of the town of Port of Spain. She had a "pal" or
intimate chum familiarly known as "Lady," who staunchly stood by her in
all the squabbles that occurred with their adversaries. One particular
night, the police were called to a street in the east of the town, in
consequence of an affray between some women of the sort referred to.
Arriving on the spot, they found the fight already over, but a war of
words was still proceeding among the late combatants, of whom the
aforesaid "Lady" was one of the most conspicuous. A list was duly made
out of the parties found so engaged, and it included the name of L. B.,
who happened not to be there, or even in Port of Spain at all, she
having some days before gone into the country to spend a little time
with some relatives. The inserting of her name was an inferential
mistake on the part of the police, arising from the presence of "Lady"
at the brawl, she being well known by them to be the inseparable ally
of L. B. on such occasions.

[95] It was not unnatural that in the obscurity they should have
concluded that the latter was present with her altera ego, when in
reality she was not there.

The participants in the brawl were charged at the station, and
summonses, including one to L. B., were duly issued. On her return to
Port of Spain a day or two after the occurrence, the wrongly
incriminated woman received from the landlady her key, along with the
magisterial summons that had resulted from the error of the constables.
The day of the trial came on, and L. B. stood before Mr. Mayne, strong
in her innocence, and supported by the sworn testimony of her landlady
as well as of her uncle from the country, with whom and with his family
she had been uninterruptedly staying up to one or two days after the
occurrence in which she had been thus implicated. The evidence of the
old lady, who, like thousands of her advanced age in the Colony, had
never even once had occasion to be present in any court of justice, was
to the following effect: That the defendant, who was a tenant of hers,
had, on a certain morning (naming days before the affray occurred),
[96] come up to her door well dressed, and followed by a porter
carrying her luggage. L. B., she continued, then handed her the key of
the apartment, informing her at the same time that she was going for
some days into the country to her relatives, for a change, and
requesting also that the witness should on no account deliver the key
to any