Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 128: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

i} flung it wide. smile on his thin lips, a dark, little face beneath a hideous erec- even the memory of the man who had de- __ Stroyed it—take that one chance in a mil- _-_ lion to convince twelve fellow beings that __ her husband’s blood was not upon her hands, The ceurt room beyond buzzed like a swarm of furious bees, then a moment’s -— pause ensued, to be followed by a subdued - droning, and still Claudia waited, standing tall and motionless beside her stolid guard. 3 All at once the stout man in uniform bent to listen at the door, straightened, nodded, and with an unconsciously dramatic gesture The time had come for the prisoner’s entrance. -Incongruously, Claudia was again re- men, although in the rews of spectators = bright autumnal hats and gowns with here — = and there the flash of a jewel revealed the — “presence of her own sex. ~ In the front row nearest the counsels’ = ~ table the — first familiar face te catch ~ Claudia’s slowly moving gaze was the friendly one of Mrs. Yates, smiling encour- agement; midway behind her Mrs. Sears _ Edgett stared through her lorgnon with avid curiosity undisguised, and at her side Dicky Tewson lounged with a supercilious Far at the rear tion of flaring red roses nedded vigorously and a thin, clawlike hand waved once in --__ fervid greeting; Rosa Baracca had come back to the scene of her-own late ordeal : to lend her doubtful support to this other -_~ girl, who had been kind te her. “Walking with steady, almost mechanical steps Claudia had reached her chair beside the counsels’ table before she realized it. - Dreyer bowed with a grave dignity she had never seen in his manner during their pre- _. _ views meetings and Matthew Rowe shook her hand with his most fatherly air, al- _ though both had left her only a few = S minutes before. At = ‘she raised her eves to the Judge's poof tae -ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. would have the final, momentous words to say to her? Would he be stern, forbidding, ruthless or kad he preserved, in spite of the ignoble tragedies which passed in daily re- view before him, a little warm, kindly, human faith? She saw a waxen, afeicat bloodless coun- tenance, the thin cheeks and straight but mobile lips clean-shaven, and keen, inscru- table gray eyes beneath scanty white hair. There was nothing definite enough to be ruthless, nothing animate enough to reveal the possibility of sympathetic forbearance in his aloof, meditate gaze, and his eyes met hers and passed on as though she were a _ @ mere spectator. minded of her wedding day, for the second - appearance before a multitude as the cyno-— ‘sure of all eyes was heralded by the same _ —— rippling stir and then tense silence. The great reom was packed to the entrance ~ eors, but the assemblage was mostly of Claudia’s breast rose and fell in a nick little sigh and she glanced away, toward an inclosure, behind the rail of which a close- packed group of men, mostly young, sat writing furiously. Among them a solitary woman with short, iron-gray hair bent for- ward to catch her eye, but Claudia had dropped hers to the slim hands, ringless save for the narrow circlet of platinum, which lay quietly in her lap. _~ Her thoughts had gone back to the judge. What dictum would issue from those pale, straight lips when the curtain fell? Would he set her free or pronounce a few irrevoca- - ble words which would send her to a living death? Her own lips moved slightly, but no sound came from them, and presently she became aware that some one was bark- ing out a series of names in a short, peremp- tory voice with monosyllabic responses from a cluster of individuals of widely diversi- fied types whose sole attribute in common appeared to be a cloak of self-consciousness. With a sense of sudden shock Claudia realized that these were the talesmen from among whom the jury box would be filled: amid this group stood twelve who would — hold in their hands the power to clear her name or blacken it forever! scan their faces, but the consciousness that the eyes of most of them were upon her made her look down once more after that — startled, lightning glance. There would be NTA 4 AAD She longed to — time enough to study them when the twelve = | alone confronted her. What was that odd wheel, like a game = Claudia, looked. eee at Co