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Page 107
The prisoner did not look up. He replied in a low, almost
inaudible voice.
"No, Your Honor," he said.
"Then I shall appoint some one to go on with the case," and he
looked up over the docket before him and out at the few attorneys
sitting within the rail.
It was at this moment that the woman, crying silently, without a
sound and without moving in her chair, heard behind her the voice
which she had heard the evening before, when, as now, at the
bottom of the pit, she stood before the shutter of the
shop-window.
"Will it be necessary, monsieur le judge?"
It was the same wonderful, moving, heavenly voice. Every sound
in the court-room suddenly ceased. All eyes were lifted. And
Thompson, sitting beside the district-attorney, saw, standing
before the rail in the court-room, the splendid, alluring
creature that had called him out of the sordid lobby of the Hotel
Markheim and entranced him with an evidence of her favor.
Unconsciously he put up his hand to feel for the bud in the lapel
of his coat. It had remained there - not, as it happened, from
her wish, but because he dare not lay the coat aside.
In the interval of intense interest arising at the withdrawal of
the attorney from the case the girl had come in unnoticed. She
might have appeared out of the floor. Her voice was the first
indication of her presence.
The judge turned swiftly. "What do you mean?" he said.
"I mean, monsieur," she answered, "that if a man is innocent of a
crime, he cannot require a lawyer to defend him."
The judge was astonished, but he was an old man and had seen many
strange events happen along the way of a criminal trial.
"But why do you say this man is innocent," he said.
"I will show you, monsieur," and she came around the railing into
the pit of the, court before his bench. She carried in her hand
the menu upon which, at the table in the cafe the night before,
she had made a drawing of the scene of the homicide.
The extraordinary event had happened so swiftly that the attorney
for the prosecution had not been able to interpose an objection.
Now the nephew of the dead man spoke hurriedly, in whispers, and
the attorney arose.
"I object to this irregular proceeding," he said. "If this
person is a witness, let her be sworn in the usual manner and let
her take her place in the witness-chair where she may be examined
by the attorney whom the court may see fit to appoint for the
defense."
It was evident that Mr. Thompson, urging the prosecutor, was
alarmed. The folds of his obese neck lying above the collar of
his coat took on a deeper color, and his mouth visibly sagged as
with some unexpected emotion. He felt that he was becoming
entangled in some vast, invisible net spread about him by this
girl who had appeared as if by magic before the Hotel Markheim.
The judge looked down at the attorney. "I will have the witness
sworn," he said, "but I shall not at present appoint anybody to
conduct an examination. When a prisoner before me has no
counsel, I sometimes look after his case myself."
He spoke to the girl. "Will you hold up your hand?" he said.
"Why, yes, monsieur," she said, "if you will also ask Mr.
Thompson to hold up his hand."
"Do you wish him sworn as a witness?" said the judge.
The girl hesitated. "Yes, monsieur," she said, "if that is the
way to have him hold up his hand."
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