Noah Casey turned around toward the box where Darcy sat and saw Darcy for the first time:
“What! Him?” he asked, pointing with a long finger at Darcy who regarded him with a grin of friendliness.
“Why, no, that’s Darcy Sherwood. I know him. I’ve knowed him since he was a little tad. Oh, no, it wa’n’t Darcy. He’s a good boy. He wouldn’t do such a thing. The man I saw had red ha—”
But Gene’s lawyer raised his voice:
“Your Honor, I am disappointed in this witness. Mentally he does not seem to be quite all that I supposed—”
“Undoubtedly—” said the Judge under his breath, and Noah was hustled off the scene.
But the afternoon came on and somehow the false witnesses were making a pretty good case of it against Darcy. The Judge’s eyebrows were drawn in a heavy frown and his breath came quick and deep. Those who knew him well knew that he was troubled, and it was just then that Dan’s note was handed up.
No one but Darcy noticed the twinkle that came in the Judge’s eyes, and he wondered and tried to puzzle it out. The Judge was his friend he knew, and wanted to see him cleared, but surely all hope was gone. The evidence was all on one side. Why prolong the agony? It almost seemed as if the Judge were trying to keep the case going, trying to make time. He asked the most trivial questions and tripped up the lawyer again and again, holding a witness far beyond necessity.
All at once the Judge drew a long breath and a light came in his eye. He sat back as if he were done, and ordered that the prisoner be allowed to speak for himself.
The leather door at the back of the court-room had swung noiselessly but that moment, and little Lib had entered, straight and beaming, and behind her walked a lady, and Dan Peterson. Darcy gave one glance and then arose, and there was a new light in his face. It was almost as if he had come to a triumphant moment, instead of being about to plead for his life in the face of indubitable evidence against him. Those who were watching noticed with a shock that he actually had a kind of smile on his face, and a look of something—could it be peace? What utter nonsense! Perhaps he was going out of his mind. Any one might, having to listen to such a list of his own horrible crimes!