Page:Caroline Lockhart--The full of the Moon.djvu/256

 "dude," and Bob, in his well-fitting clothes, carefully groomed, typified in his appearance all that the word conveyed to their minds. But, unconsciously in his brief stay he had absorbed something of the vigor and vim of the West, or perhaps it was only that he gave freer rein to a naturally forceful personality.

At any rate, as he talked to the jury and to the spectators, the latter, in fact, being the ones to whom he directed his plea, he was as blunt, as vigorous, as unconventional as one of themselves, and the barrier of prejudice melted between them.

The jurors felt it, and squirmed uneasily in their seats as their eyes roved from Spiser's black countenance to the approving faces of the spectators. Spiser, for reasons best known to themselves, held each and every one of them in his unscrupulous grip, yet public opinion in Hopedale when thoroughly aroused was something to be reckoned with.

"Men of the jury," said Bob in conclusion, "it is for you to say whether Ben Evans is to go through life branded as a thief by a self-confessed liar and his no less culpable employer, or whether he is to walk out of the