ry conditions. I must darken the room, and as I notice that the
windows are all furnished with shutters, the matter may be very quickly
and easily accomplished."

"Will you describe the nature of your experiment?"

"Well, sir, during the recess of the Court, I have had photographed upon
glass all the signatures. These, with the aid of a solar microscope, I
can project upon the wall behind the jury, immensely enlarged, so that
the peculiarities I have described may be detected by every eye in the
house, with others, probably, if the sun remains bright and strong, that
I have not alluded to."

"The experiment will be permitted," said the judge, "and the officers
and the janitor will give the Professor all the assistance he needs."

Gradually, as the shutters were closed, the room grew dark, and the
faces of Judge, Jury and the anxious-looking parties within the bar grew
weird and wan among the shadows. A strange silence and awe descended
upon the crowd. The great sun in heaven was summoned as a witness, and
the sun would not lie. A voice was to speak to them from a hundred
millions of miles away--a hundred millions of miles near the realm
toward which men looked when they dreamed of the Great White Throne.

They felt as a man might feel, were he conscious, in the darkness of the
tomb, when waiting for the trump of the resurrection and the breaking of
the everlasting day. Men heard their own hearts beat, like the tramp of
trooping hosts; yet there was one man who was glad of the darkness. To
him the judgment day had come; and the closing shutters were the rocks
that covered him. He could see and not be seen. He could behold his own
shame and not be conscious that five hundred eyes were upon him.

All attention was turned to the single pair of shutters not entirely
closed. Outside of these, the professor had established his heliostat,
and then gradually, by the aid of drapery, he narrowed down the entrance
of light to a little aperture where a single silver bar entered and
pierced the darkness like a spear. Then this was closed by the insertion
of his microscope, and, leaving his apparatus in the hands of an
assistant, he felt his way back to his old position.

"May it please the Court, I am ready for the experiment," he said.

"The witness will proceed," said the judge.

"There will soon appear upon the wall, above the heads of the Jury,"
said Prof. Timms, "the genuine signature of Nicholas Johnson, as it has
been