The dear old woman followed us again until we found a clerk in a branch ticket-office, who picked out a long green slip from a library of tickets, punched it with the greatest care with a pair of steel nippers, and slipped it into an official envelope labelled: "K.C. Pineyville, Ky. 8 P.M."
With this tightly grasped in her wrinkled brown hand, together with another package of Marny"s many times in excess of the stage fare of thirty-six miles and which she slipped into her capacious bosom, Aunt Chloe "made her manners" with the slightest dip of a courtesy and left us with the remark:
"Sha"n"t nothin" tech her, honey; gwinter stick right close to her till de steam-cars git to movin", I"ll be over early in de mawnin" an" let ye know. Doan" worry, honey; ain"t nothin" gwinter happen to her arter I gits my han"s on her."
When I came down to breakfast, Aunt Chloe was waiting for me in the hall. She looked like the old woman in the fairy-tale in her short black dress that came to her shoe-tops, snow-white ap.r.o.n and headkerchief, covered by a close-fitting nun-like hood--only the edge of the handkerchief showed--making her seem the old black saint that she was.
It not being one of her cleaning-days, she had "kind o" spruced herself up a li"l mite," she said. She carried her basket, covered now with a white starched napkin instead of the red-and-yellow bandanna of work-days. No one ever knew what this basket contained. "Her luncheon,"
some of the art-students said; but if it did, no one had ever seen her eat it. "Someone else"s luncheon," Marny added; "some sick body whom she looks after. There are dozens of them."
"Larrovers fur meddlins," Aunt Chloe invariably answered those whose curiosity got the better of their discretion--an explanation which only deepened the mystery, no one being able to translate it.
"She"s safe, honey!" Aunt Chloe cried, when she caught sight of me. "I toted de baby, an" she toted de box. Po" li"l c.h.i.n.kapin! Mos" break a body"s heart to see it! "Clar to goodness, dat chile"s leg warn"t bigger"n a drumstick picked to de bone. De man de Sheriff sent wid us didn"t go no furder dan de gate, an" when he lef us dey all sneaked in an" did dere bes" ter git her from me. Wuss-lookin" harum-scarums you ever see. Kep" a-tellin" her de ticket was good for ten days an" dey"d go wid her back to town; an" dat if she"d stay dey"d take her "cross de ribber to see de city. I seed she wanted ter git home to her husban", an" she tol" "em so. Den dey tried to make her believe he was comin" for her, an" dey pestered her so an" got her so mixed up wid deir lies dat I was feared she was gwine to give in, arter all. She warn"t nothin" but a po" weak thing noways. Den I riz up an" tol" "em dat I"d call a pleeceman an" take dat ticket from her an" de money I gin her beside, if she didn"t stay on dat car. I didn"t give her de "velope; I had dat in my han" to show de conductor when he come, so he could see whar she was ter git off. Here it is"--and she handed me the ticket-seller"s envelope. "Warn"t nothin" else saved me but _dat_. When dey see"d it, dey knowed den somebody was a-lookin" arter her an" dey give in. Po"
critter! I reckon she"s purty nigh home by dis time!"
The story is told. It is all true, every sickening detail. Other stories just like it, some of them infinitely more pitiful, can be written daily by anyone who will peer into the cages of Covington jail. There is nothing to be done; nothing _can_ be done.
It is the law of the land--the just, holy, beneficent law, which is no respecter of persons.
II
BUD TILDEN, MAIL-THIEF
"That"s Bud Tilden, the worst of the bunch," said the jail Warden--the warden with the sliced ear and the gorilla hands. "Reminds me of a cat"mount I tried to tame once, only he"s twice as ugly."
As he spoke, he pointed to a prisoner in a slouch hat clinging half-way up the steel bars of his cage, his head thrust through as far as his cheeks would permit, his legs spread apart like the letter A.
"What"s he here for?" I asked.
"Bobbin" the U-nited States mail."
"Where?"
"Up in the Kentucky mountains, back o" Bug Holler. Laid for the carrier one night, held him up with a gun, pulled him off his horse, slashed the bottom out o" the mail-bag with his knife, took what letters he wanted, and lit off in the woods, cool as a chunk o" ice. Oh! I tell ye, he"s no sardine; you kin see that without my tellin" ye. They"ll railroad him, sure."
"When was he arrested?"
"Last month--come down in the November batch. The dep"ties had a circus "fore they got the irons on him. Caught him in a clearin" "bout two miles back o" the Holler. He was up in a corn-crib with a Winchester when they opened on him. n.o.body was hurted, but they would a-been if they"d showed the top o" their heads, for he"s strong as a bull and kin scalp a squirrel at fifty yards. They never would a-got him if they hadn"t waited till dark and smoked him out, so one on "em told me."
He spoke as if the prisoner had been a rattlesnake or a sheep-stealing wolf.
The mail-thief evidently overheard, for he dropped, with a cat-like movement, to the steel floor and stood looking at us through the bars from under his knit eyebrows, his eyes watching our every movement.
There was no question about his strength. As he stood in the glare of the overhead light I could trace the muscles through his rough homespun--for he was a mountaineer, pure and simple, and not a city-bred thief in ready-made clothes. I saw that the bulging muscles of his calves had driven the wrinkles of his b.u.t.ternut trousers close up under the knee-joint and that those of his thighs had rounded out the coa.r.s.e cloth from the knee to the hip. The spread of his shoulders had performed a like service for his shirt, which was stretched out of shape over the chest and back. This was crossed by but one suspender, and was open at the throat--a tree-trunk of a throat, with all the cords supporting the head firmly planted in the shoulders. The arms were long and had the curved movement of the tentacles of a devil-fish. The hands were big and bony, the fingers knotted together with knuckles of iron.
He wore no collar nor any coat; nor did he bring one with him, so the Warden said.
I had begun my inventory at his feet as he stood gazing sullenly at us, his great red hands tightly clasped around the bars. When in my inspection I pa.s.sed from his open collar up his tree-trunk of a throat to his chin, and then to his face, half-shaded by a big slouch hat, which rested on his flaring ears, and at last looked into his eyes, a slight shock of surprise went through me. I had been examining this wild beast with my judgment already warped by the Warden; that"s why I began at his feet and worked up. If I had started in on an unknown subject, prepared to rely entirely upon my own judgment, I would have begun at his eyes and worked down. My shock of surprise was the result of this upward process of inspection. An awakening of this kind, the awakening to an injustice done a man we have half-understood, often comes after years of such prejudice and misunderstanding. With me this awakening came with my first glimpse of his eyes.
There was nothing of the Warden"s estimate in these eyes; nothing of cruelty nor deceit nor greed. Those I looked into were a light blue--a washed-out china blue; eyes that shone out of a good heart rather than out of a bad brain; not very deep eyes; not very expressive eyes; dull, perhaps, but kindly. The features were none the less attractive; the mouth was large, well-shaped, and filled with big white teeth, not one missing; the nose straight, with wide, well-turned nostrils; the brow low, but not cunning nor revengeful; the chin strong and well-modelled, the cheeks full and of good color. A boy of twenty I should have said--perhaps twenty-five; abnormally strong, a big animal with small brain-power, perfect digestion, and with every function of his body working like a clock. Photograph his head and come upon it suddenly in a collection of others, and you would have said: "A big country b.u.mpkin who ploughs all day and milks the cows at night." He might be the bloodthirsty ruffian, the human wild beast, the Warden had described, but he certainly did not look it. I would like to have had just such a man on any one of my gangs with old Captain Joe over him. He would have fought the sea with the best of them and made the work of the surf-men twice as easy if he had taken a hand at the watch-tackles.
I turned to the Warden again. My own summing up differed materially from his estimate, but I did not thrust mine upon him. He had had, of course, a much wider experience among criminals--I, in fact, had had none at all--and could not be deceived by outward appearances.
"You say they are going to try him to-day?" I asked.
"Yes, at two o"clock. Nearly that now," and he glanced at his watch.
"All the witnesses are down, I hear. They claim there"s something else mixed up in it besides robbing the mail, but I don"t remember what. So many of these cases comin" and goin" all the time! His old father was in to see him yesterday, and a girl. Some o" the men said she was his sweetheart, but he don"t look like that kind. You oughter seen his father, though. Greatest jay you ever see. Looked like a fly-up-the-creek. Girl warn"t much better lookin". They make "em out o"
brick-clay and ham fat up in them mountains. Ain"t human, half on "em.
Better go over and see the trial."
I waited in the Warden"s office until the deputies came for the prisoner. When they had formed in line on the sidewalk I followed behind the posse, crossing the street with them to the Court-house. The prisoner walked ahead, handcuffed to a deputy who was a head shorter than he and half his size. A second officer walked behind; I kept close to this rear deputy and could see every movement he made. I noticed that his fingers never left his hip pocket and that his eye never wavered from the slouch hat on the prisoner"s head. He evidently intended to take no chances with a man who could have made mince-meat of both of them had his hands been free.
We parted at the main entrance, the prisoner, with head erect and a certain fearless, uncowed look on his boyish face, preceding the deputies down a short flight of stone steps, closely followed by the officer.
The trial, I could see, had evidently excited unusual interest. When I mounted the main flight to the corridor opening into the trial chamber and entered the great hallway, it was crowded with mountaineers--wild, s.h.a.ggy, unkempt-looking fellows, most of them. All were dressed in the garb of their locality: coa.r.s.e, rawhide shoes, deerskin waistcoats, rough, b.u.t.ternut-dyed trousers and coats, and a c.o.o.n-skin or army slouch hat worn over one eye. Many of them had their saddle-bags with them.
There being no benches, those who were not standing were squatting on their haunches, their shoulders against the bare wall. Others were huddled close to the radiators. The smell of escaping steam from these radiators, mingling with the fumes of tobacco and the effluvia from so many closely packed human bodies, made the air stifling.
I edged my way through the crowd and pushed through the court-room door.
The Judge was just taking his seat--a dull, heavy-looking man with a bald head, a pair of flabby, clean-shaven cheeks, and two small eyes that looked from under white eyebrows. Half-way up his forehead rested a pair of gold spectacles. The jury had evidently been out for luncheon, for they were picking their teeth and settling themselves comfortably in their chairs.
The court-room--a new one--outraged, as usual, in its construction every known law of proportion, the ceiling being twice too high for the walls, and the big, uncurtained windows (they were all on one side) letting in a glare of light that made silhouettes of every object seen against it.
Only by the closest attention could one hear or see in a room like this.
The seating of the Judge was the signal for the admission of the crowd in the corridor, who filed in through the door, some forgetting to remove their hats, others pa.s.sing the doorkeeper in a defiant way. Each man, as soon as his eyes became accustomed to the glare from the windows, looked furtively toward the prisoners" box. Bud Tilden was already in his seat between the two deputies, his hands unshackled, his blue eyes searching the Judge"s face, his big slouch hat on the floor at his feet. What was yet in store for him would drop from the lips of this face.
The crier of the court, a young negro, made his announcements.
I found a seat between the prisoner and the bench, so that I could hear and see the better. The Government prosecutor occupied a seat at a table to my right, between me and the three staring Gothic windows. When he rose from his chair his body came in silhouette against their light.
With his goat-beard, beak-nose, heavy eyebrows, long, black hair resting on the back of his coat-collar, bent body, loose-jointed arms, his coat-tails swaying about his thin legs, he looked (I did not see him in any other light) like a hungry buzzard flapping his wings before taking flight.
He opened the case with a statement of facts. He would prove, he said, that this mountain-ruffian was the terror of the neighborhood, in which life was none too safe; that although this was the first time he had been arrested, there were many other crimes which could be laid at his door, had his neighbors not been afraid to inform upon him.
Warming up to the subject, flapping his arms aloft like a pair of wings, he recounted, with some dramatic fervor, what he called the "lonely ride of the tried servant of the Government over the rude pa.s.ses of the mountains," recounting the risks which these faithful men ran; then he referred to the sanct.i.ty of the United States mails, reminding the jury and the audience--particularly the audience--of the chaos which would ensue if these sacred mail-bags were tampered with; "the stricken, tear-stained face of the mother," for instance, who had been waiting for days and weeks for news of her dying son, or "the anxious merchant brought to ruin for want of a remittance which was to tide him over some financial distress," neither of them knowing that at that very moment some highwayman like the prisoner "was fattening off the result of his theft." This last was uttered with a slapping of both hands on his thighs, his coat-tails swaying in unison. He then went on in a graver tone to recount the heavy penalties the Government imposed for violations of the laws made to protect this service and its agents, and wound up by a.s.suring the jury of his entire confidence in their intelligence and integrity, knowing, as he did, how just would be their verdict, irrespective of the sympathy they might feel for one who had preferred "the hidden walks of crime to the broad open highway of an honest life." Altering his tone again and speaking in measured accents, he admitted that, although the Government"s witnesses had not been able to identify the prisoner by his face, he having concealed himself in the bushes while the rifling of the pouch was in progress, yet so full a view was gotten of his enormous back and shoulders as to leave no doubt in his mind that the prisoner before them had committed the a.s.sault, since it would not be possible to find two such men, even in the mountains of Kentucky. As his first witness he would call the mail-carrier.
Bud had sat perfectly stolid during the harangue. Once he reached down with one long arm and scratched his bare ankle with his forefinger, his eyes, with the gentle light in them that had first attracted me, glancing aimlessly about the room; then he settled back again in his chair, its back creaking to the strain of his shoulders. Whenever he looked at the speaker, which was seldom, a slight curl, expressing more contempt than anxiety, crept along his lips. He was, no doubt, comparing his own muscles to those of the buzzard and wondering what he would do to him if he ever caught him out alone. Men of enormous strength generally measure the abilities of others by their own standards.
"Mr. Bowditch will take the chair!" cried the prosecutor.
At the summons, a thin, wizen-faced, stubbly-bearded man of fifty, his shirt-front stained with tobacco-juice, rose from his seat and took the stand. The struggle for possession of the bag must have been a brief one, for he was but a dwarf compared to the prisoner. In a low, constrained voice--the awful hush of the court-room had evidently impressed him--and in plain, simple words, in strong contrast to the flowery opening of the prosecutor, he recounted the facts as he knew them. He told of the sudden command to halt; of the attack in the rear and the quick jerking of the mail-bags from beneath his saddle, upsetting him into the road; of the disappearance of the robber in the bushes, his head and shoulders only outlined against the dim light of the stars; of the flight of the robber, and of his finding the bag a few yards away from the place of a.s.sault with the bottom cut. None of the letters was found opened; which ones were missing tie couldn"t say. Of one thing he was sure--none were left behind by him on the ground, when he refilled the bag.
The bag, with a slash in the bottom as big as its mouth, was then pa.s.sed around the jury-box, each juror in his inspection of the cut seeming to be more interested in the way in which the bag was manufactured (some of them, I should judge, had never examined one before) than in the way in which it was mutilated. The bag was then put in evidence and hung over the back of a chair, mouth down, the gash in its bottom in full view of the jury. This gash, from where I sat, looked like one inflicted on an old-fashioned rubber football by a high kicker.
Hank Halliday, in a deerskin waistcoat and dust-stained slouch hat, which he crumpled up in his hand and held under his chin, was the next witness.
In a jerky, strained voice he told of his mailing a letter, from a village within a short distance of Bug Hollow, to a girl friend of his on the afternoon of the night of the robbery. He swore positively that this letter was in this same mail-bag, because he had handed it to the carrier himself before he got on his horse, and added, with equal positiveness, that it had never reached its destination. The value or purpose of this last testimony, the non-receipt of the letter, was not clear to me, except upon the theory that the charge of robbery might fail if it could be proved by the defence that no letter was missing.
Bud fastened his eyes on Halliday and smiled as he made this last statement about the undelivered letter, the first smile I had seen across his face, but gave no other sign indicating that Halliday"s testimony affected his chances in any way.