Eugene sat back a bit, his gaze steady on the man. "Yes, suh."
Goode gave the jury a pointed look. "A colored man and a white woman in the same
house?"
Cotton was on his feet before Goode finished his question. "Judge, you can't let him do
that."
"Mr. Goode," said Atkins, "y'all might do that sort of thing on down Richmond way, but
we don't in my courtroom. If you got something to ask the man about this case, then you
do it, or else sit yourself down. And last time I checked, his name was Mr. Eugene
Randall, not 'boy.' "
"Right, Your Honor, certainly." Goode cleared his throat, stepped back, and slid his
hands in his pockets. "Now, Mister Eugene Randall, you said in your expert opinion that
you were two hundred feet or so from the charge, and that Mr. Skinner was about half
that distance from the dynamite and such. You remember saying all that?"
"No, suh. I says I was eighty feet in the mine, so's I was two hunnerd and twenty feet
from the charge. And I says I found Diamond a hunnerd and twenty feet from where I
was. That mean he be a hunnerd feet from where I set the dynamite. I ain't got no way to
tell how far he got blowed."
"Right, right. Now, you ever been to school?"
"No."
"Never?"
"No, suh."
"So you never took math, never did any adding and subtracting. And yet you're sitting up
here testifying under oath to all these exact distances."
"Yep."
"So how can that be for an uneducated colored man such as yourself? Who's never even
added one plus one under the eye of a teacher? Why should this good jury believe you up
here spouting all these big numbers?"
Eugene's gaze never left Goode's confident features. "Knowed my numbers real good.
Cipher and all. Take-away. Miss Louisa done taught me. And I right handy with nail and
saw. I hepped many a folk on the mountain raise barns. You a carpenter, you got to know
numbers. You cut a three-foot board to fill a four-foot space, what 'xactly have you
done?"
Laughter floated across the room again, and again Atkins let it go.
"Fine," said Goode, "so you can cut a board. But in a pitch-dark twisting mine how can
you be so sure of what you're saying? Come on now, Mister Eugene Randall, tell us."
Goode looked at the jury as he said this, a smile playing across his lips.
" 'Cause it be right there on the wall," said Eugene.
Goode stared at him. "Excuse me?"
"I done marked the walls in that mine with whitewash in ten-foot parcels over four
hunnerd feet in. Lotta folk up here do that. You blasting in a mine, you better dum sure
know how fer you got to go to get out. I knowed I do 'cause I got me the bad leg. And
that way I 'member where the good coal veins are. You get yourself on down to the mine
right now with a lantern, mister lawyer, you see them marks clear as the day. So's you
can put down what I done said here as the word of the Lord."
Cotton glanced at Goode. To him the Commonwealth's attorney looked as though
someone had just informed him that heaven did not admit members of the legal Bar.
"Any further questions?" Atkins asked Goode. The man said nothing in response but
merely drifted back to his table like an errant cloud and collapsed in the chair.
"Mr. Randall," said Atkins, "you're excused, sir, and the court wants to thank you for
your expert testimony."
Eugene stood and walked back to his seat. From the balcony Lou observed that his limp
was hardly noticeable.
Cotton next called Travis Barnes to the stand.
"Dr. Barnes, at my request you examined the records pertaining to Jimmy Skinner's
death, didn't you? Including a photograph taken outside the mine."
"Yes, I did."
"Can you tell us the cause of death?"
"Massive head and body injuries."
"What was the condition of the body?"
"It was literally torn apart."
"You ever treated anybody injured by a dynamite explosion?"
"In coal mining country? I say I have."
"You heard Eugene testify. In your opinion, under those circumstances, could the
dynamite charge have caused the injuries you saw on Jimmy Skinner?"
Goode did not bother to rise to offer his objection. "Calls for speculation from the
witness," he said gruffly.
"Judge, I think Dr. Barnes is fully competent to answer that question as an expert
witness," said Cotton.
Atkins was already nodding. "Go on ahead, Travis."
Travis eyed Goode with contempt. "I well know the sorts of dynamite charges folks up
here use to get a bucket of coal out. That distance from the charge and around a shaft
curve, there is no way that dynamite caused the injuries I saw on that boy. I can't believe