ad
not proved to be so potent in lulling the suspicions of prospective
victims as he had expected it might be. But Alcatraz! a rock-bound
prison! a convict's garb! hard labor on soft diet! that was indeed
appalling.

"That man Loring has made you out an innate blackguard, Nevins. You've
got to plead for mercy," said his shrewd adviser, and Nevins saw the
point and plead. He laid before the court letters from officers of rank
speaking gratefully of his aid during the prevalence of yellow fever in
the Gulf States. He begged the court to wait until he could show them
the affidavits of many statesmen and soldiers, whom it would take
months to hear from by mail, and there was then no telegraph in Arizona.
He begged for time, for pity, and the court was moved and wrote to Drum
Barracks for instructions, and adjourned until the answer came, which it
did by swift stage and special courier within a week. "Advices from
Washington say that the congressional backers of the accused have
declared themselves well rid of him and suggest the extreme penalty of
the law," and this being the advice of Washington it was simply human
nature that the court should experience a revulsion of feeling and
consider itself bound to see that the poor fellow was not made to suffer
martyrdom. Most of the members were men from the volunteers or from the
ranks. West Pointers were the exception, not the rule, in the line of
the army for years after the war. Most of the court had been the
recipients of Nevins' exuberant hospitality at one time or other. He had
objected to the few who had lost heavily to him at cards, and the
objection had been sustained, and when the last day for the long
session arrived and a sad-eyed, pale-faced, scrupulously groomed and
dressed accused arose before the dignified array and the little line of
curious spectators, to make his last plea, a silence not unmixed with a
certain sympathy, fell upon all hearers, as in low voice and faltering
accents the friendless fellow began his story. Partly from manuscript,
which he seemed to find hard reading, but mainly as an extemporaneous
effort, his remarks were substantially as follows:

"I've come to make a clean breast of it, gentlemen. I'm not fit to wear
your uniform. I never was. I never wanted to. It was practically forced
upon me by men who ought to have known better, who did know better, but
who didn't care so long as they got me out of the way. My father as much
as owned more