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Show ' 3 I ulaetMystery of the Summer 'cJ-louse I CHAPTER XVI. The Trial and Verdict. T would be Impossible to hate I anyone in I more thorough and whole-souled way than I hated that wretched mnn In the dork, and I yet 1 thought nothing rould be much J more offcns.ve or In worse taste than the apologetic kind of sniile which the Crown prosecutor put on hil face when he rose to address the jury. It was as much as to sny. "I I really ought to ask your pardon for rising up to expound to you a ca?a B that is so puerilely clear. It is, of course, an insult both to your In-telllgc-nce and to mine, but the forms of law require that 1 should do so " And as he laid the evidence be-fore be-fore them, with that clarity which. I suppose long practice makes easy, it did seem to establish his case quite beyond possible debate. A woman bad been found stabbed to death in a lonely Summer-house. A man had admittedly made an assignation to meet that woman in that Summer-house at the very hour at or about which it was Bhown by '.ho doctor's evidence that the fatsl wound musl have been given It was proved tha. tho woman left her own house, and left it secretly on the night in qnes-tion. qnes-tion. and there could surely be ne reasonable doubt In the mind of any one of the twelve intelligent men who had heard the evidence H , that she left it with the special purpose of meeting that man He did not wish to complicate the case or confuse the Issue by I raising any question about ;lm point whether the man bad 01 bad not been the lover of the woman. Really, with the evidence which they had before them, that became almost Immaterial But what did eeem in every respect mos prob-able prob-able was that the man had come down from Iondon with the ex-press ex-press design not only of meeting fl the woman, but also of Inducing I 1 her to flee with him Foi wliat other purpose v. pre these two rugs which be admitted to have brouitht? Then aaln on the quite Impossible Impos-sible hypothc-is of the innocence of the accused, what conceivable fl motive could there be for his hur ried flight? Ir vould undoubtedly be the endeavor of the defence, as II foreshadowpd by the questions asked of the witnesses on that 6ide and especially by the answers of the accused himself, to suggest that he had fled in order th;i his I name might not be brought into the case at all, so that he might ' avoid compromising the lady It was a little late, perhaps, for (he second consideration to occur to i him, but. of course, the whole ex- j planation was unworthy of pres- Ientation as a serious argument to ' Intelligent men. It was suggested that the accused ac-cused was so fluttered and put about by hearing of the tragedy that he resorted to this extraordinary extraordi-nary flight in order to avoid being brought into the case. But how was his name any the less likely to be brought in because he himself him-self was abroad" In all the inevitable inevi-table advertisement given to his name as a consequence of hi? flight It wan brought into Infinitely greater prominence than if he had Just remained in bis lodgings, and as to being flustered, so as to hac lost bis Judgment, was that in accordance ac-cordance with the behavior of a man who pationtlj wa'ted over the Sunday in order tha' he might have money from 'hi bankers on the Monday morning'' The hypothesis was so perfectly absurd that the very fact that it could be put forward for-ward was only the most striking witness to the weakness of the defence de-fence which had to be attempted. Ho commented at some length on the absence of the knife and on fjjj the non-success of the police in finding it. but dismissed it as really of no account as a negative wit ness much in the same way as Sergeant Ser-geant Crisp bad dismissed it when ' talking to me: but then he came to another curious point to which he said he attached value equally J little with that of the non-appear- ance of the knife, but which he was convinced, from the trend of his questions, his learned friend for ,'! the defence Intended to set up as ft highly important that was the somewhat curious position in which the key had been found. 'It is not essential to my case," '1 be told the Jury, "that I should es- I tablish a motive for the dreadful I deed of which It is the view of the prosecution that the accused is I proved to have been guilty levers' quarrels may notoriously arise on very little provocation, especially in tie heated atmosphere which ap- n.n.-nilJ IV!. "The lady," he told the jury, "althc consenting to meet him, was far fr ready to take so decisive a step l to fly with him, and on this rod it is most probable that thev would split, a violent dispute dis-pute would arise, culminating culmi-nating in that tragic termination ter-mination which we know" i time In the neighborhood of Scot-ney Scot-ney House. It is not strictly the business of the prosecution to produce pro-duce a motive. But seeing that my learned friend will undoubtedly try' to base an argument, with his customary cus-tomary acumen, on tho absence of any obvious motive, I will suggest to you that which seems to have in it a very high degree of prob ability, namely, that the accused, with his two rug.- and his chauTeur-less chauTeur-less car. had designed an elopo-ment. elopo-ment. and thai the ladv. although consenting to mpet him was far from ready to take so decisive a 6tep as to fly with him. and on this rock it is most probable that thej would split, a violent dispute would arise, culminating in that tragic termination which we know "Obviously, from the lightness of the lady's attire, she bad no long motor drive in prospect She hrd taken with her nothing which would bear any evidence of her In tention for any such final step. She did not Intend to flee with her lover. And it Is under this head that I may anticipate somewhat of the probable argument of m learned friend in respect to the position of the key. "It may be argued that ! could only have been fouDd where it lay on the supposition that it had been thrown there by the lady herself, and from that it is but a step to the conclusion that she would onlv so have thrown it away if she had no intention of returning Other wise it would have lain where it was dropped, either in the Sum iner house or on the palb That is a line of argument which the defence de-fence may conceivably adopt but I will readily show you that l Il entirely unconvincing fn its major premise, which is that no othei agency than Lady Carlton's own ugh om . . v as , R ca -v. mm m ' "Mim W 1 t it hand could bare directed f to the plat e where it was found. "There are, on the contrary, many other conceivable agencies. Children going to and from the housy may have seen it and thrown it away, but besides this, we have been told by Mr. Llvesay, the keeper, that there was a rookery in tho trees of the shrubbery The larcenies of all birds of the corvine kind are notorious, so notorious that it is indeed extremely impossible impos-sible that such an attractive small object as a small bright key would have been allowed to remain for long undisturbed on the path And there are doubtless manv other birds and little animals in the wood which would bo liable to pick up and carry for a short distance such an object as that In fact, the position of the key is a.- evidence, evi-dence, perfectly valueless, and I will ask you to dismiss it from your minds in respect of any possible pos-sible hearing that It might be claimed to have on the case about which you will shortly pass your verdict "And then we have the statement, state-ment, on the accused's own showing, show-ing, that he left his place of assignation, assig-nation, left It without any farther attempt al e ing his lady love, at 9 C0, Just half an hour after tho time appointed i . that a probable statement 9 Is It likely that a man having hired a car and driven himself him-self all that way between thirty aud forty miles, should go back again without granting the lady t 4 v longer than thirty minuter' leeway? lee-way? The idea is preposterous. "What then will the defence ask you to believe? I suppose thcy wlll admit that Iady Carlton is dead, and that she waa done to deatli by someone. Whom then will they assert to he the guilty person, or how was' the death perpetrated, per-petrated, if not In the manner I em suggesting to you? Is it tho idea that the lady, after such long delay, for which no motive or reason rea-son whatever can be suggested, did eventually como out after her lover so strangely, easil wearied of his watch, had goue away? And What then? Will it be presented to you as a reasonable proposition that some tramp or casual person hidden in the bushes murdered her? Then, if that bo so. I would have you ask yourselves, 'For what purpose"' Not a ring or trinket was taken from the lady s person. Obviously that is not tbe way in which the murder was committed." I should run on to far too great length and should be guilty of much tedious repetition if I wero to record all the points, or anything like all. raised by the counsel for tho Crown and argued as it was his professed business to argue them Tho above seem to mo. according to the best of my recollection, to ho the principal ones. He concluded with a brief dissertation disser-tation to the jury on the character of circumstantial evidence, admitting admit-ting that in this case the evidence war. purely of whal is called tho circumstantial nalure. but adding that it was nearly impossible that it sh6uld be of any other kind, that this was the evidence on which convictions con-victions were obtained in the large maJorit of cases of homicide, and that to deny the convincingness of such circumstantial evidence as he had been able to produce in the present case would be virtually equivalent to an assertion that no circumstantial evidence whatever could form the ground of conviction convic-tion Probably to most persons who are not occustomed to hear pleadings plead-ings in court the side of anv case which is first presented appears absolutely conclusive, when argued by a skilful advocate, and will continue con-tinue to appear so until the ar?u ment on the other side is brought forward. For my own part, listen ing to this indictment of the wretched man who had so often been a guest at our table, it seemed to rae that there was no possible loophole of escape for him that the halter was as good as round his neck already, and a glance at his own despairing face assured me that this was his own conviction also. And then the counsel for the defence de-fence arose, and I could not but feel a momentary pity for him also, that he should have to appear In a cause so hopeless. He called no wltnessea I understand that if lie had done so it would have given counsel for the prosecution a right to reply and of the last word, always al-ways except for the Judge's summing sum-ming up with the Jury. I could hardly conceive that he would have a word to say. and I had looked to see the hopelessness Of It all expressed on his face likewise, like-wise, and to hear it in his voice as, for mere form's sake, he endeavored endeav-ored to stammer out some lamp words Somehow I could hardly bring myself to feel vengeful toward that poor tortured wretch in the dock, no matter how bl.ick his crimes were. I glanced at Uncle Ralph to whether I could read his feelings, but his face was set like a rock and quite Inscrutable Inscrut-able YVbilo I was so looking at uncle's face and wondering at the chance which the last few months had wrought on it I heard the defend Ing counsel beginning his speech, and in the very tone of voice, be-- be-- fore I caugitf any hint of his words' 4Js ( : I - meaning, quite a new view and possibility pos-sibility about the case begau to dawn on me. Ills tone was more than confident, it was even tinged v, Ith much condescension toward "what my learned friend is pleased to call tho 'evidence' which he has laid before you" Ho did, indeed, express himself as considerably embarrassed about the line he should take in reply, because for the life of him, search as ho would, he could find no question worth tho answer. 'Defence," he observed. "Implies attack, Implies something against which one has to defend oneself, but here where is the attack, where is that against which we have to find defence? Out of such a farrago of irrelevant statement and comment It is exceedingly dif flcult to splert any single point for refutation, but using the chaotic material which is the best that my learned friend was able to supply us with, I will do what little I can. 'The truth is. however, that there Is virtually no case for me to meet, no argument on which you gentlemen of the Jury can pass opinion. What is it, in the end. that the prosecution, after all this trouble, this assemblage of witnesses, wit-nesses, these weeks and months of inquiry and preparation, has suc-ceed'ed suc-ceed'ed in proving? That 1-ady arlton ia3 murdered, stabbed to. death in the Summer-house! Who denies If Further, that on the same night that Ladv Carlton was so murdered Captain Vlbart motored mo-tored down from London with the very purpose of meeting her' Who denies that either? But for any such fact as that Captain Vibart was In any way concerned in her murder as that he laid a hand upon her. or even as that, he so much as saw her that night, tho prosecution has not produced a siuglo tittle or Jot of evidence. 'My client has given you a pr-lectly pr-lectly reasonable and coherent account ac-count of his actual doings on that night, and the prosecution has not ;thlo to pick a hole or find a flaw in his narrative It all hangs together; It has the obvious im- 6' press of simplicity and truth. " - t Whereas, on the other hand, com- Wet; plimenting with a moment's consideration con-sideration the truly ridiculous theory of the crime which the I Crown has laid before you, what a number of preposterous supposi- ( Wr tlons it entails! What are all these W fabips that my learned friend had to tell you about this latter day Incarnation of Hie Jackdaw of Rheims picking up the key which I-; had been dropped in the path and carrying it into the bushes? Does i it not Indicate the ludicrous frailty f of his case if he has to attempt to bolster up its crumbling structure itii -uch fairy tales from a child's first natural history book as these? I do not in the. very least wish, j ; as the super-acute perspicuity of , my learned friend led him to anticipate an-ticipate to point any moral or to ? adduce anv theory from the position posi-tion of the key It is not for the h Joi- r.r fence. ;t is for the prosecu- m tion to bring forward a theory which will sustain the attacks of !; re ' oneri argument, a theory cap- able of proof. It is Just thl3 in which the prosecution has so la- iVr mentably failed and thereby, by giving me so little to answer, has made my task so hard If any theorv was to be drawn from tho situation of tho key. it would ba Je Inevitably, as my learned friend W h.' foreseen, that it was throwa there by Lady Carlton's own hand, she having no further use for it, F since she went to meet and to flee with her lover. I "That being her intention an I: intention clearly indicated by the F position of the key, as well as by other confirmatorv testimonies gL how i It possible for the prosecu- n tion to put forward as a motive for the commis-lon of the crin." a ( , nu.rrl between the man urging QubbH ber to fly and the weman strenuously strenu-ously resisting his persuasions "." Counsel waxed very eloquent under un-der this head of his argument, while I was wondering, as I con- w sldered the stolid faces of tbe Jury- fcjj ; men, how many of them had real- R T' Ized his trickery in making a strong appeal by means of argu- ft ment based on the very fact, the fii key's pontlon, which he had begun by saying that he would not think of using j&r He passed to the point made by the prosecution of Aunt Enid's slight attire and general lack of preparation for a Journey. This, he urged, which the Crown had chosen for evidence that she had not premeditated flight, was. if viewed in its true light, the strongest strong-est evidence of Its premeditation. For. naturally, he argued, sho would not take with her such trav- - -oiling apparatus as would adver- Wm ' tise her Intention of going on a All her preparations would ba H ( directed toward hiding that Inten- ; tion. so that when her absence was REl discovered (which sho would not Dm expect to happen until the follow- IwL in morning) search should be re I . tiirted to the neighborhood of tha house, the grounds and so on; for it would be easily proved that sho had not taken a ticket at the nearest near-est railway station, where she was well known And. in confirmation, there was the positive evidence of tho two rugs, which the accused i had returned to his rooms from the garage purpoe'y to fet. h j Surely it was manifest to i h j meanest intelligence that the mur- IS& dered lady bad come from the house in such array as would leat direct suspicion to the rummer of . afc1 her flignt and had so gone to meet her lover, but by some accidental circumstance which they could not possibly ascertain, but which it was extremely easy to imagine, she had been dciaved. so that 'Vhen sho did come tho lover was tone. He went on to deal with the argu ment of the prosecution that it was not reasonable to suppose that a man who had made so long a journey jour-ney to meet his lady would tire of waiting for her in so short a space Mn? as half an hour But, he maintained, main-tained, in order to pass a right judgment on this point, it was essential es-sential to recall all the circumstances. circum-stances. It was not to be supposed (Continued on Xrxt Paaei Hi fl 9 I 3 fascinating f)dective Story SfLroce 3utckuscm I fCotif mufd rom rrt'fding rage) II for a moment that bis client would have been In a remarkably equable IrM state of mind He did r ". Invito K toe Jury to any such improbable hypothesis On the contrary, it was very rtaln ,nar h waa ,n R highly nervous, excited, wrought up B This would be so by reason of WLm his recent narration with Sir I k Ralph, the husband, by reason of Ha- ! Bis anxiety for the woman whom Hflj he loved and whom he had brought Hl into a pajifloni and gneous sltua B tlon by that love, by reason of the lateness of the hour, by reason of B the danger both to htm and to her Bj If bo should be disco FWd thtlw H were a thousand reasons why ho should not he in a very patient Yet she did not come He who had driven nearly forty miles to HH meet her was at bis post fully I J twenty minutes before the time ap- HJ ! pointed She. who had but a few f score yards to walk, did not arrive dl not arrive W hat ould be detaining her? If It wore illness. H which was. of course, the surposi- tlon which would oct ur to him, the H certainly would not be able to rome HH at all, If unable to bo punctual ' I within thin in In ItW mn f It appear now as If thirty minute-; had been an uncommonly long I margin for him to allow for un-punctuallty un-punctuallty or accidental delay "However that may all be." be went on. "it Is certain that he did remain for Lalf an hour, walking to and fro uneasily, fvni at the risk of being teen as he actually was and then at length he went hack, dlsappo! it oj of hlfl hope. 'Eventually. It is evident that the lady, for whatever reason she bad delayed very probably she had feared .being seen did come forth, did repair to that fatal Summer-house, only to find the man whom 6he had come to meet gone' What was 6he to do? Imprudently she had thrown sway the key which might have given her means of regaining the house without a soul knowing lhat aba had left It i What was she to do? "The problem was solved for her In tragic fashion It is probable that the coming of my client, rap-tain rap-tain Vlbart. had been observed by some roadside tramp It Is likely thattho vagrant would be attracted by the captain's strange act In tfiarai i leaving his ar. with lights out. by H I the roadside, it Is probable, that Hj such an able-bodied beggar, with H hl6 curiosity aroused, would follow H stealthily behind my client, going along the shrubbery path Ho Fl would watch him going to tho Sum H mer-bouse and. himself unseen. RH I would crouch in the bushes, walt- H ing for what should happen next. fH "For well-nigh an hour thore hap- Vkk penfl nothing, thai the cap- H tain. In bis impatience, once or j twice paced up the little path and Hnl looked expectantly toward the IHH bouse. Once a girl. Matilda Man- IV son. came from tho direction of tho H Ij bouse Just before one of these JB I promenades of the impatient lover, and stood watching him Uj ute, even as he stood, looking and Mnj looking In Jk "All this the lurking man wo ltd U see. and then, to his disappont- H ment the Interest of the night lor MifA- htm would seem to h for the .waiting man decided to H wait no longer Ho went back in B the direction whence he had come. H toward the road and toward his fl "We may suppose the tramp lfl dragging himself from the bushes FS and preparing to follow him. but Just as ha la about to take the first Rflj steps he thrown a look back and Km tbete sees at length and Just too late that figure coming for which H the man whom he had watched had Ij been waiting It Is a woman. If'-, daintily dressed, w ith rich Jew elry This be sees as she passes bim closely and goes on to the Summer house. I "Along the deeply shadowed f aouthern side of the little path h follows her, waits until she Is well H within the house, then, with a spring and a stab, ho has felled H' her. abe is at his mercy. But at B this moment be Is alarmed by some k dlstan' sound, he Is trrrirv-d at bis Hi own act from murderer he turns Ht coward he ' leave.; bis victim HJi where she lies and flies, one of the HJ unknown, submerged tenth. The Hl vagrant murderer . seen no more, fl "Such, gentlemen." he said. "Is HI my theory of the manner in which HHB committed, T would point out to you that it la by no means tho business of the defence to lay before you the manner man-ner In which the deed waa done. It suffices for our purpose to convince con-vince yon of the Impossibility of Its commission by the band of the accused; and of that impossibility I am confident you must all feel convinced, even though the strongest strong-est piece of evidence to iat -ffect still remains for me to expound to you. "My (llont. a; Is establish' d and admitted, left Iondon for the Continent Con-tinent by the 2:30 p. m. train by Folkestone and Poulogn". giving himself time, to negotiate a loau with his bankers b f .re ho started It was the necessity for raising that loan which kept him in this (ouotry over the Sunday, when the banks were chut. But, on the theory of tho prosecution, what In the world was there to prevent his arranging his loan on the Saturday morning nnd going across on that day? Sirc'y if he knew of the tragedy at all. and deemed it to make it advl aW ihat he should leave the country, this is what he would have done. He would have left the country nt the earliest possible pos-sible opportunity that Is, say. by the afternoon boat on Saturday, instead in-stead of Monday. ! not that evident" evi-dent" "But tot reason why he did not, in fact, go on the Saturday, gentlemen, gentle-men, is exceedingly obvious. It is because he had not the slightest Idea of what had happened in the Summer-house of Scotnoy House shrubbery after bis leaving it on the Friday night. Had he known of 'hat dreadful occurrence unquestionably un-questionably he would have been off on the Suturday As it wao. it was not until the Saturday evening, eve-ning, long after the closing of the banks, that he read the account in the evening papers. Then he wai. we may suppofe. In a fever to be off "I am not asserting, gentlemen, that he acted wisely In r,- doing-very doing-very far from It it was. indeed, in my opinion, nothing less than a disastrous step for him to take, because be-cause it was one which must Inevitably In-evitably raise a prejudice against him in your minds Evidently, gen-tlemeu, gen-tlemeu, my clleut rather lost his head. It would have been far better bet-ter bad he stayed at home and met the charge which is now brought against him forthwith But be acted, as he believed, for the best He bad an idea that in going he took his name out of the case, as h took himself out of the country, and in some measure saved the reputation of the woman he loved from the compromising association with him which was otherwise bound to fall on it. As a matter of fact, he did but injure her fair fame the more br his Ul-adTled though well-intentioned act. and at the same time brought himself into a position exceedingly liable to misconstruction." Counsel went on to traverse almost al-most all that his "learned brother" bad said about the value or the r!r umstantlal evidence, on which the Crown relied, arguing that it hardly amounted to evidence reall7 hearing on the point at issue at all. He touched on a great many facts and points, all of which, in his skilful skil-ful handling of them and In my uncritical un-critical Judgment, seemed to prova ihe extreme Improbability, to say no more, of Captain Vibart's being the nvirdercr and eoncluded with a very solemn adjuration to tha Jury, bidding thui remember that It was no lens grave a thing than a nan's life, i nd therewith a man's honor, which depended on their verdict, and thst each would have singly and severally to account for It to his own CODSClencS If he were to be so misguided from the truth as to condemn an Innocent man. I cannot say that at the conclusion conclu-sion of his speech I had the verv smallest doubt In my own mind to what my verdict would be were 1 one of the twelve on whom the terrible responsibility rested. 1 should unhesitatingly have voted for a verdict of "Not guilty." But, of course, we were not yet finished with the arguments We had heard pre-umably all that was extreme on the one side and on the other as Bet out by two ot the most clever and practised barristers in England, each putting his own case in the strongest possible form It remained for the Judge, that embodiment em-bodiment of all that was most im partial and mo9t balanced, to set the relative values of each piece of the respective arguments over against each other and to present the completed result to the Jury as a guide to their final verdict. So much, he pointed out. bad been admitted on part of the defence de-fence that the case really narrowed Itself down to a few questions. The prosecution averred that Lady Carlton came to the Summer house while the accused w-as there and was murdered by him; the defence was that Lady Carlton came to tho Summer-hous after the accused had quitted it, and nas thero murdered mur-dered by some other person That was the gist of the case, and it turned largely on the moment at which Lady Carlton actually did come to tho Summer-house iCt 10C0 Internationa i,:' I y Vague suggestions of reasons tor her delay had been put forward, but none of them very' satisfactory. Of course. It might have been, as was Incidentally suggested, that she had delayed for fear of being seen by someone, but If so, that someone would, no doubt, have been produced by the defence, which had not beeu done. He touched on the position of the key. which, so far as it went, favored the view of the defence, becauso If Lady Carlton had come out with her mind so fully made up on flight with her lover as the throwing away of the key seemed to Indicate, then the theory of a quarrel arising out of her refusal to fly with him would not hold water. Still, as counsel had .jaid. motives for the quarrels of lovers are very recondite as well as nu merous. He would wish the Jury to give the point just the weight that it deserved no more. Then be passed to tho preparations for tho proposed flight, the two rugs in the car. the light dre3 of my aunt, indicating, in his opinion, In spite of the Ingenious suggestion of the defence in regard to it, a considerably more adequate preparation prep-aration for an elopement by the man than by the lady. ) Festux Sfrrlee Inc Great R In like manner he touched on all the principal features of the case, softened down, as it seemed to me. the edges of counsel's argument, both on the one side and the other, until it appeared 1 mean to iu unpractised mind a? If neither were left with any keenness to it at all And then he came to the point on which the defence had dw;elt long as being of utmost importance the fact that Captain Vlbavt bad remained In London all the Saturday, Satur-day, whereas, bad he known of the murder, tho view of the defence was that be certainly would have fled, If at all, on that day. "In neither case." eaid the Judge, "can w o deem the act to have been that of a man of any keen Intelligence. Intelli-gence. It may be that the accused i3 not a person of active imagination" imagina-tion" (as a matter of fact, be had always struck me as a singularly stupid man. without an idea in bis head), "and It may also be that at thl6 particular Juncture he was, as we say. rather 'rattled ' That 1? not unlikely The circumstances, whatever view we- take of them, were perturbing. But however that may be and whether he were innocent inno-cent or guilty, whether be knew of the murder all through the Saturday Sat-urday or whetr t be only heard of it first on the Saturday night, it Is certain that his behavior was lhat of a very muddled-headed person, per-son, of a person of poor Judgment. "On the supposition of his innocence inno-cence of the crime wo need not discuss the manner In which he was likely to have spent that Saturday, Sat-urday, but on the theory of his guilt we have to imagine him distracted dis-tracted between two inclinations rltaln r.lchts Rewired. "I was trying to imagine what his feelings might be wheB j there came a call of 'silence!' The jury trooped back to their bar, the Judge came to his chair, the ' prisoner was re-conducted to the dock where he stood with head slightly bowed." the one. far wiser, bidding him stay and face whatever trouble might be impending, the other suggesting flight We know which, eventually, prevailed. And having let the Saturday Sat-urday hours of business pas? In this Indecision, he had uo alternative. alterna-tive. If he chose to wait for his money, but to stay over the Sun day. 'You will therefore attach to this, as to the other particular circumstances, cir-cumstances, such value as your Judgment will suggest, but on the general facts as brought before you It Is difficult to escape tho conclusion that a strong presumption presump-tion of guilt hes against the accused." ac-cused." Here be shortly went again over the facts of the assignation, tbo man's going down to keep it. the woman's coming out from the house, and her murdered body murdered, according- to the doctor's doc-tor's evidence, approximately at tho very hour arranged found In the very place of assignation. On these broad and undisputed facts, be told the jury, the presumption ngalust the person in the dock was strong. It was for them, their collective col-lective Intellect and conscience, to determine whether it accumulated to proof Then be went again Into the tramp theory of the crime and pointed out the evident Doselbllity that the crime might have been committed in a way different from that which the prosecution had put forward. But that fact, that possibility pos-sibility could not of itself. Just because be-cause it was a possibility, be held to Justify a verdict of "Not guilty." If lhat were the view of the law of the land, then any conviction on circumstantial evidence would become a virtual impossibility. He then read the jury a lecture, the third they had received, on the meaning and value of circumstantial circumstan-tial evidence, and Anally, with a most solemn peroration of the i heaviness of the burden which he was imposing on them and with the expression of a pious hope that they might receive guidance to en- ;ible thorn to record a right deci- sion. he disniis'sed them to consider their verdict. H I A dreadful bush fell upon the court for a moment when they had gone out The prisoner was taken from the dock and the Judge left Ills chair And then a buzz and a murmur broko forth. The time seemed Interminable as we waited. I glanced at uncle's face. It had on it an expression that struck mo as quite terrible. It was set very hard, but not so hard but tbat It exhibited an appearance of eager- J neas I could not but think, and it was dreadful to mo to have to think It, tbat he was actually ex-pectawf. ex-pectawf. expectant of hearing a verdict of "Guilty." expectant of his vengeance on this man who had wronged him so. And then I realized that prob-ably prob-ably it would be scarcely human. certainly scarcely manlike, in blm were he to feel otherwise. I even reproached myself that I was not able to feci something of the same sentiment my -elf toward the poor wretch whom the w arder, or gaoler, or whatever he should be called. had Just led from the dock, and who was now somewhere below, waiting in a suspense which it made one's heart stand still t? think or jH I was still occupied with trying J to imagine what bis feelings, were be innocent or were he guilty, might be, when thero came fresh stir, a call of "silence " The jury trooped back to their bar. the Judge came to his chair, the prisoner was reconducted to the dock, where ha stood with head slightly bowed The foreman was asked the ver- To Be Continued Next Sunday. CopjritM 1020. by Oeorf Doraa C H |