The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-06-30
A SLIPPERY
SCOUNDREL
By c. l.. PIONEER
Copyright. 1910. by American Press
Association.

.
ing to do. Unemployed people are in
clined to be garrulous, and the SER
! geant talked stream.
| The SlickeSt pair, he said, | ever
came across were Darby and Williams.
| They used to play confidence games to-
gether, and they did them so naturally
that they could take in police in
/ spector as easily as a countryman.
Darby used to do the work. while Will
liams would play confederate. We Of
| the police We're on to them, but when
We got them the difficulty was to prove
anything against them.
Their villainies became so frequent
that we determined to lay a trap for
them We started farmer down
among their mOOringS, and, as we eX-
| pected, he fell afOul OF them They
! took marked ten dollar bill from him
at least, Darby did-but managed to
| get rid Of it before we could catch him.
| Nevertheless we had a strong case
if we could prove his record.
On the day of the trial, just as we
were filling up the last two or three
: men on the jury. a gentleman of evil
dent responsibility appeared and said
he had been summoned to serve. He
would like, if he must serve, to do so
at once since he was expected to at
tend the funeral of a near relative
within a few hours. The judge, glad
to get such man on jury duty, closed
matters up, Mr.. Worthington-that was
the gentleman's name-being the last
man chosen.
We knew that Darby had served
! term at the penitentiary and that one
of the physical characteristics noted
ON its records was that his girls name,
Agnes had been tattoOed ON his
right forearm. We brought our farm
er to tell his story as to how he had
been bunkoed, but Darby, who had
way Of changing his expression, con-
| fused the witness. and he wouldn't
| swear that he was the rascal But
| if we could prove that the man who
| had swindled him was Darby we were
sure Of a conviction.
The prisoner was instructed to take
! off his coat and roll up his sleeve on
his right arm. He did so. and we
| were disappointed at not seeing a tat
| too. Fancying we had been misin-
| formed and that the letters might be
! on the left arm, he was ordered to roll
| up his left sleeve. There were no let
! tiers on that arm either. Thus far he
| had foiled us. In some way he had
| got rid Of the tattoo. The next step
was to prove. if possible. that the man
had been tattooed. A medico-legal ex-
! pert was called in, who applied strong
| friction to the prisoners arm. This
| had the effect to bring out white lines
! with a slight blush tint These lines
were letters and spelled the word
| agnes"
| Having brought circumstantial evil
/ dence, though it was weak, to prove
that the prisoner was the man who
| had swindled the farmer, this proof
| that he was an eX-cOnvict made a
| case so strong against Darby that we
did not doubt that we would get rid
of his FRANKS for at least the period
! of another term in state prison. Our
only regret was that We couldn't send
his partner. Williams, with him. But
Williams had given us the slip. and,
though we sought for him everywhere.
we couldn't find him. You see. we
had evidence connecting him with
Darby that we had never had before,
and. having the deadwoOd on one of
them. we would have no difficulty of
! cOnvicting the other.
The judge virtually gave the jury in
structions to convict Darby. and some
! of us expected they would do it with
| out leaving their seats. The foreman
held brief consultation with the 9th
| err eleven before retiring. but there
seemed to be opposition somewhere
among them-we couldn't tell where
to bringing in a verdict that way, and
| they got up and filed out Of the court
room.
| waited around for half an hour to
| make sure that we'd got Mr.. Darby
where we wanted him. but the jury
| didn't come back. Then l waited an
other half hour. feeling certain that it
wouldn't require more than an hour
W SSlllS Tic case VI man WIZ Liu
been proved to be such an arrant ras-
cal. but sixty minutes didn't serve the
purpose. | fell to thinking of Mr..
Worthington, the gentleman who ex-
pected to get through in time to attend
the funeral Of his relative. The delay
must be very aggravating to him. In
deed, it was now past the time for the
funeral-that is, judging from what he
had said about it.
Well, waited till dark. Then. being
hungry, l took more interest in my
supper than the conviction of Darby
and went home to get something to
eat. After supper l went back to the
courtroom. The jury was still out
At 10 o'clock the foreman sent word
to the judge that they couldn't agree.
| The judge sent back word that they
must agree. At midnight he sent in
again to ask what was the prospect of
a verdict. and they assured him that
owing to the obstinacy of one man
there was no hope of verdict except
for an acquittal He sent back an
order to settle the matter one way or
the other. Then they filed in and
brought in verdict Of acquittal.
And who was the obstinate iuryman?