obable tale? If this girl had time to prepare
the drug, to fill the syringe, to pierce her flesh, to inject the
drug, would she not have been able to remove it herself? Does it take
ten minutes to withdraw a needle? Or five minutes, or one minute? Or
one second, gentlemen? Can you even compute the brief moment of time
in which the withdrawal could have been effected? Mr. Bliss told you
that the testimony of the accused must be final on this point. That
until he is convicted of crime his word is as acceptable as that of
any other witness. This may be a presumption of law, gentlemen, but it
is a still greater presumption on the part of counsel to ask such
intelligent men as you are, to believe that a murderer, or even an
innocent man, would not perjure himself to save his life! Such things
are told in romance, but we know that in actual life the most
scrupulous of us all, will lie unhesitatingly if life itself be the
stake.

"Thus, gentlemen, the whole thing comes to this. It matters not how
much morphine this woman had taken herself, prior to her illness; it
matters not how diseased were her kidneys: the cause of her death was
that last dose of morphine, and you have to decide whether this man
administered it as the nurse tells us, or whether the weak
convalescent mixed and prepared the drug, and then injected it
herself. We claim that Dr. Medjora administered that last dose, and
that by that act he committed the crime of murder. And remember this,
that if you decide that he administered that morphine, your verdict
must be murder in the first degree, for having denied that he gave the
drug at all, he cannot claim now that he gave it with no intention to
destroy life. Gentlemen, you are the final arbiters in this matter."

The Recorder immediately charged the jury, but though he spoke at
considerable length, I need scarcely give his speech here, as it was
chiefly an explanation of the law. He was eminently impartial in all
that he said, and it was surprising, therefore, how many objections
and exceptions were entered by the defence. At last the jury was sent
out, and the long wait began. The hours passed slowly and still those
present remained in their seats, loath to risk being absent when the
verdict should be announced.

It was nearly ten o'clock at night, and the jury had been out five
hours, when word was sent in, that a verdict had been found. The
Recorder a few moments later resumed his seat, and the jury filed