t it had been indispensable to produce her.
She came down weeping from the stand; and, the next witness not being
immediately called, the eyes of the jurymen naturally followed her as
she passed to her seat, and they saw Ariel Tabor bow gravely to her
across the railing. Now, a thousand things not set forth by
legislatures, law-men and judges affect a jury, and the slight
salutation caused the members of this one to glance at one another; for
it seemed to imply that the exquisite lady in white not only knew
Claudine, but knew that she had spoken the truth. It was after this,
that a feeling favorable to the defence now and then noticeably
manifested itself in the courtroom. Still, when the evidence for the
State was all in, the life of Happy Fear seemed to rest in a balance
precarious indeed, and the little man, swallowing pitifully, looked at
his attorney with the eyes of a sick dog.

Then Joe gave the prosecutors an illuminating and stunning surprise,
and, having offered in evidence the revolver found upon Claudine,
produced as his first witness a pawnbroker of Denver, who identified
the weapon as one he had sold to Cory, whom he had known very well.
The second witness, also a stranger, had been even more intimately
acquainted with the dead man, and there began to be an uneasy
comprehension of what Joe had accomplished during that prolonged
absence of his which had so nearly cost the life of the little mongrel,
who was at present (most blissful Respectability!) a lively
convalescent in Ariel's back yard. The second witness also identified
the revolver, testifying that he had borrowed it from Cory in St. Louis
to settle a question of marksmanship, and that on his returning it to
the owner, the latter, then working his way eastward, had confided to
him his intention of stopping in Canaan for the purpose of exercising
its melancholy functions upon a man who had once "done him good" in
that city.

By the time the witness had reached this point, the Prosecutor and his
assistants were on their feet, excitedly shouting objections, which
were promptly overruled. Taken unawares, they fought for time; thunder
was loosed, forensic bellowings; everybody lost his temper--except Joe;
and the examination of the witness proceeded. Cory, with that singular
inspiration to confide in some one, which is the characteristic and the
undoing of his kind, had outlined his plan of operations to the witness
with perfect clarity. He woul