Would his nervousness on that day, and his foolish qualms, be as clearly remembered by him as they were now by himself.
And if so, how would that affect his plea of a change of heart?
Would he not better talk all that over again with Jephson?
But this man Mason!
How hard he was!
How energetic!
And how he must have worked to get all of these people here to testify against him!
And now here he was, exclaiming as he chanced to look at him, and as he had in at least the last dozen cases (yet with no perceptible result in so far as the jury box was concerned),
“Acceptable to the People!”
But, invariably, whenever he had done so, Jephson had merely turned slightly, but without looking, and had said:
“Nothing in him for us, Alvin.
As set as a bone.”
And then Belknap, courteous and bland, had challenged for cause and usually succeeded in having his challenge sustained.
But then at last, and oh, how agreeably, the clerk of the court announcing in a clear, thin, rasping and aged voice, a recess until two P.
M. And Jephson smilingly turning to Clyde with:
“Well, Clyde, that’s the first round — not so very much to it, do you think? And not very hard either, is it?
Better go over there and get a good meal, though.
It’ll be just as long and dull this afternoon.”
And in the meantime, Kraut and Sissel, together with the extra deputies, pushing close and surrounding him.
And then the crowding and swarming and exclaiming:
“There he is!
There he is!
Here he comes! Here! Here!”
And a large and meaty female pushing as close as possible and staring directly into his face, exclaiming as she did so:
“Let me see him!
I just want to get a good look at you, young man.
I have two daughters of my own.”
But without one of all those of Lycurgus or Twelfth Lake whom he had recognized in the public benches, coming near him.
And no glimpse of Sondra anywhere, of course.
For as both Belknap and Jephson had repeatedly assured him, she would not appear.
Her name was not even to be mentioned, if possible.
The Griffiths, as well as the Finchleys, were opposed. ? Chapter 20
A nd then five entire days consumed by Mason and Belknap in selecting a jury.
But at last the twelve men who were to try Clyde, sworn and seated.
And such men — odd and grizzled, or tanned and wrinkled, farmers and country storekeepers, with here and there a Ford agent, a keeper of an inn at Tom Dixon’s Lake, a salesman in Hamburger’s dry goods store at Bridgeburg, and a peripatetic insurance agent residing in Purday just north of Grass Lake.
And with but one exception, all married.
And with but one exception, all religious, if not moral, and all convinced of Clyde’s guilt before ever they sat down, but still because of their almost unanimous conception of themselves as fair and open-minded men, and because they were so interested to sit as jurors in this exciting case, convinced that they could pass fairly and impartially on the facts presented to them.
And so, all rising and being sworn in.
And at once Mason rising and beginning:
“Gentlemen of the jury.”
And Clyde, as well as Belknap and Jephson, now gazing at them and wondering what the impression of Mason’s opening charge was likely to be. For a more dynamic and electric prosecutor under these particular circumstances was not to be found.
This was his opportunity.
Were not the eyes of all the citizens of the United States upon him?
He believed so.
It was as if some one had suddenly exclaimed:
“Lights!
Camera!”
“No doubt many of you have been wearied, as well as puzzled, at times during the past week,” he began, “by the exceeding care with which the lawyers in this case have passed upon the panels from which you twelve men have been chosen.
It has been no light matter to find twelve men to whom all the marshaled facts in this astonishing cause could be submitted and by them weighed with all the fairness and understanding which the law commands.
For my part, the care which I have exercised, gentlemen, has been directed by but one motive — that the state shall have justice done.