Judge Dalton impatiently paced in front of the telegraph key. He looked at the clock on the wall: 9:46. He leaned on the desk.
"What is taking so damned long?"
"Lines are a little slow tonight, judge, the snow and all..."
"Need I remind you that a man's life is on the line?"
"No sir. You've already made that plain enough."
"Good. Then move it along."
Her voice was small, sad, "I should have come to you sooner."
Dalton's nostrils flared in anger. "You should never have perjured yourself in my courtroom, young lady." He let out a sigh of air to calm down. "But the truth is always better late than never."
Ruth Bradley looked into his dark eyes. "I don't understand why you can't just go over there and stop it yourself. It was your sentence after all..."
"Yes it was, but once I adjourn the court it becomes a matter of appeal, and I cannot repeal my own judgment. Not without a stay of execution from the Governor."
"What if it doesn't come through in time?"
He looked at her gravely. "Then an innocent man is going to die."
"That's insane. If you know he's innocent, why can't you just go there and stop it?"
"Because it's not within the law, Miss Bradley. It's the same reason Marshall Dillon won't do anything to stop it, even though he said all along that Dr. Adams wasn't guilty. We follow the law because it's all we have to keep order. Even if sometimes it doesn't work all that well, it works right more often than it does wrong."
"That isn't any excuse for killing an innocent man."
Dalton loomed in her face. "A man who's in this predicament because of you, Miss Bradley. Because of you."
Ruth Bradley sat down in a chair, and a moment later began to sob.