Page:The Inner House.djvu/151

Rh "What is your name?" I asked the Arch Physician.

"Harry Linister—once M.D. of Cambridge, and Fellow of the Royal Society."

"What are you by trade?"

"Physicist and Arch Physician of the Holy College of the Inner House."

"We shall see how long you will be able to describe yourself by those titles. Female Prisoner—you in the middle—what is your name?"

"I am the Lady Mildred Carera, daughter of the Earl of Thordisá."

"Come—come—none of your Ladyships and Earls here. We are now all equal. You are plain Mildred. And yours—you girl in the white frock? How dare you, either of yon, appear before us in open violation of the Rules?"

"I am named Christine," she replied. "I have put on the white frock because it is becoming."

At this point I was interrupted by a whisper from John Lax.

"Christine's friends," he said, "are gathering in the Museum, and they arc very noisy. They threaten to give trouble."

"When the Trial and Execution are over," I told him, "arrest them every one. Let them all be confined in the Museum. To-morrow, or perhaps this afternoon, we will try them as well."

The man grinned with satisfaction. Had he known what a fatal mistake I was making, he would not have grinned. Rather would his face have expressed the most dreadful horror.

Then the Trial proceeded.

"Dr. Linister," I said, "it is a very singular point in this case that we have not to ask you whether you plead 'guilty' or 'not guilty,' because we have all seen you with