For a heart-beat Martin hesitated. Then he rose to his feet and walking
directly to the Counsel's table slipped the rubber band from his bundle
of papers and sat down.

As his opponent began to speak, Martin lazily read through his papers,
making an occasional note on a loose sheet of legal cap. When he looked
up again the green order was second from the top. Then he shoved his
chair back and watched the Judge who, as the Counsel ceased speaking,
took up another paper, leaving the green-covered order at the top of the
pile.

Martin glanced at the clock and noted that recess would begin in
twenty-five minutes. Then he sat quietly and waited till the Judge,
surprised at the unusual pause, looked at him, and nodded.

"Proceed, Mr. Martin."

Martin gazed fixedly at the Bench and rose with great deliberation and
dignity.

"If it please the Court," he began solemnly, "this is, on its face, a
simple motion for a bill of particulars--part of that sparring for
position which precedes every legal encounter. But at the outset I ask
the closest possible attention from the Court, for before I have
finished I expect to show that this apparently simple motion cloaks a
matter of vital importance, not only to these litigants but to the
public at large."

Judge Blagden leaned back in his chair and listened to the lawyer with
grave attention. The attorney for the defendant stared at the speaker in
blank astonishment.

It was, Martin continued impressively, a case in which a knowledge of
all the facts was of supreme importance. To understand certain actions
one must follow the wires that control them, underground or overhead,
until the hand which clutches them be discovered. For this reason he
would take the liberty of detailing to the Court the history of the
litigation.

Martin then launched into a minute and deliberate recital of the facts.
He dwelt upon the private history of the plaintiff, traced his business
career from its beginning up to the day of the transaction with the
defendants, described the fruitless efforts of the parties to settle
their differences out of Court, and the failure of the attorneys to come
to any agreement.

At this point the defendant's attorney interrupted, claiming that none
of these facts, however interesting they might be, was to be found in
the papers, and that Counsel must be confined to what was therein
stated.

Martin admitted that, ordinarily, this would be proper, but in this case
h