Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1898-01-14


square.
But the blacksmith shook his head
without deigning an answer.
The obstinate juror had already ar.
rived at the stage of the hereto who
slept upon the rack Wasted beyond
imagination during these three days Of
modern inquisition, even his old neigh
bors would hardly have recognized the
stalwart man of independence. He was
not only tortured by lack of sleep, but
by lack Of proper nourishment, lack of
water, lack of smoking, and also by
| persistent mental irritation correspond
ing to the sting man feels when he
| puts his arm into beehive
What worse torture is there than not
to be let alone for even ten minutes on
the stretch, when nerves crave sleep as
| desperately as the shipwrecked Graves
land, and when the digestive system
causes the sufferer to be nauseated with
the dizziness of famine?
When William Worthely lost con-
seriousness for few minutes he got no
rest When he was aroused by his UNI
feeling mates, he would begin by being
furious; then mis- anger would gradual
iy dissipate itself in mental haze and
| his mind v ould lose itself in turmoil
of rotation His forge, his neighbors,
| his village, would revOlve about him,
first slowly, then with frightful accel-
GRAFTON, until one after another would
fly off ON a horrible tangent, like
comet into space. Then he would reach
| Ia IL e.,
own forge, and before he could open his
mouth and shrek he found himself
| pulled awake. Then he would clnch
| bis teeth and thank God he had not
gone amuck in his sleep.
And now the fourth night was at
hand, and the man so used to violent
exercise, to the open air, to regular and
unrestrained habits and free life,
found himself wondering, as III
dream, how much longer he could pos
sibly endure. The evening seemed as if
it would never darken into night. The
moon was full and revived the twi-
light, bringing out new shadows into a
not less luminous tone. II was TIE kind
of night when people sleep uneasily
and look out Of their windows often and
marvel at the white brilliancy that al
ways seems strange and fairylike, even
to common minds.
Suddenly the room began to dance up
and down, then sideways, then to re-
volve in an ever widening circle. This
time surely it really happened The
blacksmith stared at the phenomenon
with surprised eyes. Then the distant
whistle of locomotive impinged
upon his brain. 1t re-echoed and re-
verberated until the hammering On
thousand anvils could not have
drowned the noise. The blacksmith
looked around to see how the rest of the
! jury were affected by the din, and as he
looked he saw the foreman taking a
knife out Of his pocket and whispering
to two or three others. Thereupon Wor-
thely feigned sleep, but he saw them
through closed lids as distinctly as be
fore. On tiptoe they advanced - did
they? Did they not? Why, he could not
be mistaken. They advanced upon him.
The moon, which unaccountably had
returned to its place, shone full upon
their murderous faces.
When they had tiptoed within a cou-
pie Of yards Of him, Worthely jumped
TO his feet, grasping the chair nearest to
him, and stood at bay.
Come on!' he yelled. You can't
murder me l am too strong for that.
Snarling, and showing his teeth in
his nightmare, he brandished his weap-
on at imaginary foes, at the hallucina-
tion of murder. The sleeping jurymen
| sprang to their feet. 1t was murder
that had brought the independent black
smith to this pitiable condition He was
pouring out his life that another muir
der might not be committed, this time
under the cloak Of the law. Somebody
killed Burns-not George-who then?
Rotating ON this awful problem, what
wonder the stalwart mind became con-
fused: And now the climax Of atrocity
had come-so the blacksmith thought
and they were trying to murder the
man whom they could not tease into
submission. This discovery, made III
the delusion of sleeplessness, was so
real to Worthely that the horror of it
completed his alteration. Not a man Of
them had touched him, but the dullest
of them perceived that the obstinate
man had believed himself attacked by
his mates.
Keep ~ Worthely shouted again.
"What did you say, you contemplate,
redheaded sneak, you;" shaking his fist
at the foreman. You saw George Will
liams do it? That's lie. George Will
liams? Publ He hasn't pluck enough to
kill calf. He want tall enough. III
hold out till doomsday. You shan t
hang an innocent man, and You can {
hang the man who did it, for I'll wager
peanuts against dollars he'll never tell "
BY this time William Worthely was
frothing at the mouth. Entranced to
the spot, no one of the jury, as yet, had
ventured to call assistance. Each feared
to miss what might follow, as much as
he feared to hound the riotous dreamer.
They imperceptibly shouldered each
other for protection, and cast quick
glances of nameless apprehension. Had
their curiosity conspired to send the
blacksmith insane? They knew now
that their rs hours inquisition had
gone too far and they began to dread
the consequences.
And now William Worthely faced
the IL juTymen. He began to answer
imaginary questions and argument with
fierce sarcasm and unassailable logic.
| HE avac U1ara1 ar tham and thrpuuh