suggesting certain
modifications calculated to adapt it more closely to the requirements
and peculiarities of the Uluan character, fully approved of it and
agreed to recommend it to the queen for acceptance and embodiment upon
the Statute Book. This was done, and, the idea having been fully
explained to the queen by Lyga, was approved by her and in due course
became one of the laws of the land. Then, a court having been
established, and men of suitable attainments found to serve as judges,
the prisoners were in due course tried, found guilty, and sentenced. No
attempt was made to clear any of the prisoners by means of clever
advocacy or specious argument, the questions before the court were the
straightforward ones whether or not the accused were guilty of
conspiracy, and, if guilty, to what extent; and in every case the
verdict was the same, every prisoner was found guilty, but not all to
the same extent, some of them being able to show that, owing to the
power and influence wielded by Sachar, they were practically compelled
to throw in their lot with him, whether or not they approved of his
designs. The result of the trial was, under the circumstances,
eminently satisfactory, considering that it was the first of the kind
ever held in Ulua; for the judges, instructed by Earle and Dick, devoted
themselves wholeheartedly to the task of administering strict justice,
without regard to the position or personality of the accused; and the
trial terminated with the condemnation of Sachar, Nimri, and two others
to death, with the confiscation of all their property, while the
remaining seven were punished in varying degrees, some by heavy fines,
and others by more or less lengthy periods of penal labour.

It was with considerable anxiety that Dick and Earle awaited and watched
for the effect upon the populace of this innovation in the judicial
methods of Ulua; but they had not long to wait before it became apparent
that the formality and solemnity of public trial were far more effective
as a deterrent than the former rough and ready methods, under which a
culprit was haled before a _shiref_ and summarily punished, with nobody
but himself and his immediate connections being a penny the wiser;
publicity and its attendant disgrace soon became more wholesomely
dreaded than even fine or imprisonment, and when a period of three
months had elapsed without the smallest sign of any recurrent
restiveness on the part of the Council of