The Rice belt journal., 1920-10-02
CHAPTER xI.

Fortunately for me, there had re-
Gently been a wave of public criticism
of the courts for the long delays in
bringing criminal cases to trial, and
the district attorney was moving with
all celebrity to bring my case to a con-
cluSion. An indictment against me
for the murder of Daisy Lutan had
been quickly found and the date had
been already set for the trial-One
week henCe-SO that the period of my
incarceration and doubt as to my ulti-
mate fate seemed likely to be very
brief.
Utterly absurd as the situation was,
accused Of numbering a woman whom
never had seen and hardly had
heard of until | saw her lying dead in
her apartments, conscious as | was of
my entire innocence in the matter,
still, as in the solitude of my cell I
reviewed the case, found myself fac
ing the ordeal of a trial for murder
with considerable apprehension.
Circumstances certainly looked
much against me- There was abso-
lutely no way in which could refute
the testimony of the two detectives
that they had found the revolver with
one chamber discharged in the drawer
of my dresser. | myself had seen
them find 1t. While German still held
that there was possibility that they
themselves had put 1t there, knew
that neither of them had been near
! the dresser after / had admitted them
to my rooms. The only person whom
had the slightest ground for sus-
pecting was Claire Bradford, yet what
motive could she have had?
Wick undoubtedly would testify
that he had met me ut the door of the
Lutan apartment directly after he had
heard the shot. He might say that
appeared to be greatly excited This
would be the exact truth. There was
even the possibility that he might
swear that he had found me coming
out of Miss Lutans apartment. Even
| If he did not make the statement d.
rect, shrewd questioning on the part
Of the district attorney could easily
make it appear that | had just left
the Lutan apartment. How could we
possibly cOntrovert his testimony?
Then, In addition. there were the
damaging statements that would be
offered by Nellie Kelly. She would
swear that the evening before l had
taken her out to dinner and had been
questioning her about the other ten
ants in the house. Even though we
knew that she was tool Of Wick and
was the wife of Lefty Moore, the bur-
glar, unless German was able to dis
cover that she herself had a criminal
record, it seemed utterly hopeless to
attempt to cOnfute her statementsl
1t would also initiate against me
that at the time of the murder l was
out Of job and almost without funds.
They were likely, too, to bring out the
| fact that | had been discreditably
discharged from the only position
had held in New York. The only man
who knew anything about the matter,
Mr.. Wood, the head of the, firm, had
been suddenly called to France in con-
nectiOn with an order for munitions,
and was not expected to return for
several months. The fact would
weigh against me, too, that l would
be unable to offer the testimony of
any character witnesses. Birge and
Roller, my classmates with whom had
rOOmed ever since had come to New
York, were somewhere in France"
with the American troops and could
not possibly aid me.
/ All of this was pointed out to me
by John McGregor, a young attorney
whom German had employed for me.
While German and had, think. sue
ceeded in convincing him of my limo.
cence, the fact that he was continu-
ally citing the difficulties in the way
/ of our proving it made me realize
that he was very dubious as to the
outcome.
The trouble was that we were abso-
lutely without witnesses. Old Rufus
Gaston's whereabouts still remained
a mystery If we could discover him
in time, We could at least explain sat
isfactOrily my presence in the Grand
! deck and could establish that | was
not the homeless. penniless vagrant
they would try to prove me. The
! longer old Rufus remained in hiding
| the stronger became my suspicion
that he might be in some way involved
in the plot. His action in keeplng his
address secret from me seemed 70
have been with deliberate intent
After some discussion German and
l had agreed not to mention either of
the Bradford girls.
IF one word about either of Them
slips out in court" said German
they'll be in for it. The papers viii
jump to it and print their pictures
and all that. We'd better leave them
out of it"
With this | heartily concurred
was determined that Barbara Brad
ford must be in no way involved
come what may. knew that she her.
self would be apt to be restrained
from attempting to communicate with
me by the fact that her sisters mar.
riage was set for the day after to-
morrow. Her loyalty to her family