y of Lamborn lying in the room, I mounted the witness chair in my
own behalf, after Reverdy had testified that he had seen Lamborn reach
to his pocket, and that it was not until then that I drew my pistol and
fired.

Was Douglas turned against me? He plunged into the matter of Zoe almost
at once in his cross examination of me. And at last I told the whole
story ... with but two exceptions: I did not produce Lamborn's note to
Zoe and I did not tell of Zoe's illness and its cause; of returning from
St. Louis and finding Zoe in tears, of what she had told me, of the
embarrassment I then found myself in, of my perplexity, of my failure to
invite Lamborn to my housewarming and the reason for it, of Lamborn's
attitude toward me after that, his menacing looks, his growling insults
when he saw me ... of all these things I told with full
circumstantiality under the examination of the new state's attorney, and
with the whole of the countryside looking on, Whigs and Democrats, and
with the audience permeated with slavery and with slavery feeling, at
least so far as the present case was concerned. What would Douglas now
do? He rose and in his deep voice, with perfect command of himself,
looking over the audience as if it was a great instrument whose keys he
knew, he spoke these brief words: "Gentlemen, it makes no difference to
me whether this girl is white or black; if you bind this young man over
to the grand jury, I will do what I can to prevent an indictment; and if
the grand jury indicts him I will do what I can to have him acquitted.
This dead man here met his just fate."

The audience cheered. The jury acquitted me without leaving their seats.
I walked a free man into the soft air of April. Douglas came out. His
manner was changed. He spoke to me in freedom and in the old tone of
friendship. "The boil is now open," he said. "The cut place will heal."

And he walked with me down the street followed by a cheering crowd.
Douglas had won the people; and I was free!

CHAPTER XVII

I began to see myself as boring through opposition with lowered head and
indomitable will. I was strengthened by the fact that I had never
swerved from my duty to Zoe. And now that the beast was out of the way
who had caused her so much agony, my whole life seemed cleared. The
McCall gang might cause me trouble, but they would need to come
prepared, or to catch me off my guard. The opening up of the whole case
had had a wholesome effect upo