y long summer days--every one of them about twenty hours
long--came to an end somehow or other. It was so hot and close and I
was that miserable I had two minds to knock my brains out and finish
the whole thing. I couldn't settle to read, as I did afterwards. I was
always wishing and wondering when I'd hear some news from home, and none
ever came. Nomah was a bit of a place where hardly anybody did anything
but idle and drink, and spend money when they had it. When they had none
they went away. There wasn't even a place to take exercise in, and the
leg-irons I wore night and day began to eat into my flesh. I wasn't used
to them in those days. I could feel them in my heart, too. Last of all I
got ill, and for a while was so weak and low they thought I was going to
get out of the trial altogether.

At last we heard that the judge and all his lot were on the road, and
would be up in a few days. We were almost as glad when the news came
as if we were sure of being let off. One day they did come, and all the
little town was turned upside down. The judge stopped at one hotel (they
told us); the lawyers at another. Then the witnesses in ours and other
cases came in from all parts, and made a great difference, especially
to the publicans. The jurors were summoned, and had to come, unless they
had a fancy for being fined. Most of this I heard from the constables;
they seemed to think it was the only thing that made any difference
in their lives. Last of all I heard that Mr. Hood had come, and the
imported bull, and some other witnesses.

There were some small cases first, and then we were brought out,
Starlight and I, and put in the dock. The court was crammed and crowded;
every soul within a hundred miles seemed to have come in; there never
were so many people in the little courthouse before. Starlight was
quietly dressed, and looked as if he was there by mistake. Anybody would
have thought so, the way he lounged and stared about, as if he thought
there was something very curious and hard to understand about the whole
thing. I was so weak and ill that I couldn't stand up, and after a while
the judge told me to sit down, and Starlight too. Starlight made a most
polite bow, and thanked his Honour, as he called him. Then the jury
were called up, and our lawyer began his work. He stood alongside of
Starlight, and whispered something to him, after which Starlight stood
up, and about every second man called out 'Challenge'; then that