The air of the court room was heavy for the place was crowded. Almost
everybody from Sabbath Valley that could come was there, for a great
many people loved Mark Carter, and this seemed a time when somehow they
must stand by him. People came that liked him and some that did not
like him, but more that liked him and kept hoping against hope that he
would not be indicted.
The hum of voices suddenly ceased as the prisoner was led in and a
breath of awe passed over the place. For until that minute no one was
quite sure that Mark Carter would appear. It had been rumored again and
again that he had run away. Yet here he was, walking tall and straight,
his fine head held high as had been his wont. "For all the world like
he walked when he was usher at Mary Anne's wedding, whispered Mrs.
Hulse, from Unity."
The minister and his wife kept their eyes down after the first glimpse
of the white face. It seemed a desecration to look at a face that had
suffered as that one had. Yet the expression upon it now was more as if
it had been set for a certain purpose for this day, and did not mean to
change whatever came. A hopeless, sad, persist look, yet strong withal
and with a hint of something fine and high behind it.
He did not look around as he sat down, merely nodded to a few close to
him whom he recognized. A number, pressed close as he passed, and
touched him, as if they would impress upon him their loyalty, and it
was noticeable that these were mostly of a humble class, working men,
boys, and a few old women, people to whom he had been kind.
Mrs. Severn wrote a little note and sent it up to him, with the
message, "Lynn is with your mother." Just that. No name signed. But his
eyes sought hers at once and seemed to light, and soon, without any
apparent movement on his part a card came back to her bearing the
words: "I thank you," But he did not look that way again all day it
seemed. His bearing was quiet, sad, aloof, one might almost have said
disinterested.
Mark's lawyer was one whom he had picked out of the gutter and
literally forced to stop drinking and get back on his job. He was a man
of fine mind and deep gratitude, and was having a frantic time with his
client, for Mark simply wouldn't talk: "I wasn't there, I was on Stark mountain, I am, not guilty," he
persisted, "and that is all I have to say."