"Well?" he said.
"Frankie ... I suppose you wouldn"t take it from me ... and ... and be off somewhere. We could meet again later.... I ... I"m afraid someone may have spotted us coming through the village earlier. They"ll ...
they"ll search, I expect."
"You can do your own dirty work," whispered Frank earnestly through the darkness.
"Frankie, my boy ... don"t be hard on a poor devil.... I ... I can"t leave Gertie."
"Well, hide it somewhere."
"No good--they"d ... Good G.o.d--!"
The voice was stricken into silence once more, as a light, hardly seen before it was gone again, shone through a crack in the side of the barn.
Then there was unmistakable low talking somewhere.
Frank felt the man, crouched at his side, suddenly stand up noiselessly, and in that instant his own mind was made up.
"Give it here, you fool," he said. "Here!"
He felt a smooth flat and circular thing thrust suddenly into his hands with a whisper that he could not catch, and simultaneously he heard a rush of footsteps outside. He had just time to stuff the thing inside his coat and roll over as if asleep when the door flew open, and three or four men, with a policeman at their head, burst into the barn.
(II)
It would be charitable, I think, to suppress the name of the small market-town where the trial was held. The excellent magistrates who conducted it certainly did their best under very difficult circ.u.mstances; for what are you to do if a man accused of theft cordially pleads guilty? and yet, certainly it would distress them to hear of a very obvious miscarriage of justice executed at their hands.
On Friday morning at ten o"clock the vehicles began to arrive--the motor of the country gentleman, the dog-cart of the neighboring rector, and the brougham of the retired general. It was the General who presided.
The court-room was not more dismal than court-rooms usually are. When I visited it on my little pilgrimage, undertaken a few months ago, it had been repainted and the woodwork grained to represent oak. Even so, it was not cheering.
At the upper end, under one of the windows, were ranged five seats on a das, with a long baize-covered table before them. Then, on a lower level, stood the clerk"s and solicitors" table, fenced by a rail from the vulgar crowd who pressed in, hot and excited, to see the criminals and hear justice done. There was a case arising from an ancient family feud, exploded at last into crime; one lady had thrown a clog at another as the last repartee in a little dialogue held at street doors; the clog had been well aimed, and the victim appeared now with a very large white bandage under her bonnet, to give her testimony. This swelled the crowd beyond its usual proportions, as both ladies were well known in society.
The General was a kindly-looking old man (Frank recognized his name as soon as he heard it that morning, though he had never met him before) and conversed cheerily with his brother magistrates as they took their seats. The Rector was--well, like other rectors, and the Squire like other squires.
It was a quarter to twelve before the ladies" claims were adjusted. They were both admonished in a paternal kind of way, and sent about their business, since there was disputed evidence as to whether or not the lady with the bandage had provoked the attack, not only by her language, but by throwing a banana-skin at the lady without the bandage. They were well talked to, their husbands were bidden to keep them in order, and they departed, both a little crestfallen, to discuss the whole matter over a pint of beer.
There was a little shifting about in court; a policeman, looking curiously human without his helmet, pushed forward from the door and took his place by the little barrier. The magistrates and the clerk and the inspector all conferred a little together, and after an order or two, the door near the back of the court leading from the police-cells opened, and Frank stepped forward into the dock, followed by another policeman who clicked the barrier behind the prisoner and stood, waiting, like Rhadamanthus. Through the hedge of the front row of the crowd peered the faces of Gertie and the Major.
We need not bother with the preliminaries--in fact, I forget how they ran--Frank gave his name of Frank Gregory, his age as twenty-two years, his occupation as casual laborer, and his domicile as no fixed abode.
The charge was read to him. It was to the effect that he, on the night of Tuesday, the twenty-third instant, had in the village (whose name I choose to forget, if I ever knew it), seized from Maggie Cooper, aged nine years, a tin of preserved salmon, with intent to steal. The question put to the prisoner was: Did he or did he not plead guilty?
"I plead guilty, sir," said Frank, without a tremor.
He had been two full days in the cells by now, and it had not improved his appearance. He was still deeply sunburned, but he was a little pale under the eyes, and he was unshaven. He had also deliberately rumpled his hair and pulled his clothes to make them look as untidy as possible.
He answered in a low voice, so as to attract as little attention as possible. He had given one quick look at the magistrates as he came in, to make sure he had never met them out shooting or at dinner-parties, and he had been deeply relieved to find them total strangers.
"You plead guilty, eh?" said the General.
Frank nodded.
"Well, well! let"s hear the whole story. Where is the complainant?"
A rather pale and awe-stricken child appeared somewhere in a little box opposite Frank, with a virtuous mother in black silk behind her. It appeared that this child was on her way to her aunt--her father was a grocer--with a tin of salmon that had been promised and forgotten (that was how she came to be out so late). As she reached the corner by Barker"s Lane a man had jumped at her and seized the tin. (No; he had not used any other violence.) She had screamed at the top of her voice, and Mrs. Jennings" door had opened. Then the man had run away.
"Had she seen the man clearly?" No, she hadn"t seen him at all; she had just seen that he was a man. ("Called himself one," put in a voice.) The witness here cast an indignant--almost vindictive--look at Frank.
Then a few corroborations were issued. Mrs. Jennings, a widow lady, keeping house for her brother who was a foreman in Marks" yard, ratified the statement about the door being opened. She was going to shut up for the night when she heard the child scream. Her brother, a severe-looking man, with a black beard, finished her story. He had heard his sister call out, as he was taking off his boots at the foot of the stairs; he had run out with his laces dangling, in time to see the man run past the public-house fifty yards up the street. No ... he, too, had not seen the man clearly, but he had seen him before, in company with another; the two had come to his yard that afternoon to ask for work and been refused, as they wanted no more hands.
"Well, what had happened then?"
He had hammered at two or three doors as he ran past, among them that of the police-constable, and himself had run on, in time to hear the prisoner"s footsteps run up the lane leading to the barn. He had stopped then as he was out of breath, and as he thought they would have the man now, since there was no exit from the lane except through Mr. Patten"s farm-yard, and if he"d gone that way they"d have heard the dogs.
Finally the police-constable corroborated the entire story, and added that he, in company with the foreman and two other men, had "proceeded"
to the barn immediately, and there had found the prisoner, who was pretending to be asleep, with the tin of salmon (produced and laid on the table) hidden inside his jacket. He had then taken him into custody.
"Was there any one else in the barn?"
Yes--two persons, who gave the names of George and Gertie Trustcott.
These were prepared to give evidence as to the prisoner"s ident.i.ty, and as to his leaving and returning to the barn on the evening in question, if the magistrate wished.... Yes; they were present in court.
The General began to turn a little testy as the constable finished. He seemed a magistrate who liked to be paternal, and he appeared to grow impatient under the extraordinarily correct language of the policeman.
He turned to Frank--seeming to forget all about the two witnesses not yet called--and spoke rather sharply:
"You don"t deny all that? You plead guilty, eh?"
"Yes, sir," said Frank, gazing at the very pink salmon emblazoned on the tin.
"Why did you do it?"
"I was hungry, sir."
"Hungry, eh? An able-bodied lad like you? Can"t you work, then?"
"When I can get it, sir," said Frank
"Eh?... eh? Well, that"s true enough. You couldn"t get it that day, anyhow. Mr. What"s-his-name"s told us that."
"Yes, sir."
Then the Rector leaned forward swiftly--to Frank"s horror.
"You speak like an educated man."