ed in a row, when one of the party
received a knock on his head that proved too much for him, and died in
consequence. My client was one of the contending parties; and has been
suspected, from some imprudent expressions of his, to have been the man who
struck the fatal blow. His preliminary examination comes off to-morrow or
next day, and I must be present as a matter of course."

At an early hour of the morning succeeding this conversation, Mr. Stevens
might have been seen in his dingy office, seated at a rickety desk which
was covered with various little bundles, carefully tied with red tape. The
room was gloomy and cheerless, and had a mouldy disagreeable atmosphere. A
fire burned in the coal stove, which, however, seemed only to warm, but did
not dry the apartment; and the windows were covered with a thin coating of
vapour.

Mr. Stevens was busily engaged in writing, when hearing footsteps behind
him, he turned and saw Mr. Egan, a friend of his client, entering the room.

"Good morning, Mr. Egan," said he, extending his hand; "how is our friend
McCloskey this morning?"

"Oh, it's far down in the mouth he is, be jabers--the life a'most scared
out of him!"

"Tell him to keep up a good heart and not to be frightened at trifles,"
laughingly remarked Mr. Stevens.

"Can't your honour come and see him?" asked Egan.

"I can't do that; but I'll give you a note to Constable Berry, and he will
bring McCloskey in here as he takes him to court;" and Mr. Stevens
immediately wrote the note, which Egan received and departed.

After the lapse of a few hours, McCloskey was brought by the accommodating
constable to the office of Mr. Stevens. "He'll be safe with you, I
suppose, Stevens;" said the constable, "but then there is no harm in seeing
for one's self that all's secure;" and thus speaking, he raised the window
and looked into the yard below. The height was too great for his prisoner
to escape in that direction; then satisfying himself that the other door
only opened into a closet, he retired, locking Mr. Stevens and his client
in the room.

Mr. Stevens arose as soon as the door closed behind the constable, and
stuffed a piece of damp sponge into the keyhole; he then returned and took
a seat by his client.

"Now, McCloskey," said he, in a low tone, as he drew his chair closely in
front of the prisoner, and fixed his keen grey eyes on him--"I've seen
Whitticar. And I tell you what it is--you're in a very tight place. He