by Theodore Dreiser 35 страница

his real thoughts had been the fruitfully imaginative public jumped

to the conclusion that he had been on the verge of deserting them,

divorcing Lillian, and marrying Aileen. This was criminal enough

in itself, from the conservative point of view; but when taken in

connection with his financial record, his trial, conviction, and general

bankruptcy situation, the public was inclined to believe that he was all

the politicians said he was. He ought to be convicted. The Supreme

Court ought not to grant his prayer for a new trial. It is thus that

our inmost thoughts and intentions burst at times via no known material

agency into public thoughts. People know, when they cannot

apparently possibly know why they know. There is such a thing as

thought-transference and transcendentalism of ideas.

It reached, for one thing, the ears of the five judges of the State

Supreme Court and of the Governor of the State.

During the four weeks Cowperwood had been free on a certificate of

reasonable doubt both Harper Steger and Dennis Shannon appeared before

the judges of the State Supreme Court, and argued pro and con as to the

reasonableness of granting a new trial. Through his lawyer, Cowperwood

made a learned appeal to the Supreme Court judges, showing how he

had been unfairly indicted in the first place, how there was no real

substantial evidence on which to base a charge of larceny or anything

else. It took Steger two hours and ten minutes to make his argument,

and District-Attorney Shannon longer to make his reply, during which the

five judges on the bench, men of considerable legal experience but no

great financial understanding, listened with rapt attention. Three of

them, Judges Smithson, Rainey, and Beckwith, men most amenable to the

political feeling of the time and the wishes of the bosses, were little

interested in this story of Cowperwood's transaction, particularly since

his relations with Butler's daughter and Butler's consequent opposition

to him had come to them. They fancied that in a way they were

considering the whole matter fairly and impartially; but the manner in

which Cowperwood had treated Butler was never out of their minds. Two of

them, Judges Marvin and Rafalsky, who were men of larger sympathies

and understanding, but of no greater political freedom, did feel that

Cowperwood had been badly used thus far, but they did not see what they

could do about it. He had put himself in a most unsatisfactory position,

politically and socially. They understood and took into consideration

his great financial and social losses which Steger described accurately;

and one of them, Judge Rafalsky, because of a similar event in his own

life in so far as a girl was concerned, was inclined to argue strongly

against the conviction of Cowperwood; but, owing to his political

connections and obligations, he realized that it would not be wise

politically to stand out against what was wanted. Still, when he and

Marvin learned that Judges Smithson, Rainey, and Beckwith were inclined

to convict Cowperwood without much argument, they decided to hand down a

dissenting opinion. The point involved was a very knotty one. Cowperwood

might carry it to the Supreme Court of the United States on some

fundamental principle of liberty of action. Anyhow, other judges in

other courts in Pennsylvania and elsewhere would be inclined to examine

the decision in this case, it was so important. The minority decided

that it would not do them any harm to hand down a dissenting

opinion. The politicians would not mind as long as Cowperwood was

convicted--would like it better, in fact. It looked fairer. Besides,

Marvin and Rafalsky did not care to be included, if they could help

it, with Smithson, Rainey, and Beckwith in a sweeping condemnation of

Cowperwood. So all five judges fancied they were considering the

whole matter rather fairly and impartially, as men will under such

circumstances. Smithson, speaking for himself and Judges Rainey and

Beckwith on the eleventh of February, 1872, said:

"The defendant, Frank A. Cowperwood, asks that the finding of the jury

in the lower court (the State of Pennsylvania vs. Frank A. Cowperwood)

be reversed and a new trial granted. This court cannot see that any

substantial injustice has been done the defendant. [Here followed

a rather lengthy resume of the history of the case, in which it was

pointed out that the custom and precedent of the treasurer's office, to

say nothing of Cowperwood's easy method of doing business with the city

treasury, could have nothing to do with his responsibility for failure

to observe both the spirit and the letter of the law.] The obtaining of

goods under color of legal process [went on Judge Smithson, speaking

for the majority] may amount to larceny. In the present case it was

the province of the jury to ascertain the felonious intent. They have

settled that against the defendant as a question of fact, and the

court cannot say that there was not sufficient evidence to sustain the

verdict. For what purpose did the defendant get the check? He was upon

the eve of failure. He had already hypothecated for his own debts

the loan of the city placed in his hands for sale--he had unlawfully

obtained five hundred thousand dollars in cash as loans; and it is

reasonable to suppose that he could obtain nothing more from the city

treasury by any ordinary means. Then it is that he goes there, and,

by means of a falsehood implied if not actual, obtains sixty thousand

dollars more. The jury has found the intent with which this was done."

It was in these words that Cowperwood's appeal for a new trial was

denied by the majority.

For himself and Judge Rafalsky, Judge Marvin, dissenting, wrote:

"It is plain from the evidence in the case that Mr. Cowperwood did not

receive the check without authority as agent to do so, and it has not

been clearly demonstrated that within his capacity as agent he did not

perform or intend to perform the full measure of the obligation which

the receipt of this check implied. It was shown in the trial that as a

matter of policy it was understood that purchases for the sinking-fund

should not be known or understood in the market or by the public in that

light, and that Mr. Cowperwood as agent was to have an absolutely

free hand in the disposal of his assets and liabilities so long as the

ultimate result was satisfactory. There was no particular time when the

loan was to be bought, nor was there any particular amount mentioned at

any time to be purchased. Unless the defendant intended at the time

he received the check fraudulently to appropriate it he could not be

convicted even on the first count. The verdict of the jury does not

establish this fact; the evidence does not show conclusively that it

could be established; and the same jury, upon three other counts, found

the defendant guilty without the semblance of shadow of evidence. How

can we say that their conclusions upon the first count are unerring when

they so palpably erred on the other counts? It is the opinion of the

minority that the verdict of the jury in charging larceny on the first

count is not valid, and that that verdict should be set aside and a new

trial granted."

Judge Rafalsky, a meditative and yet practical man of Jewish extraction

but peculiarly American appearance, felt called upon to write a third

opinion which should especially reflect his own cogitation and be

a criticism on the majority as well as a slight variation from and

addition to the points on which he agreed with Judge Marvin. It was

a knotty question, this, of Cowperwood's guilt, and, aside from the

political necessity of convicting him, nowhere was it more clearly shown

than in these varying opinions of the superior court. Judge Rafalsky

held, for instance, that if a crime had been committed at all, it was

not that known as larceny, and he went on to add:

"It is impossible, from the evidence, to come to the conclusion either

that Cowperwood did not intend shortly to deliver the loan or that

Albert Stires, the chief clerk, or the city treasurer did not intend

to part not only with the possession, but also and absolutely with the

property in the check and the money represented by it. It was testified

by Mr. Stires that Mr. Cowperwood said he had bought certificates of

city loan to this amount, and it has not been clearly demonstrated that

he had not. His non-placement of the same in the sinking-fund must in

all fairness, the letter of the law to the contrary notwithstanding, be

looked upon and judged in the light of custom. Was it his custom so to

do? In my judgment the doctrine now announced by the majority of the

court extends the crime of constructive larceny to such limits that any

business man who engages in extensive and perfectly legitimate stock

transactions may, before he knows it, by a sudden panic in the market

or a fire, as in this instance, become a felon. When a principle is

asserted which establishes such a precedent, and may lead to such

results, it is, to say the least, startling."

While he was notably comforted by the dissenting opinions of the judges

in minority, and while he had been schooling himself to expect the worst

in this connection and had been arranging his affairs as well as he

could in anticipation of it, Cowperwood was still bitterly disappointed.

It would be untrue to say that, strong and self-reliant as he normally

was, he did not suffer. He was not without sensibilities of the highest

order, only they were governed and controlled in him by that cold iron

thing, his reason, which never forsook him. There was no further appeal

possible save to the United States Supreme Court, as Steger pointed out,

and there only on the constitutionality of some phase of the decision

and his rights as a citizen, of which the Supreme Court of the United

States must take cognizance. This was a tedious and expensive thing to

do. It was not exactly obvious at the moment on what point he could make

an appeal. It would involve a long delay--perhaps a year and a half,

perhaps longer, at the end of which period he might have to serve his

prison term anyhow, and pending which he would certainly have to undergo

incarceration for a time.

Cowperwood mused speculatively for a few moments after hearing Steger's

presentation of the case. Then he said: "Well, it looks as if I have to

go to jail or leave the country, and I've decided on jail. I can fight

this out right here in Philadelphia in the long run and win. I can get

that decision reversed in the Supreme Court, or I can get the Governor

to pardon me after a time, I think. I'm not going to run away, and

everybody knows I'm not. These people who think they have me down

haven't got one corner of me whipped. I'll get out of this thing after

a while, and when I do I'll show some of these petty little politicians

what it means to put up a real fight. They'll never get a damned dollar

out of me now--not a dollar! I did intend to pay that five hundred

thousand dollars some time if they had let me go. Now they can whistle!"

He set his teeth and his gray eyes fairly snapped their determination.

"Well, I've done all I can, Frank," pleaded Steger, sympathetically.

"You'll do me the justice to say that I put up the best fight I knew

how. I may not know how--you'll have to answer for that--but within my

limits I've done the best I can. I can do a few things more to carry

this thing on, if you want me to, but I'm going to leave it to you now.

Whatever you say goes."

"Don't talk nonsense at this stage, Harper," replied Cowperwood almost

testily. "I know whether I'm satisfied or not, and I'd soon tell you if

I wasn't. I think you might as well go on and see if you can find some

definite grounds for carrying it to the Supreme Court, but meanwhile

I'll begin my sentence. I suppose Payderson will be naming a day to have

me brought before him now shortly."

"It depends on how you'd like to have it, Frank. I could get a stay

of sentence for a week maybe, or ten days, if it will do you any good.

Shannon won't make any objection to that, I'm sure. There's only one

hitch. Jaspers will be around here tomorrow looking for you. It's his

duty to take you into custody again, once he's notified that your appeal

has been denied. He'll be wanting to lock you up unless you pay him,

but we can fix that. If you do want to wait, and want any time off,

I suppose he'll arrange to let you out with a deputy; but I'm afraid

you'll have to stay there nights. They're pretty strict about that since

that Albertson case of a few years ago."

Steger referred to the case of a noted bank cashier who, being let out

of the county jail at night in the alleged custody of a deputy, was

permitted to escape. There had been emphatic and severe condemnation of

the sheriff's office at the time, and since then, repute or no repute,

money or no money, convicted criminals were supposed to stay in the

county jail at night at least.

Cowperwood meditated this calmly, looking out of the lawyer's window

into Second Street. He did not much fear anything that might happen

to him in Jaspers's charge since his first taste of that gentleman's

hospitality, although he did object to spending nights in the county

jail when his general term of imprisonment was being reduced no whit

thereby. All that he could do now in connection with his affairs, unless

he could have months of freedom, could be as well adjusted from a prison

cell as from his Third Street office--not quite, but nearly so. Anyhow,

why parley? He was facing a prison term, and he might as well accept it

without further ado. He might take a day or two finally to look after

his affairs; but beyond that, why bother?

"When, in the ordinary course of events, if you did nothing at all,

would I come up for sentence?"

"Oh, Friday or Monday, I fancy," replied Steger. "I don't know what move

Shannon is planning to make in this matter. I thought I'd walk around

and see him in a little while."

"I think you'd better do that," replied Cowperwood. "Friday or Monday

will suit me, either way. I'm really not particular. Better make it

Monday if you can. You don't suppose there is any way you can induce

Jaspers to keep his hands off until then? He knows I'm perfectly

responsible."

"I don't know, Frank, I'm sure; I'll see. I'll go around and talk to him

to-night. Perhaps a hundred dollars will make him relax the rigor of his

rules that much."

Cowperwood smiled grimly.

"I fancy a hundred dollars would make Jaspers relax a whole lot of

rules," he replied, and he got up to go.

Steger arose also. "I'll see both these people, and then I'll call

around at your house. You'll be in, will you, after dinner?"

"Yes."

They slipped on their overcoats and went out into the cold February day,

Cowperwood back to his Third Street office, Steger to see Shannon and

Jaspers.

Chapter XLIX

The business of arranging Cowperwood's sentence for Monday was soon

disposed of through Shannon, who had no personal objection to any

reasonable delay.

Steger next visited the county jail, close on to five o'clock, when

it was already dark. Sheriff Jaspers came lolling out from his private

library, where he had been engaged upon the work of cleaning his pipe.

"How are you, Mr. Steger?" he observed, smiling blandly. "How are you?

Glad to see you. Won't you sit down? I suppose you're round here again

on that Cowperwood matter. I just received word from the district

attorney that he had lost his case."

"That's it, Sheriff," replied Steger, ingratiatingly. "He asked me

to step around and see what you wanted him to do in the matter. Judge

Payderson has just fixed the sentence time for Monday morning at ten

o'clock. I don't suppose you'll be much put out if he doesn't show up

here before Monday at eight o'clock, will you, or Sunday night, anyhow?

He's perfectly reliable, as you know." Steger was sounding Jaspers

out, politely trying to make the time of Cowperwood's arrival a trivial

matter in order to avoid paying the hundred dollars, if possible. But

Jaspers was not to be so easily disposed of. His fat face lengthened

considerably. How could Steger ask him such a favor and not even suggest

the slightest form of remuneration?

"It's ag'in' the law, Mr. Steger, as you know," he began, cautiously

and complainingly. "I'd like to accommodate him, everything else being

equal, but since that Albertson case three years ago we've had to run

this office much more careful, and--"

"Oh, I know, Sheriff," interrupted Steger, blandly, "but this isn't an

ordinary case in any way, as you can see for yourself. Mr. Cowperwood is

a very important man, and he has a great many things to attend to. Now

if it were only a mere matter of seventy-five or a hundred dollars

to satisfy some court clerk with, or to pay a fine, it would be easy

enough, but--" He paused and looked wisely away, and Mr. Jaspers's face

began to relax at once. The law against which it was ordinarily so hard

to offend was not now so important. Steger saw that it was needless to

introduce any additional arguments.

"It's a very ticklish business, this, Mr. Steger," put in the sheriff,

yieldingly, and yet with a slight whimper in his voice. "If anything

were to happen, it would cost me my place all right. I don't like to do

it under any circumstances, and I wouldn't, only I happen to know both

Mr. Cowperwood and Mr. Stener, and I like 'em both. I don' think

they got their rights in this matter, either. I don't mind making an

exception in this case if Mr. Cowperwood don't go about too publicly. I

wouldn't want any of the men in the district attorney's office to know

this. I don't suppose he'll mind if I keep a deputy somewhere near all

the time for looks' sake. I have to, you know, really, under the law.

He won't bother him any. Just keep on guard like." Jaspers looked at

Mr. Steger very flatly and wisely--almost placatingly under the

circumstances--and Steger nodded.

"Quite right, Sheriff, quite right. You're quite right," and he drew out

his purse while the sheriff led the way very cautiously back into his

library.

"I'd like to show you the line of law-books I'm fixing up for myself

in here, Mr. Steger," he observed, genially, but meanwhile closing his

fingers gently on the small roll of ten-dollar bills Steger was handing

him. "We have occasional use for books of that kind here, as you see. I

thought it a good sort of thing to have them around." He waved one arm

comprehensively at the line of State reports, revised statutes, prison

regulations, etc., the while he put the money in his pocket and Steger

pretended to look.

"A good idea, I think, Sheriff. Very good, indeed. So you think if Mr.

Cowperwood gets around here very early Monday morning, say eight or

eight-thirty, that it will be all right?"

"I think so," replied the sheriff, curiously nervous, but agreeable,

anxious to please. "I don't think that anything will come up that will

make me want him earlier. If it does I'll let you know, and you can

produce him. I don't think so, though, Mr. Steger; I think everything

will be all right." They were once more in the main hall now. "Glad to

have seen you again, Mr. Steger--very glad," he added. "Call again some

day."

Waving the sheriff a pleasant farewell, he hurried on his way to

Cowperwood's house.

You would not have thought, seeing Cowperwood mount the front steps of

his handsome residence in his neat gray suit and well-cut overcoat on

his return from his office that evening, that he was thinking that this

might be his last night here. His air and walk indicated no weakening

of spirit. He entered the hall, where an early lamp was aglow, and

encountered "Wash" Sims, an old negro factotum, who was just coming up

from the basement, carrying a bucket of coal for one of the fireplaces.

"Mahty cold out, dis evenin', Mistah Coppahwood," said Wash, to whom

anything less than sixty degrees was very cold. His one regret was that

Philadelphia was not located in North Carolina, from whence he came.

"'Tis sharp, Wash," replied Cowperwood, absentmindedly. He was thinking

for the moment of the house and how it had looked, as he came toward it

west along Girard Avenue--what the neighbors were thinking of him, too,

observing him from time to time out of their windows. It was clear and

cold. The lamps in the reception-hall and sitting-room had been lit, for

he had permitted no air of funereal gloom to settle down over this

place since his troubles had begun. In the far west of the street a last

tingling gleam of lavender and violet was showing over the cold white

snow of the roadway. The house of gray-green stone, with its lighted

windows, and cream-colored lace curtains, had looked especially

attractive. He had thought for the moment of the pride he had taken in

putting all this here, decorating and ornamenting it, and whether, ever,

he could secure it for himself again. "Where is your mistress?" he added

to Wash, when he bethought himself.

"In the sitting-room, Mr. Coppahwood, ah think."

Cowperwood ascended the stairs, thinking curiously that Wash would soon

be out of a job now, unless Mrs. Cowperwood, out of all the wreck of

other things, chose to retain him, which was not likely. He entered the

sitting-room, and there sat his wife by the oblong center-table, sewing

a hook and eye on one of Lillian, second's, petticoats. She looked

up, at his step, with the peculiarly uncertain smile she used these

days--indication of her pain, fear, suspicion--and inquired, "Well, what

is new with you, Frank?" Her smile was something like a hat or belt or

ornament which one puts on or off at will.

"Nothing in particular," he replied, in his offhand way, "except that I

understand I have lost that appeal of mine. Steger is coming here in

a little while to let me know. I had a note from him, and I fancy it's

about that."

He did not care to say squarely that he had lost. He knew that she was

sufficiently distressed as it was, and he did not care to be too abrupt

just now.

"You don't say!" replied Lillian, with surprise and fright in her voice,

and getting up.

She had been so used to a world where prisons were scarcely thought of,

where things went on smoothly from day to day without any noticeable

intrusion of such distressing things as courts, jails, and the like,

that these last few months had driven her nearly mad. Cowperwood had so

definitely insisted on her keeping in the background--he had told her

so very little that she was all at sea anyhow in regard to the whole

procedure. Nearly all that she had had in the way of intelligence had

been from his father and mother and Anna, and from a close and almost

secret scrutiny of the newspapers.

At the time he had gone to the county jail she did not even know

anything about it until his father had come back from the court-room and

the jail and had broken the news to her. It had been a terrific blow to

her. Now to have this thing suddenly broken to her in this offhand way,

even though she had been expecting and dreading it hourly, was too much.

She was still a decidedly charming-looking woman as she stood holding

her daughter's garment in her hand, even if she was forty years old to

Cowperwood's thirty-five. She was robed in one of the creations of their

late prosperity, a cream-colored gown of rich silk, with dark brown

trimmings--a fetching combination for her. Her eyes were a little

hollow, and reddish about the rims, but otherwise she showed no sign of

her keen mental distress. There was considerable evidence of the former

tranquil sweetness that had so fascinated him ten years before.

"Isn't that terrible?" she said, weakly, her hands trembling in a

nervous way. "Isn't it dreadful? Isn't there anything more you can do,

truly? You won't really have to go to prison, will you?" He objected

to her distress and her nervous fears. He preferred a stronger, more

self-reliant type of woman, but still she was his wife, and in his day

he had loved her much.

"It looks that way, Lillian," he said, with the first note of real

sympathy he had used in a long while, for he felt sorry for her now. At

the same time he was afraid to go any further along that line, for fear

it might give her a false sense as to his present attitude toward her

which was one essentially of indifference. But she was not so dull but

what she could see that the consideration in his voice had been brought

about by his defeat, which meant hers also. She choked a little--and

even so was touched. The bare suggestion of sympathy brought back the

old days so definitely gone forever. If only they could be brought back!

"I don't want you to feel distressed about me, though," he went on,

before she could say anything to him. "I'm not through with my fighting.

I'll get out of this. I have to go to prison, it seems, in order to get

things straightened out properly. What I would like you to do is to keep

up a cheerful appearance in front of the rest of the family--father and

mother particularly. They need to be cheered up." He thought once of

taking her hand, then decided not. She noted mentally his hesitation,

the great difference between his attitude now and that of ten or twelve

years before. It did not hurt her now as much as she once would have

thought. She looked at him, scarcely knowing what to say. There was

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14