The Glass Village

From the crowd of women in the church doorway came the voice of Rebecca Hemus, a shrill challenge. “So a Cudbury jury can let him go, the way they let that Joe Gonzoli go when he murdered my brother-in-law Laban?”

“But that was a case of self-defense,” protested Adams.

Hubert Hemus said, “He ain’t gettin’ out of our jurisdiction, Mr. Adams, and that’s that.”

Judge Shinn touched Adams’s arm. The lawyer stepped back, shrugging.

“That’s fine talk from the First Selectman,” said the Judge. “For twenty years and more, Hube Hemus, Shinn Corners has looked to you for counsel and leadership. How do you expect your children — all these children — to grow up respecting law and order when you set such a poor example?”

Hemus shifted his rifle suddenly and spat. “Seems to me you got it wrong, Judge,” he said in a mild voice. “It’s law and order we’re upholdin’. Aunt Fanny Adams was one of us — born here, growed up here, married here, buried her husband Girshom and her children here, did all that paintin’ that made her famous here, and she died here. We’re a community. We take care of our own. Our law enforcement officer arrested Aunt Fanny’s murderer, a coroner’s jury of our electors brought in a findin’, and we aim to follow right through as our just due. We don’t need no outside help, didn’t ask for none, don’t want none. That’s all there is to it, Judge. Now I’m goin’ to ask you, Sheriff, and you, Captain Frisbee, to kindly get on out of Shinn Corners and take your men with you. We got to go to church service.”

“Do you talk about church, Hube Hemus?” cried Samuel Sheare. “Where’s your humility? Have you no shame, carryin’ a gun on the Lord’s day, incitin’ your neighbors to do the same — yes, even to the steps of the house of the Lord’s congregation? And defyin’ the mandate of the law, in the persons of these men who are only doin’ their sworn duty? You’re the instigator and ringleader, Hubert Hemus. Come back to your senses. Talk your neighbors into comin’ back to theirs!”

Hube Hemus said gently, “We had a town meetin’ last night, Mr. Sheare. You were there. You know this matter was voted on in the manner prescribed by town regulations, and minutes were duly taken of the proceedin’s. You know nobody had to talk nobody into nothin’. You know there wasn’t a single nay vote on the motion exceptin’ yours and Mrs. Sheare’s.”

The minister looked over his congregation, at those whose dead he had buried, whose sick he had comforted, whose troubled he had given faith — at the brides and the grooms, the mothers and the fathers, at the children he had received into his church. And everywhere he looked, the familiar faces were rock, implacable.

Mr. Sheare made a small gesture of despair and turned away.

“I’m saying it again,” said Hube Hemus to the sheriff and the policeman. “Go away and leave us to our own.”

Sheriff Mothless jammed his straw hat over his ears. “What is this, a dime-store revolution? Shinn Corners secedin’ from the forty-eight states? You folks stop this time-wastin’ tomfoolery and stand aside! Captain Frisbee, do your duty!”

The captain nodded at the two police cars. Ten troopers climbed down into the road. They shuffled to form a line. Then they came slowly up from the north corner and turned into the church walk, feeling their holsters.

The thin arc of village men and boys began to finger their guns.

Johnny watched, fascinated.

“Stop right there, please!” Judge Shinn’s voice cracked out like a rifle shot. The advancing troopers glanced at their captain; he nodded, and they halted. The Judge turned to his fellow townsmen. “May I say something more? This is the United States of America, neighbors, one of the few places left on earth where men live by just laws, or try to, and where the law is the same for all. I told you only Friday on the green there what some men are trying to do in our country, how they are undermining the legal structure that protects the principle of equal justice for all, what a catastrophe this could be if it isn’t put a stop to. Yet what do I find less than forty-eight hours later? My own neighbors proposing to commit the same criminal folly!

“One of the keystones of our system of law is the protection of the rights of accused persons. We proudly guarantee that every person charged with a crime — no matter who he is, no matter how sickening his offense — that every such person get a fair trial, in a court of competent jurisdiction, before a jury of responsible citizens, with open minds, so that they may weigh the facts of the case without prejudice and arrive at a just decision.