The House Behind the Cedars

Book Excerpt: en upstairs for examination under a criminalcharge. Warwick recalled vividly how the shothad rung out. He could see again the livid lookof terror on the victim's face, the gathering crowd, the resulting confusion. The murderer, he recalled, had been tried and sentenced to imprisonmentfor life, but was pardoned by a mercifulgovernor after serving a year of his sentence. AsWarwick was neither a prophet nor the son of aprophet, he could not foresee that, thirty yearslater, even this would seem an excessive punishmentfor so slight a misdemeanor.Leaving the market-house, Warwick turned tothe left, and kept on his course until he reachedthe next corner. After another turn to the right, a dozen paces brought him in front of a smallweather-beaten frame building, from which projecteda wooden sign-board bearing the inscription: --ARCHIBALD STRAIGHT, LAWYER.He turned the knob, but the door was locked.Retracing his steps past a vacant lot, the youngman entered a shop where a colored man waRead