lt, who had been listening to our colloquy with evident amusement,
here interrupted:

"If I were a lawyer, I would take it myself," he said; "but as I am not,
it remains for one of you to do so, and as you cannot agree about it, I
am going to cast the deciding vote. Will you both consent to abide by my
decision?"

There was no other alternative that I could perceive, and much as I
feared his choice might fall upon me, I said I would do so.

"And you, Littell," he asked. The latter hesitated and resumed his seat
before he answered, but finally assented. Then said Van Bult: "I choose
Littell."

I gave a sigh of relief. Winters's case was at last entrusted to good
hands and the wisdom of my judgment in confiding in my friends was
confirmed, but when my first selfish feeling of satisfaction had passed,
I realized we were asking a great deal of Littell. He was no longer a
young man and, as I knew, all his tastes and feelings must revolt
against the nature of the task we had put upon him, and I looked over
with some sense of regret for my action, but he sat there serenely
smoking his cigar, and sipping his brandy as though nothing unusual had
occurred. With his never-failing philosophy he had already resigned
himself to the inevitable and whatever misgivings he may have had, they
were evidently not going to affect his course from then on.

I felt like a man from whom a great load had been lifted. Not only had I
found some one to share the burden I had been staggering under for two
weeks and which was daily growing heavier, but it was that one in whom
before all others I placed the greatest confidence.

It was Littell who recalled me from my abstraction to the consideration
of the serious business we had in hand. Looking at his watch, he said:

"It is four o'clock and I am ready to begin my work. You, Van!" he
continued, "cannot be of any assistance just now, but Dick can take me
to my client, for I want to talk with him and hear his story."

"Do you wish to go now?" I asked.

"There is no time to be lost and as you know I have no other serious
duties to occupy me," he answered.

Van Bult gazed at him with evident appreciation of the sacrifice he was
making.

"It is good of you, Littell," he said, "and I fancy the world will think
none the less of you for the sacrifice you are making for a poor fellow
who is nothing to you."

Littell shook his head impatiently; he was never a man who liked
compliments.

"I hav