Free The Just And The Unjust by James Gould Cozzens Page B

regiment and got a bullet through his hip at Chancellorsville. In those days it was not the fashion to be embittered or disillusioned by such an experience, so what Linus Coates looked was simply grown-up, self-possessed, ready for responsibilities. When, years later, the duty confronted him as a judge, you could understand how he sentenced men to hang, just as he said, without loss of appetite.
    As though to emphasize the point, George Stacey came in then, headed for the lavatory. Seeing Abner at the telephone, he said, 'Well, how's the assistant superintendent of the waterworks?'
    'You're a hard man, George,' Abner said. 'Shut up, will you? Yes. Mr. Foulke. Mr. Foulke, this is Abner Coates. Mr. Bunting is in court Can I help you?'
    Earl Foulke's voice was high and rapid, and hearing it, Abner could see Earl's face, his prominent pale eyes magnified by his silver-rimmed glasses, his lips tucked in over his toothless gums — he put in his teeth only when he held what he took care to call, not a hearing, but Court; or when he performed marriage ceremonies under a portable white-painted wood arbour covered with artificial roses which stood ready in the corner of his parlour. When his teeth were not in, the ends of his scanty, scraggly long moustache hung well below his chin. Earl owned and Wore a black frock coat — one of the only two such garments remaining in the county (the other belonged to a Baptist minister who wore it at rustic funerals). He was a preposterous figure, and even the farmers of Kingstown Township could see that he was; but Earl had been Squire for twenty-five years, and Abner supposed that the voters kept re-electing him because they felt that he now had a vested interest in the office; and, moreover, was too old and incompetent to go back to farming for a livelihood.
    As well as preposterous in appearance, Earl was stupid and officious; and Marty, who had been obliged to straighten out several senseless legal snarls in which Earl had involved both himself and the district attorney's office, no longer regarded Earl as merely pathetic or comic. Earl Foulke was a damned old nuisance who ought to be forcibly retired. It was an opinion that Abner was obliged, in common sense, to share.
    'Yes, Mr. Foulke,' Abner said when Earl seemed to have finished. 'We know about the Williams case. That was assault and battery. Marty has your transcript, I know. He'll want to see Mrs. Williams —'
    'Now, just a minute, just a minute, Ab,' Earl Foulke said. An annoying habit of Earl's was his trick of beginning in the middle. He would describe a situation and ask what he should do; and when he was told, he began at once to scruple or object; and in support of his objections, he trotted out new, not-before-mentioned circumstances leading up to or ensuing from the situation described, which, Earl was quite right in maintaining, certainly did change the picture.
    'Oh, Lord!' said Abner to himself. 'Well, Mr. Foulke,' he said, 'I'm afraid you couldn't do that. You accepted bail for Williams' appearance here in court, you know. That exhausts your jurisdiction.'
    Earl Foulke's voice went squeak, squeak, squeak; and Abner said, 'No, Mr. Foulke. It's impossible. You wouldn't be competent; a justice of the peace isn't allowed — no, I can't off-hand cite the act, or whatever it is. You must have one of those handbooks. Your powers are defined there. Marty wouldn't have any authority to do it. Even Judge Irwin or Judge Vredenburgh couldn't authorize you to reopen the case, because it is out of your hands. If Williams decides to plead guilty, he'll have to come in and tell Marty. He can't just go to you —' Sudden suspicion seized Abner, and he said, 'You haven't done anything about it, have you?'
    'Course I did something about it!' shrilled Earl Foulke. 'Tell you exactly what I did. I want to amend the record, my record —' With each new phrase his voice got higher and higher; a nervous, obviously alarmed, gabbling.
    'Mr. Foulke,'