Page:Henry Northcote (IA henrynorthcote00snairich).pdf/178

 "We shall see."

"Why, my dear fellow, all the world knows there is no escape from circumstantial evidence in murder cases. Have you asked yourself the question how many verdicts could have been taken in recent years upon notorious crimes, had it been ruled out?"

"I expect to have my own way of answering the question," said the young man.

"Yes, and Brudenell will have his."

"Quite probably, I grant you," said the young man, with a tenacity that his companion felt to be exasperating; "but unless one is wholly deceived in the estimate of one's own capacity—forgive this very unprofessional candor in regard to oneself—the jury will answer it in the fashion I ask them to, not in the fashion asked of them by Mr. Justice Brudenell and Mr. Horatio Weekes."

"Well, my young friend," said Mr. Whitcomb, scrutinizing him with the patient wonder that is bestowed on a rare quadruped in a zoological gardens, "pray don't think me impertinent if I confess that you are the most baffling compound I have ever encountered."

"Notably," said Northcote, "of self-conceit, pig-headedness, childishness, ignorance, and effrontery. I dare say you are right, for have I not committed the unpardonable offence of assuming that I am wiser than Tobin, wiser than yourself, also of considering myself the superior of the judge upon the bench?"

"You may be perfectly entitled to this self-estimate after the event," said the solicitor, with a candor he was unable to repress; "but I would