Year: 1874

"It's an awful thing to accuse man o /.
Ones own blood cousins, too" Througnout
the interview the prisoners face would nave
Daffied shrewder physiognomists than were
we. We had once or twice heard guilty
men, similarly situated, talk as innocently,
else we would have sworn that he was clear
of this thing" in spite of


8- THE SHOE TRACKS,


the new clothes, the lustful threats and all
those other frail links which the state had
welded together in a broken-far from an
unbroken-chain ofcircumstantial evidence.
Once or twice during the half hour we were
with him he had talked incoherently about
some evidence which was, or could have
been. produced at his divorce trial in proof
of his wife's infidelity, but we could not foi-
low the clue. AS we left the corridor the now
anxious face of the prisoner pressed close
u3 to the little food-door, not itself more
than six inches wide, was a pitful sight, for
we went out to a crowd that was thirsting
for his blood. They hung around all night,
score or more fingered even long after the
late moon had sunk behind the weston hills,
and left the darkling highways, under
whose every bridge "the masked mob" were
supposed TO be lurking, in condition TO sug-
gest deed of lawless horror, done In the
name of Justice. The Seymour men and the
men from Newton, or from the country
whose interest is most at stake, were
alternately named as the ones to be expected.
But as the morning came, a representa-
tive man-one of those many whose un-
wonted absence from their usual haunts
had given the observing people the idea that
McDole was dOomed-expressed to the
crowd the real secret of the leniency of The
people of Dearborn county: "You see,
said he, "I am convinced he's the man, and
know he's cold hearted and bad, anyhow;
and would be willing to stand by and see
him hanged, and so would others; but we
wouldn't like to do it ourselves, you see
because they haven't proved il on him; no.
not 10y damned sight. Why, If he'd been


Man OF GOOD CHARACTER


they couldn't have held him on the evil
dence." The speaker expressed the feeling
of all the substantial, earnest men of the
county; the class of men whose desires the
sheriff would hardly resist, except passively.
The guilt of William McDole has not been
proved. 1t is their desire that 1t shall be
clear that he did the foul crime laid at his
door before they will lift their hands, and
even then they wish only to shorten the
laws celays. Meanwhile there is
no personal feeling of vengeance
in Lawrenceburg, except in the
breast of poor Bradley, half crazed by excite
ment, and we believe justice will be allowed
to take her slow, but sure, course. When
the dawn of Thursday came the crisis was
over. The sunlight that fell into the corri-
dor of the Jail came like blessing to the
eyes of the prisoner, albeit it was crossed
with ominous shadows. 1t penetrated the
lonesome glen where ''the Bradley cabin
lies, and redeemed the blood-stains with a
promise that they should not be forgotten.
It came also to the awakening town, time
healed of the shock of the murder, with the
whisper: Waitl There is always a to-
morrow. The law is sacred, aye, and stern.
Let it take its course. 1t is better that an
hundred guilty should escape than that one
innocent man should die for another's crime,
the disgraceful death of the felon.