Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 4 — page 111: what you’re looking at

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

THE BIG BOSS IN BRONZE. ““ They seem to be attending to that mat- ter in your case,” growled the squire. “You don’t understand me, sir. If this case is appealed I’ll be obliged to stay in the county jail, here, for months, waiting for the decision of the full bench. Then it’s another trial!” He answered the protest in the lawyer’s eyes. ‘No, no! This isn’t further talk about expense! But I have spent a good many hours thinking over the matter of those voices and those two men. Something tells me Im on the right track. I'll go crazy if I’m kept waiting around this jail, trying to get justice through the law. I want to play the game on my own hook. I believe with all my heart that my witnesses are in the State prison—the wit- nesses I must have. I’m going after them.” He drove his fist down on the lawyer’s papers. Squire Nile sat back in his chair and stared at his client for a full minute. “‘ Don’t talk law and its procedure now,” pleaded the young man. ‘“No danger of it! It doesn’t belong in this conversation. This comes straight, does it, this last proposition of yours? You mean it—no mental reservation about that expense matter?” ‘‘On my honor as a soldier, sir!” The lawyer stared up into the maze of the chandelier; he lowered his eyes and saw Nina Bingham waiting alone in a far cor- ner of the court-room. He beckoned to her, and she came hastily. “The boy wants to make a two-fisted fight of it—in State prison! Does it frighten you to think of his being in State prison, Sis?” blurted Squire Nile. ‘“‘ Wherever he is my heart and my soul are with him.” “With those for cellmates I reckon there’ll be no trouble with his grit—and it looks like there’s plenty of grit on both sides!” He gave her a stare of admiration. There were no more tears in her eyes. She put out both hands to Barron, and he took them. “We have talked it over—what he would do if injustice went as far as this, Squire Nile,” she declared. “We know that you can attend to the law part of lage ‘““T reckon I can do something a blamed sight more sensible with new evidence than with those eleven exceptions,” con- fessed the old man. “Tm going after new evidence,” prom- ised Douglass, the thrill of determination in his low tones. ‘“ I’m going where it can be found—inside the walls of State prison.” “I guess,” drawled the squire, after a pause for further reflection, “that we'll let the attorney-general move for sentence in the morning. It would be too bad to file exceptions and spoil his record—also his relish for his fresh buttonhole bou- quet.”” He paused again. “ Now, bub, if you want to blame me for any part in your coming back to Canton—” | But, disregarding the attentive deputy, Douglass put his arms around Nina, drew her into a close embrace, and kissed her. “Reckon I’m answered,” muttered Squire Nile. CHAPTER XI. WHAT A CONVICT MAY THINK. T° be imprisoned for life in the State prison—that was the sentence. The jury’s meek plea had had some influence in keeping the noose from the convicted man’s neck. When he and the squire were back in the jail cell, the prisoner stood straighter and smiled! *“ What’s the matter with you?” choked the lawyer; the strain had told on him. _ “You know what the zero hour stood for, over across!” << Yes.” “I reckon it’s here, right now, in my case. I have been doing a lot of worrying and praying and suffering and swearing in this—this trench.”’ An impatient wave of his hand indicated his cell. “Now I’m done along that line. top. I’m glad of the chance!” The old man despondently surveyed this queer optimism. ‘‘ You'll find the trench in State prison a good deal deeper, ’m afraid!” “Well, I’m going to consider it the nn G QO) 581 T’m going over the NOOLK