ury once more quitted the court, whose occupants at once resumed all
the lounging attitudes from which the late scene had aroused them.
Exhaustion, indeed, had overcome all save the prisoner himself, who
paced the narrow limits of the dock with slow and noiseless steps,
raising his head at intervals, to watch the gallery where the jury were
to appear.

In less than half an hour the creaking of a door awoke the drowsy court,
and the jury were seen re-entering the box. They continued to talk among
each other as they took their seats, and seemed like men still under the
influence of warm discussion.

"Not agreed!" muttered Frobisher, looking at his book. "I stand to win,
even on that."

To the formal question of the Court, the foreman for an instant made no
reply, for he was still in eager conversation with another juror.

"How say you, gentlemen of the jury? Are you agreed?"

"We are, my Lord," said the foreman; "that is to say, some of the jury
have conceded to the rest for the sake of a verdict."

"This does not seem to me like agreement," interposed the judge. "If you
be not of the same mind, it will be your duty to retire once more, and
strive by the use of argument and reason to bring the minority to
your opinion; or, in failure of such result, to avow that you are not
like-minded."

"We have done all that is possible in that respect, my Lord; and we beg
you will receive our verdict."

"If it be your verdict, gentlemen," said the judge, "I desire nothing
more."

"We say, Not Guilty, my Lord," said the foreman.

There was a solemn pause followed the words, and then a low murmur
arose, which gradually swelled till it burst forth into a very clamor,
that only the grave rebuke of the Bench reduced to the wonted decorum of
a court of justice.

"I am never disposed, gentlemen of the jury, to infringe upon the sacred
prerogative which environs your office. You are responsible to God and
your own consciences for the words you have uttered here, this day; but
my duty requires that I should be satisfied that you have come to
your conclusion by a due understanding of the facts laid before you
in evidence, by just and natural inferences from those facts, and by
weighing well and dispassionately all that you have heard here, to the
utter exclusion of anything you may have listened to outside of this
court. Is your verdict in accordance with these conditions?"

"So far, my Lord, as the mysterious circumstances of th