an arrow into his heart, or dash his brains out with a
stone ax.

"In this he failed. Bough of Oak controlled his braves and Corporal
Flint was lashed to the saplings. But, as the trees sprang apart,
wrenching the man's arms out of their sockets, a friendly Indian,
Pigeonwing, concealed in a neighboring thicket, unable to rescue his
friend and wishing to save him from the long hours of awful torture,
shot Corporal Flint through the forehead.

"Now," continued the Count, "if there was no question about these facts,
and Bough of Oak stood for trial before any civilized tribunal on this
earth, do you think the laws of any country would acquit him of the
murder of Corporal Flint?"

The whole company laughed.

"I am entirely serious," continued the Count. "What do you think? There
are three great nations represented here."

"The exigencies of war," said Sir Henry Marquis, "might differentiate a
barbarity from a crime."

"But let us assume," replied the Count, "that no state of war existed;
that it was a time of peace; that Corporal Flint was innocent of wrong;
and that Bough of Oak was acting entirely from a depraved instinct bent
on murder. In other words, suppose this thing had occurred yesterday in
one of the Middle States of the American Republic?"

The American felt that this question was directed primarily to himself.
He put down his cigar and indicated the Englishman by a gesture.

"Your great jurist, Sir James Stephen," he began, "constantly reminds
us that the criminal law is a machine so rough and dangerous that we can
use it only with every safety device attached.

"And so, Count," he continued, to the Italian, "the administration of
the criminal law in our country may seem to you subject to delays and
indirections that are not justified. These abuses could be generally
corrected by an intelligent presiding judge; but, in part, they are
incidental to a fair and full investigation of the charge against the
prisoner. I think, however, that our conception of justice does not
differ from that of other nations."

The old Count shrugged his shoulders at the digression.

"I beg your pardon," he said. "I do not refer to the mere administration
of the criminal law in your country; though, monsieur, we have been
interested in observing its peculiarities in such notable examples as
the Thaw trials in New York, and the Anarchist cases in Chicago some
years ago. I believe the judge in the latter trial gave about