Evening star., 1947-04-20

Through a few, one caught glimpses
of empty rooms, and empty rows
of chairs.
The room into which 7 was finally
ushered, however, was full of people.
White e.~wintry sunlight came harsh
ly through two large windows at
the far end. Ear end" as a matter
of fact, Is bad phrase in this case.
The room was perhaps 80 by 20 feet
certainly not larger.
A table stood between the win
dows, and behind it sat three
women, obviously constituting the
court They were tight of lip
and stern of eye, like q Grant
Wood painting of implacable fem
mime retribution. The one in the
middle was the Judge; the two
others were her elected assistants,
called assessors. Between them
these three were also the jury.
That Wide-Eyed Look.
The room was undecorated, ex-
cept for photograph of Stain
on the wall behind the judges, This
picture hung crookedly, and its glass
was cracked.
To the left of the judges table
was small desk occupied by the
defense counsel, a fat, red-faced
man who carried his spectacles en-
his forehead when not using them.
Besides him was the accused. On
perhaps 80 chairs, filling the rest
Of the room, sat witnesses and
spectators. Most of them were
friends of the accused.
He was nice-looking boy, slen-
der and clean-featured He might
have been 20 years old. His hair
was cut short, and he had that
lost, wide-eyed look of the young,
the good and the innocent.
He was, however, in plenty of
hot water. One by one, the wit
nesses stood before the judges ta-
BILE and his story came to life.
About q year ago, it seemed, while
wandering through a Moscow store,
he came upon a wondrous device.
1t looked like a pistol. But when
you pulled the trigger, it lighted
your cigarette.
Souvenir the Answer.
OF course, it cost many more
rubles than the young man lad.
But he left the store determined,
some day. to own cigarette lighter
which looked like a pistol. If he
could get pistol, he thought. he
could make it into a lighter him.
self. He had learned something
about mechanics while working In
a defense factory during the war.
When an older friend offered him
a small pistol-a souvenir of the
German campaign-it seemed the
answer to his. prayer. He took it
home to his room. It did not then
occur to him that he was dangerous
ly breaking the Soviet law, which
prohibits citizen from having an
unlicensed weapon.
At the same time, like many
another young man before him, he
found it was easier to keep plan
ming to do the thing he wanted to
do than to do the thing he was
planning. He made one or two
vague attempts to get started on
his cigarette lighter. But now he
discovered there were more diff
culties than he had supposed. Long
er ard longer, the gun stayed on
its shelf. More and more dust
gathered around it.
It might have stayed there to
this day. had it not been for the
feminine interest in the story.
She Had Been Around.
She was not nice girl. Every
body had a good chance to study her
at the trial; she was completely un-
embarrassed at being subjected to
the scrutiny of so many eyes. She
was very good looking, In wild sort
Of way. Her hair and her eyes were
black-her lips, which she kept
wetting with the sharp point of her
tongue, were perpetually twisted into
= strange little smile. She, tqn, was i