Reading Time: 3 minutes [358 words]

LEO Hl. FRANE. 257

negro. He said it sounded as if a laugh was broken off into
ashriek, He heard it break through the stillness of the
hushed building. It was uncanny, but he sat faithfully on.
He was under orders. He was to come on sigual. That
scream was no signal. Later, Frank would stamp on the
the office floor.

‘This negro tells you that the white man killed the little
girl. But, no! Frank was in his office, busy with his won-
derful financial sheet. I will show you how he could have sat
at his desk and heard this negro attack the little child who
had come to draw her pay.

[4fr. Hooper turned to the diagram, showing the jury the
nearness of the metal room to Frank’s office, explaining hia
theory that nothing could have happened on the floor without
being heard or seen by Frank.]

Mr. Frank, I will give you the benefit of all you deserve.
‘When ail is summed up, you were sitting only a few feet
from the spot where a murder was committed, and you never
raised a finger. Let me show you something else. When this
thing was over there were two men and a woman upstairs
who had to get out the building before the body was moved.
It would be dangerous to leave it lying back in the metal
room, staring hideously from unseeing eyes. Frank went up-
stairs and told the trio up there that if they were going, it
was time for them to leave, as he was going to lock up the fac-
tory. He was in a hurry and told them so, Mrs. Arthur
White, perceiving his evident hurry, hastened downstairs.
‘When she reached the office, Frank, the man-in-a-hurry, was
in his shirt sleeves, writing at his desk.

‘Why should I hang? What does that showft In the first
place, his appreciation of a little girl of 14. Did it hurt him
to knot the rope of cord around her neck, did it hurt him as
he drew it tighter and tighter around the tender throat until
the dim spark of life was choked extinet? To the contrary.
It only excited him enough to ask himself the question “Why
should J hang?’ There come times when we all speak our
true thoughts and sentiments, That was such a time,

Related Posts