evidence,
as well as any other fact in the case, and I shall so charge the jury.
I will give you an exception. Mr Nathan Goodbody, you may go on with
your defense after the hearing of the next witness, which is now in
order."[1]

The decision of the court was both a great surprise and a disappointment
to the defendant's young counsel. Considering the fact that the body of
the man supposed to have been murdered had never been found, and that
his death had been assumed from his sudden disappearance, and the
finding of his personal articles scattered on the river bluff,
together with the broken edge of the bluff and the traces of some
object having been thrown down the precipice at that point, and the
fact that the State was relying upon the testimony of the eavesdropping
Swede to prove confession by the prisoner, he still had not been
prepared for the testimony of this witness that he had heard the
accused say that he had killed his cousin, and that it had been his
intention to kill him. He was dismayed, but he had not entirely lost
confidence in his legal defense, even now that the judge had ruled
against him. There was still the Supreme Court.

He quickly determined that he would shift his attack from the court,
where he had been for the time repulsed, and endeavor to convince the
jury that the fact that Peter Junior was really dead had not "been
proven beyond a reasonable doubt."

Applying to the court for a short recess to give him time to consult
with his client, he used the time so given in going over with the
prisoner the situation in which the failure of his legal defense had
left them. He had hoped to arrest the trial on the point he had made
so as to eliminate entirely the hearing of further testimony,--that of
Betty Ballard,--and also to avoid the necessity of having his client
sworn, which last was inevitable if Betty's testimony was taken.

He had never been able to rid himself of the impression left upon his
mind when first he heard the story from his client's lips, that there
was in it an element of coincidence--too like dramatic fiction, or
that if taken ideally, it was above the average juryman's head.

He admonished the prisoner that when he should be called upon for his
testimony, he must make as little as possible of the fact of their
each being scarred on the hip, and scarred on the head, the two
cousins dramatically marked alike, and that he must in no way allude
to his having seen Betty Balla