ednesday," I answered.

"It is too late now," he whispered. "I have lived too long. I revoke
this." He tore the paper as he spoke.

We proved the old Will, but he had perfected his plans only too well. It
was difficult to make out a case of mistaken identity for the body in
the Adirondacks, and it was months before we established our rights to
the insurance moneys. His estate did not realise quite $100,000, but
after a close examination into his affairs I am persuaded all Josiah
Bateman claimed he could accomplish was possible, and that everything he
told me that night was absolutely true.

THE FINDING OF FACT.

"But their wild exultation was suddenly checked,
As the Jailer informed them with tears,
Such a verdict would not have the slightest effect,
As the pig had been dead for some years."

LEWIS CARROLL.

"Anything on this morning, Counsellor?"

The title was still music to Holden's ears, so he smiled encouragingly
at the fat reporter. In an instant a bethumbed court calendar was shoved
under his nose and the reportorial pencil questioned,

"_Grafton against the Milling Companies?_ Are you in that? Say, what's
doing there to-day? Is it any good?"

The reportorial arm was slipped confidentially through his, and Holden
thus accompanied threaded his way through the crowded rotunda of the
County Court House.

"Hello--must be something up in Holden's office. Look at that leech
Plimpton glued to him!"

"Yes--_Grafton against The Milling Companies_."

"Good Lord! Is that on? I might as well go back to the office then.
We'll never be reached to-day."

"That's right. We're not ready, so thank goodness they're ahead of us.
It's a dandy case,--wish we had it."

"Think I'll stay and hear the arguments.--Old man Harter's in fine form,
they say."

So the managing clerks talked as they leaned against the walls of the
rotunda or sat upon the railing of the "Well."

It is an interesting place that rotunda--a trifle impossible, perhaps,
from an academic point of view,--but still an interesting place.

It is the big noisy ante-chamber to the stuffy court rooms of a big
noisy city. It has an atmosphere of tobacco, shirt sleeves and hurry--an
atmosphere of the people--its architecture is big and plain--an
architecture for the people, and its dirt and smears bespeak a daily use
and occupation by the people.

To the casual visitor the same persons seem to live in