Part 50 (1/2)
Judson.”
”That's all right, Lily. You needn't have supper for me to-night.”
Angry with himself, with the inquisitive negro, with the fascination of Louise, which had precipitated this, most of all with headstrong Jane, he shot past the traffic policeman into the swirl of the city. He would show his wife that she couldn't keep him under her little finger!
XXV
The next day began the trial of Ed Cole, for the killing of John Dawson.
Militia, equipped by profits from the mountain's wealth, guarded the courthouse; the strikers, realizing that their salvation lay in preventing an armed clash, ignored the provocative slurs and taunts of these guardians of order; but the glint of guns followed wherever they were, a continuing menace. Ben Spence had finally twisted a half-hearted consent from the county prosecutor to let him act with the State. ”But they double-cross me every chance they get, Judson,” he said as they walked to the county courthouse together. ”That young Chippen, who is about as much of a lawyer as I am a South Sea Islander, is to handle the State's case--the youngest and poorest hanger-on around the county attorney's office. And against him, d.i.c.k Mabry, _and_ Hilary, Leach, Pugh and Garfunkel!”
”They're a good criminal firm----”
”Best in the South. Darned fools, three of them; Tipton Leach is a lawyer. Darned crooks, all four. The company will do anything to get the n.i.g.g.e.r off. And 'w.i.l.l.y' Hawkes, Tuttle's old partner, holds this term!”
Spence took his seat beside Chippen, Pelham with a row of socialists just behind. Judge Hawkes entered with his usual nervous jerk, twitching his apologetic way to the raised bench. Richard Mabry, smiling in velvety a.s.surance, bowed ostentatiously to His Honor; the defendant's table was otherwise empty. Deputies escorted in the negro, his face bright with a frightened interest, mixed with delight at his sudden importance, and confidence in the last whispered instructions of his lawyers, given half an hour before. The court-room filled rapidly; there was an uneasy rustle, a half-restrained chatter.
”Is the State ready to proceed?” came the case-weary accents from the bench.
”We are ready.” Chippen's young voice wobbled uncertainly.
”The defendant ready?”
”If the Court please,” in Mabry's meticulous accents, ”my colleagues--in a moment----”
The judge leaned back, closing his eyes.
A sudden hush at the door. A stretching of necks from all the fringes of the room. Walking daintily, with a glaze of dignity which never lost its underwash of the furtive, came Meyer Garfunkel, youngest of the firm.
Spence leaned forward to Pelham. ”Biggest crook in six states! Does all their dirtiest jobs.... They always come in this way; it impresses the courthouse crowd.”
The door swung again; a succession of breathless ”There he is!”-es, as Colonel Lysander G. Pugh stamped heavily in, with his invariable atmosphere of busied haste, bowing affably left and right, his weathered broad-brim clutched beside his brief case.
Another s.h.i.+fting of interest. Tipton Leach, narrow-eyed, a permanent sneer around his mouth, walking slowly, speculatively. ”He is the brains,” continued Spence. ”The corporations fear him like sin, in damage cases. He bleeds them and his clients indiscriminately. But he knows more law than all the local bench.”
Last of all, preceded by his law clerk, Zebulun Hilary himself, his little red face, under the thinned mop of white hair, sticking out of his wide collar like a turtle's. ”Over eighty, and indestructible! Even his conscience is asbestos.”
There was a leisurely deliberation among the five counsel for the defendant. Five heads came together, five brains bent their scheming toward freeing the accused negro, ten eyes quivered with satisfaction at the prospect.
”Defendant ready?” The jaded judge roused himself to make this interjection.
Colonel Pugh rose in sallow majesty, his vulture eye sweeping the front half of the room in indiscriminate defiance of the court, the State, and, if necessary, the whole United States. Catch Lysander G. Pugh unready? Impossible! In precise affability his round tones rolled out.
”The defendant is ready, if it please Your Honor.” He sat down in complacent vindication.
An irrepressible ripple of appreciation quivered through the place. Here was a lawyer who knew how to law!
The plea of ”not guilty” was entered; the panel of talesmen called from the jury room.
Spence leaned over to Pelham again. ”First case since the Whitney scandal when all four have appeared together. They have the perfect system, Judson. Garfunkel does the second-story work; Leach knows enough law for all four of them; Zeb Hilary and Colonel Pugh get the business.
They belong to everything--there isn't a lodge of any kind that they don't flock to. These two go into every political fight, one on one side, one on the other; they get 'em coming and going. It'll be a treat to hear them address the jury.” He closed his eyes expressively. ”Whew!”