t me. "Good afternoon!" he says--like that. "Good
afternoon, sir," I says. "You 'aven't seen a loaf, 'ave you?" 'E pulls
the loaf out of 'is pocket. "On the ground," 'e says; "dirty," 'e says.
"Do for my birds! Ha! ha!" like that. "Oh!" I says, "indeed! Now I
know," I says. I kept my 'ead, but I thinks: "That's a bit too
light-'earted. You owes me one pound, eight and tuppence; I've whistled
for it gettin' on for two years, but you ain't content with that, it
seems! Very well," I thinks; "we'll see. An' I don't give a darn whether
you're a parson or not!" I charge 'im with takin' my bread.'

Passing a dirty handkerchief over his white face and huge gingery
moustache, the baker was silent. Suddenly from the dock the rector
called out: 'Bit of dirty bread--feed my birds. Ha, ha!'

There was a deathly little silence. Then the baker said slowly:

'What's more, I say he ate it 'imself. I call two witnesses to that.'

The Chairman, passing his hand over his hard, alert face, that of a
master of hounds, asked:

'Did you see any dirt on the loaf? Be careful!'

The baker answered stolidly:

'Not a speck.'

Dr. Becket, a slight man with a short grey beard, and eyes restive from
having to notice painful things, spoke.

'Had your horse moved?'

''E never moves.'

'Ha, ha!' came the rector's laugh.

The Chairman said sharply:

'Well, stand down; call the next witness.--Charles Stodder, carpenter.
Very well! Go on, and tell us what you know.'

But before he could speak the rector called out in a loud voice:
'Chapel!'

'Hsssh! Sir!' But through the body of the court had passed a murmur, of
challenge, as it were, from one aisle to the other.

The witness, a square man with a red face, grey hair, whiskers, and
moustache, and lively excitable dark eyes, watering with anxiety, spoke
in a fast soft voice:

'Tuesday afternoon, your Worships, it might be about four o'clock, I was
passin' up the village, an' I saw the rector at his gate, with a loaf in
'is 'and.'

'Show us how.'

The witness held his black hat to his side, with the rounded top
outwards.

'Was the loaf clean or dirty?'

Sweetening his little eyes, the witness answered:

'I should say 'twas clean.'

'Lie!'

The Chairman said sternly:

'You mustn't interrupt, sir.--You didn't see the bottom of the loaf?'

The witness's little eyes snapped.

'Not eggzactly.'

'Did the rector speak to you?'

The witness smiled. 'The rector wouldn' never sto