The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1882-11-24
THE MISSING WITNESS.

I'm afraid it's . bad case" said to my
self, ss laid down my brief after reading It
over for the third OF fourth time, and leaned
back in my chair to reconsider il for about
the twentieth.
"A bad case. and am sorry for IT,"
Was barrister, young both in years and
In professional standing, and this was the
first brief Of any Importance had ever held
Ny client was an italian sailor named Luigi
Berniui, and the crime Of which he was ac-
cused was robbery. the plumber being theIife-
long savings Of . woman upward of eighty
years of age, which the poor woman kept
hidden in the thateh of her little cabin.
The witnesses were the old woman her
self, who had been stunned by sewers blow
from the perpetrstor of the theft, and q
neighbor, who deposed to having met the
prisoner in the immediate vicinity of tbs cab
in. When Bernini was arrested some davn
later q curious foreign coin, identified as a
part Of the stolen hoard. was found in his
pocket. This, however, he accounted for by
saying that he had picked 1t up on the road
The weak point in the chain of evidence
was a scarcely peroeptible hesitation on the
part Of one Of the witnesses She had at
first declared positively that the prisoner
was the man whom she had seen going to-
ward old Joan's cabin, and had af.erward
adhered to this statement with what altar.
ward appeared to be dogged obstinacy, rath-
er than real conviction.
The prisoner himself positively denied
having been in the neighborhood at all on
the day of the robbery, but unfortunately he
could not speak with certainty az to bis
whereabouts. He had been lately dismissed
from hospital, scarcely convalescent. after a
bad fever his own ship had left the port.
and he had been rejected by the captains To
whom he had offered his services, as not be-
ing sufficiently robust for a sailors work
he had little money ieft and therefore
took to wandering aimlessly about the coun-
try, intending, as soon as the Colunbia re-
turned, to ship aboard of her again. His
mind had been weakened and confused bV
bis illness, aud although be knew that for
several days preceding and following that of
the robbery, he bad been in a part of the
country fully twenty miles distant, he could
not possibly say where he had been. or 70
whom he had spoken on the day in question
Many inquiries Tad been made and mauV
persons interviewed who remembered ''ths
poor foreign chap" but no accurate infor.
nation as 20 dates was forthcoming. Az
the testimony of . person who had extended
her hospitality to him, "either Of a Tuesday
or Thursday, she couldn't nightly say
which" would not, unfortunately, CARY
much weight in a court OF justice, had &c
trust for defense to the cross examination
Of the witnesses, whose character for Veraei
ty hoped, by judicious management of ths
usual forensic weapons, to compel them t.
annihilate with their own lips. / much re.
Rretted this want of evidence, as l Wa
strongly prepossessed in favor Of the prisen.
sr something frank and honest in his fac,
making it difficult for me to believe him
guilty of the cowardly crime of which be
WAS accused. Besides, it was, as / have
said, my first important case, aud self-inter
est and professional instinct alike prompted
me to desire Its successful issue. But OF
this had little hope.
1 laid aside my brief at length and went
up to the drawing room, where / was greet
ed BY my cousin and hostess with . some
what pstu.ant reproof for having fingered q
long over those musty Law papers.
Alice and had been children together
big girl and little boy-we had grown
from playfellows into friends, and since bel
marriage her home at Carrigaryan had beer
my resting-placs in sssize times. was al