will you slay a man because he is the victim of fear? And
again, after all, if a man has once and truly decided that he
cannot and will not endure a given woman, or a woman a
man—that to live with her could only prove torturesome—
what would you have that person do? Marry her? To what
end? That they may hate and despise and torture each
other forever after? Can you truly say that you agree with
that as a rule, or a method, or a law? Yet as the defense
sees it, a truly intelligent and fair enough thing, under the
circumstances, was done in this instance. An offer, but
without marriage—and alas, without avail—was made. A
suggestion for a separate life, with him working to support
her while she dwelt elsewhere. Her own letters, read only
yesterday in this court, indicate something of the kind. But
the oh, so often tragic insistence upon what in so many
cases were best left undone! And then that last, long,
argumentative trip to Utica, Grass Lake, and Big Bittern.
And all to no purpose. Yet with no intention to kill or betray
unto death. Not the slightest. And we will show you why.
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986
“Gentlemen, once more I insist that it was cowardice,
mental and moral, and not any plot or plan for any crime of
any kind, that made Clyde Griffiths travel with Roberta
Alden under various aliases to all the places I have just
mentioned—that made him write ‘Mr. and Mrs. Carl
Graham,’‘Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Golden’—mental and moral
fear of the great social mistake as well as sin that he had
committed in pursuing and eventually allowing himself to
fall into this unhallowed relationship with her—mental and
moral fear or cowardice of what was to follow.
“And again, it was mental and moral cowardice that
prevented him there at Big Bittern, once the waters of the
lake had so accidentally closed over her, from returning to
Big Bittern Inn and making public her death. Mental and
Moral Cowardice—and nothing more and nothing less. He
was thinking of his wealthy relatives in Lycurgus, their rule
which his presence here on the lake with this girl would
show to have been broken—of the suffering and shame
and rage of her parents. And besides, there was Miss X—
the brightest star in the brightest constellation of all his
dreams.
“We admit all that, and we are completely willing to
concede that he was, or must have been, thinking of all
these things. The prosecution charges, and we admit that
such is the fact, that he had been so completely ensnared
by this Miss X, and she by him, that he was willing and
eager to forsake this first love who had given herself to him,
for one who, because of her beauty and her wealth,
seemed so much more desirable—even as to Roberta
Alden he seemed more desirable than others. And if she
erred as to him—as plainly she did—might not—might not
he have erred eventually in his infatuated following of one
who in the ultimate—who can say?—might not have cared
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987
so much for him. At any rate, one of his strongest fear
thoughts at this time, as he himself has confessed to us, his
counsel, was that if this Miss X learned that he had been up
there with this other girl of whom she had not even so much
as heard, well then, it would mean the end of her regard for
him.
“I know that as you gentlemen view such things, such
conduct has no excuse for being. One may be the victim of
an internal conflict between two illicit moods, yet
nevertheless, as the law and the church see it, guilty of sin
and crime. But the truth, none-the-less, is that they do exist
in the human heart, law or no law, religion or no religion,
and in scores of cases they motivate the actions of the
victims. And we admit that they motivated the actions of
Clyde Griffiths.
“But did he kill Roberta Alden?
“No!
“And again, no!
“Or did he plot in any way, half-heartedly or otherwise, to
drag her up there under the guise of various aliases and
then, because she would not set him free, drown her?
Ridiculous! Impossible! Insane! His plan was completely
and entirely different.
“But, gentlemen,” and here he suddenly paused as though
a new or overlooked thought had just come to him,
“perhaps you would be better satisfied, with my argument
and the final judgment you are to render if you were to have
the testimony of one eye-witness at least of Roberta
Alden’s death—one who, instead of just hearing a voice,
was actually present, and who saw and hence knows how
she met her death.”
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988
He now looked at Jephson as much as to say: Now,
Reuben, at last, here we are! And Reuben, turning to
Clyde, easily and yet with iron in his every motion,
whispered: “Well, here we are, Clyde, it’s up to you now.
Only I’m going along with you, see? I’ve decided to
examine you myself. I’ve drilled and drilled you, and I guess
you won’t have any trouble in telling me, will you?” He
beamed on Clyde genially and encouragingly, and Clyde,
because of Belknap’s strong plea as well as this newest
and best development in connection with Jephson, now
stood up and with almost a jaunty air, and one out of all
proportion to his mood of but four hours before, now
whispered: “Gee! I’m glad you’re going to do it. I’ll be all
right now, I think.”
But in the meantime the audience, hearing that an actual
eye-witness was to be produced, and not by the
prosecution but the defense, was at once upon its feet,
craning and stirring. And Justice Oberwaltzer, irritated to an
exceptional degree by the informality characteristic of this
trial, was now rapping with his gavel while his clerk cried
loudly: “Order! Order! Unless everybody is seated, all
spectators will be dismissed! The deputies will please see
that all are seated.” And then a hushed and strained silence
falling as Belknap called: “Clyde Griffiths, take the witness
chair.” And the audience—seeing to its astonishment,
Clyde, accompanied by Reuben Jephson, making his way
forward—straining and whispering in spite of all the gruff
commands of the judge and the bailiffs. And even Belknap,
as he saw Jephson approaching, being a little astonished,
since it was he who according to the original plan was to
have led Clyde through his testimony. But now Jephson
drawing near to him as Clyde was being seated and sworn,
merely whispered: “Leave him to me, Alvin, I think it’s best.
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989
He looks a little too strained and shaky to suit me, but I feel
sure I can pull him through.”
And then the audience noting the change and whispering in
regard to it. And Clyde, his large nervous eyes turning here
and there, thinking: Well, I’m on the witness stand at last.
And now everybody’s watching me, of course. I must look
very calm, like I didn’t care so very much, because I didn’t
really kill her. That’s right, I didn’t. Yet his skin blue and the
lids of his eyes red and puffy and his hands trembling
slightly in spite of himself. And Jephson, his long, tensile
and dynamic body like that of a swaying birch, turning
toward him and looking fixedly into Clyde’s brown eyes with
his blue ones, beginning:
“Now, Clyde, the first thing we want to do is make sure that
the jury and every one else hears our questions and
answers. And next, when you’re all set, you’re going to
begin with your life as you remember it—where you were
born, where you came from, what your father did and your
mother, too, and finally, what you did and why, from the
time you went to work until now. I may interrupt you with a
few questions now and then, but in the main I’m going to let
you tell it, because I know you can tell it better than any
one.” Yet in order to reassure Clyde and to make him know
each moment that he was there—a wall, a bulwark,
between him and the eager, straining, unbelieving and
hating crowd—he now drew nearer, at times so close as to
put one foot on the witness stand, or if not that to lean
forward and lay a hand on the arm of the chair in which
Clyde sat. And all the while saying, “Yay-uss—Yay-
uss.”“And then what?”“And then?” And invariably at the
strong and tonic or protective sound of his voice Clyde
stirring as with a bolstering force and finding himself able,
and without shaking or quavering, to tell the short but
straitened story of his youth.
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990
“I was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My parents were
conducting a mission there at that time and used to hold