The doctor had come with a bound up the aisle and was kneeling with
Billy in his arms. Mark was leaning over the rail with a white anxious
face. The minister was trying to make a way through the crowd, and the
sergeant-at-arms was pushing the crowd back, and making a space about
the unconscious boy. Some-one opened a window. The Chief and one of his
men brought a cot. There was a pillow from the car, and there was that
medicine again--bringing him back--just as he thought he had made God
hear--! Oh, why did they bother him?
Suddenly down by the door a diversion occurred. Someone had entered
with wild burning eyes dressed in a curious assortment of garments.
They were trying to put him out, but he persisted.
The word was brought up: "Someone has a very important piece of
evidence which he wishes to present."
Billy's gray eyes opened as the man mounted to the witness stand. He
was lying on the cot at one side and his gaze rested on the new
witness, dazedly at first, and then with growing comprehension. Old Ike
Fenner, the tailor, Cherry Fenner's father!
Mark was looking at Billy and had not noticed: But the man began to speak in a high shrill voice: "I came to say that I'm the man that killed Dolph Haskins! Mark Carter
had nothin' to do with it. I done it! I meant to kill him
because he ruined the life of my little girl! My baby!"
There was a sudden catch in his voice like a great sob, and he clutched
at the rail as if he were going to fall, but he went on, his eyes
burning like coals: "I shot him with Tom Petrie's gun that I found atop o' the door, an' I
put it back where I found it. You take my finger prints and compare 'em
with the marks on the gun an' the winder sill. You ask Sandy Robison!
He seen me do it. You ask Cherry! She seen me too. She was facin' the
winder eatin' her supper with that devil, and I shot him and she seen
me! I did it--"
His voice trailed off. He swayed and got down from the stand, groping
his way as if he could not see. The crowd gave way with a curious
shudder looking into his wild burning eyes as he passed. A girl's
scream back by the door rang through the court. The man moaned, put out
his hands and fell forward. Kindly hands reached to catch him. The
doctor left Billy and came to help.