heart throbbed in my mangled hand. The other spat straight in front of
him.

"Damme if I know," he said. "This cursed business ought to have been
over and done with an hour agone. I told Jinks to have my rarebit and
noggin down by the gate-house fire at half-past five, and it's six now."

They began an interminable argument under their breaths.

"It's that wager of Lord March's... run a mile, walk a mile, eat five
pounds of mutton, drink five pints of claret. No, it ain't.. Medmenham
coach ain't in yet... roads too heavy.... It is. What else would stop
the Court at this time of night? It isn't, or Justice Best 'd be awake
and hedging his bets."

In a dizzy way I noted the Attorney-General making his way carefully
back between the benches to his knot of barristers, and their wigs went
all together in a bunch like ears of corn drawn suddenly into a sheaf.
The heads of the other barristers were like unreaped ears. A man with a
face like a weasel's called to a man with a face like a devil's--he was
leaving the court--something about an ambassador. The other stopped,
turned, and deposited his bag again. I heard the deep voice of Sir
Robert Gifford say: "What!... Never!... too infamous..." and then the
interest and the light seemed to flicker out together. I could hardly
see. Voices called out to each other, harsh, dry, as if their owners had
breathed nothing but dust for years and years.

One loud one barked, "You can't hear him, m'luds; in _Rex v.
Marsupenstein...._"

A lot began calling all together, "Ah, but that was different, Mr.
Attorney. You couldn't subpoena him, he being in the position of _extra
lege commune_. But if he offers a statement...."

The candles seemed to be waving deliberately like elm-tops in a high
wind.

Someone called, "Clerk, fetch me volume xiii.... I think we shall find
there.... You recollect the case of _Hildeshein v. Roe...._ Wasn't it
_Hildegaulen and another_, m'lud?"... "I tried the case myself. The
Prussian Plenipotentiary...."

I wanted to call out to them that it was not worth while to try their
dry throats any more; that having shot my bolt, I gave in. But I could
not think of any words, I was so tired. "I didn't sleep at all last
night," I found myself saying to myself.

The sleeping judge woke up suddenly and snarled, "Why in Heaven's name
don't we get on? We shall be all night. Let him call the second name on
the list. We can take the Spanish ambassador when you have se