ehind him, and started
out alone through heat and dust to reach the place of justice. With
bared, bruised feet and aching limbs and parched tongue he hurried,
on, walking, running, as he could, dragging himself at last into the
presence of the court at the very moment when the scales of justice
were trembling for the downward plunge, and spoke the words that
checked the course of legal crime, that placed the chains of hopeless
toil upon his own weak limbs, but that gave the world--another hero!

"Gentlemen of the jury, I have labored at the bar of this court for
more than thirty years, but I never saw before a specimen of moral
courage fit to bear comparison with this; I never in my life before
saw such a lofty deed of heroism so magnificently done. And do you
think that such a boy as this would lie? Do you think that such a boy
as this would say to you one word that did not rise from the deep
conviction of an honest heart?

"I leave the case in your hands, gentlemen; you are to choose between
selfish greed and honest sacrifice, between the force of cunning craft
and the mighty power of truth. See to it that you choose rightly and
well."

The rumble of applause from the court-room as Goodlaw resumed his seat
was quickly suppressed by the officers, and Sharpman arose to speak.
He was calm and courteous, and seemed sanguine of success. But his
mind was filled with the darkness of disappointment and the dread of
disaster; and his heart was heavy with its bitterness toward those who
had blocked his path. He knew that Ralph's testimony ought to bear but
lightly on the case, but he feared that it would weigh heavily with
the jury, and that his own character would not come out stainless. He
hardly hoped to save both case and character, but he determined to
make the strongest effort of which he was capable. He reviewed the
testimony given by Mrs. Burnham concerning her child and his supposed
tragic death; he recalled all the circumstances connected with the
railroad accident, and repeated the statements of the witnesses
concerning the old man and the child; he gave again the history of
Ralph's life, and of Simon Craft's searching and failures and success;
he contended, with all the powers of logic and oratory at his command,
that Ralph Burnham was saved from the wreck at Cherry Brook, and Was
that moment sitting by his mother before the faces and eyes of the
court and jury.

"Until to-day," he said, "every one who has hear