This dead man here met his just fate."
The audience cheered. The jury acquitted me without leaving their seats.
I walked a free man into the soft air of April. Douglas came out. His
manner was changed. He spoke to me in freedom and in the old tone of
friendship. "The boil is now open," he said. "The cut place will heal."
And he walked with me down the street followed by a cheering crowd.
Douglas had won the people; and I was free!
CHAPTER XVII
I began to see myself as boring through opposition with lowered head and
indomitable will. I was strengthened by the fact that I had never
swerved from my duty to Zoe. And now that the beast was out of the way
who had caused her so much agony, my whole life seemed cleared. The
McCall gang might cause me trouble, but they would need to come
prepared, or to catch me off my guard. The opening up of the whole case
had had a wholesome effect upon my reputation. The brotherly innocence
of my relation to Zoe was the generally accepted one. Reverdy assured me
of this. Douglas was a valiant friend to me in this clarification of my
nature and my character before the community. The whole atmosphere of my
life was now freer; but it had cost Lamborn his life to make it so. It
seemed best, however, that I should leave town for a while. I decided to
go to Cincinnati and then to Nashville.
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