Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 17.pdf/500

 COMMONWEALTH v. LAMB

475

"And you missed him," said Brown, judge was busy. He was handling a jackhoarsely. "Man, how could you miss him plane in a manner that showed familiar with a shot-gun in your hands." ity with its use. He gave a casual nod in "I missed him," continued Lamb in his return for the lawyer's salute, sighted along deadly apathetic voice. "When he was a- a plank and continued his work. goin' outen the door I fired again but I "Can I have a few words with you," missed him again. 'Twa'n't no use. And Brown said. "Trial's set for three," said the judge. — I recken that's all. I couldn't stand my women-folks bein' talked to that-a-way. Out of the tail of his eye he gave the lawyer an up and down glance as if to take his Tain't decent!" "No, 'tain't decent," echoed Brown, measure. "Trial?" gravely unconscious that he was using the "That's what I said," answered the other's phrase. He felt a sudden dizziness of head. The awful nakedness of such judge, sucking one of his teeth reflectively lives as these stood out revealed in Lamb's and squinting again at the plank. ' ' But I have no witnesses! ' ' protested meager story; the inhumanity to women in this Irresistible Force, the Unmerciful Will Brown. He repeated this because the judge that keeps the Earth peopled! In the was so occupied with his plank that he lawyer's mind there came a terribly distinct feared his remark had not been heard. "Lamb ain't got nuthin'," said the other picture of the wife of this man. He had finally with attention still undistracted from never seen her, but he had encountered many of her sisterhood in the scattered clearings his labors. The lawyer had no false pride. He was under the pines. At the time he had merely glanced at them casually, but memory was sure that there was something in the He could now startled into a vivid presentment of statutes that bore upon this. one figure which had no individual existence not recall how the machinery was set in but was the composite photograph, so to motion. He searched and the judge planed. speak, of them all: A gaunt woman stand At last he found his text and began to ing in a cabin doorway with a baby at her read. "I know all that," the judge said, "per breast and another holding himself up by her dress. He could see the blue hollows haps, " — he hung on the word a moment — under her -eyes, the high lights on cheek "perhaps, as good as you do. But how are bones and jaw. The woman shaded her you goin' to get "em." "You will summons them." eyes with her free hand and stared at him "Not by a sight. ' The feller's goin' dully. What useful purpose was served by all the suffering and misery to which her on to the grand jury." He walked to the door. Brown followed face testified! When the lawyer raised his head he saw with book open, expostulating. From the Lamb still sitting in the limp attitude. patches of shade, from the two other stores, There was no smouldering fire in his eyes and apparently in some cases as if they had sprung from the earth, the citizens grouped as of a mind working. "Where can I find the justice," Brown about the two, but at a respectful distance. asked. The new store had a porch which served "He's building that new store," his client perfectly for a platform. Up to that answered. "It's his'n." moment, the potentate of the hamlet had The store which Lamb indicated fronted seemed to be a man of few words and mild that in which they were; between the two manners. But now he suddenly turned on was a strip of sand without vegetation. The the lawyer with a snarl which was so un