The Ekalaka eagle. [volume] (Ekalaka, Mont.) 1909-1920, 1914-12-25

perfect to your eye"
mo; some of them are blurred"
And do you mean to tell us that
you are ready to swear. on the evil
dence of those six partly obliterated
words, who wrote them:"
The witness hesitated for an instant.
Il think l know" he answered
firmly.
You are not asked to trife with 4
human life by guessing. sir! You are
asked for positive knowledge! Don't
beat about the bush, man! Are you
prepared, never having seen a press
copy Of Miss Emory's writing, to
swear she wrote those six blurred
words?'
The man turned in his chair and
looked appealingly at the judge.
II could not say positively who wrote
them. your honor" he admitted.
With a shrug Of his shoulders Gil
bert permitted the witness to retire.
and the spectators buzzed and rustled
their relief.
But, though the prosecutor had fail
ed to pierce his a~dversary's line. he
had produced an unmistakable effect
upon the jury. I for n was firmly
convinced that the defendant had
made the disputed pen and ink correc-
tons in the typewriter letter and that
the letter itself contained facts which
charged her with knowledge Of her EN-
ployer's crime.
I stole a glance at Barbara Frayne,
but turned away with a sinking heart
as l noted her jubilant expression.
Gilbert must have been conscious of
the effect he had produced, for he
launched u on a new attack with
fresh confidence and zeal.
Producing the paper alleged to be the
will bequeathing Shaw's entire estate
ITO his wife. Alice" he proceeded to
show the document a forgery. Miss
Emory's typewriter was placed in evil
dence, and it was shown that all but
the signatures of the will might have
been produced on the machine. Bar
stow nulliied this inference by the
manufacturers records showing thou
sands of similar instruments in daily
use.
Finally Gilbert placed one Of the two
witnesses to the will on the stand, and
Barstow instantly closed with his ad-
versary for a struggle to the death.
First he demanded that the other
witness to the will and all other per.
sons who We're to testify directly or
indirectly on the subject of forgery
should be excluded from the room I'm,
til their testimony was needed. This
request having been granted by the
court, Barstow insisted that the cx
cluded witnesses be placed in charge
Of an officer and forbidden to commu
nicate with one another or with cut
siders until they had given their testi
mony on the stand. Judge Dudley de
clined to accede to this. and his refusa
met with Il grufily voiced ~"EXception!
All these precautions and prepare
tons warned me that Barstow regard
ed the coming testimony as OF vita
Importance, and l then remembered
that Gilbert had claimed that it wa
Shaw's discovery Of the forged will
which led to the commission Of tn
crime. Plainly. then. the whole theor,
Of the prosecution rested upon provin'
) the document a forgery. A battle roya
was in sight.
The witness first upon the stand ex
amined the paper which Gilbert hand
l ed him, glanced ut his name writer
ut the bottom and pronounced the sig
nature to be an imitation or possibl.
a tracing of his own. He had neve
witnessed this will or any other. Ii
declared. and did not know that MI
2 Shaw had made one
His were brief. positive, ur
hesitating and convincing. But il Ii
expected his unqualified statements t
pass unchallenged he reckoned with
out BarstOw. and when he retired te
l minutes later he left the stand an vi
terly discredited man.
Cross examination made short wor
of his positive assertions and rendere
8 his testimony almost worthless. Force
to admit that he had signed his nam
MI 49, -.