ce
opened the prosecution.

It was, he told them, a most unusual and hence most important case. The
defendant Appleboy had maliciously procured a savage dog of the most
vicious sort and loosed it upon the innocent complainant as he was on
his way to work, with the result that the latter had nearly been torn to
shreds. It was a horrible, dastardly, incredible, fiendish crime, he
would expect them to do their full duty in the premises, and they should
hear Mr. Tunnygate's story from his own lips.

Mr. Tunnygate limped with difficulty to the stand, and having been sworn
gingerly sat down--partially. Then turning his broadside to the gaping
jury he recounted his woes with indignant gasps.

"Have you the trousers which you wore upon that occasion?" inquired
Pepperill.

Mr. Tunnygate bowed solemnly and lifted from the floor a paper parcel
which he untied and from which he drew what remained of that now
historic garment.

"These are they," he announced dramatically.

"I offer them in evidence," exclaimed Pepperill, "and I ask the jury to
examine them with great care."

They did so.

Tutt waited until the trousers had been passed from hand to hand and
returned to their owner; then, rotund, chipper and birdlike as ever,
began his cross-examination much like a woodpecker attacking a stout
stump. The witness had been an old friend of Mr. Appleboy's, had he not?
Tunnygate admitted it, and Tutt pecked him again. Never had done him
any wrong, had he? Nothing in particular. Well, any wrong? Tunnygate
hesitated. Why, yes, Appleboy had tried to fence in the public beach
that belonged to everybody. Well, did that do the witness any harm? The
witness declared that it did; compelled him to go round when he had a
right to go across. Oh! Tutt put his head on one side and glanced at the
jury. How many feet? About twenty feet. Then Tutt pecked a little
harder.

"Didn't you tear a hole in the hedge and stamp down the grass when by
taking a few extra steps you could have reached the beach without
difficulty?"

"I--I simply tried to remove an illegal obstruction," declared Tunnygate
indignantly.

"Didn't Mr. Appleboy ask you to keep off?"

"Sure--yes!"

"Didn't you obstinately refuse to do so?"

Mr. Pepperill objected to "obstinately" and it was stricken out.

"I wasn't going to stay off where I had a right to go," asserted the
witness.

"And didn't you have warning that the dog was there?"

"Look here!" suddenly burst ou