CIRCUIT COURT
However, Barlow's disappearance was a matter of small concern to old
Hank. If Steve did not show up, Hank knew that he would never pay the
bond and would be a month's board in to boot. If he did show up, he
would "cum cl'ar" with the alibi concocted for him.
In the meantime, rumors of the determined stand taken in this case by
the noted Blue-grass lawyer, Logan, had spread throughout the hills, and
added to the usual interest of court days a morbid impetus that brought
the people down to Junction City in droves. And be it said, that among
these mountain folk, there were not a few who would hail with joy and
secret plaudits any visitation of reprisal that would put a dent in the
tyrannical reign of the Eversole-McGill combine, under which they had
suffered and been coerced beneath an iron heel.
The dent was delivered on this May day when the sun was bright and made
pictures against the mountain sides, traced in pigments of emerald and
white and carmine. And the buoyant air was charged with the stirring
odors of spring and rife with rapturous bird voices. The town was agog
with armed mountaineers of every age. They all arrived early and during
the hours preceding the opening of court they swapped news that had
accrued since last court week, while their dogs fought the hostile
canines of Junction City, mingling snarls and yelps with the braying of
mules and the neighing of horses.
Old Hank Eversole was resplendent in a new pair of light store trousers
and a maroon shirt, and his rubicund face was illuminated as he divided
his smirks between the groups outside and the high festivities back in
his noisome bar where Sap McGill and Jutt Orlick were the star,
hilarious spirits.
When the sheriff leaned out the Courthouse window and rang a blatant
bell, all within earshot made for the Courthouse. In a remarkably short
time the court room was filled to overflowing, leaving scores who had
been less sprightly on the outside, unable to find standing room. Before
anybody could get fairly settled the Court announced that Logan had sent
word that he could not be in court until four o'clock, and that they
would proceed with the minor business on docket and hold court until
five o'clock.
Whereupon the jury and more than half the eager spectators, who crowded
the court room, having no interest other than the murder trial of
Barlow, now straggled outside, disgruntled and thirsty. In the interval
that followed many wagers were laid and hinged upon the appearance or
non-appearance of Steve Barlow. The odds favored Barlow's absence, but
promptly at four o'clock there was a great stir among this motley,
impatient throng.
A two-horse rockaway hove in sight, drew up and stopped at the outer
limits of the Courthouse yard. The curtains of the vehicle were closely
drawn and Logan, who was riding outside with the driver, alighted and
opened the carriage door, whereupon three men climbed out, leaving a
fourth man inside. Two were newspaper men from Frankfort, one from
Lexington, and the fourth man was Steve Barlow.
Logan exchanged a few brief words with Barlow, who sat back smoking a
stogie as unconcerned as if he were simply waiting to kill somebody. His
animal brain was of too low an order to know fear, or his senses too
dull to impress him with the danger that imperiled his life in the
forthcoming hour.
The advent of Logan and the strangers was quickly passed around,
followed by a wild pell-mell rush for the court room. When the Court
rapped for order and the shuffling of feet and mumble of voices died
down, the prosecutor directed the sheriff to call Steve Barlow, out on
bail, and all the witnesses in the case, and in turning about, stole a
covert, triumphant look at old Eversole, who stood near the Judge's
bench with Sap McGill and Jutt Orlick at his elbow. Here some of the
jurymen exchanged meaning looks. When the sheriff's joculatory
utterances failed to produce Barlow, the prosecutor arose and, turning
to Logan, said:
"I'm sorry, Mr. Logan, that you got all your witnesses here for
nuthin'--but I reckon Steve Barlow has done leapt his bail."
Logan rose up with a slow, deliberate movement, and as he addressed the
Court, his eyes were upon old Eversole.
"I have little need for witnesses in this case," he began, "moreover,
the man who is charged with the commission of this deed has not
forfeited his bond, and I mean to show by his sworn confession that,
while it was by his hand that Daum was deprived of his life, it was
through bribery and threats imposed upon him by another man--a man whose
deeds are black and numerous--that prompted him to do this murder. I
mean to lay the burden of this crime upon this instigator who prevailed
upon an illiterate, half-witted unfortunate, who had no grievance, to
sneak out and do an inoffensive man to death--a wanton act from which
his own coward's hands shrunk. Mr. Somber, bring Steve Barlow into the
court room."
The quiet of the next few moments was not unlike the stillness of a
tomb. As the reporter started to crowd his way out in compliance with
Logan's request to bring Barlow in, his footsteps echoed like a great
noise. Old Eversole's face had lost its flush and he stared open-mouthed
over the heads of the astonished jury, and the people, toward the front
door. Jutt Orlick and Sap McGill then whispered to each other with
scowling faces, which precipitated a general babble throughout the room.
Midway to the door Plunkett, Eversole's "clerk," thrust a note into the
reporter's hand, and the latter immediately turned back and handed the
paper to Logan.
The attorney glanced over the sheet, then stood up and addressed the
Court, who was too dazed to rap for order. But at the sound of Logan's
voice there was instant quiet.
"I have just been handed a message, and while it is not addressed to me
personally, it appears to concern all present. If the Court pleases, I
will read it aloud."
The judge, who had been gazing inanely about the room, nodded his
acquiescence. Then Logan proceeded to read the note in loud, resonant
tones:
"I hereby warn all men who don't 'low to fight fer the McGills to clear
out of town within five minutes--I hev arrive. Johnse Hatfield."
Fire or an earthquake could not have precipitated greater confusion and
consternation than ensued at the name of Johnse Hatfield. The McGill
partisans shrank away from the windows with exclamations and curses,
while scores of non-combatants fought to get out of the rear door.
Old Eversole's face now was the hue of gray moss. The unprecedented
nerve of Hatfield in sending a warning into a house of armed enemies was
significant, and indicated that he held a strong hand. Above the
disorder McGill was shouting some incoherent commands. Jutt Orlick
forced his way to the end of the long room and thrust his head
cautiously out of a side window. Then he jumped out the window and
started on a run for Eversole's store. Before he had gone ten feet,
there was a rifle crack and Orlick dashed back to the shelter of the
Courthouse with his palm full of blood, streaming from his left ear.
With the tail of his eye, he caught sight of Buddy Lutts in the door of
the blacksmith's shop, jerking his rifle up for another shot. A hand
reached out and jerked Buddy back out of the door just as a dozen shots
fired from the Courthouse windows pierced the boards of the shop. Then
Johnse Hatfield's face showed for the fraction of a second as he yelled
across:
"Cum on out--yo' wild hawgs!"
This sally was answered by another volley from the Courthouse. Hatfield
had knocked every sixth board off the north side of the old shop, which
afforded ample firing space. No one dared reach out and close the
shutters of the Courthouse, and he could now see them piling benches up
on their ends in front of the windows.
The blacksmith shop, being diagonally across, commanded both front and
side view of the Courthouse. Before he sent his terse warning into the
court room, Hatfield had detailed a dozen men to go around and get a
position corresponding with that of the blacksmith shop, which would
command the rear and north side of the building. But there had been
delay in working their way to this position unseen. Suspecting this
move, the McGills were cautious about showing themselves, but as time
passed and as the attack came only from the south side and front, they
decided to venture an attempt at flanking the shop that held their foes.
It was at this juncture, when a handful of men had dropped out the north
windows of the Courthouse, that the Hatfields gained a lumber pile a
hundred yards distant and greeted the maneuvering enemy with a volley of
lead. Two of the McGills dropped into the grass, and the remainder
limped and scrambled back into the Courthouse, while those inside
instantly sent fifty or more shots toward the lumber pile, killing one
of the Hatfields.
For three hours the McGills were bottled up in the Courthouse, save
those who had not gained entrance and were on the outside when the
attack began. Some of these were trying their hand at sharp-shooting
now, while others disappeared with the non-combatants. The women of the
town had dragged their children inside and fastened the shutters and
barred the doors of their houses. From some of these houses a towel or
white rag appeared hanging at the end of a stick thrust out the window.
For the past hour the shots from the surrounded Courthouse had dwindled
down to spasmodic outbursts and Hatfield knew that the McGills were
saving their ammunition, as they had not anticipated a siege. But Johnse
Hatfield had come into this fight with the forethought of a trained
military man. Every Hatfield man had an extra bag tied to his belt
crammed full of cartridges. Moreover, Hatfield had stationed two mule
wagons just beyond the hill. One of these wagons was to transport his
dead and the other the wounded. Furthermore, with these wagons there
awaited, with all his paraphernalia, a surgeon whom Hatfield had brought
up from Hazard.
As night came on and a brief half-moon illuminated the South road, the
crucial hour for which Hatfield had waited was at hand. He dispatched a
messenger around to the detachment behind the lumber in the rear of the
Courthouse, telling them to leave three men there and for the others to
work their way back to the South road. And the envoy Hatfield chose to
deliver this important message was none other than Buddy Lutts.
Although the air-line distance through to the lumber pile from the shop
was less than five hundred yards, it was a full hour before Buddy crept
back between the old wagons in the yard and told Hatfield that the men
were waiting. Then Hatfield left three men in the shop and with the
others joined the waiting squad. Lining these men up, he now marched
them openly up the moonlit road toward the Courthouse. When they came
into view, they fired a volley simultaneously into the Courthouse, and
Hatfield yelled out derisively:
"I reckon yo' got enough--yo' pack o' laywayin' wild-hawgs!"
Then he retreated down the road at a brisk trot, followed by his sixteen
men, Buddy Lutts galloping at his heels. There was a great stir within
the Courthouse now. They had plainly heard Hatfield's jeering words
above the patter and echoes of his last string of shots, and had espied
his men turn and start down the road on a run. There was a noisy
scramble and commotion now, as the McGills made haste to avail
themselves of this apparent chance to get outside and pursue and fight
their enemy, but with due precaution they waited until several
volunteers had slipped out and made a hasty reconnoiter of the lumber
pile and the blacksmith shop.