth or smoking. The ladies were in Sunday dress, the young men were
accompanied by their girls, as if the trial were a dramatic
entertainment. Those who failed of regaining their seats were much
annoyed; others, more thrifty, had hired boys to keep their places for
them during the noon hour, and others, still more determined, having
brought lunches, had remained in their seats throughout the
intermission, and were serene and satisfied.
Harold was brought back to his seat looking less haggard. He was not
afraid of sentence; on the contrary he longed to have the suspense end.
"I don't care what they do with me if they don't use up too much of my
life," he said to Jack. "I'll pound rock or live in a dungeon if it will
only shorten my sentence. I hate to think of losing time. Oh, if I had
only gone last year!"
The Reverend Excell came in, looming high above the crowd, his face
still white and set. He paid no heed to his parishioners, but made his
way to the side of Lawyer Brown. The judge mounted his bench and the
court room came to order instantly.
"Is the jury ready to report on the case of the State _vs._ Excell?" he
asked in a low voice. He was informed that they were agreed. After the
jury had taken their seats he said blandly, mechanically: "Gentlemen, we
are ready for your verdict."
Harold knew the foreman very well. He was a carpenter and joiner in
whose shop he had often played--a big, bluff, good-hearted man whom any
public speaking appalled, and who stammered badly as he read from a
little slip of paper: "Guilty of assault with intent to commit great
bodily injury, but recommended to the mercy of the judge." Then, with
one hand in his breeches pocket, he added: "Be easy on him, judge; I
believe I'd 'a' done the same."
The spectators tittered at his abrupt change of tone, and some of the
young people applauded. He sat down very hot and red.
The judge did not smile or frown; his expressionless face seemed more
like a mask than ever. When he began to speak it was as though he were
reading something writ in huge letters on a distant wall.
"The Court is quite sensible of the extenuating circumstances attending
this sad case, but there are far-reaching considerations which the Court
can not forget. Here is a youth of good family, who elects to take up a
life filled with mischief from the start. Discipline has been lacking.
Here, at last, he so far oversteps the law that he appears before a
jury. It seems to the Court necessary, for this young man's own good,
that he feel the harsh hand of the law. According to the evidence
adduced here to-day, he has been for years beyond the control of his
parents, and must now know the inflexible purpose of law. I have in mind
all that can be said in his favor: his youth, the disparity of age and
physical power between himself and his accuser, the provocation, and the
possession of the whip by the accuser--but all these are more than
counterbalanced by the record of mischief and violence which stands
against the prisoner."
There was a solemn pause, and the judge sternly said: "Prisoner, stand
up." Harold arose. "For an assault committed upon the person of one
Clinton Slocum, I now sentence you, Harold Excell, to one year in the
penitentiary, and may you there learn to respect the life and property
of your fellow-citizens."
"Judge! I beg----" The tall form of Mr. Excell arose, seeking to speak.
The judge motioned him to silence.
Brown interposed: "I hope the court will not refuse to hear the father
of the prisoner. It would be scant justice if----"
Mr. Excell's voice arose, harsh, stern, and quick. He spoke like the big
man he was, firm and decided. Harold looked up at him in surprise.
"I claim the right to be heard; will the Court refuse me the privilege
of a word?" His voice was a challenge. "I am known in this community.
For seven years as a minister of the Gospel I have lived among these
citizens. My son is about to be condemned to State's prison, and before
he goes I want to make a statement here before him and before the judge
and before the world. I understand this boy better than any of you,
better than the mother who bore him, for I have given him the
disposition which he bears. I have had from my youth the same murderous
rages: I have them yet. I love my son, your Honor, and I would take him
in my arms if I could, but he has too much of my own spirit. He
literally can not meet me as an affectionate son, for I sacrificed his
good-will by harsh measures while he was yet a babe. I make this
confession in order that the Court may understand my relation to my son.
He was born with my own temper mingled with the poetic nature of his
mother. While he was yet a lad I beat him till he was discolored by
bruises. Twice I would have killed him only for the intervention of my
wife. I have tried to live down my infirmity, your Honor, and I have at
last secured control of myself, and I believe this boy will do the same,
but do not send him to be an associate with criminals. My God! do not
treat him as I would not do, even in my worst moments. Give him a chance
to reform outside State's prison. Don't fix on him that stain. I will
not say send me--that would be foolish trickery--but I beg you to make
some other disposition of this boy of mine. If he goes to the
penitentiary I shall strip from my shoulders the dress of the clergyman
and go with him, to be near to aid and comfort him during the term of
his sentence. Let the father in you speak for me, judge. Be merciful, as
we all hope for mercy on the great day, for Jesus' sake."
The judge looked out over the audience of weeping women and his face
warmed into life. He turned to the minister, who still stood before him
with hand outstretched, and when he spoke his voice was softened and his
eyes kindly.
"The Court has listened to the words of the father with peculiar
interest. The Court _is_ a father, and has been at a loss to understand
the relations existing between father and son in this case. The Court
thinks he understands them better now. As counsel for the defense has
said, I am an old man, soon to leave my seat upon the bench, and I do
not intend to let foolish pride or dry legal formalities stand between
me and the doing of justice. The jury has decided that the boy is
guilty, but has recommended him to the mercy of the Court. The plea of
the father has enlightened the Court on one or two most vital points.
Nothing is further from the mind of the Court than the desire to do
injury to a handsome and talented boy. Believing that the father and son
are about to become more closely united, the Court here transmutes the
sentence to one hundred dollars fine and six months in the county jail.
This will make it possible for the son and father to meet often, and the
father can continue his duties to the church. This the Court decides
upon as the final disposition of the accused. The case is closed. Call
the next case."