Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1913 — CALEB CONOVER Railroader [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CALEB CONOVER Railroader

By ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE

CHAPTER XXII. Wendell Gets His Instructions. TI DON’T quite understand,” Yen--1 tured the puzzled lawyer. EmjS “Neither do I," said Caleb. rwU “Tell me your story as brief as you can.” “Your son reached town a little after six o’clock this evening,” answered Wendell. “It 3eems he went directly to a restaurant in the theatre district of Broadway, a place frequented by men of a certain class and by the women they take there. It was early, but on account of the election night fun to come later many people were already dining. Gerald afterward told me he went there in the hope of catching a glimpse of his former wife. He saw her there. With her was a man she had known before she met your son, a bookmaker named Stange, from whom Gerald —or Ger aid’s money—had originally won her, and for whom be always, It appears, retained some Jealousy. Gerald walked straight up to the table where sat, drew a revolver and fired four times point-blank in Stange’s face. Any one of the shots by itself would have been fatal. Then he tossed the revolver to a waiter and spent the time until the police arrived In trying to console this Mont morency woman and to quiet her hysterics. They took him to the Tenderloin station and he got the police to telephone for me. I found him in a state of semi-collapse. A police surgeon was working over him. Heart failure brought on by excitement. His heart was already in a depressed, weakened state, the Surgeon said, from an overdose of morphine. The poor boy aparently was in the habit of taking it, for they found a case with a hypodermic syringe and tablets in his pocket. And one of his arms —”

“So that was the ’third thing* be side booze and cigarettes?” It was Caleb’s first Interruption During the recital of his son’s crime he had stood motionless, expression less. Not until this trivial detail wa? reached had he spoken. And evei now his voice was as emotionless as Was his face. The inscrutable Spartan quiet that had so often left his business and political opponents In the dark was now upon him. Wendell saw and wondered. Mistaking the other’s mental attitude for the first daze of horror, he resumed: “He came around in a few minutes. I did what I could for him. Then I tried to reach you by long-distance telephone. But the wires were down all through this State. I had no bet ter fortune in telegraphing. So I caught the eight-ten train and came straight here. I thought you ought to be told at once, so that —” “Quite so. Thank you. It was very white. I’m Borry I was so brisk with you awhile ago.” The lawyer stared. Conover was talking as though a mere financial matter were involved. Still supposing his client suffering from shock that dulled his sensibilties, Wendell continued:

"Morphine and jealousy combining to cause temporary insanity. That must be our line of defence. You. agree with me of course?” “Suit yourself. I’ll stand by whatever you suggest.” The lawyer drew out his watch. “Twelve forty-five,” he said. , "The New York express passed through Granite at one twenty. We’ll have plenty of time to catch it. If you will get ready at once, we’ll start. We can discuss details during the trip,” *“We’?” echoed Caleb. “What d’ye mean? I’m not going to New York with you.” “Mr. Conover!” exclaimed Wendell, shaking his inert host by the shoulder to rouse him from his apparent stupor, “you don’t realize! Gerald Is In a cell on a murder charge. To-mor-row he will be sent to the Tombs — our city prison—to remain until his case comes up. Then he will be tried tor his life and —” “I know all about, the course of such things. You don’t need to tell me.” “But this is a llfe-and-death matter!"

“Well, If I can keep cool over It, I presume you can, can’t you? It’s very kind of you to explain all this to me, hut it ain’t necessary. I understand everything you’ve told me, and I understand a lot you’ve overlooked. For Instance, the pictures that’ll be in all to-morrow’s evening papers of my boy on bis way to the Tombs, handcuffed to a plain-clothes man, and pictures of that chorus woman of his in all sorts of poses, and pictures of the ‘stricken father—that’s me—and Let-

ty figuring as the ‘aged mother, heartbroke at her son's crime.’ And my daughter and her —the Prince d’Antrl. And my house and a 'diagram/ of the restaurant where the shooting was done. And there’ll be interviews with the Montmorency thing and accounts of her being brave and visiting Jerry in the Tombs. And a maynoo of what he’ll have for Thanksgiving dinner in his cell. And —" "I’ll do what I can to prevent publicity. I—" "You’ll do nothing of the sort What happens in public the public a right to read about If Jerry’s

dragged us Into Che limelight, can Wre kick if the papers bet folks see us there?" “But surely—” “That’s the easiest part of it I’ve got to face my wife with this story Not to-night, but to-morrow anyhow. Sweet job, eh? A white naan don’t enjoy squashing the life out of even a guinea-pig in cold blood, let alone a boy’s mother.' And reporters’ll begin coming here by sunrise for interviews, and folks’ll be staring at us in the street and hffering their measly sympathy and then running off to tell the neighbors how we took it. And every paper we pick up '/ill be full of the ‘latest d’vel’pments’ and all that. And those of us who know Jerry will get Into the pleasing habit of remembering what a cute, friendly kid he used to be when he was little, and the great things we used to dream he’d do when he grew up, and how we hustled so’s he’d have as good a chance in life as any young feller on earth. And then we’ll remember he’s waiting in Jail to be tried for murder ing a chorus slattern’B lover, and all the black, filthy shame he’s put on decent folks that was fools enough to love him, and the, way he’s fulfilled them silly hopes of ours. Oh, yes, Wendell, I guess I ‘realize,’ all right, all right* I don’t need no ‘wakening sense.’ But maybe I’ve made It clear to You now why it is I don’t go cavorting off by Che next train to console and cheer up the boy who’s brought this on us. I doh’t just hanker—”

'‘‘Don’t take that tone, I beg, sir!” pleaded the lawyer, deeply pained by what underlay the father’s half-scoff-ing, Ironical tirade. “He may Uve it down. He is only twenty-four. The Jury will surely be lenient After .all, there’s the ‘unwritten law’ and —" “And of all the slimy rot ever thought up by a paretic’s brain, that same ‘unwritten law* is about the rankest specimen,” snarled Caleb “By the time a man’s learned to live up to all the written laws, I guess he won’t have a hell of a lot of leisure left to go moseying around among the unwritten ones. Whenever a coward takes a pot-shot at some one wi’thin half a mile of a petticoat, up goes the ‘unwritten law’ scream. Use it if you like in the trial, but for God’s rake cut out such hypocritical bosh when you’re talking *t6 me. ‘Unwritten law!’ Why don’t the Legislature take a day off and write it?” "Tjbenayou won’t come with me to town?” asked the lawyer, with another covert glance at his watch. “Come with you and tell Jerry how sorry I am for him, and how I sympathize with him for killing his mother —for thaf’<s what it’ll come to —and for wrecking a name I’ve spent all my life building up for him, and for making me the shame of all my friends? No, Wendell, I guess I’ll have to deprive him of that treat. I’ll think up later what’s best to do about him. In the meantime get him acquitted.” “Acquitted? That is not so easy. But—” “Not so easy? Why ain’t its

Didn’t I tell you to draw on me for all you wanted? I’ve got somewhere between forty and fifty millions all told. The Jury don’t live this side ol the own-your-own-cloud suburbs ol heaven that hasn’t at least one man on it that SIOO,OOO will buy. If not that, then $1,000,000. I’ll leave the details to you. Buy enough jurors tc ‘hang’ every verdict till they get tired of trying Jerry and turn him loose tc save the State further expense. Ii a murderer ain’t convicted on his first trial, it’s a cinch he’s never going to be oh his second or third. Now, it’s up to you to buy that drawn verdict for the first trial, and then for the others till they acquit him or parole him in your custody. It’s been done before, and it’ll be done again. This ain’t a ‘life-and-death matter,’ as you called it. It’s a question of dollars and cents. And ,as long as I’ve got enough of those same dollars and cents, no boy of mine’s going to the death-chair or to life imprisonment either. You’ll have to hustle for that train. If yoJ miss it. come back and I’ll put you up for the night” Tense excitement, as was lately his way, had made the formerly taciturn Railroader voluble. He now, as fre quently since the nigllt of his speech at the receptioh, noted this, himself, with a vague surprise. “If Jerry wants any ready money, Just now—’’ he began, as he escorted the lawyer to the door. "He seems to have plenty for any immediate needs,” returned Wendell. “I saw the contents of his pockets that the police had taken charge of. Besides the morphine case and a few

cards uid a packet of letters In s . sealed wrapper, there were large-de-nomination bills to the amount of—* "Packet of letters —sealed T” croaked Conover, catching the other's arm in a grasp that bit to the point of agony. "Letters?" he repeated, his throat dry and contracted. "Oh, I meant to speak to you about them. Gerald asked me to bring them along. He said he got them for you from a man in Ballston to-day, and was to have sent them to you by registered mail. But in the hurry of catching the New York train and the excitement over the .prospects of see-lng-V' "Where are they? Did you brina them?" "I couldn’t,” answered Wendell, marveling at the lightning change in his client’s voice and face. "The police, of course, took charge of them. They will have to be examined by the district attorney’s office “You must hurry or you’ll mißs your train. Good night” Conover slammed the door on bis astonished guest and walked back into the library. (To be Continued.)

“Didn’t I tell you to draw on me for all you wanted?"