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Show L uil LMJ lb U L2J Li, lb .. . Dy beh nmss uiiinnms C Ben Ames Williams. " CHAPTER VII 16 Sunday afternoon, the day after the funeral, Falkran came to see Mrs. Sentry, to remind her that the trial would begin next morning. And he said: "You will of course be in the courtroom every day. I had better bet-ter tell you what to expect, so that you may show no emotion. The jury will be watching you." "I shall show no emotion!" He hesitated. "We ought to discuss," dis-cuss," he suggested then, "what you will wear. What is your opinion? Will you be In mourning for Mr. ' Sentry's mother? That might be effective." ef-fective." "I think not," she replied. "I dudike pose. I should not normally normal-ly wear mourning for Mr. Sentry's mother." "Perhaps not," he agreed, faintly disappointed. "But some quite simple dress. And no jewelry?" She smiled mirthlessly. "No jewelry," jew-elry," she assented. He said: "Mrs. Sentry, to succeed suc-ceed before a jury requires a careful care-ful handling of Intangibles. I shall not ask of you very many questions, but my hope is that the State on cress-examination will adopt toward to-ward you such a tone that the jury's sympathies will turn in your direction." direc-tion." He confessed, "I even hope that you and Miss Sentry may actually ac-tually break down, on the stand." Mrs. Sentry was silent for a moment. mo-ment. "I shan't break down," she said. "I shouldn't know how. But Barbara She's really so young, and she hasn't seemed to me well lately. late-ly. Is it absolutely necessary?" She added, "We haven't let her go to the jail, you know." "Quite right," he agreed. "You were right not to subject a sheltered, shel-tered, lovely girl to the ordeal of entering those surroundings. But a courtroom is not so bad." And he conceded, "She need not be there till the jury has been selected; but after that, yes." He added, watching watch-ing her warily, "And if she comes face to face with him in the courtroom, court-room, no one will be surprised to see her kiss her father, cling to him, perhaps burst into tears " Mrs. Sentry said quietly, "I should be surprised. We are not a demonstrative demon-strative family." After he was gone, though he had insisted on the necessity of Barbara's Barba-ra's appearance in court, she hesitated hesi-tated to tell the girl. When at last she did so, Barbara tried to speak. She swallowed hard, cried, "No! I won't, mother!" . .yShe seemed to be hoarse: Mrs. Sentry asked, "Are you catching cold?" "Yes," Barbara said eagerly. "Yes, my throat is sore." "You'd better go to bed. A cold compress will fix that throat of yours: and some hot lemonade " Barbara came quick to her feet. "Yes. yes," she agreed. "I think I'm going to be sick! I feel sick, mother, awfully." Mrs. Sentry touched her forehead. "You've no temperature," she said "It will clear up by morning." But in the morning Barbara was unable to speak at all, and Doctor Mainton found that she had two or th'ce degrees of fever. "A day or Uyj) in bed, and drink lots of water," ne prescribed. Downstairs afterward, after-ward, with Mrs. Sentry, he spoke reassuringly. "Her throat is normal," nor-mal," he said. "No inflammation. I suspect it's excitement, nervous strain." "But people don't run a fever unless un-less they're sick!" Doctor Mainton smiled faintly. "Our small daughter runs a fever whenever Mrs. Mainton is away from home overnight. A temperature tempera-ture above normal may be a symptom symp-tom of mental or spiritual as well as of physical ills. Just keep her in bed, don't argue with her ". So Barbara in the morning stayed abed, with Nellie in solicitous attendance. at-tendance. Some time after Phil and Mrs. Sentry had left for the courthouse, court-house, for the opening of the trial, Dan Fisher appeared, laughed Nellie Nel-lie out of her objections, came up to see Barbara propped in pillows. Her eyes lighted when she saw him. "Hullo, Barb," Dan said. "Phil told me you were under the weather. They'll be all day getting a jury, so I thought I'd run out and see you. Feel pretty rocky?" Her lips moved, but no intelligible sound emerged. "What's that?" he asked. She shaped, elaborately, the words, "I can't talk!" He echoed, "Can't A' lulk?" And she nodded in violent assent, as-sent, and he said: "Why not? Lost your voice?" She nodded again, and he said heartily: "Why, that's fine! You know what I'd do if I were you? I shouldn't find it for a while. Let the darned thing stay lost!" He sat down on the edge of her bed, touched her hand. "And if it comes back," he advised with a chuckle, "try to manage a little appendix, ap-pendix, or some gall stones. Or maybe break a leg!" She smiled faintly and pressed his hand; and he said more serious-5 serious-5 ly: "But don't get too sick; Barb! This your father is one of those things that might happen to anyone. any-one. It has happened to you, no get ting around that. But you're going to go on living just the same, afterward; after-ward; and living's fun! Life's fun, if you know enough to let it be. And this will all be behind you, by and by." She spoke, clearly, in normal tones. "Honest, Dan?" He was surprised. "Hullo, cured already?" Her color drained away; her lips moved, but no sound came. He said regretfully: "Say, you're tired I'm bothering you. I'll run along." But she held his hand, would not let him go. "Want me to stay?" he asked. She nodded; and he sat down again, and talked on at random, cheerfully, and once or twice she smiled and her lids drooped till they closed. A little later her fingers relaxed their grip, and he eased his hand free and stood up, and for a moment mo-ment looked down at her, sleeping. His eyes dimmed; he brushed them with his hand, whispered something gently. Then his fist clenched hard till the knuckles were white. He shook this clenched fist at nothing, at the house perhaps, at the tragic silence all around the lovely, sleeping sleep-ing girl. Afterward, he went quietly away. Phil, sitting beside his mother in the courtroom, on the fourth day of the trial Barbara was still abed at home heard Mrs. Sentry sigh deeply deep-ly as though with relief, and leaned to whisper, "What is it?" "I just remembered something." "What?" She shook her head for silence, for attention to the witness just then on the stand. The witness happened to be Miss Randall, office manager for Sentry and Loran; and she was testifying tes-tifying that after Miss Wines' actual ac-tual employment by the firm was ended, the girl came several times to the office, and on one occasion was for a few minutes alone with Mr. Sentry. Mrs. Sentry, after that relieved sigh which had caught Phil's attention, heard Mr. Flood's question. "Whether you saw Miss Wines after she talked with Mr. Sentry?" "Yes." "Did you observe anything about her condition?" "She was crying desperately." District Attorney Flood surrendered surren-dered the witness; and Falkran rose. "Now, Miss Randall," he said, In that confident and friendly tone which was so effective with the jury, "you say Miss Wines came to the office on more than one occasion, occa-sion, after her work there was finished?" fin-ished?" "Yes." "Did she see Mr. Sentry on any other occasion than this one of which you have just spoken?" "No, she never asked to see him." "Was Mr. Loran in his office, on the occasions of her visits?" "No, never." "How can you be so sure?" "Because she always asked for Mr. Loran." "But if she always asked for Mr. Loran, why did she finally see Mr. Sentry?" "She seemed so anxious to see someone, I suggested that she see him." "Did she quickly agree?" "No, I persuaded her." "You persuaded her to see Mr. Sentry?" "Yes." "And now. Miss Randall, about the amount of money in the safe " But Mrs. Sontry'i attention did not follow him. It went back to his first questions, with their startling and incredible suggestion of a relationship rela-tionship between the dead girl and Mr. Loran; and her thoughts explored ex-plored the avenues of possibility thus revealed. This daily attendance at the trial of your husband for murder was like being hypnotized! You were immune im-mune to emotion: you sat bolt upright up-right in a straight chair, with your eyes wide open and your face expressionless, ex-pressionless, and people hurt you In many ingenious ways, but you felt no pain. She wondered whether she would be black and blue tomorrow, through all the tomorrows, as she had been the next day after that other occasion so long ago. But meanwhile it was a boon to feel no pain. Not even when they showed the dead girl's coat with the small blackened hole in it where the revolver re-volver muzzle had been pressed when it was fired. Not even when they showed the weapon itself, and Phil poor Phil, so white and brave had to testify that someone had taken it from his room at home. Then there was a man who testified testi-fied about something mysterious called "lands," and said that a certain cer-tain bullet had surely come from this gun. And a hotel clerk from some "I Think I'm Going to be Sick! I Feel Sick, Mother, Awfully." New Jersey mountain resort swore that two people who registered as Mr. and Mrs. Hume spent three days last August at his hotel, and that Mr. Hume was Mr. Sentry, and that Mrs. Hume was by the photographs photo-graphs shown him Miss Wines. Mrs. Sentry felt no pain even at this. Mary had forewarned her. But she paid curious attention when Mr. Falkran gave the witness a great stack of photographs. "Will you please select from this collection all the photographs you find of the young lady who stayed with Mr. Hume at your hotel?" he suggested. The clerk spent a harried fifteen minutes at the task. Twice or thrice he protested, "I don't think I can." But Falkran urged, "Oh, come now, if you remember the girl who was with Mr. Hume so well that you can recognize her in a photograph pho-tograph which the State showed you, you can surely recognize her in the photographs which I show you." Mrs. Loran who was also Jimmy Endle's sister attended the trial with some regularity, listening with a lively interest to the testimony, sometimes smiling and whispering to her companion of the day. Once when Mrs. Sentry and Phil came along the corridor for the afternoon session, Mrs. Loran stopped them, volubly explaining: "Of course I know you don't want to stand here with people staring, but I thought you'd like news from Mary. Jimmy's here in town, but naturally Mary didn't come. She's staying on at Palm Beach and Jimmy's Jim-my's going back in two weeks." She was watching Mrs. Sentry. "Jimmy says Mary's wonderful, so gay, dancing, playing around; says you'd never think she had anything on her mind." And when Mrs. Sentry could not speak, she added maliciously: "I told Jimmy he should have stayed there to keep her company, but he said she has all the masculine company com-pany she can handle. A different man for every hour of the day or night if she wants them. Of course she always was so beautiful!" Dan Fisher came up quietly behind be-hind her. He said casuaUy: "Hullo, Mrs. Loran. I'm Fisher, of the Herald. Her-ald. Is it true Mr. Loran' s thinking of buying a ticket to Heno?" She stared at him furiously and whirled away, and he said: "Phil, you need a guardian! Don't let women like that stick pins in your mother." Mrs. Sentry nodded gratefully. Dan had been throughout the trial a source of strength, managing somehow some-how to reduce all this to the level of an everyday human experience, making them realize that others, all over the world, had been from time to time pilloried as they were pilloried pil-loried here. Mrs. Sentry assured herself that this was small comfort; yet it was comfort just the same, making her feel not so completely alone. She admitted to Phil on the way home one day, "You know, I begin to like Dan Fisher." "Sure," Phil assented. "Dan's a good scout." She asked: "What does he think, Phil? About the trial?" "Why, he said today that unless the State proves father was down there that night, their case won't hang together." She looked at him in quick, springing spring-ing hope. Arthur's guilt seemed to her so certain that she could not believe anyone else might doubt it-She it-She protested: "But all that about the key, and the bullet, and the gun, and what the New Jersey hotel man said " "I know," he assented. "But Dan says that isn't enough, just suggesting sug-gesting motive and premeditation and all that isn't enough unless they can prove that father was down there that night, between eleven and twelve." "But he wasn't!" she cried, for a moment almost believing her own words. "He was at home at quarter past eleven." Phil, about to speak, hesitated, then held his tongue. Let his mother moth-er cling to this straw if she could. "Sure," he agreed. "So he couldn't have been down there " But next day listening with dull ears, and as though from a very great distance, Mrs. Sentry heard Professor Brace testify that on the night of the murder he was driving Barbara home from the North Shore. Questions and answers struck her like dull blows. "Did you come through the city?" "Yes." "How did you cross the Harbor?" "Through the tunnel." "Do you know the location of Sentry Sen-try and Loran' s place of business?" "Yes." "How far is it from the city end of the tunnel?" "A few blocks." "If you were driving from their place of business to the Sentry home, what route would you take?" "Past the mouth of the tunnel, down to the station, out along the river." (TO BE CONTINUED) ' |