Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-28

! Only Il whisper; but Miss Nancy Allen s
whisper was possessed of carrying power.
They do say as how the window was
| kept locked and somebody on the inside
| how she sassed the old squire last ev min
| Eff John Derwent cut that old mans throat,
! she want far away when he was dong 1t.
The room was a Whrlng mist as she
! staggered out from among the accusing
! faces up to her little white-draped room
| and double-lOCked the door.
, just at sunset, twentYfour hours from the
| time she had hidden John Derwent good
| by, there came a laundering knock at her
| door. She opened it to find big Jim Evans,
| the sheriff, standing there with paper
| in his hand. He looked at the white face,
| drawn and strange, and a wave OF pity
| choked the words upon his lips. He had
! known her all her life, his children had
| played with her. Laying his rough hand
| gently upon her shoulder he said slowly,
| apologetically: Miss lorothy Holmes, 1
arrest you in the name of the common
wealth as accessory to the murder of your
grandfather. Squire David Holmes
No answer but the tiare of wide frlghten-
ed eyes into his. and then huddled heap
of black at his feet. The big sheriff caught
her in his arms, and strobe down the stairs.
Here. you. Mandy Sindy! God help her;
even the niggers are against her" From
that moment stalwart Jim Evans guarded
his prisoner with a fathers care.
All too soon Dorothy struggled back to
the shame that awaited her; the nightmare
county jail, where, in spite of Jim Evans
watchful care, she dwindled to a mere
shadow of the girl who had waited at the
pasture bars.
shame that the girl endured without a muir
muir, with only the knowledge of her in
nocence. and the fact that not ten PAGES
away sat John DerWent, undergoing the
same, in even greater danger than herself.
Her only ray of comfort was the steady
glance of the gray eyes across the space
that divided them. Public opinion was
strong against them, and though their law
Yers made strong fight, the evidence of
little Tim, who came out stronger than
ever under the limelight of notoriety, borne
out by the bloody coat, and various other
trivialities, welded a chain of circumstances
that Sufficed for the jury. In vain Derwent
strove to explain his absence from home
that night, and repeated, word for word,
the conversation at the pasture bars be-
tween himself and Dorothy. In vain he told
how, angry and maddened with diSappoint
ment, he had hurriedly packed a small
grip, and while the family We're at supper,
had dropped out of the window of his
room, leaving 1t open, and struck out across
the country to the junction, and there
caught the Cannon Ball for Louisville to
enlist with the legion thats had been or
dered to Porto Rico. No one had seen him
enter the house, no one had seen him leave.
The empty bed, and the fact that he was
intercepted 200 miles from home and the
scene of the crime We're all damaging links
that each effort to explain seemed to forge
the tighter The jury were out a bare
thirty minutes. when they filed in again.
The hush that comes before a storm held
the courtroom the foreman announced,
We find the defendants guilty of murder
in the second degree; but owing to the fact
that the evidence is mainly cIrcumstantial,
would recommend them to the mercy of
the court
The Judge cleared his throat. In spite
of the evidence, there was something In
the two faces before him that plead with
louder voice than all the prosecuting at
torneyS arguments. He sentenced Der
went TO state prison for life, and to Doro-
thy, the lighter sentence of twenty years.
There was no motion for a new trial.
Public opinion was too strong, and their
lawyers felt that the best had been done
for their clients. Derwent appealed to the
Judge to grant him one last interview with
Dorothy before they We're separated for
life; and while the matter hung, big Jim
Evans took 1t into his own hands. For
brief hour they were left together while
the guards paced the corridor outside.
Dumb and helpless they sat with clasped
hands 50 many things crowded for utter
ance. and over 1t, like a pail, the con-
seriousness that this their last meeting
on earth. Derwent drew the sunny head
down against his shoulder. and held her