dge.

"Call Eliza Gullick," said the counsel.

Eliza was called, and in a moment was curtsying, with eagerness, but
perfect self-possession.

After displaying an almost technical appreciation of the nature of an
oath, Eliza was asked:

"You remember the night of the 7th of February?"

"I remember it very well, sir."

"Why do you remember it so well, Eliza?"

"Becos such a mort o' things happened, sir, that night."

"Will you tell his lordship what happened?"

"Certainly, my lord. Mr. Toopny gave us a supper, us himps, my lord, at
the _Hilarity_; for he said--"

"Never mind what he said, tell us what happened as you were coming
home."

"Well, sir, it was about eleven o'clock at night, and I was turning the
lane into the _Hit or Miss_, when I heard an awful flapping and hissing
and whirring, like wings working by steam, in the waste ground at the
side of the lane. And, as I was listening--oh, it frightens me now to
think of it--oh, sir--"

"Well, don't be alarmed, my good child! What occurred?"

"A great thing like a bird, sir, bigger than a man, flew up over my
head, higher than the houses. And then--did you ever see them Japanese
toys, my lord, them things with two feathers and a bit of India-rubber
as you twist round and round and toss them up and they fly--"

"Well, my girl, I have seen them."

"Well, just as if it had been one of them things settling down, the
bird's wings turned round and fluttered and shook, and at last it all
lighted, quite soft like, on the roof of our house, the _Hit or Miss_.
And there I saw it crouching when I went to bed, and looked out o' the
window, but they wouldn't none o' them believe me, my lord."

There was a dead silence in the Court as Eliza finished this
extraordinary confirmation of Winter's evidence, and wove the net
inextricably round the prisoner.

Then the silence was broken by a soft crashing sound, as if something
heavy had dropped a short distance on some hard object.

All present turned their eyes from staring at Eliza to the place whence
the sound had come.

The prisoner's head had fallen forward on the railing in front of him.

One of the officers of the Court touched him on the shoulder.

He did not stir. They lifted him. He moved not.

The faint heart of the man had fluttered with its last pulsation. The
evidence had sufficed for him without verdict or sentence. As he had
slain his victim, so Fate slew him, painlessly, in a moment!

E