started to his feet, and clapping me on the shoulder, said, ' Where is that man? I am the counsel for old Deacon Sanborn.'" I stood mute with astonishment, as Mr. Brown came toward me. He drew me into the gentlemen's smoking-room, and asked me about the conversation I had heard. Presently remembering my train, I told him I must go, and that I would write a full ac count of it when I reached Boston. He smiled, and asked me if I would rather stay of my own accord or be arrested and stay. I decided to stay. Going over to the court house, he consoled me by saying that per haps he would not have to call on me, and told me to take a back seat. When the court re-assembled, the evi dence being all in, counsel were called upon to argue the case; whereupon Mr. Brown passed to the judge a piece of paper, and going up to the bench, engaged in a close conversation with him. Presently he turned, and in a voice which startled me said, " Will George Blake please take the stand? " Of course all who had testified in the case previously had been known to every one in the court; and when I, a stran ger, took the witness-stand, they strained their necks like turkey-gobblers, wondering what I knew about the case. Afterward I learned that the most of them believed I had found the note. Mr. Brown began to ques tion me, asking when I arrived in C . I answered, " The night before." Asking me what room was given me, l told him No. 57, and that it was separated from the other half of the room with a spruce sheathing. He asked me abruptly if I knew who occupied the other half of the room during the evening or night. Every voice was hushed as they waited for my answer. I said, " Mr. Taylor and his former clerk, ' Bill ' Thompson.' Conster nation seemed to seize every one in the court-room. Even the judge moved in his chair, sat up more erect, and interrupted Mr. Brown by asking me : " Did you hear any of their conversation? " I then related all that I had heard; and when I came to
the part in which I said they were drinking, there was an uproar among the people in the court-room, and a ghastly smile came over Taylor's face. When I finished, the judge asked me if I had made any memo randa of what I had heard, and where the book was on which I had written. I passed him the key of my valise, and he sent a mes senger to the hotel with the coat-room check. Presently the messenger appeared with the valise, which was opened on the judge's desk. The book was produced, and the judge read my memoranda made with the burnt matches. The clerk passed it to the lawyers, and Taylor's counsel did not attempt to cross-examine me. The judge called Taylor to the stand. He assumed rather a defiant air, with a cynical smile upon his face, as the judge asked him : "What do you think of this young man's evidence?" "Wal," said he, " I don't believe I could tell it quite so straight myself." "What! " said the judge, " you realize that you have committed a greater crime than stealing this old man's money? Do you know that you have committed perjury?" He answered, "Wal, I suppose that 's about what you call it." Bill Thompson, his clerk, was called; and reaching the stand, the boy broke down, and tears streamed down his pale face. "Did you not say you came up from Bath, and got in here this morning, and had not seen Mr. Taylor? " questioned the judge. "Yes," replied Bill; " but Taylor told me to say so." "Then you agreed to do as Taylor told you?" "Yes," cried Bill; "for he said he'd give nie a hundred dollars when the court was over, and guaranteed that I would not be found out." "That is enough," said the judge; and turning to the clerk, he discharged the jury, and the apothecary and his former clerk were given in charge of the sheriff. "Bill " Thompson was sentenced to six
