with
Mr. Ellis and would not allow him to ask the questions he wanted to ask.
Flanagan and his witnesses did their best, but the judge continued to
make things as difficult as he could for their lawyer. The matter, when
all the evidence was heard, appeared tangled and confused, a result
far beyond Mr. Madden's best expectations. He had feared that the
truth might emerge with disconcerting plainness. Then an amazing thing
happened The judge took Joyce's view of the circumstances and decided in
his favour. Mr. Ellis gasped. Flanagan swore audibly and was silenced by
a policeman. Joyce left the court with a satisfied smile.

"Well," said Mr. Madden, a little later, "you've won, but I'm damned if
I know how it happened. I never went into court with a shakier case."

"I shouldn't wonder," said Joyce, "but it might have been the ducks that
did it. I sent him six, your honour, six, and as fat as any duck ever
you seen."

"Good Lord!" said Mr. Madden. "After all I said to you--and--but, good
heavens, man! He can't have got them. If he had----"

"He got them right enough," said Joyce, "for I left them at the door of
the hotel myself, with a bit of a note, saying as how I hoped he'd take
a favourable view of the case that would be before him to-day, and
I told him what the case was, so as there'd be no mistake--Joyce v.
Flanagan was what I wrote, in a matter of trespass and assault, and
abusive language."

"Well," said Mr. Madden, "all I can say is that if I hadn't seen with my
own eyes what happened in that court to-day I wouldn't have believed it
To think that the judge, of all men----"

"It was Flanagan's name and not my own," said Joyce, "that I signed
at the bottom of the note. 'With the respectful compliments of Patrick
Joseph Flanagan, the defendant,' was what I wrote, like as if it was
from him that the ducks came."

"I'd never have thought of it," said Mr. Madden. "Joyce, it's you and
not me that ought to be a lawyer. Lawyer! That's nothing. You ought
to be a Member of Parliament. Your talents are wasted, Joyce. Go into
Parliament You'll be a Cabinet Minister before you die."

THE END

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Casualty And Other Stories, by
James Owen Hannay, AKA George A. Birmingham

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