een unfolded to his gaze, that the glitter of gold and
the sheen of silver have dazzled his young eyes, there can be little
doubt. So he has seen visions and dreamed dreams, at will; he has
endured terrible temptations, and fought great moral battles, by
special request, and has come off more than victor, in the counsel's
mind. To-day everything is ready for the carrying-out of their skilful
scheme. At the right moment the counsel gives the signal, and the boy
darts in, hatless, shoeless, ragged, and dusty, for the occasion, and
tragic to the counsel's heart's content, and is put at once upon the
stand to tell his made-up tale, and--"

Sharpman heard a slight noise behind him, and some one exclaimed:--

"He has fainted!"

The lawyer stopped in his harangue and turned in time to see Ralph
lying in a heap on the floor, just as he had slipped that moment from
his chair. The boy had listened to Goodlaw's praises of his conduct
with a vague feeling that he was undeserving of so much credit for it.
But when Sharpman, advancing in his speech, charged him with having
dreamed his story, he was astounded. He thought it was the strangest
thing he had ever heard of. For was not Mr. Sharpman there, himself?
and did not he know that it was all real and true? He could not
understand the lawyer's allegation. Later on, when Sharpman declared
boldly that Ralph's statement on the witness-stand was a carefully
concocted falsehood, the bluntness of the charge was like a cruel
blow, and the boy's sensitive nerves shrank and quivered beneath it;
then his lips grew pale, his breath came in gasps, the room went
swimming round him, darkness came before his eyes, and his weak body,
enfeebled by prolonged fasting and excitement, slipped down to the
floor.

The people in the court-room scrambled to their feet again to look
over into the bar.

A man who had entered the room in time to hear Sharpman's brutal
speech pushed his way through the crowd, and hurried down to the place
where Ralph was lying. It was Bachelor Billy.

In a moment he was down on his knees by the boy's side, chafing the
small cold hands and wrists, while Mrs. Burnham, kneeling on the other
side, was dipping her handkerchief into a glass of water, and bathing
the lad's face.

Bachelor Billy turned on his knees and looked up angrily at Sharpman.
"Mayhap an' ye've killet 'im," he said, "wi' your traish an' your
lees!" Then he rose to his feet and continued: "Can ye no' tell