adying himself
against the bench with a shaking hand; then he walked quietly to the
door and went out. Apparently, I was not the only onlooker who had been
interested in his doings, for, as the door swung to after him,
Superintendent Miller rose from his seat and went out by the other door.

"Are you cross-examining this witness?" the judge inquired, glancing at
Sir Hector Trumpler.

"No, my lord," was the reply.

"Are you calling any more witnesses, Mr. Anstey?"

"Only one, my lord," replied Anstey--"the prisoner, whom I shall put in
the witness-box, as a matter of form, in order that he may make a
statement on oath."

Reuben was accordingly conducted from the dock to the witness-box, and,
having been sworn, made a solemn declaration of his innocence. A brief
cross-examination followed, in which nothing was elicited, but that
Reuben had spent the evening at his club and gone home to his rooms
about half-past eleven and had let himself in with his latchkey. Sir
Hector at length sat down; the prisoner was led back to the dock, and
the Court settled itself to listen to the speeches of the counsel.

"My lord and gentlemen of the jury," Anstey commenced in his clear,
mellow tones, "I do not propose to occupy your time with a long speech.
The evidence that has been laid before you is at once so intelligible,
so lucid, and so conclusive, that you will, no doubt, arrive at your
verdict uninfluenced by any display of rhetoric either on my part or on
the part of the learned counsel for the prosecution.

"Nevertheless, it is desirable to disentangle from the mass of evidence
those facts which are really vital and crucial.

"Now the one fact which stands out and dominates the whole case is this:
The prisoner's connection with this case rests solely upon the police
theory of the infallibility of finger-prints. Apart from the evidence of
the thumb-print there is not, and there never was, the faintest breath
of suspicion against him. You have heard him described as a man of
unsullied honour, as a man whose character is above reproach; a man who
is trusted implicitly by those who have had dealings with him. And this
character was not given by a casual stranger, but by one who has known
him from childhood. His record is an unbroken record of honourable
conduct; his life has been that of a clean-living, straightforward
gentleman. And now he stands before you charged with a miserable, paltry
theft; charged with having robbed tha