Tressamer, who found Prescott awaiting him
anxiously, and trying, with poor success, to get through the wing of a
fowl. He (Prescott) looked pale and dejected; but Tressamer rushed
into the place in a state of exaggerated buoyancy, and loudly called
for a bottle of champagne.

'George, how goes it?' cried his friend.

'All went merry as a marriage-bell,' returned the other. 'Have no
fear; keep up your heart, old man. Leave it to me; I'll get her off.
Much obliged to you for going away, though. Young Pollard did come
some croppers, I can tell you. Buller's against us, of course, on the
evidence; but what do I care? I'll get the jury, see if I don't. I'll
make a speech this afternoon the like of which hasn't often been heard
in this dead-and-alive hole. Lewis, beware! Here's confusion to the
guilty, and safety to the innocent!'

He had rattled on in a jerky, excited, nervous manner, and he wound up
by drinking off nearly a tumblerful of champagne. Prescott could
hardly make him out. He feared the strain of the last few weeks was
unhinging his friend's mind.

'Gently,' he said, remonstrating; 'you must keep cool, or you will
spoil everything. Beware of old Buller. When he is giving you the most
rope, he is getting ready to come down on you most heavily at the end.
I think you'll find it a weak jury. They will do pretty well as the
judge tells them.'

'Don't you be afraid, Charlie,' retorted the other in the same
unnaturally careless strain; 'it's my case, and I know how to manage
it. I've sworn to save her, and, by God! I'll do it, if I have to
declare I did the thing myself! By Jove, didn't I touch up that
scoundrel in the witness-box, though! You saw me, Beltrope?'

He called to another barrister, who had been present in court the
whole morning.

'Yes, I know,' answered Beltrope; 'but you'd better be awfully
careful, Tressamer. So far as I could see, your line of defence is
that Lewis must have done it. Now, unless you're prepared with some
very strong evidence against him, you'd far better change that tack
before it's too late. You'll have old Buller dead against you, as
Prescott says, and, I dare say, the jury too. Whatever you do, don't
leave it in such a way that they must convict one or the other.'

'Rubbish! You don't understand,' replied Tressamer. 'Wait till you've
heard my speech, that's all. Well, I must be off.' He drank some more
champagne. 'I want to have a wash just to cool my head.'

And he da