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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 1922)
Itvi !y mm); and (! at, grateful Dunavan's attitude toward hi pow trful relative wua on of loyal defer nr, Th positive statement dashed Mm. He stared at tli bos In ob Vidua bewilderment. "It's just a cut of mistaken Identity," foehian Mid. "You couldn't hav tii hltn moron Second excited, you know til confusion. You mail a mistake." Cnnfuaed, Donavan looked aston limn!. Ilpa apart, . . . Than It wheeled back Into Ma mind that second or so In th front office win n he tail looked looked equal ly In tlia man'a fan at distance ot only a fw feet. Under tha shock of I'ncla Frank's positive assertion Hie gripping teeth had relaxed. Now they act again, Cochran iw that In tho young man'a broad, un handsome faca a Itonavan replied bumlty but doggdly: "Well, I could only aay, on tha witness stand, (hat I'm aura It w Hatch." Cochran perceived that Iher we something about this Muck headed tubbornnesa which carried con viction. With a flare of exaspera tlon ha retorted: "You're wrong! You're getting ma Into hull of mess! It can't he Ha'ch!" Donavun wm a alow thinking and simple minded person. Only then (ltd the truth ftlxiut this altuntlon dnwn upon hlin, Thla wa why aunny Ous Whelpley hud called for him, In such extraordinary fashion, at half past 10. Thla wna th meaning of Whelpley' confident words, "Thn old man wanta to se you," a ho had shunted lonavn Into the rtHim where the boas ant walling for hltn , , . It must lie Hutch! Cochran read the dawning com prehension In the young man's open face ami, eo to speak, look hltn In lite the work, lean In a little to ward him, confidential finger on JDonavari's knee: "Listen, dene. Andy Hatch ain't It tmd fellow, lie didn't mean any great harm. Fupposa he got a fool Idea In Ma head that something wftt coming to him and he'd go oJt and collect !t Suppose he got a couple of roughneck to go wHh hltn, and one of 'cm shot young Mitchell Understand? It might have hap poti'd, you see, wlthuut Andy In tending It. Ha ain't a bad fallow iimylie got a fool Idea somcliodv owed hltn aoine money and he'd better go out and collect It. 8e?" Thla confidence was much thn farthest Donavan had ever been taken Inside the works; hy fur the moet Intimate communication thnl had yet pnsaed between uncle and nephew. And Donnvnn wondered wln.it her or not. In tmne mysterious fashion Hamly Andy had already been tried before secret powers and benevolently acquitted na a good fellow wlio had auffered the mis fortune of getting into a had acrapo. Cochrane then took tha novice anrnewhnt farther Inside the worka: "Andy knowa whut'a coming to hlrn a well as anybody docs. He's dono good woik all along. If a man do llvera Ih goods, he'a entllled to claim hie pay, You ee, eon, you're credited to me, I put yon In Whatever you do I'm held rciinon tiMu for." In another audilcn flare of Irrltaflon he ad.lofl: "Amly'a got plenty of frlende. I don't want 'em taking a crack at nie with a aawed of ahotgun! I'm reeponnlble for you." Donavan, drawing a hand acroaa hla brow, could only mutter. "I don't aee how you could be held rcsponalbl In a caee Ilka thla." Then he blurted In amazement. "Why thla Is murder, Uncle Frank!" The rude word rather raied Cochran'a atout nervea. He ecowled at the lack of tact, perhapa and re torted: "1 don't like It any better'n you do. I don't want auch thinga any more'n anybody elae doea! Ilut, aa a Kreut atiitenmnn aalrf. It'a a eonilllion, not a thgvry. Thla fool thing haa haptened. Wa can't un hfippen It. NolxKly'a going to bring young Mitchell hack to Ufa. Andy ain't a liul fellow. It didn't ahoot. You aay youreetf he might 'a' ehot you. but he didn't. He'a got claims and a whole raft of frlenda don't forrel that. I wiatt tha whole thing wua In hell. Hut It ain't. Its beta. I've gut to deal with It." In hia exaeeratlnn Cochran illa rtoaed the potentate heavily bur dened with earea of elate, greatly regretting that aoma thoughtleea uhjecta bed got themaelvea Into an awful mesa, but obliged by bia po ailkm Xa with the affair In a pravtital, atalexnanly manner: ob liged to "carry on" and ke Intact the machinery b whk h carrying na waa Mwttil. "If anybody think thla b'a a anap, let bln try It," the boa ad.bil agg'ievetlly. IVitataa lk d ami aaked. In Mtlea cadr, "Why ba't you It Id the law and the rvutuV And by wajr if vague rily l but rUlle a HMt rtataik he added, ' It Ike ful'iK buatueee " ih. pubiic yuur grwitjiuuther'" Cm bra a r44. beeleaUy. "Viet all that tiiiiul out ( eur head, , If tha gevMiutteM tot Ihi ! aa lelt tha Ne, ttter allnt bai kf gaelat liMtda ef a yer, knM iKa yuMte t f i a 4atoa atvut N. If l a Ut la Ha aaad a4 ahow II tha way to II polling booth. It'll vol once In two year not oftetiar. Tha reat of the lima It'a thinking about lu own joha, and houaa rtnta, and ball gutnea, It wanta me to run thla job for It If you don't believe It, look at tha elec tion returna. Well, I've gotta run the Job the beet way I can. f a man can awing flva pieclncta, I can't kick him In tha face because ha don't lielong to my church, Uet that 'publlo' stuff out of your nut. I'ai tha publllo. It'a me you ra gnawer able to. Who told you to draw 1200 a month when you couldn't find any other Job?" Certainly Donavun did owe tha keep, of himaelf and family theea Juat aeveu montha to the boas' benevolent Interest, and ha was not tho man to deny an obligation. It popped Into hla head that If Coch ran's powerful hand should be with drawn now (he family would prob ably ba set out on the sidewalk, , . . There was a formal government and a formal law whkh said there ehould not lie graft, robbery and murder. Dut right along with It, In a moat confusing parados, there was an Informal government by grace of which as In this present case of Handy Andy Hutch even a murdorer might go free. Uncle frank asserted that his Informal government was tho real one, to which a good subject allegiance was actually due. . . . Also, most con fuelng adtradog of all, both the for mal and the Informal governments derived their powers frotn the saino source to wit, from the will of ths sovereign public, duly expressed at ths ballot bog. Theae Ideas turned bewllderlngly In Donovan's simple mind as he stared at Cochran. "You saw hltn only a second," the boas repeated. "You wss eiclted, You made a mistake. When you get a good look at Handy Andy Hatch you'll aee he wasn't the man." That sounded easy, the way Coch ran put It, and Donavan was aware that he would he powerfully pro tected In correcting his "mleteke Hut there waa that stubbornness In him; he swallowed and replied un happily; "Why I couldn't do It, tTncle Frank." Cochran, with another aharp touch of exasperation, retorted: "Why the hell couldn't you? You can talk, can't you? That's alt you got to do." Again ITncle Frank's realism seemed to reduce his Idealistic scru ples to rogs. And Cochran re turned to the attack like a ponder ous mass, pressing the young man down by steady weight. At one point he reminded his beneficiary. "You've had your living out of It ever since March. If a man takes the gate money he ought to play the game," And again: "I'm responsible for you. You can sldeetcp the whole business looking pious and leave me to stand tho shot." Finally, with heat: "Andy's friends are no fools. They're sore enough now seeing you're my man. I don't want a couple of 'em taking a crack at me with a sawed "f shotgun!" Miserable young Donavan, pressed down to suffocation by the steady mass ef Cochran's Insistence, had turned pale by that time. He ap pealed to the bosa with pathetic earnestness: "Do you really think, Uncle Frank, your life would ba In danger?" Whatever the bosa may have ac tually thought on that aubject. h saw bow'heavlly the point counted, and replied promptly, "Think? I know It!" Donavan'e eyes still earnestly and dumbly appealed for a moment: but Cochran'a face retained an expres sion of perfect conviction. With a stifled little sigh Donovan muttered helpleanly, "I don't know what I could do." Cochran read surrender In that, and laid a benevolent hand on the young man'a knee, renniiurtng him: "Why, simplest thing In the world, flene. Don't you worry, now, Noth Ing'a going to happen to you." The powerful and rxierlenced hand on Donovan's knee aeeined to uphold and guide him, an a mti;hty swimmer sustalna a frightened nov ice In the water, while I'nole Frank briefly explained how simple th thing would be. "Don't wurry," he concluded In benevolent assurance; adding solver ly, "On my soul, I be lieve you are mistaken, as! It wasn't Andy at all!" Donovan smiled slightly and wan ly, aa aver a Jok at a funeral. Hun ny Qua Wheeler drove hltn hack to the little flat, with am cheerful conversation of a grneral nature which luaaa seneJ snare!? ta hear. Ilia wife waa walitnng for him, and he a plained t her, They were checking avr ths pay ivll." He aeentad strangely ahasntntiitdnl, and aha Bated hia p-tlhw, but r wtembarej thai It had ea a aae ruwiag tmy f" him. with the lme W ef twang Ueaay M,hetl almost Winter kuj erea. la b4. ttoaavaa Uf Very . tMlng Mmealf by a toa treat turwMg aad twoaiaf, lewt aa rtte a wife a aba twlla that waa TITE SUNDAY RKR; OMAHA. OCTOP.EK 20. 1022. wid awiike, etsrltig Into the peo pled dark, Young Denny Mitchell wss often In (hat dark; and some, tlnea ihing Vaguely re3ognlzed at (Jod and Honor now approacliltm him, and now taking themselves In finitely far away trom him. Hour after hour he lay, trying to thing out something that wouldn't think, Ily spells hs could think qulie comfortably In terms of Uncle Frank 'a realism. I'ncle Frank wss the public the government. Ho, If t'nole Frsnk ssid It was all right, It waa all right In a way, Ths thing would lis very easy, Indeed He had no prrwinnl acquaintance with Handy Andy Hatch, but merely knew him by sight. Hs had confronted htm only a second or so In the office. Under such circum stances a man might ba mistaken. Very easy and very sae , , , If he didn't do it, for ono little detail, his living would be gone and him self, hla wife and child set out on tha sidewalk. Ily spells he could think of It In that way quite comfortingly. Only there was eomethlng Inside that wouldn't let him take any comfort, ssve by brief spells; something whose name hs didn't know, al though It harrowed him . , , "What shall It profit a man If ho gain the whole world and lost his own soul?" . . . Donavan wasn't particularly religious, that he knew of; prob ably would have gona to church very seldom even If he had been free to go Ills wife did the house work, and there wan the baby, so going to church was fairly out of the question. In all his latter, sim ple, plodding life the Idea, of pos sibly losing his own soul had never occurred to hint, Yet there was sometholng- Inslds lhat harrowed him. Three times in the night be Very cautiously reached over and very lightly touched his wife the foel of her sunn relaxed body waa sxceedlngly comforting. I'byslcatly. at any rate, she was near. . . . The newspapers. In extras and regular editions, had given front page and hlg headlines to the hold up and murder at the paymaster' offic e. Not that there was the least novelty ubout holdups and murdera, but because the paymaster had so positively declared that ono of the robbers was Handy Andy Hatch, who was a local celebrity. The later papers had said that the police were searching for Andy. . While beaming (!us Whelpley was driving Kugenc Donavan home Cochran was telephoning, briefly and crptlcally, to an acquaintance Aliout Ihe time Donavan was get ting Into a sleepless bed Hatch walked coolly Into a police station and gave himself up, averring he had Just learned that tho police were looking for him, denying that he had been concerned In the hold up, saying he had a perfect alibi, Assls'ant mate's Attorney Mang ler attended the Inquest upon young Ib-nny Mitchell in behalf of the pub lic prosecutor. It won clear to hltn, as to everybody elite, that the charge against Hatch rested on tlrely upon the paymaster's posi tive Identification, and Manger en tered the coroner's court In a cyni cal state of mind, a satirical little sinUe lurking beneath his dark, thick and curly mustache. From long and melancholy ex perience he was aware that any mere lay amateur might commit murder with far better than an even chance of escaping the pen alty solemnly prescrilied by law. Kvcn if the police caught him, there waa a long and dubious road, so', with pitfalls for the law, between capture and conviction delays, tearful aptieala to sentimental pur ors and technical appeals to higher courts. liut Handy Andy Hatch waa no mere lav amateur. He had never before len charged with homicide: but others, less formidably pro tected thnn himself. hd been and escaped. Politics' was an Intensely practical, unemotional gamo. The ancient regime In Franca recog nlaed privileged orders to whoan members the law took off its hat. Frac'leaUy, Hatch belonged to a new privileged order whose mem bers were hanl-r to hold than grva-H'd pigs. If they didn't tinea pe by the simple expedient of straw bail, tha state's wltnessea faded away; or the accused Mtt up an alibi and walked out tongue in cheek. Itecently an impudent plot had delivered one of them out of Jail in Iroad daylight. Harder to boh) tbun r.w l pifc-rt. lUUh had culmly given hltwxlf lip. which sufc-geeted to th cynical pnuh-cutor that h was colit.drnt i.f going free. Mutt ler wondered what the trkk was going ta be thiH time, but presently he perceived what it was cuing to go, ami the awUreml bill situle beneath his mus tache broadened fer aa iiutmit, laavaa kxikrd Id i he ea r4 th musty and vruwoVd mna, The usit-il haHhful color if hi fee bad aa f ta a Khly hue aa4 thr lUik ciirbe ur hi ta. It t"uk waa iUa ai ta stM whh ImI ltu t Mtii avruiun a4 lka swiftiy Mkd s-a tiwwiaaj hi eyt ta that r-taa wM'l a waa aa ih wnaa sued. ILttch was a gangling, middle aged man with a bony, amooUi face and a neutral, sundy aallow com plexion. He ant croNaiegged In what might have been called ths bar. Mis lawyer, astute Abe Truman, set near him, but not next to hltn. The chair between Hutch and Truman waa occupied by a man whom Dona van had never aevn before, but whom the assistant state's attorney knew to be a cousin of Hutch. Kit ting slda by side, the coiMlns did not look strikingly alike, yet both were gangling, middleaged, with smooth shaven, bony, sallow faces. Keen separately, one might bo nils taken for the othw. tiering the cousin. Mangier had no doubt what tha trick whs going to be, nor that the cousin could prove Indubitably that be was elsewhere when the holdup and murder occurred. After the first look Donovan carefully kept hla eyes awuy from that pair. There were some preliminary mat ters testimony of the physician who had examined the body, Indeutl f leu lion of the deceased, statement of the first policeman on the scene. Then Ioliaviin took the witness stand and the outh, mechanically gave his name and residence, briefly described ths situation in his office Just before he heard the shot. And something happened without his being aware of It, He had gone up to tha witness chair In a strange kind of inner palsy, which permitted him to walk steadily, yet set up trembling all through his body. The scene blurred before hia eye. At the first answer his voice faltered and he wetted his dry Ilpa. Then, without his reusly knowing It, all that passed away. Somehow his tortured spirit, which had been ceaselessly wrung for hours, escaped the rock and floated at ease on a full, steady current. , , . "Yea, air, I rocognlxed him," he answered readily. "It waa Handy Andy Hatch." The assistant state's attorney, combing one wing of his curly mus tache between thumb and forefin ger, noted that the young man was playing; hla part smoothly. "Do you aco him here now?" came the question. "Yes, sir," said the witness; "there ho Is," and stretched out hla arm, leveling a forefinger. Astuto Abe Truman stared, scan dalized, like a stage manager when an actor speaks the wrong lines. Hatch's cousin turned an Indig nantly questioning look upon Tru man. Hutch himself opened his lips as though to utter an abjurga tlon and proteHt. Mangier, In real surprise, ceased combing his nius tacho. The forefinger f the wit ness was pointing straight at Handy Andy Hatch not ot tho cousin. A subtle sensation pervaded the room. Then Donavan smiled slightly. A good Judge of facial ex pression might have said that the faint movement of his lips was weak, or even foolish, in fact, there was surprise In his own mind. When he arose to take the witness chair he had vaguely supposed that he was going to adopt Uncle Frank'B realisllc view of the situation Then that something inside him had cried out to be let free. The rest had Rlmply happened of Itself. A little later outraged Abe Tru man waa on hia feet asking permis sion to crofis-examine. The cross examination was long, ruthless, and Insulting. Adroit questions some times confused tho witness; he stumbled now and then, and twice was led Into contradictions on minor points. But always when, It came to the moin question he answered with a modest, patient, invincible stub bornness. "Yes, sir; that's the man; I'm sure of It." Nothing could shake him from that, and his patient, invincible stubbornness carried conviction. It had tho Indubitably veracious air of a bulldog with teeth set in a leg. Astute Abe Truman present ly pereoived that ho was damaging his case by pursuing tho youn block head, and gave ft up. Buch was tho Impresalon produced by Dona van's testimony that Hatch was held to anewer a charge uf mur der. Dons van did not go back to the paymaster's office after the In quest, or go home. Something had happened to him, and he wanted to be alone. He held tha private opinion that his wife was very pret ty and elim and youthful fur the mother i.f a btg I year-old girl. The lda of not trusting hr tit any thing would have mnml absunt. Hut .'ineihdiK had happened to him that be could not tnlk about even, to her; he hsd no words for It. There is th "i." way down deep, beneath the wh-r tie and ligalPMi, that no en can realty share with another 'this thins that bed hpiM-ieJ was about that "I" , . , -W hat abali it profit a nta if be iln the whole w-rld and hat hla own soul?" Hn-..,w hia soul hat hn etvrj. but II was Imp, si Ms ta talk ilwut H tit anybudy, aa l.U rm wnrds for it. Howeve. thts w a vavy ra IV al litt: protwin, aa-t t tilna be wt u wis It ae ikll l. Ma fiUI iim u a qvHa a.itJ ' M Now h M,e It, la la,', ke umM1 Couldn't swear to lie about Hatch Just could'nt. His Job was really a public Job, paid fur with public money. Homehow it didn't seem quit right that he should have t give It up because he couldn't com mit perjury In a murder case. Hit ting In the park he hnd, at time, thought about that, with sonin hope ful little yearning. In ths evening be went to lay It before Whelpley, who quickly undeceived him. For once. Indeed, aunny Oua waa quite gloomy. "You've played hell, tiene," ha aald, as reproachfully aa It waa In hla nnture to tie a friend. "You see, Andy gave himself up after tha old man tallied ta you. Andy and his friends are crazy now swear the old man d'tubln-crnssed 'em. You can't blum the old man for being sore as a crab." 1 award ing Donavan with a brooding eye, hs added, "You did throw blui down. Bom of Andy 'a friend may get reckless and bump him off. Way he looks at It, you treated him like a dog." It was a hopelessly confusing bus iness, Donavan felt regret nnd even a kind of remorse. Undo Frank had been good to him and now, through blm, Uncle Frank was In danger of being "bumped off." No sensible person could take those word as an Idle threat when he constant thud of the footimd's black jack, the crack of the murderer's pistol, and the roar of the suwedoff shotgun proclaimed ths pitiful impo tence of the formal law and formal government which Donavan hod considered himself bound to respect . . . "The public don't cure a damn," Uncle Frank had said. There was this strange paradox. A public, mostly honest, with Individ ual conscience and anuls, elected a formal government and, right along with it, an informal government which bad no respect for anything, no conscious and no soul. , . , A terribly muddled, confusing busi ness. And when Donavan averred. In simple minded candor, thut he couldn't sw.nr to the He on the witness stand, he perceived that practical Gus Whelpley was unable to nnderstand him, . , , Confua Ingl . . . Hut, obviously, ho must give up his Job of paymaster. The little family's slender eajih re sources disappeared. It was sub slating on credit at an Indulgent grocer's while IXmavan tramped the treets, telephoned, and wrote let tw In search of any sort of a Joh. Then he found a Job of a sort In ?w ,"J; cavcrnou warehouse that flanked tho river, his Job being to stand on a platform, exposed to the weather, and check bales, boxes and bundles of merchandise which flowed arro the platform all day. Ho performed the duties of tho po JUon faithfully, but with no par ticular distinction. It had been said of him that ha had no talent n any respect, but was Just a good, '"Vady, sllck-ln the-mud plodder Meanwhile Handy. Andy Hatch lay In Jail, He had an alibi, but his astute counsel was In no hurry to oppose that alibi to blockhraded young Donavan' positive Identi fication, which had such an Incon veniently veracious air. Two months passed. Winter came, Dnavan wore an overcoat aa he stood on his platform, checking bundles. Sometimes snow fell on his pad of paper, smearing the fig ures. The days grew short, but the hours at the warehouse were long for bill clerks. Often the last two hours of his day's labor were per formed und'r electric light. Then he trudged along a mean, badly paved, poorly lighted street to tho trolley track, where he Jammed himself into a packed car and rodo home. Of course It was a good homo warn with love there. Y.-t the family wti tipht pinched to get thruoKli the weeks on $35 each Tuesday, and tl at distressed him. It wr.s t-oing to I e a lean Christmas. Once, homeward bound, Donavan approached three men on a shubby street corner. They were not men whose appeal ance Invited confi dence, and Donavan felt a tighten ing of the nerves, ns when the hairs on a dog's hack stlfffn. It came to him, wordlessly, that thera was trouble at hand. The men wer bwk ng at him two at one side of the walk, one at the other, so that he woti),1 have b pass be. tween !httl. or leave the sidewalk, or retreat. His Un pressed togeth er, he looked down at the sloppy wlk and walked dnggcdlv past, neither quickening- pur slarkeidni; bis gait. Nothing happetird. but his nervea wire tingling when ! t ly. The n, it Huiidny fc-. nM iu Wlwljley tebridiniiid an uri nt 111 vilatitin and lv.ii.ivnn went to ae.i h.m. (Sus wished to save a brand fttMu the burning- an, anru-.l th with htm aari.rafiv- like a k'ndtv tnHH e king to rtvu wv W.iM fri-ndj Imiii tha euiiuei.,i ef bis foil. a-.ln Aii.ly lutch I'l Mil, fbne," be arse-l, aa tl.ml lhat wrra a qutia unrehii-ihta l.l dl, TatM't t.tiig m aay eta. n,.s Hatpin .1.. tin a t ran I e...u i ft -i Ul, f, t.m--. tiiel f i