II

THE BLOW OF A FRIEND

Progress was swifter the next day. The prosecuting attorney, apparently
believing that he had made his case, dismissed many of his remaining
witnesses who had nothing to testify to in fact. When he announced that
the state rested, there was a murmur and rustling in the room, and
audibly expressed wonderment over what the public thought to be a grave
blunder on Sam Lucas's part.

The state had not called the widow of Isom Chase to the stand to give
testimony against the man accused of her husband's murder. The public
could not make it out. What did it mean? Did the prosecutor hold her
more of an enemy than a friend to his efforts to convict the man whose
hand had made her a widow? Whispers went around, grave faces were drawn,
wise heads wagged. Public charity for Ollie began to falter.

"Him and that woman," men said, nodding toward Joe, sitting pale and
inscrutable beside his blustering lawyer.

The feeling of impending sensation became more acute when it circulated
through the room, starting from Captain Taylor at the inner door, that
Ollie had been summoned as a witness for the defense; Captain Taylor had
served the subpoena himself.

"Well, in that case, Sam Lucas knew what he was doing," people allowed.
"Just wait!" It was as good as a spirituous stimulant to their lagging
interest. "Just you wait till Sam Lucas gets hold of her," they said.

Hammer began the defense by calling his character witnesses and
establishing Joe's past reputation for "truth and veracity and general
uprightness."

There was no question in the character which Joe's neighbors gave him.
They spoke warmly of his past record among them, of his fidelity to his
word and obligation, and of the family record, which Hammer went into
with free and unhampered hand.

The prosecutor passed these witnesses with serene confidence. He
probably believed that his case was already made, people said, or else
he was reserving his fire for Isom's widow, who, it seemed to everybody,
had turned against nature and her own interests in allying herself with
the accused.

The morning was consumed in the examination of these character
witnesses, Hammer finishing with the last of them just before the midday
adjournment. The sheriff was preparing to remove the prisoner. Joe's
hand had been released from the arm of the chair, and the officer had
fastened the iron around his wrist. The proceeding always struck Joe
with an overwhelmin