Chapter XII · ON THE STAND.

Boss Coggswell was not present in the courtroom when Owen Sheridan’s came up for trial. Not that he was not interested, nor was it a feeling of delicacy which kept him away; but he realized that his presence might excite comment and lend color to the accused man’s assertion that he was the victim of a conspiracy.

“You’ll be there, of course, Jake,” he said to his subordinate, “and I’ll rely on you to bring me the news just as soon as a verdict is reached.”

Hines grinned. “Yes, you can bet your boots, boss, that I won’t lose any time gettin’ here with the glad tidings. I guess you’re right in decidin’ not to be present. It’d look pretty raw for you to go to court. No use takin’ any unnecessary chances.”

“It isn’t that, Jake,” replied Coggswell deprecatingly. “It isn’t that, my boy. I have no reason to be afraid. When one’s conscience is clear, one doesn’t have to worry about what people might think. But the fact is, Jake, I have a tender heart—you ought to know that by this time—and I could not bear to be present to witness that poor man’s sufferings.”

Hines grinned again, and looked at his chief admiringly. “All right, boss,” he said. “You wait here, and I’ll bring you the news as soon as the jury brings in a verdict.”

Hines had not the slightest doubt as to what that verdict was going to be. He felt confident that the evidence against Sheridan was so crushingly conclusive that the jury wouldn’t hesitate more than three minutes before deciding that he was guilty.

If he had any apprehensions on the subject they would have been dispelled by what he had seen that morning. He had encountered Owen on the street, walking arm in arm with Judge Lawrence, and if ever two men looked worried, the accused carrier and his counsel did.

“Poor gink!” said Mr. Hines to himself. “I guess he’s sorry by this time that he didn’t take that money and beat it while he had the chance. Wonder how he’ll look in a suit of stripes and with his hair close cropped.”

There was a broad grin upon his face as he entered the courtroom and seated himself on one of the rear benches. Catching the presiding judge’s eye leveled sternly upon him, and suddenly realizing that his levity was hardly decorous, he hurriedly assumed a serious mien.

He found it difficult to refrain from chuckling as the case progressed, however, for as witness after witness took the stand to testify against Sheridan, and the strong chain of circumstantial evidence was presented link by link to the jury, the prisoner’s counsel, eminent lawyer though he was, seemed to become more and more baffled and depressed.

Ex-Judge Lawrence was famed for his skill as a cross-examiner. This was the only point on which Coggswell and Hines had been apprehensive. They feared that there was a possibility of some of the witnesses going to pieces under the vigorous, searching questioning of counsel for the defense.

But, to Hines’ great relief, the ex-judge, in this case, gave no evidence of being an expert at the art of cross-examination. He did not succeed in “rattling” a single witness; in fact, he handled them all so mildly and apparently with so little spirit that Hines muttered to himself contemptuously:

“Huh! Him a great lawyer! Guess he’s been very much overrated. Why, I know a whole lot of ordinary police-court counselors that could give him cards and spades.”

William Warren, wholesale liquor dealer, was the first witness to take the stand. He testified that he had sent his good friend Michael Harrington, a saloon keeper, a gold watch by registered mail. He had placed the watch in the package in the presence of two witnesses, who had also been with him when he handed in the package at the registry window of a downtown post office.

Judge Lawrence asked this witness but four questions in cross-examination:

“Are you acquainted with Samuel J. Coggswell, Mr. Warren?”

“I never had the pleasure of meeting the gentleman.”

“Are you acquainted with a young man named Jake Hines—a prominent member of the Samuel J. Coggswell Association? Before answering this question, Mr. Warren, let me remind you that you are under oath.”

“It ain’t necessary to remind me of no such thing,” retorted the witness indignantly. “Yes, I know Mr. Hines. I am proud to say that he is a good friend of mine.” He glanced across at the spectators’ benches, and Jake smiled at him an acknowledgment of this compliment.

They had expected this question, knowing that it was the accused carrier’s hope to be able to make the jury believe that he was the victim of a conspiracy. They had decided that Warren should tell the truth, and admit that he knew Hines. To have denied the fact would have been dangerous. There was no telling that the defense did not have witnesses at hand ready to take the stand and swear that they knew of the friendship.

“Yes, I know Jake Hines,” the witness repeated, almost belligerently; “but that don’t——”

“Did you meet him, or in any way have communication with him, on the day you sent the registered package?” interrupted counsel for the defense.

“Yes,” replied the witness unhesitatingly. “Mr. Hines came to my office that day. He was in the neighborhood, and he dropped in to make a social call.”

This question, too, had been expected. Warren had made up his mind to answer it truthfully, for it was quite possible that Hines had been seen entering his office.

“And at that meeting between Hines and yourself, Mr. Warren,” counsel for the defense went on, “did either of you say anything about this watch which you were going to send to Harrington?”

“Not a word,” emphatically replied the witness, who was prepared for this question also. “Not a single word, sir. We never spoke about the watch at all. Hines didn’t know that I was going to send it.”

As the conversation which had taken place that day between Hines and himself had been behind a closed door, with no chance of anybody having overheard them, Warren felt that he was quite safe in making this denial.

“That’s all,” said the cross-examiner, with an audible sigh, and the witness, as he stepped down, exchanged a triumphant glance with Jake Hines.

The next witnesses were the men who had been in Warren’s office when he placed the watch in the package, and who had accompanied him to the post office and seen the package handed in at the registry window. Both of them were reputable business men, and Owen’s lawyer made no attempt to impeach their testimony. In cross-examination he let each of them off with but a single question, which was the same in each case:

“On the way to the post office, where did Mr. Warren carry the package in which you had seen him place the watch?”

“In the left-hand pocket of his coat,” the two witnesses both answered.

Michael Harrington, the saloon keeper, testified that the package contained no watch when he opened it; which statement was corroborated by several witnesses who had been present in the saloon when the accused postman brought in the registered package.

Harrington made a good impression on the stand. He denied that he knew Jake Hines, except by reputation, and volunteered the information that he had “no use for Sam Coggswell, or any of his bunch,” being himself of the opposite political party. Hines could not help grinning at Judge Lawrence’s evident discomfiture.

The pawnbroker’s clerk, an exceedingly nervous young man, who took the stand and swore that Owen had pledged the watch for forty dollars, was cross-examined at greater length than any of the previous witnesses.

Counsel for the defense, however, could not shake his testimony. He admitted that he was acquainted with Jake Hines, but denied that the latter had been in the pawnshop that day, or had held any conversation with him regarding the watch. Another audible sigh came from Judge Lawrence as this witness left the stand.

The two post-office inspectors testified to having found the pawn ticket in Owen’s trunk, and a half dozen of the employees of the Branch X Y took the stand and reluctantly stated that Carrier Sheridan had tried to borrow thirty dollars from them that day.

Owen’s counsel did not attempt to cross-examine any of these witnesses. As the last of them left the stand and the prosecutor announced that this closed the government’s case, Jake Hines leaned back in his seat and smiled expansively.

“Let ’em beat that if they can,” he muttered confidently. “I can see from the looks of the jury that they’ve made up their minds already.”

TO BE CONTINUED.