The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-05-22
CHAPTER I. The Master Mind.


 1ence in the courtroom as the
 judge on the bench lifted his head and stared Steadfastly at the prisoner in the dock All had eyes only for the man who stood motion less, awaiting under a mask of pal lid indifference the words of doom that must now be spoken And as they looked, thrilled by the awfulness of this moment, the watchers felt their hearts stirred to a profound pity, for this victim of the law was young, slender and strong of body, wholesome of face. In his expression there was no taint of the bestial, no hint of the 1ustful, the cruel. His whole appear ance cried out that he was never one to prey on his fellows, to plunder them, to slay them. Merely he show ed himself a winsoIne lad, surely light hearted in happier case, though now his face was set in the bleakness of still despair. But the jury of twelve good men and true had named him murderer.
 At last the voice of the judge sound ed. sHenry Allen, the jury, after careful consideration of all the evi- dence presented in your trial, has found you guilty of murder in the, first degree This is the capital offense against the law, and for it the law demands the capital punishment The defense has urged that your action in staying a man within his own house was Justified by the unwritten law, since the one thus done to death had by the arts of seduction alienated the affections of wife, and therefore the penalty exacted by the written law should be abrogated in behalf of one who has thus punished the violation of the sanctity of the home. Yet, though the guilt of the murdered man in this regard has been fully estab- Rshed, this plea as to the potence of the unwritten law in such instance has not prevailed. The jury has seen fit to disregard it completely and has ren- dered an unqualified verdict of guilty against you. It only remains, then, for the court to pronounce upon you, Henry Allen, the extreme penalty com handed by the law for the crime of which you have been found guilty" :" Then followed a short interval of dreadful silence, through which, as a1- ways, the prisoner maintained his des- perate calm of despair. His deneanor abode inmobile even while the judge spoke the few words that decreed a shameful death. Perhaps the Npallid face grayed to ghastlier hue, but there was no other sign, nor was there as he went shambling Hstless1y from the dock. obedient to the leading of his warders.
 The hush that was still over the courtroom was broken by gasping cry from somewhere in the crowd. A few close by him were aware that the sound had issued suddenly from the lips of an old man on one of the rear benches. For a few seconds it seemed that he was about to swoon. When almost at once, the crowd began to press its way out, the old man went with the others, moving, indeed, with briskness and a nervous energy that seemed surprising in one of his years and doubly so in view of the emotion al strain through which he had just passed He pursued his way rapid ly. That way took the old man north ward by the subway to, Twenty eighth street and afterward eastward to 8 house near Third avenue, which retain ed still traces of 8 gentility almost wholly unaltered by the years. Here the man entered with a latchkey and