The Incendiary: A Story of Mystery
Page 48
CHAPTER XLVIII.
OYEZ! OYEZ!
"This is the gravest charge known to the law," said the districtattorney, "and the man found guilty of it by a jury of his peers iscondemned, under the statutes of this commonwealth, to be hanged by theneck until he is dead."
Dead! The solemn word reverberated through every listener's heart. Thecrowded court-room was hushed. The jurymen had just been contemplatingtheir own portraits in the last newspaper which they would see for manydays, and now bent forward in the first flush of eager attention. Courtofficers were carrying whispered messages to and fro. On the bench satChief Justice Playfair, silver-haired and handsome, between two of hisjudicial brethren. The case was considered of such importance thatthree judges had been assigned to decide upon the legal questions whichmight arise.
On the threshold of an ante-room Inspector McCausland was cordiallyshaking hands with Shagarach. In the front row of the spectators satMrs. Arnold, thin-lipped and cold, beside a sad-faced woman in black.She had bowed distantly to the prisoner--no longer fettered, butpermitted to occupy a seat in the "cage" in full view--between Dr.Silsby and Emily Barlow, who had bravely elected to join him. Evidentlyhe was not one of those who grow plump on jail regime and batten underthe shadow of the scaffold. The young man's dark cheek was lean, hiseyes unwontedly bright, but he never flinched from the districtattorney's gaze.
"You have learned from the reading of the indictment," thundered thedistrict attorney, stroking his patriarchal beard with one hand andholding his notes in the other, "that the immediate act committed by theaccused was not murder but arson. It is true that he did notdeliberately procure the deaths of the seven persons who were deprivedof their most precious property, of life itself, in that calamity withwhich our city rung on the evening of June 28. He did not draw theirblood personally with the usual weapons of homicide--pistol, dagger,bludgeon or ax. But the evidence will show you that a new weapon, moredangerous, because more deadly, than any of these, was used on thisoccasion, and that he set on foot forces which did procure the deaths ofthe victims, and which, but for the vigilance of man and the mercy ofProvidence, might have doubled or trebled their number--yes, laid thegreater part of our fair city in ruins.
"For myself, I might be willing to suppose that the accused did notforesee the consequences which would follow his rash deed; that hetrusted to a confined and local destruction, of property merely,following his application of the match to his deceased uncle's study.But the law, justly and wisely, we must admit, presumes foresight,imputes deliberation and malice, when loss of life follows thecommission of a felony, and taxes the felon not alone with the initialdamage but with all damages that accrue. I leave it to your own goodsense, gentlemen, whether the fire-fiend who applies the torch in theheart of a crowded city is not potentially as guilty as the Malayrunning amuck with brandished dagger or the anarchist hurling his bomb.There can be only one answer to the question. Our own lives, the livesof our wives, sisters, children, are imperiled by any other doctrinethan that which the law lays down.
"Therefore, reluctantly, sorrowfully, with misgivings and fear, we haveimpeached Robert Floyd of the murder of Ellen Greeley, who was burned todeath in her chamber; of Rosanna Moxom, Katie Galuby, Mary Lacy andFlorence F. Lacy, who died of injuries received while attempting toescape from the Harmon building; of Alexander Whitlove, who was caughtbetween the floors of that building, in a heroic attempt to conduct hiselevator to the imprisoned occupants of the upper story; and of PeterSchubert, the fireman who lost his life nobly in the performance of hisduty."
This catalogue of the victims moved the spectators, and Emily noticedthe woman in black crying softly in her handkerchief.
"I will not attempt to instruct your consciences or call to your mindsthe responsibility which rests upon your shoulders as well as upon mine.For I am convinced that every man before me approaches this case withthe same unwillingness which I myself have felt, but also with the samedetermination to uphold the law, to do justice and nothing more or lessthan justice, to all parties, that I myself have formed."
The district attorney spoke this disclaimer of officiousness orpersecution with genuine feeling, but it was scarcely necessary for anywho knew him. The name of Noah Bigelow, like that of Shagarach, wasguaranty in itself that the cause would be tried with courtesy andfairness. Yet something in his bearing might have told the psychologistthat the nature of the man, unsuspicious, candid and slow to entertain aconviction of guilt, would be equally slow to part with such aconviction when it had once obtained a lodging.
The outline of the evidence to be presented consumed more than an hourin its delivery; and the reading, in a high drawl, of the minutes of theprevious trial, occupied the remaining time until the noon recesstediously. If the jury had not been provided with a typewritten copy itwould have profited little by this latter proceeding.