Page:Henry Northcote (IA henrynorthcote00snairich).pdf/177

 "It would be impossible to work without it in almost every trial for murder."

"Well, I shall tell the jury to-morrow, overwhelming as in this case it may seem, to reject it altogether."

"And what do you suppose the judge will tell them, may I ask?" said Mr. Whitcomb.

"I am expecting a bit of a duel between us," Northcote replied. "But if he can undo the work I have set myself to accomplish, he is a better man than I take him to be, that is all."

The solicitor did not frame his reply immediately, but a rush of blood to his complexion announced what its nature would have been. The fellow was really like a child in some things! How could he suppose that these outworn pleas that long ago had been worn threadbare by every country attorney could carry the least weight with men who bore sound heads on their shoulders? If he had nothing better on which to base his defence than the inadmissibility of circumstantial evidence, there was no need for him to go into court at all. He was declining to call the witnesses who would attempt to prove insanity; he was rejecting the one natural and reasonable line, which had the sanction of those who were older, wiser, altogether more capable than himself, in favor of a single desperate throw with the dice—and here was what that throw amounted to!

"I must venture to say," protested the solicitor, "you surprise one more and more. If you have nothing more original than that to show the jury, a weaker judge than Brudenell would demolish it in a few minds like a house of cards."