usted into ouah hands! There sets the man! There he is
befo' you! His guilt has been admitted. Answer me, gentlemen, what is
ouah juty in this case? Shall we set this incarnate fiend free in the
lan' again--shall we let him come clear o' this charge--shall we turn
him loose again in ouah midst to murder some other of ouah citizens?
Shall we set this man free?" His voice had sunk into a whisper as he
spoke the last words, leaning forward and looking into the faces of the
jury. Suddenly he straightened up, his clinched hand shaken high above
his head.

"No!" he cried. "No! I say to you, ten thousand times no! We are a
people quiet an' law-abidin'. We have set ouah hands to the conquest
o' this lan'. We have driven out the savages, an' we have erected heah
the vine an' fig tree of a new community. We have brought hither ouah
flocks an' herds. We shall not allow crime, _red_-handed an'
_on_-rebuked, to stalk through the quiet streets of ouah law-abidin',
moral town! This man shall not go free! Justice, yo' Honah, justice,
gentlemen, is what this community asks. An' justice is what it is
a-goin' to have. Yo' Honah, an' gentlemen, I yiel' to the statement o'
the defence."

Franklin rose and looked calmly about him while the buzzing of comment
and the outspoken exclamations of applause yet greeted the speech of
the prosecutor. He knew that Curly's thoughtless earlier description
of the scene of the arrest would in advance be held as much evidence in
the trial as any sworn testimony given in the court. Still, the
sentiment of pity was strong in his heart. He resolved to use all he
knew of the cunning of the law to save this half-witted savage. He
determined to defeat, if possible, the ends of a technical justice, in
order to secure a higher and a broader justice, the charity of a divine
mercy. As the lawyer, the agent of organized society, he purposed to
invoke the law in order to defeat the law in this, the first trial, for
this, the first hostage ever given to civilization on the old cattle
range. He prayed to see triumph an actual justice and not the old
blind spirit of revenge. He realized fully how much was there to
overcome as he gazed upon the set faces of the real jury, the crowd of
grim spectators. Yet in his soul there sprang so clear a conviction of
his duty that he felt all fogs clear away, leaving his intelligence
calm, clear, dispassionate, with full understanding of the best means
to o