Both
were constrained to remark that, in the view of Dick's confession, it
would go very hard with him; they could see no chance of escape for
him. Joey, however, urged David to contribute something toward
engaging the services of a clever lawyer who at least might save him
from the gallows. He stated that Ernie, after stubbornly maintaining
his own innocence, refused to pay out money for an attorney,
preferring to let the state provide counsel for him, under the law.
There was no mention of Braddock in either letter, for obvious
reasons.
Then the letter came from Mary Braddock. It was addressed to
Christine. The mother's heart cried out in the opening pages. David,
at least, could read between the lines. There were the tenderest
protestations of love and the most confident of prophecies, uttered
with a buoyancy of spirit that convinced and delighted the girl, who
had been so hungry for reassuring words. A new radiance enveloped her.
But he saw beyond the wistful, carefully considered sentences. He saw
the shadow of Thomas Braddock at the elbow of the woman as she wrote.
Near the bottom of the second page she abruptly took up the subject
which was, after all, uppermost in the minds of these anxious young
people.
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