...
Taking another deliberate chew off his plug, he told us that after
mature deliberation the grand jury had decided that there was not enough
grounds for finding a true bill against us, and, as a consequence, we
were to be let go free.
* * * * *
The following morning I had the satisfaction of hearing from old
Jacklin, the jailer, that Womber, the owner of the warehouse, had
himself gone before the grand jury and informed them that he did not
wish to press the charge of burglary against us....
Womber, Jacklin said, had received my letter and at first had tossed it
aside ... even thrown it contemptuously into the wastebasket. But his
wife and daughter had raked it out and read it and had, day and night,
given him no peace till he had promised to "go easy on the poor boys."
This was my triumph over Bud--the triumph of romance over realism.
"I'm glad we're getting out, but there's more damn fools in the world
than I thought," he remarked, with a sour smile of gratification.
* * * * *
And now, with new, trembling eagerness, we two began waiting for the
hour of our release. That very afternoon it would be surely, we thought
... that night ... then the next morning ... then ... the next day....
But until a week more had flown, the sheriff did not let us go. In order
to make a little more profit on his feeding contract, averred our
prisoners.
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