Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-12-21
The Story Teller.
THE MISSING WITNESS.

Pm afraid II s q OaQ case, stilu " NY
self, as l laid down my brief, after reading 1t
back in my chair to reconsider it for about the
twentieth
"a bad case, and am sorry for it,
T was balrister, young, both in years and
professional standing, and this was the first
brief of any Importance had ever held. MY
client was an Italian sailor named Luigi Ber-
mini, and the crime Of which he was accused
was robbery the plunder being the lifelong
savings of a woman upward of eighty years OF
age, which the poor creature kept hidden IN
the thatch of her little cabin:
The witnesses were the old woman herself,
who had been stunned by a severe blow from
the perpetrator of the theft, and neighbor,
who deposed to having met the prisoner in the
immediate vicinity of the cabin. When Ber-
mini was arrested, some days later, curious
foreign coin, identified as a part of the stolen
hoard, was found in his pocket. This, howev-
er, he accounted for by saying that he had
picked it up on the road. The weak point in
the chain of evidence was a scarcely perceptl-
BILE hesitation on the part of one of the wit
nesses She had at first declared positively
that the prisoner was the man whom she had
seen going toward old Joan's cabin, and had
afterward adhered to this statement with what
afterward appeared to be dcgged obstinacy,
rather than real conviction.
The prisoner himself positively denied hav-
ing been in the neighborhood at all on the day
Of the robbery, but unfortunately he could not
speak with certainty as to his whereabouts.
He had been lately dismissed from hospital,
scarcely convalescent, after bad fever his
own ship had left the port, and he had been re-
jected by the captains to whom he had offered
his services, as not being sufficiently robust
for sailors work. He had a little money left
and, therefore, took to wandering aimlessly
about the country, intending, as soon as the
Columbia returned, to ship aboard of her again.
His mind had been weakened and confused by
his illness, and although he knew that for sew
eral days preceding and following that of the
robbery, he had been in a part of the country
fully twenty miles distant, he could not posi-
lively say where he had been, or to whom he
had spoken on the day in question. Many in
quiries had been made, and many persons in
terviewed, who remembered 1.-THE poor foreign
chap" but no accurate information as to dates
was forthcoming. AS the testimony OF the per-
son who had extended her hospitality to him,
''either of Tuesday or a Thursday, she could
not say which, would not, unfortunate
", carry much weight in Il court of justice,
l had to trust for a defense to the cross
examination of the witnesses, whose character
for veraety hoped, by judicous management
of the usual forensic weapons, to compel them
to annihilate with their own lips. | much re-
GREETED this want of evidence, as was strong
lv prepossessed in favor of the prisoner some
thing frank and honest in his face making it
difficult for me to believe him guilty of the
cowardly crime of which he was accused.
Besides, it was, as have said, my first impor
tant case, and self-interest and professional in
stinct alike prompted me to desire the success
full issue. But of this had little hope.
1,;l do l,riaf atl nd
to the drawing room, where | was greeted by
my cousin and hostess with a somewhat pet
uant reproof for having fingered so long over
those musty law papers.
Alice and | had been children together-t
big girl and little boy-we had grown from
playfelloWs into friends, and since her marriage
her house in Carrigarvan had been my resting
place in assize times was at no loss to un
derstand the cause of her vexat!on at my tardy
appearance She was somewhat of a match
maker, and having no one but myself on whom
to exercise her talents, she had devoted then
exclusively to my service. She had already de
cided on asuitable wife for me, and was exert
ing herself to the utmost to bring about the
marriage. The chosen young lady was pres
ent, and knew that Alice was much annoyed
with me for devoting the evening to my brie
instead of to Dora Lyme. The latter was th'
daughter of solicitor in good practice ant
was herself very pretty, bright-looking girl
who would, l was compelled to admit, be ;
most desirable wife for young unknown bar
lister.
| was thoroughly fond of Alice, and she wa
my chosen confidante whenever needed one
but could not tell her even that the true rea
son which prevented Dora Lyne's brown eye
and sweet voice making their due impression
on me was the remembrance of a face seen bu
during three-hours' railway journey, a fac
with dark gray eyes and quiet, thoughtful ex
preston, and of voice heard at somewha
intervals in the space of time, whose low
pitched tones still vibrated in my imagination