"No. Orcutt isn't the man to deliberately lose a case for any woman. He looks at Miss Dare's testimony from a different standpoint than you do. He believes what she says to be true, and you do not."
"Then, all I've got to say, 'So much the worse for Mansell!'" was the whispered response. "He was a fool to trust his case to that man."
The judge, the jury, and all the by-standers in court, it must be confessed, shared the opinion of Hickory—Mr. Orcutt was standing on slippery ground.
XXIX.
THE OPENING OF THE DEFENCE.
Excellent! I smell a device.—Twelfth Night.
LATE that afternoon the prosecution rested. It had made out a case of great strength and seeming impregnability. Favorably as every one was disposed to regard the prisoner, the evidence against him was such that, to quote a man who was pretty free with his opinions in the lobby of the court-room: "Orcutt will have to wake up if he is going to clear his man in face of facts like these."
The moment, therefore, when this famous lawyer and distinguished advocate rose to open the defence, was one of great interest to more than the immediate actors in the scene. It was felt that hitherto he had rather idled with his case, and curiosity was awake to his future course. Indeed, in the minds of many the counsel for the prisoner was on trial as well as his client.