“If it’s anybody’s fault, it’s mine,” he said. “You see, it was my suggestion that got us in there. I was the first to go inside, and the others came only after I had urged them.”
But Squire Barker knew that this avowal, honest as it was, could not help them in the eyes of the law. So, having asked a few perfunctory questions, he turned the witness over to the prosecuting attorney. The latter brought out about the same points that he had made in the testimony of George Warren, and that was all.
It was quite clear that Squire Barker was only calling the boys from a sense of duty to them, to let them make the best impression they might upon the mind of the judge. It was the only suit he had to play.
Then followed Arthur and Joe, and at length Tom and Bob.
The squire was at the end of his resources now, as far as evidence could go. It remained but for him to do his duty in the minds of his clients and his townsmen, and he did it—to his own satisfaction, at least, in his address to the court. He painted the heroism of the boys at the fire in colours glowing as the flames. He enlarged upon the probability and the presumption of innocence. And he paid his respects to the colonel and the squire in a few stinging sentences that turned the eyes of the assembled audience upon them in indignation.
And when he was all done and the court-room turned with expectancy toward the prosecuting attorney, the latter simply said:
“Your Honour, the people will submit their case without argument.”
And so, with startling abruptness, the case had come to its crisis. There was nothing left but for the law to act.
There succeeded a deathlike stillness in the court-room. His Honour sat for some moments, with his eyes cast down upon his desk. He seemed loath to speak. Finally he arose and, with some effort, said, gently:
“In all my experience as attorney and as judge I have never before been placed in a position so distasteful to me nor so distressing. The case of these young men is most unfortunate. Their stories impress me as honestly told. Their characters are clearly such as are opposed to any such wanton destruction as is here alleged. And yet the circumstances are such that I should be blind to the duty of my office if I failed to hold them for trial. I hope that when their case shall come to trial this fall that they will have gathered evidence that shall show conclusively their innocence. In the meantime, deeply as I regret it, it becomes my painful duty to order that they be held.”