An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

amazing development in connection with Clyde, it had been

quite generally assumed that Belknap, once nominated,

would be elected. And although Mr. Kellogg did not quite

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870

trouble to explain to Catchuman all the complicated details

of this very interesting political situation, he did explain that

Mr. Belknap was a very exceptional man, almost the ideal

one, if one were looking for an opponent to Mason.

And with this slight introduction, Kellogg now offered

personally to conduct Catchuman to Belknap and

Jephson’s office, just across the way in the Bowers Block.

And then knocking at Belknap’s door, they were admitted

by a brisk, medium-sized and most engaging-looking man

of about forty-eight, whose gray-blue eyes at once fixed

themselves in the mind of Catchuman as the psychic

windows of a decidedly shrewd if not altogether masterful

and broad-gauge man. For Belknap was inclined to carry

himself with an air which all were inclined to respect. He

was a college graduate, and in his youth because of his

looks, his means, and his local social position (his father

had been a judge as well as a national senator from here),

he had seen so much of what might be called near-city life

that all those gaucheries as well as sex-inhibitions and sex-

longings which still so greatly troubled and motivated and

even marked a man like Mason had long since been

covered with an easy manner and social understanding

which made him fairly capable of grasping any reasonable

moral or social complication which life was prepared to offer.

Indeed he was one who naturally would approach a case

such as Clyde’s with less vehemence and fever than did

Mason. For once, in his twentieth year, he himself had been

trapped between two girls, with one of whom he was merely

playing while being seriously in love with the other. And

having seduced the first and being confronted with an

engagement or flight, he had chosen flight. But not before

laying the matter before his father, by whom he was

advised to take a vacation, during which time the services

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of the family doctor were engaged with the result that for a

thousand dollars and expenses necessary to house the

pregnant girl in Utica, the father had finally extricated his

son and made possible his return, and eventual marriage to

the other girl.

And therefore, while by no means sympathizing with the

more cruel and drastic phases of Clyde’s attempt at escape

—as so far charged (never in all the years of his law

practice had he been able to grasp the psychology of a

murderer) still because of the rumored existence and love

influence of a rich girl whose name had not as yet been

divulged he was inclined to suspect that Clyde had been

emotionally betrayed or bewitched. Was he not poor and

vain and ambitious? He had heard so: had even been

thinking that he—the local political situation being what it

was might advantageously to himself—and perhaps most

disruptingly to the dreams of Mr. Mason be able to

construct a defense—or at least a series of legal

contentions and delays which might make it not so easy for

Mr. Mason to walk away with the county judgeship as he

imagined. Might it not, by brisk, legal moves now—and

even in the face of this rising public sentiment, or because

of it,—be possible to ask for a change of venue—or time to

develop new evidence in which case a trial might not occur

before Mr. Mason was out of office. He and his young and

somewhat new associate, Mr. Reuben Jephson, of quite

recently the state of Vermont, had been thinking of it.

And now Mr. Catchuman accompanied by Mr. Kellogg. And

thereupon a conference with Mr. Catchuman and Mr.

Kellogg, with the latter arguing quite politically the wisdom

of his undertaking such a defense. And his own interest in

the case being what it was, he was not long in deciding,

after a conference with his younger associate, that he

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would. In the long run it could not possibly injure him

politically, however the public might feel about it now.

And then Catchuman having handed over a retainer to

Belknap as well as a letter introducing him to Clyde,

Belknap had Jephson call up Mason to inform him that

Belknap & Jephson, as counsel for Samuel Griffiths on

behalf of his nephew, would require of him a detailed

written report of all the charges as well as all the evidence

thus far accumulated, the minutes of the autopsy and the

report of the coroner’s inquest. Also information as to

whether any appeal for a special term of the Supreme

Court had as yet been acted upon, and if so what judge had

been named to sit, and when and where the Grand Jury

would be gathered. Incidentally, he said, Messrs. Belknap

and Jephson, having heard that Miss Alden’s body had

been sent to her home for burial, would request at once a

counsel’s agreement whereby it might be exhumed in order

that other doctors now to be called by the defense might be

permitted to examine it—a proposition which Mason at once

sought to oppose but finally agreed to rather than submit to

an order from a Supreme Court judge.

These details having been settled, Belknap announced that

he was going over to the jail to see Clyde. It was late and

he had had no dinner, and might get none now, but he

wanted to have a “heart to heart” with this youth, whom

Catchuman informed him he would find very difficult. But

Belknap, buoyed up as he was by his opposition to Mason,

his conviction that he was in a good mental state to

understand Clyde, was in a high degree of legal curiosity.

The romance and drama of this crime! What sort of a girl

was this Sondra Finchley, of whom he had already heard

through secret channels? And could she by any chance be

brought to Clyde’s defense? He had already understood

that her name was not to be mentioned—high politics

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873

demanding this. He was really most eager to talk to this sly

and ambitious and futile youth.

However, on reaching the jail, and after showing Sheriff

Slack a letter from Catchuman and asking as a special

favor to himself that he be taken upstairs to some place

near Clyde’s cell in order that, unannounced, he might first

observe Clyde, he was quietly led to the second floor and,

the outside door leading to the corridor which faced Clyde’s

cell being opened for him, allowed to enter there alone. And

then walking to within a few feet of Clyde’s cell he was able

to view him—at the moment lying face down on his iron cot,

his arms above his head, a tray of untouched food standing

in the aperture, his body sprawled and limp. For, since

Catchuman’s departure, and his second failure to convince

any one of his futile and meaningless lies, he was more

despondent than ever. In fact, so low was his condition that

he was actually crying, his shoulders heaving above his

silent emotion. At sight of this, and remembering his own

youthful escapades, Belknap now felt intensely sorry for

him. No soulless murderer, as he saw it, would cry.

Approaching Clyde’s cell door, after a pause, he began

with: “Come, come, Clyde! This will never do. You mustn’t

give up like this. Your case mayn’t be as hopeless as you

think. Wouldn’t you like to sit up and talk to a lawyer fellow

who thinks he might be able to do something for you?

Belknap is my name—Alvin Belknap. I live right here in

Bridgeburg and I have been sent over by that other fellow

who was here a while ago—Catchuman, wasn’t that his

name? You didn’t get along with him so very well, did you?

Well, I didn’t either. He’s not our kind, I guess. But here’s a

letter from him authorizing me to represent you. Want to

see it?”

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He poked it genially and authoritatively through the narrow

bars toward which Clyde, now curious and dubious,

approached. For there was something so whole-hearted

and unusual and seemingly sympathetic and understanding

in this man’s voice that Clyde took courage. And without

hesitancy, therefore, he took the letter and looked at it, then

returned it with a smile.

“There, I thought so,” went on Belknap, most convincingly

and pleased with his effect, which he credited entirely to his

own magnetism and charm. “That’s better. I know we’re

going to get along. I can feel it. You are going to be able to

talk to me as easily and truthfully as you would to your

mother. And without any fear that any word of anything you

ever tell me is going to reach another ear, unless you want

it to, see? For I’m going to be your lawyer, Clyde, if you’ll let