"Just tell the jury," urged Eades.
The convict stiffly raised his bony hand to his blue lips to stifle the cough in which lay his only hope of release.
"I don't just--" He stopped.
The crowd strained forward. The jury glanced uneasily from Griscom to Eades, and back to Griscom again. And then there was a stir. Ball was sidling over from the clerk's desk to a chair Bentley wheeled forward for him, and as he sank into it, he fixed his eyes on Griscom. The convict shifted uneasily, took down his hand, coughed loosely and swallowed painfully, his protuberant larynx rising and falling.
"Just give Koerner's exact words," urged Eades.
"Well, he said he had it in for Kouka, and was going to croak him when he got home."
"What did he mean by 'croak,' if you know?"
"Kill him. He said he was a dead shot--he'd learned it in the army."
"How many times did you talk with him?"
"Oh, lots of times--every time we got a chance. Sometimes in the bolt shop, sometimes in the hall when we had permits."