"Do you know the defendant?"
"Indeed I do," sighed the Reverend Smithers. "I remember him very well. I solemnized his marriage to a widow of my congregation on July 4, 1917; in fact to the relict of our late senior warden, Deacon Pellatiah Higgins. Sarah Maria Higgins was the lady's name, and she is alive and well at the present time."
He gazed deprecatingly at the jury. If meekness had efficacy he would have inherited the earth.
"What?" ejaculated the foreman. "You say this man is married to three women?"
"Trigamy—not bigamy!" muttered the clerk, sotto voce.
"You have put your finger upon the precise point, Mister Foreman!" exclaimed Mr. Tutt admiringly. "If Mr. Higgleby was already lawfully married to a lady in Iowa when he married Miss—or Mrs.—Startup in Chicago last May, his marriage to the latter was not a legal marriage; it was in fact no marriage at all. You can't charge a man with bigamy unless you recite a legal marriage followed by an illegal one. Therefore, since the indictment fails to set forth a legal marriage anywhere followed by a marriage, legal or otherwise, in New York County, it recites no crime, and my client must be acquitted. Is not that the law, Your Honor?"
Judge Russell quickly hid a smile and turned to the moribund Caput.
"Mr. Magnus, have you anything to say in reply to Mr. Tutt's argument?" he asked. "If not—"
But no response came from Caput Magnus. He was past all hearing, understanding or answering. He was ready to be carried out and buried.
"Well, all I have got to say is—" began the foreman disgustedly.