When Chief of Police Hodgins learned that a prominent lawyer had come from New York to take the case of the Camera Chap, he was somewhat worried; but when he got a glimpse of Mr. Horatio Hands, his anxiety vanished, and he expressed his opinion of that legal luminary by a guffaw of derision.
“You just oughter to see him, Mr. Mayor,” he said to the Honorable Martin Henkle. “He’s a little bit of a pink-whiskered runt that don’t look as if he’s got nerve enough to swat a fly. I guess we ain’t got nothin’ to fear from him.”
“Well, you can’t always go by appearances,” Mayor Henkle replied. “He must be a pretty good lawyer, or that newspaper wouldn’t have sent him here. However, we have no cause to worry that I can see. We’ve got a clear cut-and-dried case against that fellow Hawley, and all the lawyers in the world couldn’t keep him out of jail.”
Hodgins nodded. “Sure! He might as well plead guilty, and save the court’s time. What defense can he offer? None that I can think of. By the way, Mr. Mayor, I met my friend Timmins, the warden of the county jail, on Main Street this morning. I spoke to him about that Camera Chap, and Timmins has promised to make things hot for him when he arrives there. Timmins has his own little ways of rubbing it into an inmate of his institution when he don’t like him. I guess by the time that young loafer gets through servin’ his time he’ll have had all the chestiness taken out of him.”
Although Hawley, according to his legal rights, should have been brought before a magistrate on the same day[Pg 40] that he was arrested, he was not taken to court until the following morning.
The delay was due to the explosion in the Chronicle Building. Hodgins had been so busy working on that case that he had not had time to go to court, eager though he was to see the Camera Chap’s case disposed of as soon as possible.
The latter, with Carroll to keep him company, spent the night in the cell at police headquarters. The next morning both of them were taken to the police court, but while Hawley, his offense being only a misdemeanor, was to have his fate settled right away in that court, Carroll, being charged with a more serious crime, was to have merely a preliminary examination.
The explosion in the Chronicle Building had created a lot of excitement in Oldham, and the courtroom was crowded when the two newspaper men were arraigned. The Honorable Martin Henkle was among those present. He sat on the bench beside the magistrate, a smile of grim satisfaction upon his face.
Carroll was the first to be given a hearing. As he was arraigned at the bench, a little man with a reddish beard stepped briskly to his side.
“Who are you, sir?” the judge inquired.