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entered this room. I appeal to all the gentlemen present."

The patience of the long-suffering foreman failed him at last. "Not
another word shall pass my lips," he said, "until you find the prisoner
guilty or not guilty among yourselves--and then I'll tell you if I agree
to your verdict."

He folded his arms, and looked like the image of a man who intended to
keep his word.

The hungry juryman laid himself back in his chair, and groaned. The
amateur artist, who had thus far found a fund of amusement in his
blotting-paper, yawned discontentedly and dropped his pen. The courteous
gentleman who suffered from fidgets requested leave to walk up and down
the room; and at the first turn he took woke the drowsy little man, and
maddened the irritable invalid by the creaking of his boots. The chorus
of five, further than ever from arriving at an opinion of their own,
looked at the silent juryman. Once more he smiled mysteriously; and once
more he offered an explanation of what was passing in his mind--except
that he turned his bald head slowly in the direction of the foreman. Was
he in sympathy with a man who had promised to be as silent as himself?

In the meantime, nothing was said or done. Helpless silence prevailed in
every part of the room.

"Why the devil doesn't somebody begin?" cried the invalid. "Have you all
forgotten the evidence?"

This startling question roused the jury to a sense of what was due to
their oaths, if not to themselves. Some of them recollected the evidence
in one way, and some of them recollected it in another; and each man
insisted on doing justice to his own excellent memory, and on stating
his own unanswerable view of the case.

The first man who spoke began at the middle of the story told by the
witnesses in court. "I am for acquitting the captain, gentlemen; he
ordered out the boats, and saved the lives of the crew."--"And I am for
finding him guilty, because the ship struck on a rock in broad daylight,
and in moderate weather."--"I agree with you, sir. The evidence shows
that the vessel was steered dangerously near to the land, by direction
of the captain, who gave the course."--"Come, come, gentlemen! let us
do the captain justice. The defense declares that he gave the customary
course, and that it was not followed when he left the deck. As for
his leaving the ship in moderate weather, the evidence proves that he
believed he saw signs of a storm brewing."--"Yes, yes, all very well,
b