Honoré Willsie

“ Life is not a clean-cut guilty or not guilty, and the just judge knows it. Life is made up of acts directed by impulses impalpable to those who have no spiritual antennae. And the just judge will pronounce no man guilty until he has touched the mind and soul of the accused at the very quick. Ingeborg, you are mistaking a withdrawal from all human sympathies for cold justice. There is no such thing as cold justice, because no man is capable either of feeling or administering it. ”

“ Tell me, Judge, just what would you expect of a man capable of doing murder?"
"What makes you so sure I consider you capable of having murdered?" Ingeborg folded her arms on her breast and looked at Heber defiantly.
He rose suddenly and stood before her, eye gazing steadily into eye. "Look here, Ingeborg, let there be no evasions between you and me. I know you now. I know that your profession is a fetish that permits no other worship. Your god is a jealous god. ”

“ It was mid-afternoon when Ingeborg made her statement: an afternoon of desert spring with shadows clear and hard on the sand. It was very hot and the wind twisted the dust up and down the street in endless whirling spirals. The entire population of Olla, including babes in arms and burros, attended the meeting. Here had been no such excitement in Olla since tea years before when a Mexican had been lynched in old Gilbert's corral. ”

“ Heber spoke slowly. "You are unlike any woman or man either that I have ever met."
"I am not at all unlike a man!" returned Ingeborg. "I try to handle what has always been a man's profession in a man's way. You all want me to handle it like a woman and fail. I refuse to do so, therefore I am queer."
There was another long silence, then Heber asked, "Do you like the desert any better than you did?" ”

“ In the mountainside on the level of the bench gaped the black mouth of a tunnel. They crossed the level slowly.
Seated against the doorway, his lags straight before him, his head on his chest was Lincoln Cresswell. There was a huge red stain on the breast of his outing-shirt. There was no sign of a struggle. A miner's candlestick with an unburned candle in it lay on the stones beside him.
Ingeborg looked from the pathetic broken figure to the surrounding rock. "No sand to tell tales here," she said softly. ”

“ Cresswell"
"Did you tell Molly Fish that my wife is getting a divorce from me because of that French girl and the baby?"
"Yes, I did; and it is true."
Cresswell stared speechlessly at Ingeborg for a moment, then he shouted: "I'll not have any alleged she lawyer putting her nose into my business! You keep off my preserves, Miss Olson, or I'll make Olla too hot for you."
"Mr. Cresswell," Ingeborg rose slowly, "I shall take any decent business that is offered me without regard to you or any one else. Crookedness is crookedness whether it emanates from friends or enemies." ”

“ Heber turned toward her in the starlight, "Why did it fall, Ingeborg?"
"You warned me," she answered, "that the desert had strange influences. And the desert has taken my heart and restrung it to its own pitch! Its warmth and beauty have drugged me!"
"No, not drugged you!" cried Heber eagerly. "Not drugged you! Nowhere in the world is life more real than here in the desert! Our passions are nearer the surface, that is all. The naked austerity and harshness and beauty of the desert develop all our latent loves and hates and fears to the point where they erupt at a prick. ”

“ Olson put a worn hand over her face, nor see Ingeborg go suddenly to her mother and put a strong arm over her shoulder, nor did he hear her say with a strangely moving note of tenderness in her voice:
"Mother! Mother! Help me! I'm trying so hard to do the right thing by father! Don't fail me! You've always been strong!"
But Lincoln went on to the office and repeated what he had heard to Heber. "Cold as ice, I tell you, Heber! I could have wept for the poor old woman."
"She's a pathetic figure," agreed Heber. ”

“ The sheriff looked at her with equal earnestness. "Miss Olson," he said, "it can't be done! It never has been done. Human beings ain't made that way. You got to adjust the law to the case in hand. At least if you don't do it down in this desert country you don't last long. After you've been a judge a little white, you'll come to that."
"But you just told me," protested Ingeborg, "that I'd won the confidence of the public by administering cold justice!"
After a moment the sheriff said: "I bet Heber regrets taking that fellow Cresswell in as a partner. He's a bad egg, that man! ”

“ A hundred feet up this mountainside lay the mine tunnel from whose opening an aerial tramway dropped to the mill, a tall red building standing gaunt and crude on the mesa. To the north of the mill, at the foot of the peak, was the wet mess of the sump. Beyond this the little sheet-iron office, the long gray line of the boarding-house, and beyond these, tent houses, gray against the yellow mountain. Evans drew up before the last three of the tents.
"Several miners have quit recently," he said, "and zinc's so low I don't expect to take on any more men for a while. ”

“ Then Heber said slowly: "One curse of a legal training is that it develops one's natural distrust of human beings to the nth degree. You'd suspect your own mother of crime."
"My own father stole!" Ingeborg's voice was unbelievably bitter.
"And so your lover must have committed murder!" Heber's parched lips twisted sardonically. His eyes watched the guttering candle. Ingeborg did not stir until the spluttering wick slipped through the ring to the floor. Then with shaking hands she adjusted a fresh candle to the holder. ”

“ Fort heaven's sake, after such a clean job of shooting, why didn't you make a clean get away?"
INGEBORG was sick at heart and afraid; afraid of the strange new Ingeborg that she had not known existed; afraid of that woman within her who recognized neither law nor the accepted order of life; the woman on whose knees Heber's head had rested; the woman who, had actual danger menaced that unconscious form, would have killed joyfully to protect it; the viking woman, fierce, primeval, tender, who went singing down to the sea in ships and knew the wonders of the deeps of love ”

“ There was an air-tight stove in a tray of sawdust in the center of the crude room used as the office of the hotel. It was the supper hour and there was no one in the room save Ingeborg's father, who sat hugging the red-hot stove. Ole Olson was a splendid ruin of a man. Ingeborg in feminine form was a replica of what Ole must have been in his youth. Still in his early fifties, in spite of his emaciation and pallor, he gave a sense of force. ”

“ Then the judge went out into the kindly desert night.
HEBER was waiting for her. They did not speak until once more they were on the steps of the little house at the Frangi Panni. Then, as he sank down beside Ingeborg, Heber said sternly:
"Now, let's have it out."
"First," said Ingeborg, "I want to thank you for what you've done for my father. It is very generous."
"It's not generosity. It's desert justice if you will! There are so few of us out here that we understand each other's sufferings and punish accordingly. Ingeborg, what are you going to do?" ”

“ Wait till I see Lincoln!"
"My father deserves punishment," said Ingeborg. "He's a hard, miserly man. He never had pity on me or any other human being where money was concerned."
"Yes, that's probably true." Heber drew a long breath. "But after all he's your father and he's frantic with homesickness. I don't think you have any idea how he and your mother are suffering from homesickness. I have seen T.B. patients kill themselves down here who were less frantic for home than your father is. There's Cresswell, now!" ”

“ Evans, Miss Olson?" he asked. "I'm going into the mining business with him."
"I heard you struggling with John and Nip this afternoon, Miss Olson," said Heber. "You had my sympathy."
"I didn't need it, really," Ingeborg answered with a smile. "I don't mind these people in the least. After all, people are the same the world over."
"Don't you think it!" exclaimed Heber. "The desert does something to people that is hard to put into words. It loosens up some of the strings of their characters and tightens others. You'll learn some new facts about folks if you stay here long enough, Miss Olson." ”

“ When she reached the corral, her father was standing at the bars. "So Evans is free!" he exclaimed, the first pleasant smile on his face that Ingeborg had seen there for many a day.
Ingeborg nodded and pulled the saddle off the gray mare. "Who told you?"
"He did. I heard that old flivver and I yumped out here, and here he was!"
Ingeborg gave a glance at the office. "I'm dead tired," she said, starting hastily up the trail toward the tents. "I'm going to sleep until supper-time." ”

“ You're their lawyer, he says."
"It's an unfortunate situation," said Ingeborg, her cheeks paling. "But the law must run its course. When are you going up to the mine? I want to be with my mother."
"Well, Cresswell wants me to go now, but hanged if I don't wish I would sprain my ankle." He looked at Ingeborg curiously. "You're a cool one. I expected to find you crying—like a woman should ought to be, under the circumstance!" he finished sternly.
"Would you expect a man lawyer to weep?" snapped Ingeborg.
"No, but I'd expect him to get his dad out of trouble!" retorted Nip. ”

“ John rose slowly and turning to the door against which he had been leaning he unlocked and opened it, disclosing a dirty stairway. When Ingeborg had followed him, Nip turned to the young man who had been a silent spectator.
"We don't want any hen lawyer in Olla, do we, Heber?"
THE newcomer was perhaps thirty years of age, olive of skin and brown of eye, with something free and eagle-like in his thin, clean-cut face.
"I didn't know you owned Olla, Nip!" he said. "It's a free country and a woman can be a lawyer if she wants to be." ”

“ Molly drank, then looked at Ingeborg curiously. "You have manners like a nice man. I—I—Miss Olson, do you honestly know much about the law?"
"I had to know a decent amount to be admitted to the bar, didn't I?" demanded Ingeborg. "I handled a number of divorce cases in Wisconsin, and I was attorney for a man indicted for murder and won the case. I had a number of petty cases besides."
"Well, I guess it's as hard to trust a woman lawyer as it is a woman doctor," sighed Molly.
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Ingeborg. "Women doctors won their place long ago, except in backwoods spots like Olla. ”

“ A life-long habit of self-control is a very firm rock in time of panic. Gradually a sense of shame brought sanity to Ingeborg. With set teeth she took her candle in her bleeding fingers and crept onward until once more the heat and weariness compelled her to rest while she listened, listened. ”

“ Evans is very generous to you," she said.
Ole's expression was half disdainful, half triumphant. "He is a man! He knows yust what it is to be crazy homesick and half dead. He never hated his father. He ain't ben that kind."
"I hate you, father," said Ingeborg, looking at him with a new expression in her clear blue yes, "just about as much as you hate me and in the same way."
Ole returned her look with eyes very similar to her own. "I know yust what's the matter with both of us," he said with a sudden smile. "We both ben crazy about Heber Evans!" ”

“ Ingeborg shrugged her shoulders. "Well, all your life you've worshiped money. I can't expect you to change now."
"I'll show you!" repeated Ole. "You thought if you kept all the money away from me I couldn't get back to Madison. I'll fool you yet. Somehow, anyhow, I'll get the money together and I'll get home. Drawing me down here in this hell to die from your fool American ways! I'll show you!"
And he disappeared out of the door followed by Olga. Ingeborg again shrugged her shoulders and went to bed. ”

“ Ole jumped from his seat "It's a lie. She——"
"Sit down!" thundered the judge. "You keep your fool mouth shut or you'll land yourself in jail yet! Anything else?"
"Nothing," said Ingeborg, "except the information I had from Mr. Evans and Mr. Cresswell. They state——"
"Don't want to hear it!" snorted the judge. "Nothing but first-hand evidence goes in this case."
"But your honor," pleaded Ingeborg, "this is not customary court procedure!"
"What the deuce do I care?" shouted the little man. "As Brody told you, I'm a cowman and not a lawyer. That's why the people elected me to this job. ”

“ When they had done, Nip turned to Ingeborg, "Do you think you can help me to get Lincoln down to the car?"
Ingeborg hesitated, then squared her shoulders. "I'm plenty strong enough," she said, "if you'll show me just how you want it done."
Rolled in blankets and for the most part lowered by ropes, it was not difficult to land poor Cresswell in the tonneau of the car. The sheriff cranked the engine and started slowly back to Olla.
"A good clean job," said Nip. "He didn't leave a trace behind him. Chose a spot where stones tell no tales and took the gun with him. ”

“ And Ingeborg moved off slowly down the trail.
WHEN she passed the Rainy Day the next morning, there was no sign of the partners. She was obliged to pass through Olla on her way to Palomas. There was an unprecedented number of loungers about her door, but they were doomed to disappointment, for she rode through without stopping.
Palomas with its fifteen hundred souls was a seething metropolis compared with Olla. But Ingeborg had no eyes for comparisons. On the sandy main street she stopped a small boy and asked him the way to the jail. ”

“ She hates to appear before Olla as prosecuting her own father. And I suppose she's smart enough to know how to break ha contract legally. But she's got enough of the old man to hate to give up her only paying prospect, and she won't do it No real woman could be a real lawyer. Her feminine tenderness won't let her. But nowhere in her icy interior has this person got a spark of filial feeling!"
He stopped for breath, looking from Heber to the young lawyer. Ingeborg stood, shoulders back, chin up, with a dignity in her silence that made Heber feel that she needed no defense. ”