sary, gentlemen of the jury, to explain to you that the works in
question are divided into several distinct departments, or shops. I
need not describe them all, but two of them were the screw department
and the boiler department. Smith was foreman and overseer of the screw
department, while the prisoner was one of the skilled workmen in the
boiler department. For some time past ill-feeling had existed between
the men of the boiler department and the deceased on account of his
interference with them; and this ill-feeling appears to have culminated
a few days before the murder, on account of an intrusion made by Smith
into the boiler department, and the alleged assault of one of the men
there employed."

Every one saw now what was coming, and pricked up his ears in
anticipation. Ainger, who had had as little idea of the turn things
were going to take as anybody else, grew fidgety, and wished Wake had
shown more discretion. But it was too late to stop the case now.

"This assault occurred, I believe, on the 2nd of February."

"No, the 3rd--the day before," whispered Ranger, who acted as junior
counsel for the prosecution.

"I am obliged to my learned friend for correcting me. This occurred on
the 3rd, the day before the murder. Now, gentlemen of the jury, I ask
your attention to the occurrences which followed. At the time of the
assault the prisoner, in the absence of the head foreman, was acting as
overseer of his shop, and witnesses will prove that he protested against
the behaviour of the deceased, and was in consequence insulted by Smith.
I mention this to show that a personal grudge existed between the two
men."

Stafford, whose _role_ as prisoner may or may not have been the result
of mere accident, began not to like the turn things were taking.

"On the 4th everything went well till the evening, although, it is
stated, a formal complaint of Smith's interference was made through the
regular, foreman of the boiler-shop, as will appear in evidence. In the
evening of that day--that is, about eight o'clock--a meeting of the
heads of the various departments was held in a distant part of the
works, which was attended by Smith as well as the other foremen. The
meeting lasted till 9.30, and Smith was last seen proceeding to his own
quarters, in the neighbourhood of the boiler-shop.

"On the morning of the 5th, a workman named Simple, on entering the
coal-cellar under the stairs of the boiler-shed, stumbled a