The Spectre In The Cart | Page 6

been
broken off. There was a small scorched place on the planks on either
side, and it was evident that this was one of the splinters that had been
used in firing the house. I called a couple of the coolest, most
level-headed men present and quietly showed them the spot, and they
took the splinter out and I put it in my pocket.
"By one of those fortuitous chances which so often happen in every
lawyer's experience, and appear inexplicable, Old Joel Turnell walked
up to the house just as we came out. He was as sympathetic as possible,
appeared outraged at the crime, professed the highest regard for
Halloway, and the deepest sorrow at his death. The sentiment of the
crowd was rather one of sympathy with him, that he should have such a
son as Absalom.
"I took the old man aside to have a talk with him, to find out where his
son was and where he had been the night before. He was equally
vehement in his declarations of his son's innocence, and of professions
of regard for Halloway. And suddenly to my astonishment he declared
that his son had spent the night with him and had gone away after
sunrise.
"Then happened one of those fatuous things that have led to the
detection of so many negroes and can almost be counted on in their
prosecution. Joel took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his
face, and as he did so I recognized the very handkerchief Halloway had
shown me the night before. With the handkerchief, Joel drew out
several splinters of light-wood, one of which had been broken off from
a longer piece. I picked it up and it fitted exactly into the piece that had
been stuck in the crack in the floor. At first, I could scarcely believe my
own senses. Of course, it became my duty to have Joel arrested
immediately. But I was afraid to have it done there, the crowd was so
deeply incensed. So I called the two men to whom I had shown the
light-wood splinter, told them the story, and they promised to get him

away and arrest him quietly and take him safely to jail, which they did.
"Even then we did not exactly believe that the old man had any active
complicity in the crime, and I was blamed for arresting the innocent old
father and letting the guilty son escape. The son, however, was arrested
shortly afterward.
"The circumstances from which the crime arose gave the case
something of a political aspect, and the prisoners had the best counsel
to be procured, both at our local bar and in the capital. The evidence
was almost entirely circumstantial, and when I came to work it up I
found, as often occurs, that although the case was plain enough on the
outside, there were many difficulties in the way of fitting all the
circumstances to prove the guilt of the accused and to make out every
link in the chain. Particularly was this so in the prosecution of the
young man, who was supposed to be the chief criminal, and in whose
case there was a strong effort to prove an alibi.
"As I worked, I found to my surprise that the guilt of the old man,
though based wholly on circumstantial evidence, was established more
clearly than that of his son--not indeed, as to the murders, but as to the
arson, which served just as well to convict on. The handkerchief, which
Joel had not been able to resist the temptation to steal, and the splinter
of light-wood in his pocket, which fitted exactly into that found in the
house, together with other circumstances, proved his guilt conclusively.
But although there was an equal moral certainty of the guilt of the
young man, it was not so easy to establish it by law.
"Old Dick Winchester was found dead one morning and the alibi was
almost completely proved, and only failed by the incredibility of the
witnesses for the defence. Old Joel persistently declared that Absalom
was innocent, and but for a confession by Absalom of certain facts
intended to shift the suspicion from himself to his father, I do not know
how his case might have turned out.
"I believed him to be the instigator as well as the perpetrator of the
crime.

"I threw myself into the contest, and prosecuted with all the vigor I was
capable of. And I finally secured the conviction of both men. But it was
after a hard fight. They were the only instances in which, representing
the Commonwealth, I was ever conscious of strong personal feeling,
and of a sense of personal triumph. The memory of my last ride with
Hal-loway, and of the things