Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-06-14

/ AS he listened to the millionare's evil
dence. given with suave ease and DELHI
GRAFTON, Rimington for the first time found
himself aware of the extraordinary power
publicity occasionally possesses of re
ducing the Importance Of facts 1t almost
seemed TO him that there might have been
conspiracy between the coroner and the
millionaire, so pat cane the questions, so
pat came Saxes well modulated concise
answers; a conspiracy to weave about the
man, already deprived of that definite per
sonality which a name implies and alluded
to Is the prisoner" a chain of circum-
stantial evidence so perfect-so horribly
perfect-that every instinct of fair play
in Remington rose up against 1t. Ii was
not that anything that SAKE said in an
swer to those swift questions was un-
true; it was something much more sub
tie than that-the def conveying of an
impression, the skllfu suppression of a
detail or a phrase
Morbid Thoughts.
Throughout the varying evidence that
followed Rimington, sitting there at the
back Of the court. felt, with feeling of
impotent disgust like a man who watches
the weaving of a web of lies in which he
is already himself entangled
The conviction was with him when the
summons, Call Edmond Levasseur,
came that whatever the man might say,
whatever explanation he might volunteer
would be as the useless beating of surf
against the unyieding face of a granite
rock gigantic will power was in force
determined to prove him guilty 1t was
in vain that he compelled himself to re-
member that this was merely a prelimi-
nary-a formal inquiry that no definite
issue of doom hung on its pronounce
ment, whatever II might be. Looking not
at the prisoner, who stood up now before
the public, but at the smooth horselike
face of the foreman of the jury. it seemed
to him that already he heard the man
condemned. saw the solemn farce Of the
adjusting Of the black cap.
1t was hideously morbid. of course-the
perhaps inevitable outcome of these three
days of appalling strain; yet as later
Remington found himself walking through
the crowded streets towards his lodgings
in Chandos street he felt that, morbid or
not his premonition had justified itself
The man who, calling himself Edmond
Levasseur, had yet by action and speech
revealed himself as undeniably English,
had made his explanation of his presence
in the house in Tempest street that night
with no success. His frank admission of
his intention to steal Mr. Fitzstephen's
| collection Of jewels, which were world
famous, had awaited him very little He
had stated with perfect accuracy-as
Rimington only too we'll knew-how,
breaking into the house by the back en-
trance, he had been attacked in the semi
darkness of the hall by a man, who.
knocking him down, had effected his es-
cape by the way by which he himself
had entered. Against this unconvincing
statement was the weighty fact that the
murdered mans most notable gem had
been found in his possession and this in
spite of his denial of ever having been
upstairs.
The prisoner, with a cynical gaiety of
attitude that had the worst of effects
upon the minds of the extremely stolid
! jury, had reserved his explanation Of that
fact That was all. The inevitable YER
dict had been passed-that John James
Fitzstephen had met his death at the
hands of the man at present in custody,
and the inevitable order of demand for
trial had followed.
AS Rimington walked fragments of con-
versation from the passersby came
to his ears: the excited spectators escaped
from court. their appetite for the great
coming duel of the Crown VS. Levasseur
whetted by the mornings mimic court,
were laying down the law.
The only verdict possible. Why, the
mans as guilty as Judas. The farce of
wasting public money on trial when.
in case like this, man is taken red
handed! At the best it only amounts to
a survival of death by torture"
Continued Tomorrow