pinion that Orcutt----"

Here he was greatly startled by hearing his name spoken in a loud and
commanding tone of voice. Stopping short, he glanced up, encountered the
eye of Mr. Orcutt fixed upon him from the other side of the court-room,
and realized he was being summoned to the witness stand.

"The deuce!" he murmured, with a look at Byrd to which none but an
artist could do justice.

XXXII.

HICKORY.

Hickory, dickory, dock!
The mouse ran up the clock!
The clock struck one,
And down he run!
Hickory, dickory, dock!
--MOTHER GOOSE MELODIES.

HICKORY'S face was no new one to the court. He had occupied a
considerable portion of one day in giving testimony for the prosecution,
and his rough manner and hardy face, twinkling, however, at times with
an irrepressible humor that redeemed it and him from all charge of
ugliness, were well known not only to the jury but to all the _habitues_
of the trial. Yet, when he stepped upon the stand at the summons of Mr.
Orcutt, every eye turned toward him with curiosity, so great was the
surprise with which his name had been hailed, and so vivid the interest
aroused in what a detective devoted to the cause of the prosecution
might have to say in the way of supporting the defence.

The first question uttered by Mr. Orcutt served to put them upon the
right track.

"Will you tell the court where you have been to-day, Mr. Hickory?"

"Well," replied the witness in a slow and ruminating tone of voice, as
he cast a look at Mr. Ferris, half apologetic and half reassuring, "I
have been in a good many places----"

"You know what I mean," interrupted Mr. Orcutt. "Tell the court where
you were between the hours of eleven and a quarter to one," he added,
with a quick glance at the paper he held in his hand.

"Oh, _then_," cried Hickory, suddenly relaxing into his drollest self.
"Well, _then_, I was all along the route from Sibley to Monteith Quarry
Station. I don't think I was stationary at any one minute of the time,
sir."

"In other words----" suggested Mr. Orcutt, severely.

"I was trying to show myself smarter than my betters;" bowing with a
great show of respect to the two experts who sat near. "_Or_, in other
words still, I was trying to make the distance between Mrs. Clemmens'
house and the station I have mentioned, in time sufficient to upset the
defence, sir."

And the look he cast at Mr. Ferr