The Gardener's Son by Cormac McCarthy Read Free Book Online Page B

confessor, nodding sagely, hand at his mouth. On the witness stand is Captain Giles.
    C APT . G ILES No sir. He fired the last shot from the door. I saw Captain Gregg cross the room towards the safe. I accosted McEvoy and he said that he’d shoot any man that drew a pistol on him. He ran out the door and Captain Gregg came to the door and fired once after him and then there was another shot from the street and Captain Gregg collapsed.
    M R W IGGINS Captain Giles, did you see a pistol in Captain Gregg’s hand when you first saw him in his office after McEvoy fired?
    C APT . G ILES No sir, I did not. I believe he must of got it from the safe. Dont know that Captain Gregg was in the habit of going armed.
    Interior. Courtroom. Dr Campbell on witness stand.
    D R C AMPBELL He asked me what I thought of his condition and I told him, James, I said, you know gunshot wounds in the abdomen are very uncertain, and he said: If you say so, I will die certain. Then I asked him if he meant his statement about the shooting to be a dying declaration and he said yes, said he did. He said he had two policies of life insurance and he wanted to show that he hadnt started the difficulty. I was present on the train when his declaration was read back to him. He was in pain and very weak but he was able to sign it under oath.
    Robert McEvoy at table with his lawyers is chewing tobacco. He leans and spits carefully into a spitoon at his feet and continues chewing.
    Interior. Courtroom. Stark Sims (office boy) on stand.
    J ORDAN Who do you work for, son?
    S TARK S IMS I work for Mr Giles. I dont know who was there fore me. I do what he tells me. Otherwise I’d get turned off.
    J ORDAN And what are your duties?
    S TARK S IMS I go for the mail when the train comes. I bring the freight bills. Eat my meals at home.
    J ORDAN And you saw Robert McEvoy shoot Captain Gregg.
    S TARK S IMS Yes sir. Just like I done told it. I’d done eat. I’d been back about twenty minutes.
    J ORDAN And when the shooting started you just stood there? You didnt take cover?
    S TARK S IMS They wasnt nobody shootin at me.
    J ORDAN I see. Thank you.
    W J Whipper (black counsel for the defense) rises.
    W HIPPER I’d like to examine the witness if I may.
    Jordan looks at him with surprise, gives a slight bow, not quite disdainful', and relinquishes the platform to Whipper.
    W HIPPER Master Sims, did you also run errands for Captain Gregg?
    S TARK S IMS Yessir. For him and Captain Giles both.
    W HIPPER Did Captain Gregg ever give you messages to take to any of the girls in the mill?
    Counselor Jordan, sitting at his table, raises his eyebrows. The prosecutor looks toward Jordan.
    S TARK S IMS Yessir.
    W HIPPER And what did those messages say?
    S TARK S IMS I dont know.
    W HIPPER You dont know.
    W HIPPER Were the notes sealed?
    S TARK S IMS No sir.
    W HIPPER And you never looked at them? Never even peeked at one of them?
    S TARK S IMS No sir. Wouldnt of done me no good to.
    W HIPPER And why is that?
    S TARK S IMS I caint read.
    There is a long silence. Whipper looks from Sims to the prosecutor to the table where McEvoy sits with his lawyers and to the jury. All look back with no expression at all.
    Interior. Oil lamp-lit kitchen in a negro shack. The kitchen is the temporary law office of Mr Whipper and there are lawbooks in a cabinet behind him and books open on the table and legal pads and a quill and inkcruse. Mr Whipper s black face is lightly beaded with sweat and he speaks to the man across the table from him, who is Mr McEvoy.
    W HIPPER Mr Jordan says that your son wont hang. What do you want me to tell you?
    M R M C E VOY I dont know. I caint be satisfied in my mind. I got no friends to tell me right. Folks turn their head in the street. I know my boy done wrong. But he aint like they’re tryin to make him out. If my boy were a Gregg he’d not even be tried.
    W HIPPER If your son were black he’d not be tried.
    M R M C E VOY If they was to send him to the penitentiary