f scared and others more than half amused.

Outside, Thompson stopped just between two of the great pillars.
He rammed his hands deep in his pockets and gazed vacantly over the
court-green and up the road.

"What will he do with you! Remove you!" asked two or three friends who
had slipped out of the door behind him and now stood about him.

"He 'll put me in jail--_and_ remove me."

*****

"No matter if he says black 's white and white 's black, don't you open
your mouth or you 'll get it. It 's much as I can do to keep you out of
jail this minute."

"But, Sheriff--! But, Aleck--! Just wait a minute! I don't----"

The next instant he was inside the courthouse and the Sheriff was
marching him up the aisle between the upturned faces. He planted him at
the bar immediately before the Court, pulling off his hat in such a way
as to drag his hair over his face and give him an even more dishevelled
appearance than before. Then he moved around to his own desk, keeping
his eye fixed piercingly on the astonished Creel's bewildered face. A
gasp went over the court-room, and the Bar stared at the prisoner in
blank amazement.

The Judge alone appeared oblivious of his presence. He had sat
absolutely silent and motionless since he had given the order to the
Sheriff to produce the prisoner, his face expressive of deep reflection.
Now he withdrew his eye from the ceiling.

"Oh!"

With impressive deliberation he put on his large gold-rimmed spectacles;
sat up in his chair; assumed his most judicial expression, which sat
curiously on his benignant face, and looked severely down upon the
culprit. The court-room shivered and Thompson's round face grew
perceptibly whiter; but his eyes, after a single glance darted at the
Judge, never left the face of the man at the bar.

The next second the Judge began to speak, and Thompson, and the
court-room with him, heaved a deep sigh of relief.

"Young man," said the Judge, "you have committed an act of grievous
impropriety. You have been guilty of one of the most reprehensible
offences that any citizen of a Commonwealth founded upon order and
justice could commit, an act of such flagrant culpability that the
Court, in the maintenance of its dignity and in the interest of the
Commonwealth found it necessary to visit upon you punishment of great
severity and incarcerate you in the gaol usually reserved for the most
depraved malefactors. Intemperance is one of the most debasing of
vices.