Shortly after Fred Mathews began the practice of law he was elected to
the office of Prosecuting Attorney in the Western town to which he had
gone when first admitted to the bar.
Of course, every law student becomes familiar with the jests and
gibes cast at the members of the profession as men who are peculiarly
economical of the truth. He smiles with those who hint that a lawyer is
always lavish of advice that leads to litigation.
That students of Blackstone and Coke hear much merrymaking over and some
serious criticism of the quibbles to which the best of them are
supposed to resort--of making little of real evidence and much
of trivialities--goes without saying. Nor are they unaware of the
fact--alas! sometimes too well founded upon strong evidence--that
the general public appears to be convinced that laws are made for the
purpose of shielding the rich and oppressing the poor or unfortunate.
No student of average ability enters practice uninformed that there is
a widespread belief that a man of social position or financial power
has little to fear as a result of his misdeeds, while his less fortunate
neighbor could not hope to escape the worst legal consequences of his
most trivial lapse from rectitude.
Fred Mathews had made up his mind--as many a young fellow had done
before him--that he would do everything in his power to hold the scales
of justice level.
He determined that such ability as he possessed should be used for the
benefit of society, and that neither bribe nor threat should ever entice
him from the strict performance of his duty to the profession which he
had entered. He would never accept a case in which he did not honestly
believe. No man's money should buy him and no man's wrath intimidate. In
short, he intended to be a lawyer with a conscience as well as a man of
integrity, no matter what the result might be.
He made so good a beginning in the first two years of his practice that
it was at the end of the third, when he found himself holding the office
of Prosecuting Attorney, with a record clean, and fair sailing ahead,
that a piece of news which came to him caused him to doubt himself for
the first time.
The shock of that doubt thrilled every fibre in his nature, for with it
came the one fear that is terrible to a brave mind which is aroused for
the first time to its own possibilities--the fear to trust itself--the
dread lest it betray its own higher nature under the pressure of old
habits of thought or new social problems.
Right and wrong had always seemed to him to have the most decided and
clear-cut outlines. He had never thought of himself as standing before
them unable to distinguish their boundaries. He had felt that he could
answer bravely enough the question: "What would you do if required to
choose between honor and dishonor?" It was a strange thing to him that
his present perplexity should grow out of a simple burglary case. There
did not appear to him, at first, to be more than one side to such a
case. He was the Prosecuting Attorney. A store had been robbed. Among
other things a sealskin sacque was taken. By means of this cloak the
burglary had been traced--it was claimed--to a certain young man high
in social life. The duties of his office had led the State's attorney to
prosecute the investigation with his usual vigor and impartiality until
he had succeeded beyond his fairest hopes. Indeed, the chain of evidence
now in his possession was so strong and complete that he--for the first
time in his career--recognized that he shrank from using the testimony
at his command.
He felt that it was his duty to cause to be apprehended a young man who
had up to the present time borne a spotless reputation; who had been a
fellow student at college; whose social position was that of a leader,
and who was soon to marry one of the most charming girls in the town.
The situation was painful, but Fred Mathews felt that his own honor was
at stake quite as truly as was that of his old schoolfellow. Here was
his first opportunity to show that he held his duty above his desires.
Here was the first case in which social influence and financial power
were on the side of a criminal whom it was his duty to prosecute to the
end.
His professional pride, as well as his honor, was enlisted; for this
was the third burglary which had been committed recently, and so far the
"gang"--as the newspapers assumed and the police believed the offenders
to be--had not been caught.
Fred Mathews now thought he had every reason to believe that the same
hand had executed all three crimes and that the recklessness of
the last--the almost Wanton defiance of perfectly natural means of
precaution and concealment--had led to the discovery of this burglar in
high life.
After long deliberation, however, the young prosecutor made up his
mind that he would so far compromise with his conscience as to make a
personal, private call upon the young man who was under suspicion and
boldly accuse him of the theft of the tell-tale cloak that had been
traced to him, and take the consequences.
He was well aware that in case this course should lead to the escape of
the criminal he would be compelled to bear the abuse and suspicion which
would surely follow, for the evidence had passed through other hands
than his own.
He knew that he was taking a method which would be called in question,
and that he would not take it if the suspected man lived in a less
fashionable street or had the misfortune to be low born.
All this he knew quite well, and still he argued to himself that it was
the right thing for him to do, or at least that it was the best possible
under the circumstances, and that after giving Walter Banks a private
chance to clear himself--if such a thing were possible--he would still
be in a position to go on with the case, if that should be necessary.
That night, for the first time in his career, he allowed himself to be
kept awake, not by the fear that he should fail through inexperience in
his duty to his client--as had happened sometimes to trouble him earlier
in his professional life--but by a dread that he should wilfully betray
his trust to the public. At two o'clock he lay staring at the wall,
asking himself if he was becoming corrupt; if he, too, believed in
shielding guilt if only that guilt were dressed in purple and spoke with
a soft and cultured accent.