e gift of the people for the last
twenty years."

Another gale of laughter followed this, during which Mr. Billings
wriggled his mouth and gave a strong impression that such tactics and
such levity were to be deplored.

For the defence, the engineer and fireman both swore that the bell
had been rung before the crossing was reached. Austen merely inquired
whether this was not when they had left the station at North Mercer,
two miles away. No, it was nearer. Pressed to name the exact spot, they
could only conjecture, but near enough to be heard on the crossing.
Other witnesses--among them several picnickers in the grove--swore that
they had heard the bell. One of these Austen asked if he was not the
member from Mercer in the last Legislature, and Mr. Billings, no longer
genial, sprang to his feet with an objection.

"I merely wish to show, your Honour," said Austen, "that this witness
accepted a pass from the Northeastern Railroads when he went to the
Legislature, and that he has had several trip passes for himself and his
family since."

The objection was not sustained, and Mr. Billings noted an exception.

Another witness, upon whose appearance the audience tittered audibly,
was Dave Skinner, boss of Mercer. He had lived, he said, in the town of
Mercer all his life, and maintained that he was within a hundred yards
of the track when the accident occurred, and heard the bell ring.

"Is it not a fact," said Austen to this witness, "that Mr. Brush Bascom
has a mortgage on your farm?"

"I can show, your Honour," Austen continued, when Mr. Billings had
finished his protest, "that this man was on his way to Riverside to pay
his quarterly instalment."

Mr. Bascom was not present at the afternoon session. Mr. Billings'
summing up was somewhat impassioned, and contained more quotations from
the "Book of Arguments." He regretted, he said, the obvious appeals to
prejudice against a railroad corporation that was honestly trying to do
its duty-yes, and more than its duty.

Misjudged, misused, even though friendless, it would continue to serve
the people. So noble, indeed, was the picture which Mr. Billings'
eloquence raised up that his voice shook with emotion as he finished.

In the opinion of many of the spectators Austen Vane had yet to learn
the art of oratory. He might with propriety have portrayed the suffering
and loss of the poor farmer who was his client; he merely quoted from
the doctor's testimony to the effec