George S. Brooks

“You may ask”, said the plaintiff’s lawyer. He nodded to Lee Gould.

The attorney for the State Line and Southern Railroad got up wearily, glancing at the penciled notes he had made on the back of a company envelope. He was licked before he began this cross-examination. The woman would get every dollar she asked for. The jury was with her.

He looked at her appraisingly for a moment before he fired his first question. It was hard to upset a woman’s story, because women were never afraid of being prosecuted for lying.

She flushed a little under his steady gaze.

“Mrs. Rodgers, ” he began suavely, “I’m not going to question you about the railroad accident in which you claim to have received certain alleged injuries. We admit that such an accident occurred at the time and place and substantially in the manner described here. In fact the railroad did offer you, and still offers you a substantial sum of money to salve those injuries. After consulting your attorney you refused that golden salve. Is it correct? ”

“Yes, sir.”

“Upon the advice of your attorney, you came to trial in the hope of recovering greater damages? ”

“Yes, sir.”

“You ask us for twenty thousand dollars? ”

“That’s right.”

”Speak a little louder, so we can all hear you. Did your attorney tell you this was easy money? ”

“No.”

“You were in the hospital, in bed, in a private room. Your attorney was admitted. Did he tell you this was easy money? ”

“I don’t remember. She flushed.

“Why didn’t you mention this back injury when you were first admitted to the hospital, following the accident? ”

“I did.”

“I have here, Mrs. Rogers, a sworn record of the injuries you claim to have sustained. On this record I find that you did not tell the surgeon about a back injury after you had conferred with your attorney, twenty-four hours after the accident. Why was that? ”

“I don’t know.”

Lee Gould smiled. “Did your attorney tell you, after he had sent the nurse from the room, that a back injury was the one type of injury we could not disprove by medical testimony and X-ray pictures? ”

“No.” She flared up angrily.

“Did he tell you that when a patient refused to sit up, and groaned if the nurses moved her – “

“He did not tell me to groan.”

“Ah. You thought of that yourself, ” said Gould. “Today a full year after the accident, you are still wearing a surgical corset to support your back? ”

“I am.”

“You testified under oath that you would not be able to sit in that witness chair without your corset? ”

“I am not able to sit erect without it.”

“You heard your surgeon admit on cross-examination that if a normal uninjured person was strapped up in a surgical corset such as you are wearing for twelve months, the normal person would be unable to sit erect without support.”

“Something like that.” Her eyes snapped.

“That’s all, Mrs. Rogers.”

But he knew it was no use. Three jurymen had “Soak the railroad” plainly written on their faces, while four others were thinking, “Poor little woman! ”

“Easy money, ” he told them, when he summed up. “Damages against a railroad are easy money. Easy for this plaintiff to ask. Easy for you to award. But, gentlemen, in times like these, beware of easy money! ”

The judge’s charge was fair and brief. The jury retired. In forty minutes they returned. “We find for the plaintiff in the sum of twenty thousand dollars.”

Swinging his briefcase, Gould hurried down the street. He’d get the devil at the office. Twenty thousand dollars and costs! More than he could earn in two long years.

Eight o’clock already. No time for a decent dinner with his wife. He’d have to grab a bite at a counter and go up to the office. He was due in court at nine thirty tomorrow morning for the Reynolds suit, and it wasn’t even together yet.

He wondered why he’d let himself be sidetracked on these liability cases. If he could only afford to get away from it for a few months. Build up a decent practice of his own! ”

The railroad terminal building was deserted when he entered the lobby. He rang for the elevator.

The car came down, but it shot past the ground floor. Through the grill work and ground glass, Gould saw the old watchman tugging at the control switch. But the car did not stop. With a sickening crash that shivered glass three floors above, the cage hit the bottom of the pit.

“What a dandy action against the building! ” – was Gould’s first thought. “That old elevator was condemned twenty years ago.”

He ran down the fire stairs to the subcellar. Twisted and crushed like a pastebox lay the wreckage. He felt the watchman’s wrist. No pulse. Dead.

The lawyer wiped his forehead. “What an escape! ” he thought.” I might have been in the elevator.” Then another idea made him pause. Twenty thousand dollars. Two years pay. Easy money. He smiled. “On second thought, I w a s in the elevator.”

He crawled into the telescoped cage, squirmed under a twisted girder, lay on his back, closed his eyes.

“Oh! Don’t touch me. Don’t! My back! ” he cried, when the rescue party tried to move him.