When they arrived, they found Sol Greening and his married son Dan
sitting on the front steps. Mrs. Greening was upstairs, comforting the
young widow, who was "racked like a fiddle," according to Sol.
Sol took the constable around to the window and pointed out the body of
Isom stretched beside the table.
"You're a officer of the law," said Sol, "and these here primisis is now
in your hands and charge, but I don't think you orto go in that room. I
think you orto leave him lay, just the way he dropped, for the coroner.
That's the law."
Frost was of the same opinion. He had no stomach for prying around dead
men, anyhow.
"We'll leave him lay, Sol," said he.
"And it's my opinion that you orto put handcuffs on that feller," said
Sol.
"Which feller?" asked Bill.
"That boy Joe," said Sol.
"Well, I ain't got any, and I wouldn't put 'em on him if I had," said
Bill. "He told me all about how it happened when we was comin' over.
Why, you don't suspiciont he done it, do you, Sol?"
"Circumstantial evidence," said Sol, fresh from jury service and full of
the law, "is dead ag'in' him, Bill. If I was you I'd slap him under
arrest. They had words, you know."
"Yes; he told me they did," said Bill.
"But he didn't tell you what them words was about," said Sol deeply.
The constable turned to Sol, the shaft of suspicion working its way
through the small door of his mind.
"By ganny!" said he.
"I'd take him up and hand him over to the sheriff in the morning,"
advised Sol.
"I reckon I better do it," Frost agreed, almost knocked breathless by
the importance of the thing he had overlooked.
So they laid their heads together to come to a proper method of
procedure, and presently they marched around the corner of the house,
shoulder to shoulder, as if prepared to intercept and overwhelm Joe if
he tried to make a dash for liberty.
They had left Joe sitting on the steps with Dan, and now they hurried
around as if they expected to find his place empty and Dan stretched
out, mangled and bleeding. But Joe was still there, in friendly
conversation with Dan, showing no intention of running away. Frost
advanced and laid his hand on Joe's shoulder.
"Joe Newbolt," said he, "I put you under arrest on the suspiciont of
shootin' and murderin' Isom Chase in cold blood."
It was a formula contrived between the constable and Sol. Sol had
insisted on the "cold blood." That was important and necessary, he
declared. Omit that in making the arrest, and you had no case. It would
fall through.
Joe stood up, placing himself at the immediate disposal of the
constable, which was rather embarrassing to Bill.
"Well, Bill, if you think it's necessary, all right," said he.
"Form of law demands it," said Sol.
"But you might wait and see what the coroner thinks about it," suggested
Joe.
"Perliminaries," said Greening in his deep way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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