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“Those hed, a big booreat wisdom not to respond to their first report, but to let them draw their own conclusions as to what should be done”

“Yes, sir, it most certainly ise of you” Hensen was often aard He licked the point of his pencil Roosevelt perched on the edge of his desk, e of congratulations

“What ato this project!” the president exclaimed

Chapter 90

PHINEAS EVERSMAN’S FIRST ACT was to release two of the five prisoners He told us it was for lack of evidence, but I assumed there was some family connection (There had to be; this was Mississippi) I was so surprised and impressed that the chief had actually arrested the other three men that I offered no word of protest

The three still in custody were named Chester Madden, Henry Wadsworth North, and, ironically enough, Lincoln Alexander Stephens, a man whose name evoked both the Great Emancipator and the dwarfish vice-president of the Confederacy Henry North was the redheaded bully I’d encountered before, at Jenkins’ Mercantile

Soertown Trial” Others called it “the White Raiders Trial” The New Orleans Item dubbed it “That Mess in Eudora” Whatever people called it, everyone was obsessed with it

The citizens of Eudora were divided on the issues, but they certainly weren’t evenly divided A sroup welco Raiders But ht the Raiders were being treated unfairly

The Eudora Gazette, a weekly four-sheeter usually devoted to social notes, was now publishing five days a week, churning out a breathless new front-page report on the White Raiders Trial every day The foran, was a whirl of energy, placing expensive telephone trunk calls nearly daily to consult with his “unimpeachable sources of information in the capital”

Japheth Morgan had never worked this hard before He was losing weight and sarettes, one after another He had dark circles under his eyes

“You’d best settle down a bit, Japheth,” LJ told hi the death of you”

“But you don’t understand,” Japheth answered “For me and for the Gazette, this isn’t the opportunity of a lifetime, it’s the trial of the century!”

The trial of the century

As soon as he said it, I kneas true This was the trial of the century—not just for Eudora, not just for Mississippi, but for the entire country

Chapter 91