He started at the touch, and saw all eager eyes centred upon him, and the yellow noose, just shaped, in the hands of the hangman. He threw up his arms, as though to ward it off, and cried loudly, "No! no! Let me confess! Let me tell the truth, then you"ll believe me!"
Bill Brown and the chairman shoved Blackey back, and the crowd gathered in. Cries and protestations rose from its midst. "No, you don"t," a boy"s shrill voice made itself heard. "I"m not going to go. I climbed the tree and made the rope fast, and I"ve got a right to stay."
"You"re only a kid," replied a man"s voice, "and it ain"t good for you." "I don"t care, and I"m not a kid. I"m--I"m used to such things.
And, anyway, I climbed the tree. Look at my hands." "Of course he can stay," other voices took up the trouble. "Leave him alone, Curley."
"You ain"t the whole thing." A laugh greeted this, and things quieted down.
"Silence!" the chairman called, and then to St. Vincent, "Go ahead, you, and don"t take all day about it."
"Give us a chance to hear!" the crowd broke out again. "Put "m on the box! Put "m on the box!"
St. Vincent was helped up, and began with eager volubility.
"I didn"t do it, but I saw it done. There weren"t two men--only one.
He did it, and Bella helped him."
A wave of laughter drowned him out.
"Not so fast," Bill Brown cautioned him. "Kindly explain how Bella helped this man kill herself. Begin at the beginning."
"That night, before he turned in, Borg set his burglar alarm--"
"Burglar alarm?"
"That"s what I called it,--a tin bread-pan attached to the latch so the door couldn"t open without tumbling it down. He set it every night, as though he were afraid of what might happen,--the very thing which did happen, for that matter. On the night of the murder I awoke with the feeling that some one was moving around. The slush-lamp was burning low, and I saw Bella at the door. Borg was snoring; I could hear him plainly. Bella was taking down the bread-pan, and she exercised great care about it. Then she opened the door, and an Indian came in softly.
He had no mask, and I should know him if ever I see him again, for a scar ran along the forehead and down over one eye."
"I suppose you sprang out of bed and gave the alarm?"
"No, I didn"t," St. Vincent answered, with a defiant toss of the head, as though he might as well get the worst over with. "I just lay there and waited."
"What did you think?"
"That Bella was in collusion with the Indian, and that Borg was to be murdered. It came to me at once."
"And you did nothing?"
"Nothing." His voice sank, and his eyes dropped to Frona, leaning against the box beneath him and steadying it. She did not seem to be affected. "Bella came over to me, but I closed my eyes and breathed regularly. She held the slush-lamp to me, but I played sleep naturally enough to fool her. Then I heard a snort of sudden awakening and alarm, and a cry, and I looked out. The Indian was hacking at Borg with a knife, and Borg was warding off with his arms and trying to grapple him. When they did grapple, Bella crept up from behind and threw her arm in a strangle-hold about her husband"s neck. She put her knee into the small of his back, and bent him backward and, with the Indian helping, threw him to the floor."
"And what did you do?"
"I watched."
"Had you a revolver?"
"Yes."
"The one you previously said John Borg had borrowed?"
"Yes; but I watched."
"Did John Borg call for help?"
"Yes."
"Can you give his words?"
"He called, "St. Vincent! Oh, St. Vincent! Oh, my G.o.d! Oh, St.
Vincent, help me!"" He shuddered at the recollection, and added, "It was terrible."
"I should say so," Brown grunted. "And you?"
"I watched," was the dogged reply, while a groan went up from the crowd. "Borg shook clear of them, however, and got on his legs. He hurled Bella across the cabin with a back-sweep of the arm and turned upon the Indian. Then they fought. The Indian had dropped the knife, and the sound of Borg"s blows was sickening. I thought he would surely beat the Indian to death. That was when the furniture was smashed.
They rolled and snarled and struggled like wild beasts. I wondered the Indian"s chest did not cave in under some of Borg"s blows. But Bella got the knife and stabbed her husband repeatedly about the body. The Indian had clinched with him, and his arms were not free; so he kicked out at her sideways. He must have broken her legs, for she cried out and fell down, and though she tried, she never stood up again. Then he went down, with the Indian under him, across the stove."
"Did he call any more for help?"
"He begged me to come to him."
"And?"
"I watched. He managed to get clear of the Indian and staggered over to me. He was streaming blood, and I could see he was very weak.
"Give me your gun," he said; "quick, give me it." He felt around blindly. Then his mind seemed to clear a bit, and he reached across me to the holster hanging on the wall and took the pistol. The Indian came at him with the knife again, but he did not try to defend himself.
Instead, he went on towards Bella, with the Indian still hanging to him and hacking at him. The Indian seemed to bother and irritate him, and he shoved him away. He knelt down and turned Bella"s face up to the light; but his own face was covered with blood and he could not see.
So he stopped long enough to brush the blood from his eyes. He appeared to look in order to make sure. Then he put the revolver to her breast and fired.
"The Indian went wild at this, and rushed at him with the knife, at the same time knocking the pistol out of his hand. It was then the shelf with the slush-lamp was knocked down. They continued to fight in the darkness, and there were more shots fired, though I do not know by whom. I crawled out of the bunk, but they struck against me in their struggles, and I fell over Bella. That"s when the blood got on my hands. As I ran out the door, more shots were fired. Then I met La Flitche and John, and . . . and you know the rest. This is the truth I have told you, I swear it!"
He looked down at Frona. She was steadying the box, and her face was composed. He looked out over the crowd and saw unbelief. Many were laughing.
"Why did you not tell this story at first?" Bill Brown demanded.
"Because . . . because . . ."
"Well?"
"Because I might have helped."
There was more laughter at this, and Bill Brown turned away from him.
"Gentlemen, you have heard this pipe dream. It is a wilder fairy story than his first. At the beginning of the trial we promised to show that the truth was not in him. That we succeeded, your verdict is ample testimony. But that he should likewise succeed, and more brilliantly, we did not expect. That he has, you cannot doubt. What do you think of him? Lie upon lie he has given us; he has been proven a chronic liar; are you to believe this last and fearfully impossible lie?
Gentlemen, I can only ask that you reaffirm your judgment. And to those who may doubt his mendacity,--surely there are but few,--let me state, that if his story is true; if he broke salt with this man, John Borg, and lay in his blankets while murder was done; if he did hear, unmoved, the voice of the man calling to him for help; if he did lie there and watch that carnival of butchery without his manhood prompting him,--let me state, gentlemen, I say, let me state that he is none the less deserveful of hanging. We cannot make a mistake. What shall it be?"
"Death!" "String him up!" "Stretch "m!" were the cries.
But the crowd suddenly turned its attention to the river, and even Blackey refrained from his official task. A large raft, worked by a sweep at either end, was slipping past the tail of Split-up Island, close to the sh.o.r.e. When it was at their feet, its nose was slewed into the bank, and while its free end swung into the stream to make the consequent circle, a snubbing-rope was flung ash.o.r.e and several turns taken about the tree under which St. Vincent stood. A cargo of moose-meat, red and raw, cut into quarters, peeped from beneath a cool covering of spruce boughs. And because of this, the two men on the raft looked up to those on the bank with pride in their eyes.
"Tryin" to make Dawson with it," one of them explained, "and the sun"s all-fired hot."
"Nope," said his comrade, in reply to a query, "don"t care to stop and trade. It"s worth a dollar and a half a pound down below, and we"re hustlin" to get there. But we"ve got some pieces of a man we want to leave with you." He turned and pointed to a loose heap of blankets which slightly disclosed the form of a man beneath. "We gathered him in this mornin", "bout thirty mile up the Stewart, I should judge."