ants of mine had to work nearly a month with the stenographers' notes when it became necessary to print the papers on appeal. Oh, yes, of course I convicted Denslow. But that isn't the point of my yarn. You don't suppose I'd bore you fellows if I'd nothing more to offer than the old, old story of the law's delays. As a matter of fact, I convicted Buck four times.

"I don't know that the details of that long game of last tag' would interest you, but some of them were a bit out of the ordinary. After the first verdict the appellate court ordered a new trial because of a technical objection which Dunham had interposed to the method of drawing jurors. It was a perfectly absurd quibble, but there was no help for it, so I put him on trial again, and, avoiding the previous pitfall, obtained another conviction. Did it stand? It did not. The jury had agreed late at night, and the judge had ordered them to render a sealed verdict which the foreman had recorded in due form, except that he had written that the prisoner was guilty of murder in the first decree instead of the first degree. That was Dunham's chance, and, with the aid of his old reliable dictionary and the learned reviewing court, his client received a new lease of life and another new trial.

66

'New trials for old was the order of the day with me now, so I was rather surprised to get through two appeals after the next conviction without mishap. But the court of last resort came to Denslow's rescue just in the nick of time with an opinion declaring that the judge who sentenced the prisoner had erred in failing to ask him the formal question as to whether or not he knew of any reason why sentence should not be pronounced against him. . . I'll show you that masterpiece of judicial erudition some day, if you haven't already come across it in the books.

"Well, practice makes perfect, and the next time I brought my man before a jury I sustained his conviction through all the courts, and the day set for his execution was just five years after the commission of his crime, which up to that date had cost the State nearly twenty thousand dollars."

"I know another case that took even longer than that," observed one of the audience, as Poinder paused.

I

case in the records, my friend. . . . Perhaps I needn't tell you that long before I convicted his client for the fourth time Dunham and I had become pretty bitter enemies. don't believe I'd spoken a word to him outside the court-room for three years, and my office associates, who had begun by joking me about the case, had ended by sympathizing with me and sharing my feeling toward the Resurrectionist. The final decision of our highest courts was accordingly welcomed as an office triumph, and I was congratulated accordingly. But the congratulations were premature.

"It was about this time that electrocution was substituted for hanging in our State, and Dunham appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States on the ground that the new law violated the Constitution. No one supposed that that tribunal would interfere, and, as a matter of fact, it made such short work of the contention that Denslow merely gained a few months' respite. There was then only one move left for his counsel, and of course he took it by petitioning the Governor for clemency on behalf of his client. But I knew that if the Executive interfered to save that cold-blooded murderer he might as well sign a commutation in blank for all assassins, and I had no fear of the result. Nevertheless, it was not until I filed away his brief memorandum denying the petition that I regarded the case of People vs. Denslow as officially closed, and felt justified in dismissing it from my mind."

"I should think you'd have nicknamed Dunham the Obstructionist instead of the Resurrectionist," observed Foster.

"Well, we might," resumed Poinder, "if he'd displayed nothing more than commonplace jugglery with the law. But though Denslow was, figuratively speaking, at the end of his rope, his lawyer wasn't, and a few days before the date set for Buck's execution this was impressed on my mind in a really startling fashion.

"I had arrived at my office somewhat earlier in the morning than usual, and was surprised to find a visitor already waiting for me in the anteroom, who introduced himself as Dr. Emile Atwood. He's dead nowGod rest his soul !-but I'll say right now that that wasn't his right name, and I'm not going to tell you what it really was. Naturally, the name he used suggested nothing to me, but he appeared to be a highly intelligent, cultured gentleman, and I begged him to state

"I want to ask you,' he inquired, 'if there is still any chance of a reprieve or commutation of Denslow's sentence?'

"Certainly not,' I replied. He ought to have paid the penalty of his crime five years ago. He and his lawyer have cost the State nearly twenty thousand dollars already, and I think it's about time they stopped cheating the law at the public's expense.'

"The defense has been quite as costly,' he observed, reflectively.

"Nonsense !' I retorted. 'Denslow hasn't a cent and Dunham has spent comparatively little.'

still, if it is any satisfaction to the State to know it, the defense has been costly. I know it, because I supplied the funds myself.'

"There was a time in my professional career when that reply would have astonished me, but I had long since schooled myself against surprise.

"I see,' I responded, quietly. 'You thought Buck innocent?'

"On the contrary,' he replied with equal calmness, I knew he was guilty. A more contemptible murderer never lived.'

"Then why, in the name of common sense, my dear sir, did you spend money to defend him?' I demanded.

66 6

Merely to appease my conscience,' he replied. 'I killed Ben Limond myself.' "All my years of training were not proof

Public Librar

in the doctor's hard, matter-of-fact tonesomething in the way he looked at me as he removed his glasses and calmly polished the lenses in his handkerchief-which convinced me that he believed he was speaking the truth.

"You must be out of your mind!' I asserted. 'Denslow and nobody but Denslow killed Limond. There were two eyewitnesses of the murder. No less than four juries have convicted the man of that crime. What in the world do you mean by saying you are guilty of it?'

not, in any real sense, feel guilty of his death. Indeed, what I did was such a slight matter that the coroner entirely overlooked it, and it was not until a few weeks later, when an operation successfully performed on a similar case showed me just, where I had made my mistake, that I gave the matter any further thought. Then, of course, I began to be disturbed by the situation. Perhaps I would have done better had I sought the advice of some lawyer. But I did not. I thought the whole thing out for myself. If I confessed exactly what had happened at the hospital, I

"I have no wish to be melodramatic,' he observed, dispassionately. I hate all posing of that sort, and the facts are very simple.'

"I did not trust myself to speak, but merely nodded approvingly.

"Limond was brought to the Emergency Hospital where I was the visiting surgeon immediately after Denslow shot him,' he explained, in the cold professional tone of statement. He was not dead, but I saw at a glance that his wound was probably fatal. However, the proper thing to do was to attempt an operation, and he was put under ether at once. It seemed a hopeless task, but as I worked the thought crossed my mind that here was a magnificent opportunity for an experiment I had long desired to make in an operation of this kind but had never quite dared risk. There was no time to debate the question of professional ethics or legal responsibility-the temptation was overwhelming, and I simply could not resist it. All I wanted to do I could effect very quickly. Moreover, Denslow was virtually moribund, and my greatest fear was that he would die before I could make my experiment. Well, he must have been even nearer death than I supposed, for his life went out under my instrument like a candle under one's thumb and finger.'

"The doctor paused and snapped his fingers together.

"Just like that,' he commented, musingly. "I stared at the speaker with unfeigned amazement, wondering whether I had to deal with a lunatic or a sane man. He speedily resolved my doubts, however.

and I knew my reputation would be ruined, and I was just on the threshold of a highly successful career. Had there been the slightest doubt of Denslow's guilt I would not have hesitated a moment to sacrifice myself. But, as you know, the man was a cowardly murderer, richly deserving his fate. It was madness to think of blighting all my prospects in his behalf. Nevertheless, the matter preyed upon me, and I finally compromised. with my conscience by secretly furnishing Denslow with the means of retaining Dunham and indirectly supplying him with funds to keep up the fight in the hope that he would find some way of at least saving his client's neck. That was all I wanted. But I now see that he has merely succeeded in making a mockery of the law, and money out of me.'

"You may imagine with what feelings I listened to this extraordinary statement, but despite my exasperation and disgust I could not but feel some sympathy for the fellow. When I spoke, however, my tone was brutally harsh and forbidding.

Well, why do you consult me, Doctor?' I demanded.

"To ascertain if there is anything I can do, short of confession, to save Denslow's life,' he answered, suavely. You are the public prosecutor in this case. Perhaps if you made the proper representations to the Governor he would commute the sentence.'

"I shall do nothing of the sort, sir,' I retorted, sternly. You'd better get your full money's worth out of your friend Dunham and go to him for advice.'

"That will not be necessary,' he asserted, complacently. I have laid the facts before the public authorities. If they do not choose to act upon them, that proves that they think the law should be allowed to take its course

and shows me that I have given myself a vast deal of unnecessary anxiety and expense for nothing. In any event, I wash my hands of all further responsibility in the matter, and wish you good-morning, sir.'"

"Well, that fellow was certainly a cool proposition," commented Brundage. "What the dickens did you do, Poinder ?"

...

"What could I do, Tom? As a prosecuting official, you know I couldn't suppress the facts; and as a man and a lawyer, you know that they didn't really affect the question of Denslow's guilt at all. He and not the doctor really killed Limond. . . . Oh, of course I know there are decisions freeing murderers because the surgeons who sought to save their victims were careless or incompetent, and I was equally well aware that all that bad law would be grist to Dunham's mill, for what has fooled judges can be used to fool juries. . . . However, there was no escape, and I actually had to supply the fellow with the ammunition for demanding another trial on the ground of this newly discovered evidence. Indeed, I've always thought it must have been this humiliating duty that precipitated the nervous breakdown which incapacitated me for the next twelvemonth. Anyway, when I recovered and returned to the office the People vs. Denslow gave me no further concern. In my absence it had been turned over to one of the most hopeless blunderers on our office staff, who permitted one of his eye-witnesses to be smuggled out of the State under his very nose, and got his whole case so sidetracked that before it was reached the other eye-witness died. You can fancy what kind of a showing he made on the trial against Dunham and his corps of surgical experts. No wonder the jury acquitted the innocent Buck !"

"Gee whiz !" ejaculated Eph Bisland. "Got off scot free after all! Eh?"

"Yes, as far as the law was concerned," drawled Poinder. "But one of Limond's friends shot him the day he left the jail, and the police never caught his executioner."

"And this is a government of law !" muttered Gedney.

"No, sir-of lawyers," laughed Brundage.

The little man rose to his full height and glared angrily at the speaker.

"You laugh, sir !" he burst forth, fairly trembling with rage. "You dare to laugh at such mockeries of justice ! It is infamous, sir! infamous that a public officer of the law should treat such scandalous outrages as a joke, and consent to giggle at evils that are undermining our government, debauching our consciences, and shaming us before our neighbors and the world. Sir, your imbecile laugh will sound the doom of this country-if

Come, come, Mr. Gedney," interrupted Poinder, soothingly. "You mustn't get excited. We've got a hard day before us tomorrow, and you and I must go upstairs to prepare for it. Brundage and I will discuss the whole subject with you dispassionately some other day, won't we, Tom ?"

The Prosecutor nodded understandingly. "Certainly," he responded; " and I sympathize with your views more than you suspect, Mr. Gedney," he added, soberly. "Good-night, sir."

"Good-night."

The little man was already on his way toward his room as Brundage spoke, and his response was uttered without turning his head, as, accompanied by his counsel, he mounted the creaking stairs.

For a moment there was a dead silence in the lobby, its occupants apparently listening to the sound of the retreating footsteps. Then the front door opened and young Hixon, knocking the snow off his shoes, resumed his seat in the circle.

"Where's Poinder and Gedney?" he inquired, glancing about him.

"They've gone upstairs," answered Brundage. "Their case goes on to-morrow, you know."

Hixon.

"I bet it doesn't," asserted "Witnesses-in-the-case-of-the-Supply-Company-vs.-Gedney will return to-the-court-thisyear-next year-sometime-never!" he chanted. "The Supply people have retained Poinder's friend the Resurrectionist. That's what he's in Belo for. Wow! What a pleasant little surprise for Poinder! And, say, Pete, I guess you'd better get a padded cell ready for Gedney! . . . Shut up yourself, Brundage! I'll talk just as much as I like !"