ore the hour of meeting the forum was
packed to its fullest extent, and it was even rumoured that Mr
Railsford had promised to look in during the evening. It was evident
directly to the juniors that the proceedings had been carefully thought
out and settled by the secretary, in consultation with some of the wise
heads of the house. The room was arranged in close imitation of a court
of justice. The bench was a chair raised on two forms at one end; the
witness-box and the dock were raised spaces railed off by cord from the
rest of the court. Rows of desks represented the seats of the counsel,
and two long forms, slightly elevated above the level of the floor, were
reserved for the accommodation of the jury. The general public and
witnesses-in-waiting were relegated to the rear of the court.

The question was, as everyone entered, Who is who? Who is to be the
judge, and who is to be the prisoner, and who are to be the counsel?
This natural inquiry was answered after the usual style of the
enterprising secretary. Every one on entering was asked to draw out of
a hat a folded slip of paper, which assigned to him the part he was to
play, the only parts reserved from the lot being that of judge, which of
course was to be filled by Ainger, and that of senior counsels for the
prosecution and defence, which were undertaken respectively by Barnworth
and Felgate. It was suspected later on that a few of the other parts
were also prearranged, but no one could be quite sure of this.

"What are you?" said Dig, pulling a long face over his piece of paper.

"I'm junior counsel for the defence," said Arthur proudly. "What are
you?"

"A wretched witness," said the baronet.

"What a spree! Won't I pull you inside out when I get you in the box,
my boy!"

There was a call for order, and Ainger, mounting the bench, said,--

"This is quite an experiment, you fellows. It may be a failure, or it
may go off all right. It depends on how we do our best. The idea is
that a prisoner is to be tried for murder (delight among the juniors).
Barnworth, who is the counsel for the prosecution, has prepared the
story, and Felgate has been told what the line to be taken against the
prisoner is, so that he might prepare his defence. These are the only
two who know exactly what they are to do beforehand. All the rest will
have to act according to the papers they have drawn. Who has drawn
prisoner?"

Amid much laughter Stafford blushingly