Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 4 — page 74: what you’re looking at

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

544 know you meant to give me good advice, but I can’t follow it. I can’t.” “You can dictate the confession in the cab, on our way up-town,”’ my partner told her, soothingly. “ Try to pull yourself to- gether, little lady. Everything will come out all right.” IV. SOME of the newspapermen who heard Marvin | iIclIlvaine sum up for the defense the next day in the case of the People of the State of New York against Seymour Nyles, pronounced his effort the most mas- terly closing speech they had ever heard in @ criminal court. Even the district attor- ney later congratulated him on it. He spoke for a solid hour, and the major part of that time he devoted to the subject of the mysterious window-washer who had been seen leaving Hollender’s office at the time of the shooting. Who was that man? he demanded of the jury, in ringing tones? Who was he, and where was he? Why had the police, with all their resources, been unsuccessful in lo- cating him? What had become of him? Was not his failure to come forward a clear indication that he was guilty of the murder? Is not flight, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred a plain confession of guilt? At all events, the intelligent gentlemen in the jury box must realize that while this unknown washer of windows remained un- ciscovered they could not conscientiously convict his client. The prisoner at the bar was entitled to the benefit of a reasonable doubt. That was the law, as the learned judge on the bench would instruct them. And inasmuch as the window-cleaner had not been produced in court by the prosecu- tion, there must exist a reasonable doubt as-to the guilt of the defendant in the mind of every fair-minded man. He did not wish to criticize the district March 27 “SEVEN MINUTES AFTER” THE ARGOSY. attorney. He had a sincere admiration for the personal qualities of his learned oppo- nent. But he could not help thinking that if the prosecutor’s office had devoted one half the zeal to hunting for the miscreant window-washer that it had expended in try- ing to railroad an innocent man to the elec- tric chair, the real murderer of the unfor- tunate Justin R. Hollender would be in the prisoner’s dock at that moment, etc., etc. The jury was out less than fifteen min- “utes. They brought in a verdict of not guilty. - “Most of us were satisfied at first that vour client did it,” the foreman explained to us, after court had adjoined. “ He looks Eke a bad one. But after we had heard Mr. Mclivaine’s speech we all came to the conclusion that the window-washer must be the guilty party. He made that perfectly clear to us.” 2 . It is several months ago since we won that case. Simce then, and as a direct re- sult of our success in that instance, we have been retained in so many other big criminal cases that the firm of Pembroke & Mcll- vaine is now on the high road to prosperity. The sharp-featured young woman is still pegging away at the keys of our typewriter. Miss Boynton, her predecessor, never came back. A few weeks ago, after a long so- journ in a sanatorium, she married the young physician, who is one of the very few persons who know the real facts of the Brixton Building shooting affair. The metropolitan police are not among those who share that knowledge. They are now firmly of the opinion that the fugi- tive window-washer was the man they should have arrested and charged with the murder, ih the first place. Ever since the trial they have been cenducting a diligent hunt for him. 3 My partner and I aré hoping that they will not be successful. And then !— GO JOO > a S (C(C)