e court please, I withdraw the question. I'll call
another witness.'

The judge bowed, and the girl was led away.

Rust had risen to his feet as if to speak, but he sat down, and the trial
proceeded. The whole of that day passed in the examination of witnesses;
so did the day following. Then came the summing up of the lawyers, and the
charge of the judge to the jury. During the whole time the crowd came and
went, but at all times the room was thronged. The jury went out; still the
crowd hung about the Hall. It grew dark; but they could not go to their
homes until they knew the result; but round and round the Hall, and
through the avenues of the Park, they wandered, watching the dim light in
the jury room, and wondering what the verdict would be. One of them stole
up to the gray-headed constable who watched at the door, and inquired what
the chance was; and as the old man shook his head, and muttered that they
leaned toward a fatal verdict, he rubbed his hands with glee, and hastened
to communicate the tidings to those below. Twelve--one--two--three o'clock
at night came; still the twelve men held out, and still the judge, an
upright, conscientious, patient man, maintained his post, waiting for the
verdict, and ready to solve any doubts or points of law that might arise.
The court-room grew cold; the fires went out, except one near the bench,
and where the prisoner was. Sixty or seventy persons were sitting in the
dim recesses of the room, looking like dark shadows, resolved to await the
result. A few stretched themselves on the benches, and others gathered in
knots near the fire, and whispered together; and now and then there was a
loud laugh, suddenly hushed, as the person who uttered it remembered where
he was. At last the judge went out, and left word with the officer to send
for him if the jury agreed, or wanted his advice. The night waned; the sky
grew gray in the east; and presently the day broke--but no verdict. At an
early hour the judge returned, and the court-room filled again.
Nine--ten--eleven. Suddenly there was a hum--a shuffling in the hall. The
door was thrown open by the gray-headed constable, and the jury entered.

'The jury's agreed,' cried the officer. There was a dead silence; and the
foreman gave in the verdict:

'GUILTY OF MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE!'

Rust moved not; no change of color or feature was perceptible, except a
slight smile, and that too faded in a moment.

The trial was over; and