Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 18, 1925 — page 121: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

IN THE EVENT OF DEATH. trust from the slurs of a scurrilous tongue, even if by doing so you risked your very life?”’ He was before the jury box as he spoke with his arms a little spread, his blue eyes blazing. And his voice suddenly dropped low. “TI must ask you to take the fact that I shot Klien in self-defense on trust!” he said. ‘Gentlemen, the defense rests.” “No! No! What are you saying? The chief witness for the defense has not been heard!”’ And Hazel Farley had flung herself for- ward to the jury box, where she stood with her hands tightly grasping the rail and her brown eyes glowing with the vehemence of her spirit. For with Cosgrove’s last words she had found the answer to the enigma of his hesi- tation. He had embarked upon that des- perate, astounding address to the jury for no other purpose than to save her from the ordeal of the witness stand, and he had done it because he loved her. “ Before the defense rests,’’ she cried, “my testimony must* be heard. J saw Klien fire his gun!” CHAPTER XXXII, THE LETHAL WEAPON. AZEL FARLEY sat in the witness box, a vivacious figure of Nemesis enthroned, and lacerated the soul of Wert Farley. The legal tables were re- versed, and-it now was Bradley Cosgrove who endeavored to elicit from this witness only enough to throw the cause of justice to his side and to close the case before Ben Creevy could obtain an opportunity for inquisition. Cosgrove was determined, as a hunted animal at bay is determined to live, that the attorney for the people should never be permitted to subject this witness to the infamous cross-examination which he knew Farley would urge Creevy to pur- sue. As he questioned her he felt a singular sensation of guilt. She was supremely alert, eager to help him, to couch her testimony in words that would tell in his behalf. She 271 seemed almost to quiver with eagerness to give him all that was in her of truth to save his cause. And yet Cosgrove felt somehow unworthy. She appeared so small and young and peculiarly delicate of build and complexion in her eager, shimmering aspect. He felt as if he played upon a harp with clumsy fin- gers; he felt as though he violated a sacred trust. It seemed intolerable that she should be set up before all the world thus to be questioned, to bear witness in a case which included such offscourings of humanity as Lederer and Farley. This ordeal seemed somehow to bring her into touch with them, and Cosgrove resent- ed it. He resented the circumstances which appointed him the hand which was to pluck at this delicate instrument. And he could not dispassionately look upon her as she sat there. But Hazel knew what witness she could bear, and she was untroubled. She had taken the stand to save the man she loved, and she gave her testimony convincingly. When Cosgrove asked her to outline the circumstances under which her father made his will, and at the same time assured her that she need make no reference to her own position in the matter, she smiled ap- preciatively and threw light into a corner of the evidence which had until now re- mained in shadow. ‘“ 1m convinced,” she declared spiritedly, “ that my uncle, Klien, and Lederer deliber- ately aroused my father against me and then played on his anger to dictate the terms of that will.” ‘“ She sent for him!” yelled Farley at this point. “She sent for him! You don’t expect she’d tell the truth, do you?” ‘“ There isn’t a man here who knew my father who won’t understand what I mean,” responded the girl. And the court room ap- plauded the spirit with which she turned upon her assailant. She did more, too. She carried her nar- rative through the delicate maze of inci- dents, wranglings, bitter, unnatural scenes which had preceded her writing to Cos- grove. And she told of Cosgrove’s coming to see her on that fatal night when her father had died. i = Gcomichbooks Col