Page:Marriott Watson--Galloping Dick.djvu/208

 him, while I was about it. After that I knew it was all over with me, unless my little lawyer could serve. He had sat very still, making notes upon his papers industriously, and asking a question or so pretty sharply at times. And indeed, it was ludicrous to see the pair of ’em, for he, like t’other, was fat, only small, and bald under his wig; and the two kept jumping up and down opposite one another, as if ’twas a game of see-saw. But by degrees his face began to lengthen and he shook his head over his shoulder to some one behind; and at that, and seeing the case gathering against me, I slipped my temper, for he had done little enough for his money.

So, “Damn you,” I bawled to him, “speak up, you little beer-keg, you!” At which he went scarlet, and there was a laugh in the Court. But the Judge scowled, and I was hustled by the turnkeys.

And then, when at last it fell to him to speak, a mighty poor figure he made. He ranted like a Roundhead. If you were to believe him, I was a low-spirited cur enough,