Slocum's Breakout - Jake Logan [45]
“Where is he?” The warden asked the question, but nobody answered. The two guards with him exchanged looks and kept quiet.
Slocum turned when he heard a commotion at the front gate. He caught his breath when he saw Wilkinson escorting a man in his Sunday best to the gallows.
“It’s about time you got here, Mr. Durant,” the warden said querulously.
“Are you in a hurry, sir? You have somewhere else to be? I assure you, my client is willing to let you attend to other business and postpone this until another day.”
“Oh, shut up,” the warden said. “You’re here because you got the judge to let you witness the execution, nothing more.” The warden spun and stalked up the steps.
Slocum turned to see him emerge on the side of the condemned. Atencio looked nervous but resolved to his fate. Slocum didn’t turn away because that would bring him face to face with Sergeant Wilkinson. There might be an unscheduled execution if the guard recognized him.
“You’ve received the last rites of your faith. You have anything to say before I carry out your sentence for the state of California?”
Atencio shook his head. His knees buckled a little as the guards moved him onto the trapdoor. One fastened a sandbag around his ankles to make the drop hard and swift. The other placed the noose with the knot at one side, then added a black bag to hide his face.
The warden pushed one guard aside, gripped the lever with both hands, and yanked hard. Atencio fell like a stone. For a moment the rope remained taut, then it snapped where Slocum had cut through it. Beneath the platform Atencio cried out, gasping and choking and kicking.
“What the hell happened?” The warden shoved one guard to the steps. “Get him. Fetch the damned prisoner so we can do this again with another rope!”
“One moment!” Durant held up his hand as if he were a schoolboy wanting his teacher’s attention. “You can’t hang him again. Not today. The law won’t allow that!”
“The sentence was to hang him by the neck until he was dead.”
“Once. You get one chance only,” the lawyer said.
“Bullshit. He wasn’t properly hanged, so we keep trying until he is. I don’t care if it takes a hundred miles of rope!” The warden’s face turned an ugly beet color as his ire rose.
“Double jeopardy,” declared Durant. “You tried and failed. You can’t execute him a second time.”
“We didn’t do a first time!” Froth flecked the warden’s lips as he waved his arms around like a windmill.
“I’ll see you a prisoner in this rat hole if you try to execute my client a second time.”
The guards shifted uneasily as they held Atencio between them. The man’s knees were bent, and he hobbled as they tried to walk him to the steps leading back to the platform. They hadn’t bothered to remove the black hood.
“What are you saying, Durant?”
“I’ll get a court order. There’s no judge in this state who wouldn’t agree that a new sentencing is necessary. You’re not allowed to swing my client any number of times! Once! You get one try only!”
The priest edged closer to the warden and whispered to him. Slocum almost laughed when the furious warden cocked his fist back, as if to punch the padre. Then he dropped his arm to his side and came to the edge of the platform so he could glare down at the lawyer.
“Father Benjamin agrees with you. He said there’s been something like this happen before.”
“Precedence,” Durant crowed.
“You get the hell out of my prison, you shyster.”
“My client had better be in good condition when he’s ordered back to court. If he’s not, the judge will know the reason!”
“Get him out. Now, damn it, get him out of my prison!”
Slocum turned slowly so Wilkinson would already be facing toward the gate. For a heart-stopping instant they faced each other, but the sergeant’s attention was on Atencio and the guards supporting him. He strode to them.
“This way,” Slocum said, taking the lawyer’s arm and pulling him toward the front gate.
Durant jerked free and