whatever as to that?"

"Whether the missing tablets were administered or not is a question
for the jury to decide. You may state, Doctor, how much morphine was
contained in the missing tablets."

"As there are forty-eight here, thirty-two are missing. Deducting
four, that leaves us twenty-eight, or a total of three and a half
grains."

This was a corroboration of the estimate made by the experts, that
three grains must have been the minimum dose administered, and if the
jury should believe that these missing tablets had been given by the
prisoner, it was evident that they must convict him. So that after all
the prosecution did gain something out of the witness who had been
forced upon them. They then rested their case, and court adjourned,
leaving the opening for the defence until the following day.

CHAPTER VIII.

FOR THE DEFENCE.

When Mr. Dudley arose to open the case for the defence, the crowded
court-room was as silent as the grave, so intense was the interest. He
spoke in slow, measured tones, with no effort at rhetorical effect.
Tersely he pictured the position of his client, assailed by
circumstantial evidence, and encircled by a chain which seemed strong
enough to drag him to the dreadful doom which would be his upon
conviction. But the lawyer claimed that the chain was not flawless. On
the contrary he said that many of the links had been forged, and he
dwelt upon the word with a significant accent, as he glance towards
the prosecuting counsel; forged from material which was rotten to
the core, so rotten that it would be but necessary to direct the
intelligent attention of the jury, to the inherently weak spots, to
convince them that justice demanded a prompt acquittal of Dr. Medjora.

A part of his speech is worthy of being quoted, and I give it
_verbatim_:

"This case has aroused the interest of the entire community. Prior to
the beginning of this trial the people, having heard but the distorted
reports of the evidence against our client, were wondering what the
defence was to be. I do not mind confiding to you now that we, the
counsel for the defence, wondered also. It had been told in the
newspapers, that Dr. Meredith, one of the attending physicians, had
suspected morphine poisoning, before the death of Miss Sloane. We were
informed that the autopsy, made by most eminent and skilful
pathologists, had revealed evidences of this deadly drug. We heard
later, that the chemical analysis had