xiously to hear what this man, whom father said was such
a fine lawyer, would say.

He began with a sort of oration, all about the Montgomery family, and
what a fine family, they had been, how much they had done for the city!
Then he talked about Johnny, and he drew a very beautiful picture of
him, speaking of his great promise and fine character and then of the
blow which was being struck at his brilliant career; and it was somehow
awful to have to listen to it, for even supposing it were true, this
seemed scarcely the time for saying it. I could see Johnny's face
getting more and more set-looking and grim, as if he hated listening to
the words that were pouring over his head.

Then, in some way I couldn't follow, Mr. Jackson got from that to
talking about courts and evidence, and corroborating testimony; and
though for a while I couldn't make out what he was driving at,
presently it began to appear to me that he was trying to prove that all
the witnesses on the state's behalf had been lying. He was wonderfully
clever in his way of making the testimony seem improbable. He pulled
even mine to pieces, pointing out the revolver's not being where I said
it had fallen. He declared there was a plot against the prisoner; that
the gunsmith who had testified about the buying of the pistol had been
bribed to do so; and he appealed to the feelings of humanity and
justice in the jury.

He spoke beautifully. It made one's heart beat to hear just the tone
of his voice, even though one couldn't quite understand what he was
saying. And yet it was strange I thought that with everything he said
he did not bring forward, or even try to bring forward, one single
direct proof to show that Johnny Montgomery was innocent.

I was in a very confused state of mind indeed when Mr. Dingley got to
his feet. Though I had never heard him speak in a court I had read in
the newspapers that he was "Our golden-tongued orator," and father had
been used to say that, "Dingley was a whirlwind." But now, when he
rose, and turned toward the jury-box and began, his voice sounded stiff
and cold, as if he brought it out with a great effort. He didn't shake
his finger at the jury, as Mr. Jackson had done, nor fling out his
hands, nor lift his arms in the air and bring them down as if he were
bringing the world down on one's head. He simply stood there, and in a
matter of fact, even voice gathered up the evidence of the different
witnesses as one wou