The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-23

with secondhand strength received from
his wife. Shacklett almost wished that his
mother was not such a thoroughly and
sincerely good woman.
In the jury room the first ballot showed
ten for conviction and two for acQuittal
1t after five similar ballots that it de-
veloped that the two for acquittal were
shacklett and George Peyton. Then
hour was taken UP with arguments by the
ten against the two, without result, for the
seventh ballot still had ten slips of paper
marked Guilty" and two marked Not
guilty" The others noticed that, while
Peyton was good-humored and inclined to
be jolly in his fixedness of purpose, Shack
lett was grim and had little to say.
After the entire night had been spent in
fruitless argument and balloting and the
jury was still out. people who came down
town early began to agree that the jury
would disagree. Fletcher walked along the
street to the courthouse square with his
head little higher than usual and with a
slight eXaggeration of his usual dignity.
The states attorney remained in his own
office. and his young temporary assistant
walked quickly from his boarding house TO
the courtroom by the back streets. Several
came in TO ask the states attorney who
he thought was doing it, and that repre-
sentative of the law said he had no idea.
Fletcher. when appealed to for information
about what caused the delay in the verdict
said he supposed there was a rascal on
the jury that had 1t in for the Rutherfords.
When the sheriff could be heard calling
names from the window again, showing
that another days session of the court was
under way, the foreman of the jury pro-
posed that two more ballots be taken, and
then, If no verdict was reached, that they
go in and report a disagreement. The first
of these ballots came out ten TO two like
the preceding ones. Then Shacklett took
Peyton over in corner and spoke in his
ear for less than a minute, after which he
placed the hat on the table again ready
for the ballot and tore a corner off sheet
of paper, while the rest looked for the only
other pencil in the room.
AS the jury opened the door of their room
the word flew through the square and into
the streets that they were coming in. Be
fore they had traversed the forty feet to
the door of the courtroom a crowd was on
the stairs. As they marched into court one
of the lawyers stopped in the middle of a
sentence, and the sheriff ran from behind
his desk crying out for order. BY
the time the jury had taken their
seats in the chairs TO the left of
the judge the room was packed
to suffocation, and when the foreman arose
the people so still lhat the chattering
of tame squirrel could be heard in a tree
outside The judge put on his most geomet-
rically judicial manner:
Gentlemen, have you agreed upon a YER
dict?''
1--WE have" replied the foreman.
THE clerk Will read it.
And the little clerk had the chance of his
life as he hustled over and received the
folded piece of paper, which he opened and
perused through twice with a face from
which nothing could be made, before he
cleared his throat and read in his best elo-
cutionary style:
I'VE, the jury, find the defendant guilty
as charged in the Indictment"
The face of Tom Rutherford grew first
red and then ashen. Uncle Tommys head
fell to the table, and he did not move for
ten minutes. When Fletcher touched his
arm and spoke in his ear he raised face
that had grown aged in the time in which
he appreciated what the verdict meant.
Fletcher had risen and sauntered to
| the judges bench in easy confidence in his
| having the jury leavened with two friends,
] and now he stood transfiXed first and then
| glowering at Peyton and Shacklett in the
| front row of the jury.
| The people began TO crowd out OF the
| room. despite the perfunctory efforts of the
| sheriff to keep order while the jury was
| being discharged. Sam Bronson's father
| pushed through the dense mass of men
| surging toward the door, and, uttering dis
| connected words of thanks, clasped the
hand of each juryman as the twelve came
| without the railing. Shacklett avoided him
| by going UP a side aisle, and noticed that
| Peyton went little out of his way TO greet
Bronson and say something about doing
| only his duty At the gate of the court
house square Shacklett found his mother
| waiting for him.
| II came in this morning thinking you
would get out last night and would want
| an early start home What kept you so
| long in the jury room after you went out?"
| she said, soon as she saw him.
| Two men wanted to free Rutherford"
| he said land it took some time to talk
| them over
| ITO Be Continued