The New
Yorker inclined his head silently and moved forward toward his wife.
Ridgway passed down the corridor and into the elevator.
As the days of the trial passed excitement grew more tense. The lawyers for
the prosecution and the defense made their speeches to a crowded and
enthralled court-room. There was a feverish uncertainty in the air. It
reached a climax when the jury stayed out for eleven hours before coming to
a verdict. From the moment it filed back into the court-room with solemn
faces the dramatic tensity began to foreshadow the tragedy about to be
enacted. The woman Harley had made a widow sat erect and rigid in the seat
where she had been throughout the trial. Her eyes blazed with a hatred that
bordered madness. Ridgway had observed that neither Aline Harley nor
Virginia was present, and a note from the latter had just reached him to
the effect that Aline was ill with the strain of the long trial. Afterward
Ridgway could never thank his pagan gods enough that she was absent.
There was a moment of tense waiting before the judge asked:
"Gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?"
The foreman rose.
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