re
for me. And we both know that really it is a photograph of the young man
against whom the grand jury have just brought a true bill--within the
last ten minutes."

There was silence in the dusty little room. The large white hand on the
desk top was visibly trembling. Hod Brooks' voice was low as he went on:

"Now, as to trying this case, Judge, I brought you in here to ask you
what you really want to do? I don't my own self very often try cases out
of court--although I have sometimes--sometimes. Yes, sometimes that's
the way to serve the ends of substantial justice."

Henderson made no reply--he scarcely could have spoken. He could feel
the net tightening; he knew what he was to expect now.

"Now, here are these two pictures," resumed Brooks. "Suppose I _were_
trying this case _in_ court. I'm not sure, but I think I could get them
both introduced in evidence, these two pictures. I think they are both
germane to this case--don't you? You've been on the bench--we've both
read law. Do you think as a judge you could keep a good lawyer from
getting these two pictures introduced in evidence in that case?"

"I don't see how you could," said the hoarse voice of Judge Henderson.
"It would be altogether immaterial and incompetent."

"Perhaps, perhaps," said Hod Brooks. "That's another good reason why I'd
rather try the case here, if it suits you! But just suppose I enlarged
this photograph to the exact size of the lithograph on the wall, and
suppose I did get them both into evidence, and suppose I unveiled the
two at just the psychological moment--I presume you would trust me to do
that?

"Now if I hadn't seen you last night just where you were, if I hadn't
hoped, from what I saw of you, that you were part man at least--_that's
how I would try this case_! What do you think about it?"

"I think you are practising politics again, and not law," sneered
Henderson. But his face was white.

"Yes? Well, I'll tell you, I don't want to see you go to the United
States Senate. In the first place, though I agreed not to run at all, I
never agreed to help you run. In the second place, I never did think you
were a good enough man to go there, and now I think it less than ever.
And since you ask me a direct question of political bearing, I'll say
that, if the public records--that is to say, the court records and all
the newspapers--showed the similarity of these two pictures side by
side, the effect on your political future might be