or Miss_ late
at night?"

Winter nearly rose from his litter, his worn faced flushed, his eye
sparkling.

"Sir, I flew!"

There was a murmur and titter through the court, which was, of course,
instantly suppressed.

"You flew! What do you mean by saying that you flew?"

"I am the inventor of a flying machine, which, for thirty years, I have
labored at and striven to bring to perfection. On that one night, as I
was experimenting with it, where I usually did, inside the waste land
bordering on the _Hit or Miss_, the machine actually worked, and I was
projected in the machine, as it were, to some height in the air, coming
down with a fluttering motion, like a falling feather, on the roof of
the _Hit or Miss_."

Here the learned counsel for the defence smiled with infinite expression
at the jury.

"My lord," said the counsel for the prosecution, noting the smile, and
the significant grin with which it was reflected on the countenances of
the twelve good men and true, "I may state that we are prepared to bring
forward a large mass of scientific evidence--including a well-known man
of science, the editor of _Wisdom_, a popular journal which takes all
knowledge for its province--to prove that there is nothing physically
impossible in the facts deposed to by this witness. He is at present
suffering, as you see, from a serious accident caused by the very
machine of which he speaks, and which can be exhibited, with a working
model, to the Court."

"It certainly requires corroboration," said the judge. "At present,
so far as I am aware, it is contrary to scientific experience. You can
prove, perhaps, that, in the opinion of experts, these machines have
only to take one step further to become practical modes of locomotion.
But _that_ is the very step _qui coute_. Nothing but direct evidence
that the step has been taken--that a flying machine, on this
occasion, actually _flew_ (they appear to be styled _volantes, a non
volando_)--would really help your case, and establish the credibility of
this witness."

"With your lordship's learned remarks," replied the counsel for the
crown, "I am not the less ready to agree, because I _have_ an actual
eye-witness, who not only saw the flight deposed to by the witness, but
reported it to several persons, who are in court, on the night of its
occurrence, so that her statement, though disbelieved, was the common
talk of the neighborhood."

"Ah! that is another matter," said the ju