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 the negro's blow had not killed Hackett, he had to bring out his theory that a dead and missing man was the murderer. Hackett's boon companions, who formed a community of lawless loafers, had been unaccountably shy about attending the trial. Like the rest of their class, they regarded a sensational murder trial as the most fascinating occasion in life. They were great frequenters of the court house, particularly of its low drinking places during "court week," but not one of them showed up in the first days of the trial. Cave brought this significant news to Pembroke, who knew few persons in the miscellaneous crowd that he saw every day. It made his heart beat hard and fast with the hope of a coming success. The Hibbses and their retainers, and a certain set of people who overcame their dislike to the Hibbs family out of exaggerated sympathy for a Northern man with Southern sympathies, for which Hackett had posed, formed a kind of camp to themselves in the court room.

The lawyers for the State found out that Pembroke knew all the weak spots in their theory that Bob Henry's blow killed Hackett, but there was no suspicion of any evidence forthcoming to support Pembroke's theory that another hand struck the blow. Hackett's association with the deserters had evidently been carefully concealed by him, as it would have ostracized him utterly.

Therefore, when Pembroke, putting off until the last possible moment, summoned John Jones and George Robinson and about a dozen others of the