Dineen shook the reins over the flying horses and shouted as he turned on his seat,
“Now pick up yur dirty cur—you loafin’ scut you!”
But his victim leaping and bounding alongside the thundering carriage made no answer, and the laugh the fellow started was never finished, for two strong hands gripped his throat as Warren swung up beside him. Literally torn from his seat by the shock, the reins flew from the driver’s hands and the frightened team became a runaway. For a moment the two men, locked in deadly grapple, were struggling on the box. In another instant they were over the dashboard swaying to right and left above the wheels, until at last they crashed back upon the roof of the carriage rolling horribly to the fearful lurching of the wheels. One moment Warren was on top—another moment he was under. Then suddenly the wheels of the hack struck a curb and the dark mass was hurled from the roof to the ground with a sickening thud. There was a short struggle in the street and then Warren raised the driver’s head and dashed it fiercely against the stones.
Half an hour later he staggered into my rooms—the blood trickling down his face and Fantine’s crushed and bleeding body in his arms.
He would hear of no other counsel. In vain I begged him to retain some criminal practitioner.
“Why should I?” he replied. “You know the facts and believe in me. That is all I want. Only remember this. I would rather die than be imprisoned, and no trick or technicality shall ever clear me.”
What weary months of waiting we have gone through! The Grand Jury indicted for murder, the case has been much talked about and the District Attorney has been very—zealous.
How my spirits rose when I found so many animal lovers among the men summoned as jurors, and how the District Attorney and I fought for and against them the whole of one long day! But he couldn’t get rid of them all, lass. Every man who admitted that he had no feeling for animals possessed some other trait which made even the District Attorney fear him.
There were dozens of witnesses but little controversy of fact. Without difficulty I proved that Dineen was a drunken sot of evil reputation, who had been drinking heavily on the day of his death, and then I placed Warren on the stand.
How splendid he looked as he faced the jury and told his story to their eyes.