ervously; "does
anyone in the courtroom recognize this man as Thomas Berdue?"

There was silence. Then a hand rose. "I do," said the voice of a
waterfront merchant. "I've done business with him under that name."

Immediately there was an uproar. "A confederate," cried voices. "Put him
out." A woman's voice in the background shrieked out shrilly, "Hang
him, too!"

McAllister rose. "There must be order here," he said, commandingly and
the tumult subsided. McAllister addressed Berdue's sponsor. "Can you
bring anyone else to corroborate your testimony?"

The merchant, red and angry, cried: "It's nothing to me; hang him and be
damned--if you don't want the truth. I'm not looking for trouble." He
turned away but the prisoner called to him piteously. "Don't desert me.
Find Jones or Murphy down at the long wharf. They'll identify me....
Hurry! Hurry! ... or they'll string me up!"

"All right," agreed the other reluctantly. He left the court room and
Judge Shattuck moved a postponement of the case.

"Your honor," William Coleman now addressed the court, "this is no
ordinary trial. Ten thousand people are around this courthouse. They are
there because the public patience with legal decorum is exhausted;
however regular and reasonable my colleague's plea might be in ordinary
circumstances, I warn you that to grant it will provoke disorder."

Judge Shattuck, startled, glanced out of the window and conferred with
Hall McAllister.

"I withdraw my petition," he said hurriedly. The case went on.

Witnesses who were present when the prisoners were identified by Jansen
gave their testimony. There was little cross-examination, though
McAllister established Jansen's incomplete recovery of his mental
faculties when the men were brought before him. Coleman pointed out the
striking appearance of the older prisoner; there was little chance to
err he claimed in such a case. The record of James Stuart was then dwelt
upon; a history black with evil doing, red with blood. The jury retired
with the sinister determined faces of men who have made up their minds.

Meanwhile, outside, the crowd stood waiting, none too patiently. Now and
then a messenger came to the balcony and shouted out the latest aspect
of the drama being enacted inside. The word was caught up by the first
auditor, passed along to right and left until the whole throng knew and
speculated on each bit of information.

Adrian, caught in the outer eddies of that human maelst