Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-10
sLMOST OUTLAWED.

Hartman was by no means bad man.
Youth. love and opportunity made him
criminal. That pocket-book full Of bank
bills had been left in the counting room.
There was no one present, and the young
man had thoughtlessly seized it.
All that happened more than four years
ago.
Strange that no suspicion had fallen on
him. 1t is true, he enjoyed the confidence
and favor of his employer, but also hap
py chance had a good deal to do with it.
1t happened that just at that time an Office
boy had been detected in some misdemeanor
and forced to leave.
Naturally, of course. hewas suspected of
having committed the theft likewise.
An able young lawyer had been retained
to investigate the case, and he was not
little chagrined at his failure to discover
the perpetrator.
Hartman experienced moment of re-
lief, but only moment, as a burden Of
lead seemed to weigh on him.
Might not some new clew be found
some unforeseen occurrence throw light on
the matter? The torture lasted for four
horrible years. The very thought of it
made the perspiration start on his forehead
in the coolest days.
Why did he not invent some pretext of
going abroad? He was often on the point
of doing so, but the fear of arousing sus-
picion by any singularity of conduct pre-
tod i1ao in,
cution. So he lived on with this threat
ening specter ever before his eyes, unable
to dispel it or hide himself from it.
| "The others"-he would not even to
| himself use a more definite expression
are in jail for their wrong doing; do
they suffer more? They are deprived of
freedom, indeed; the blow has fallen heav'
| lily upon them with the sentence of the
| Court; but afterwards there is peace
around and within them"
To accuse himself? That would be
foolish. Chance had favored him hith-
erto; why. should it not continue to do so
So more hoping more trembling.
Hartman had become by his INSIDE
| meanor, strange to. say-a dilettante in
matters of law. He had furnished himself
with book on the criminal code and the
| criminal procedure, together with various
| commentaries. These books formed his
fayorite reading after shutting his door at
| night. With a hasty eagerness he de-
voured their contents.
As chess player would treat an inter-
esting problem, SO he treated his case.
trial, everything possible and impossible
| ~ l.,
iuristic material, were brought into action.
| More than once he caught himself de-
claiming brilliant defense in loud tone,
and then he would listen anxiously some
body might have heard him.
Hartman had also his favorite chapter,
which treated Of the statute of limitation.
Then he read: "The prosecution for crimes
that are punishable with no more than
three months imprisonment must begin
within five years" etc.
Although he knew the passage by heart
yet he read it again every day as if its
contents might have changed in one night.
Four years and half have passed; six
months more he will be free-legally free.
The voice of conscience would soon learn
to be silent when the pressure of anxiety
should be removed. Six months-why
should they not pass as a moment why
might not miracle happen and time for
once, Just once make leap?
The almanac became from that time on
his best friend He could sit bent over it
for hours counting first the months, then
the weeks, then the days, again and again.
In the middle of the night the thought
would strike him that he had made a mis-
take in counting; the lamp was quickly
lighted and his work began anew.
Time never passes slower than when one
counts the minutes 1t seemed to Hart
man sometimes as if it stood still, or as if
the minutes grew maliciously to hours, the
hours to days.
If lie only could spend few hours in
sleepl The thought led him to try opium,
and now many a day, and almost every
night, was passed in artificial slumber. A
moment of relief came when he woke and
realized that SO and so many hours had
passed.
The continual excitement could not fail
to undermine even such a powerful consti-
tuition as Hartman possessed. With every
day that brought him nearer to the longed
for goal he grew feebler and paler. 1t
seemed to him as if his limbs were lead, as
if his head were too heavy to bear. He
dragged himself heavily from the sofa to
the chair, from the chair to the sofa.
When pain in the back seized him he
called physician.
You are going to have a severe sick
ness" was his decision.
"Of what kind? Be perfectly frank. /
am alone in the world and must make my
arrangements"
"Well, the symptoms look like typhus."
Hartman's face became even paler than
before /; his eyes started with the expression
of horror upon the speaker.
"a slow fever, in which one does not
lose consciousness; is 1t not so, doctor
Certainly sop
| "If my fears are likely to be realized, |
could wish the contrary The fever begins
violently, you are delirious at the crisis,
and the worst is over, when you recover
consciousness"
To be delirious, Hartman shuddered.
To be delirious, not to be master of his
thoughts and words, TO betray his secret
motives, in spite of himself to reveal that
with which his mind had necessarily oc-
eupied itseli-no, for heavens sake, any
thing but that ~ want no Sister of
Mercy, no attendant; look after me at in
tervals Of several hours" he said, turning
to the physician.
| He smiled at the notion.
Hartman determined not to fall sick
he struggled terribly, and fought with all
the strength he had left against the APP
preaching foe.
There he lay shaken by the fever, but
still conscious.
"That's the nurse, that's the chair, now
/ am stretching out my hand, know ex-
actly what l am DOING" he repeated every
hour.
:" And if it turns out otherwise, would
they give any weight to feverish dreams
Nurses, who have to hear so many things
will not notice it at all.
az have not committed the theft; /
know nothing of it. That will keep re-
peating to myself continually; perhaps
that will influence the delirium. They
say the mind runs usually on things that
are the fartherest removed from the nor
NAL thinking, but my thoughts are still
perfectly clear"
Then vail fell over the reality. In
stead of the Sister of Mercy, the attorney
| in his black gown and cap stepped into