The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-13
THE LIGHT OF LOVE.
BY T. Y. MCFARLAND.


 Copyright. 1909. by Daily Story Pub. Co.,. The county courtroom of St. Anne, was crowded to the door. It was an as semblage unprecedented even in that country where 8 trial for murder alway: exercised an irresistible fascination, and where the allurements Of old-time forid oratory conferred upon the courthouse something of the status of theater.
 Never before within the memory of those present had white woman cow cred under the menace of a possible cap ftal sentence. Indeed there hirked some trifing doubt as to the propriety of the circumstance now. It was not that her guilt was Questioned--in the popular judg- ment she was condemned beyond all per- adventure-but with its innate. fantastic chtvalry St. Anne's was disposed to be compassionate, and to meet alien logic with the sentimental reminder that "she Is a woman.'
 The crime itself was as old as history mthe tragedy familiar to every stage of life. In this Instance It's dramatts per- sonae were of the lowest type-gross, ig- norant and debased. Jenny Haskell was the wayward wife-her husband Jim was the victim: and the third figure was d handsome oyster man known along the tide water district as "Bill Thon1e. It had been a murder startling In it's prim- itive brutality and had acquired full page prominence In sensational Sunday papers. The husbands brains had been shot out one night while he lay asleep by his wife s side.
 There had been no doubt AS to the identity of the murderer. The circufn- stantial evidence was crushing. and. Tn addition. the widow herself had frantic ally denounced Thome as her husband g the State metropolis. and after his sent ence he had been taken to its jail to await the day set for his execution. The reason for this was purely prudential. St. Anne's was pitifuly poor, and there expenses of court as excessive. The nefghboring county of Marlborough had averted the cost of similar trial by a quietly. ordered iynchlng, and had some warrant In the fear. that the ex- ample might prove contagious.
 This had been three months before. and the excitement had begun to subside when new sensation was created by the arrest of Haskells relict as an ac- cessory to the murder. at khe instance of Willis Howard, the StateA attorney. Mr. Howard was A man of praiseworthy po- litical ambition, and had achieved no little notoriety by reason of the convic- tl)n of Thome. He iabored under the dual misfortune however, of not having been born in the county and of having inspired the natives with an ungenerous disposition to associate his jealous activ- lty W1tn the approaching HoiiiHatoi TUT Congress.
 It was the third day of the Haskell trial. and the interest was intense. An indefinite rum)r was abroad that the States attorney had a trump card to play. and thrill of excitement swept through the crowd as he arose to address the court.
 He proposed. he declared, to produce q witness who would testify to the un- questioned guilt of tine prisoner-to her Identification with the foulest deed re- corded in the criminal annals of St. Anne's." Then. as he turned to where the woman-whte. panic-stricken and ab- ject, crouched beside her counsel. the whistle of an approaching locomotive sounded shrilly from across the river. The only train scheduled for the day would not arrive until night, and the com ing of a special was an event unparal- leied. 1t was like an effect fin melo- drama. and the throng waited breath lcssly.
 In the intense stiffness every sound without was audible-the rumbling of the train: the stoppage at the station; and the ring of footsteps on the flags that led from the road to the courthouse. An instant later there was an agitation about the entrance. and Thome, the con- victed murderer guarded by the officials of the city jail. crossed the threshold. The woman uttered a half-suppressed shriek and the States attorney smiled blandly. This is my witness. your hon.
 Friday's story "HAJIOWAY'S SECRET,