Oakes, in his fluent style, acquainted the Chief with the fact that the negro was already under surveillance and that, in his opinion, he should be brought to Mona for further examination.
"Yes, but we must smuggle him in. It would be unwise to let the populace know we have him now; they might infer he was the murderer and violence would certainly be done him. At present, I have all I can do to keep order in the town," said Hallen.
Then he gave a lucid account of the wave of suspicion and of the evidences of nervous tension the citizens were showing.
"Why," said he, "almost every man suspects his neighbor. Life-long friends are suspicious of one another and business is nearly at a standstill. One man looked at another in an absent-minded sort of a way to-day, and the other retaliated with a blow and an oath, and asked him if he would look at his own arms—not his neighbor's."
"Yes," said Oakes, "we have here a great mental emotion—suspicion—to deal with, which may amount to a public calamity unless checked. One must always take account of the actions and reasonings of communities. Emotional waves rush through them as through individuals sometimes. Look at history, and consider the waves of religion, emotional in character, that have occurred. Look at the unreasonableness developed in our own country from ignorance and fear, when witches were burned at the stake!"
"Oakes," said Moore with a smile, "you seem to make mental processes and conditions as much of a study as the physician does."
"Certainly," Oakes replied. "It is most important. Did we not study the workings of a criminal's mind, for instance, we would often be baffled. You see, the determination of the probable condition of such a one's mind is often paramount, especially in such a case as this. In other words, was the motive one that would naturally sway an ordinary healthy individual under the conditions appertaining to the crime—the so-called sane motive? Or was it in any way dependent upon peculiarities of the criminal's reasoning—a motive built up of something unreal, a delusion in the mind of one not in his right senses?"
I myself had frequently had cause to study such mental processes in the practice of my profession, but I was amazed at the knowledge shown by Oakes, and stated in such a broad, untechnical manner. The man was no ordinary one, to be sure, but I had scarcely expected him to show such education in these matters.