"Of course we know he has made a little mistake in the past, pore chap," said Jaggers, who looked like an austere Stiggins. "But he's a good man for all that."
"A hopeful penitent," suggested the prosecuting counsel.
"There's 'ope for all, I 'ope, sir," said Jaggers, with quiet manliness.
The case against the accused seemed black; but he met it with extraordinary courage and resource.
He admitted that he had been in the shed at the time alleged.
He said that he had gone there to smoke out of the wind, and admitted further that he had set the shed on fire—by accident.
When asked in court why, if he had set the shed on fire by accident, he had run away, his defence was simple and convincing.
He said he was afraid. He'd been in trouble before.
"And once you've been in trouble, the police know you, and you never get a chance. I got a panic, and I bolted—very foolishly."
The defence evidently impressed both judge and jury. And had it been simply a question of setting fire to the shed the accused might have got off; but there was the further matter of Four-Pound-the-Second.