y seen
before it was gone again, shone through a crack in the side of the barn.
Then there was unmistakable low talking somewhere.

Frank felt the man, crouched at his side, suddenly stand up noiselessly,
and in that instant his own mind was made up.

"Give it here, you fool," he said. "Here!"

He felt a smooth flat and circular thing thrust suddenly into his hands
with a whisper that he could not catch, and simultaneously he heard a
rush of footsteps outside. He had just time to stuff the thing inside
his coat and roll over as if asleep when the door flew open, and three
or four men, with a policeman at their head, burst into the barn.

(II)

It would be charitable, I think, to suppress the name of the small
market-town where the trial was held. The excellent magistrates who
conducted it certainly did their best under very difficult
circumstances; for what are you to do if a man accused of theft
cordially pleads guilty? and yet, certainly it would distress them to
hear of a very obvious miscarriage of justice executed at their hands.

On Friday morning at ten o'clock the vehicles began to arrive--the motor
of the country gentleman, the dog-cart of the neighboring rector, and
the brougham of the retired general. It was the General who presided.

The court-room was not more dismal than court-rooms usually are. When I
visited it on my little pilgrimage, undertaken a few months ago, it had
been repainted and the woodwork grained to represent oak. Even so, it
was not cheering.

At the upper end, under one of the windows, were ranged five seats on a
dais, with a long baize-covered table before them. Then, on a lower
level, stood the clerk's and solicitors' table, fenced by a rail from
the vulgar crowd who pressed in, hot and excited, to see the criminals
and hear justice done. There was a case arising from an ancient family
feud, exploded at last into crime; one lady had thrown a clog at another
as the last repartee in a little dialogue held at street doors; the clog
had been well aimed, and the victim appeared now with a very large white
bandage under her bonnet, to give her testimony. This swelled the crowd
beyond its usual proportions, as both ladies were well known in society.

The General was a kindly-looking old man (Frank recognized his name as
soon as he heard it that morning, though he had never met him before)
and conversed cheerily with his brother magistrates as they took their
seats. The Rector was--