396
The Green Bag
The deputy is a politician with the “fatal gift" of familiarity. He lets it be understood that he has just dropped in to say "how do you do" and to learn any news that there is. He asks casually about a new prisoner who has been arrested for the murder since the sporting judge took hold of the case. The judge is flattered by the reference and in turn fiatters the deputy by permitting him to be present during the personal report of a mili tary officer, a lieutenant who had charge of the arrest of the new prisoner. The lieute nant says that he is sure that they have caught the right man. The judge asks him why. The lieutenant answers that the pris oner has already been convicted several times for assaults; that fifteen years before he bought a vineyard of the murdered man; that he complained afterwards of the bargain; that
he sold the vineyard himself after keeping it ten years; but that he had to continue certain payments to the murdered man nevertheless; that after his arrest the neighbors’ tongues were loosed and one said the prisoner had said it was stupid to have to pay money to such an old fellow; and another said the prisoner had declared that it looked as if God had forgotten to take away the old follow. The lieutenant had also found that the prisoner owed money to the murdered man which would fall due about a week after the date when the murder was committed. The judge impresses the deputy by saying to him, "Singular coincidence," and asks whether the prisoner was in need of money. He learns that he had been borrowing lately. The lieutenant quotes the neighbors as saying that the prisoner was a surly fellow and they were not surprised by his arrest on such a suspicion, for he was the kind that could
have struck such a blow. And on the other hand, all the neighbors were favorable to the prisoner's wife, praising her as a model house keeper and good mother. They had two chil dren. The mother's morals were reputed to be irreproachable. The lieutenant then re called the fact that at the moment of the arrest the prisoner said to his wife, "I am caught." The judge wrote these things down. The deputy warms to the chase. The lieute nant adds that one of his soldiers can testify that he overheard the prisoner say to his wife, "Let nothing tempt you to admit that I went outside of our house last night." The lieutenant then proceeds to tell about what he learned from a witness for the defense,
the countryman who saw the vagabonds com ing from the murdered man's house-but the judge chides him before he can tell this story before the deputy, and says, "Oh, yes, I have
read that person's deposition. It is of no importance. Thanks. Prease write out your report and summon your witnesses." The lieutenant takes his leave. The deputy compliments the judge upon his power of divination, and asks how he ever came to suspect that prisoner. The judge says that finding out a guilty person is an art; that a good investigator is guided not so much by facts as by a kind of inspiration. But the deputy would like to know about the story of the witness for the
defense.
The judge tosses that off by saying
he is a false witness because he had some business with the prisoner, and accused the vagabonds, and besides he is a Basque and would like to cheat the court by a false oath. The deputy is still puzzled by the judge's unwillingness to entertain the theory of his predecessor. Then the judge counters by saying:,— "Why suspect the poor vagabonds? I am like you, Mr. Deputy, I know your love for the poor and lowly, and I do not direct my suspicions exclusively against the miserable creatures who have neither friends to help them nor bread to eat." The deputy ex presses delight at finding not only an able judge but one who shares his own profound ness of opinion, and says that now the news papers should oease attacks which they had begun against such a judge. The judge dis claims any such hope, for he says that he is willing to suffer as a magistrate any unpopu larity that may come from openly supporting as a citizen the candidacy of the deputy himself. The deputy is profuse in thanks, but warns the other to be prudent—to do things quietly—acoording to the advice of the keeper of the seals, to whom he refers by his Christian name. The judge asks, "Then you are intimate with Monsieur the keeper of the seals?" The deputy asserts with a signifi cant gesture, adding, "We had to do with the Commune together." The deputy takes up his hat to go and says. "By the way. what kind of a man is that prosecuting officer?" The judge replies, "Very attentive to his duties—even scrupulously so." "But I mean politically," says the deputy. "We cannot blame him for belong ing to a camp diametrically opposed to ours,"
