trade, and, although his shop was by
no means among the most important, that he was believed to be one of the
richest men in Dunchester. Also he was a fierce faddist and a pillar of
strength to the advanced wing of the Radical party.

"What is your name?" asked a clerk.

"Look you here, young man," he answered, "don't have the impertinence
to try your airs and graces on with me. Seeing that you've owed me 24
pounds 3s. 6d. for the last three years for goods supplied, you know
well enough what my name is, or if you don't I will show it to you at
the bottom of a county court summons."

"It is my duty to ask you your name," responded the disconcerted clerk
when the laughter which this sally provoked had subsided.

"Oh, very well. Stephen Strong is my name, and I may tell you that it is
good at the bottom of a cheque for any reasonable amount. Well, I'm here
to go bail for that young man. I know nothing of him except that I put
him on his back in a ditch in an argument we had one night last winter
in the reading-room yonder. I don't know whether he infected the lady
or whether he didn't, but I do know, that like most of the poisoning
calf-worshipping crowd who call themselves Vaccinators, this Bell is a
liar, and that if he did, it wasn't his fault because it was God's will
that she should die, and he'd a been wrong to try and interfere with
Him. So name your sum and I'll stand the shot."

All of this tirade had been said, or rather shouted, in a strident voice
and in utter defiance of the repeated orders of the chairman that he
should be silent. Mr. Stephen Strong was not a person very amenable to
authority. Now, however, when he had finished his say he not only filled
in the bail bond but offered to hand up a cheque for 500 pounds then and
there.

When it was over I thanked him, but he only answered:--

"Don't you thank me. I do it because I will not see folk locked up
for this sort of nonsense about diseases and the like, as though the
Almighty who made us don't know when to send sickness and when to keep
it away, when to make us live and when to make us die. Now do you want
any money to defend yourself with?"

I answered that I did not, and, having thanked him again, we parted
without more words, as I was in no mood to enter into an argument with
an enthusiast of this hopeless, but to me, convenient nature.

CHAPTER V

THE TRIAL

Although it took place so long ago, I suppose that a good many people
sti