statement of what he was prepared to show to the contrary.

Owing to the unprecedented interest, and the large number of people who
had driven in from the country, Judge Maxwell unbent from his hard
conditions on that day. He instructed Captain Taylor to admit spectators
to standing-room along the walls, but to keep the aisles between the
benches clear.

This concession provided for at least a hundred more onlookers and
listeners, who stood forgetful of any ache in their shanks throughout
the long and dragging proceedings well satisfied, believing that the
coming sensations would repay them for any pangs of inconvenience they
might suffer.

It was on the afternoon of the third day of the trial that Sol Greening,
first witness for the state, was called.

Sol retailed again, in his gossipy way, and with immense enjoyment of
his importance, the story of the tragedy as he had related it at the
inquest. Sam Lucas gave him all the rope he wanted, even led him into
greater excursions than Sol had planned. Round-about excursions, to be
sure, and inconsequential in effect, but they all led back to the tragic
picture of Joe Newbolt standing beside the dead body of Isom Chase, his
hat in his hand, as if he had been interrupted on the point of escape.

Sol seemed a wonderfully acute man for the recollection of details, but
there was one thing that had escaped his memory. He said he did not
remember whether, when he knocked on the kitchen door, anybody told him
to come in or not. He was of the opinion, to the best of his knowledge
and belief--the words being supplied by the prosecutor--that he just
knocked, and stood there blowing a second or two, like a horse that had
been put to a hard run, and then went in without being bidden. Sol
believed that was the way of it; he had no recollection of anybody
telling him to come in.

When it came Hammer's turn to question the witness, he rose with an air
of patronizing assurance. He called Sol by his first name, in easy
familiarity, although he never had spoken to him before that day. He
proceeded as if he intended to establish himself in the man's confidence
by gentle handling, and in that manner cause him to confound, refute and
entangle himself by admissions made in gratitude.

But Sol was a suspicious customer. He hesitated and he hummed, backed
and sidled, and didn't know anything more than he had related. The bag
of money which had been found with Isom's body had been introduce