"Did you hear two shots?"

"The fire"--was making a lot of noise, he tried to say. But his voice
was smothered by eruptions from the court and the attorney. He was
finally obliged to say that he had heard but one shot. Then he was
asked:

"What did you say when you came up and saw the dead man?"

"I said, 'Mine got away, Jeff.'"

"What else did you say?"

"I said, 'What's the difference, any of us would've done it if we had
the chance.'"

"Whiting's gun had been fired?" asked the attorney, working back.

"Yes."

"One question more and I will excuse you," said the attorney, with a
show of friendliness--"I see it is hard for you to testify against
your friend. Did you, standing there with the facts fresh before you,
conclude that Jeffrey Whiting had fired the shot which killed
Rogers?"

To this Emmet Dardis vigorously objected that it was not proper, that
the answer would not be evidence. But the Judge overruled him sharply,
reminding him that this witness had been called by the prosecution,
that it was not the business of opposing counsel to protect him. The
witness found himself forced to answer a simple yes.

One by one the other men who had been present that fatal morning were
called. Their answers were identical, and as each one was forced to
give his yes to that last fateful question, condemning Jeffrey Whiting
out of the mouths of his friends who had stood on the very ground of
the murder, it seemed that every avenue of hope for him was closing.

On cross-examination, Emmet Dardis could do little with the witnesses.
He was gruffly reminded by the Judge that the witnesses were not his,
that he must not attempt to draw any fresh stories from them, that he
might only examine them on the facts which they had stated to the
District Attorney. And as the prosecutor had pinned his witnesses down
absolutely to answers of known fact, there was really nothing in their
testimony that could be attacked.

With a feeling of uselessness and defeat, Emmet Dardis let the last
witness go. The State promptly rested its case.

Dardis began calling his witnesses. He realised how pitifully
inadequate their testimony would be when placed beside the chain of
facts which the District Attorney had pieced together. They were in
the main character witnesses, hardly more. They could tell only of
their long acquaintance with Jeffrey Whiting, of their belief in him,
of their firm faith that in holding the people back from givin