“I ain’t no talker,” said Eli, “but I ain’t satisfied he’s guilty—that’s all.”

“Don’t you believe the witnesses?”

“Mostly.”

“Which one don’t you believe?”

“I can’t say. I don’t believe he’s guilty.”

“Is there one that you think lied?”

No answer.

“Now it seems to me——” said a third juryman.

“One thing at a time, gentlemen,” said the foreman. “Let us wait for an answer from Mr. Smith. Is there any one that you think lied? We will wait, gentlemen, for an answer.”

There was a long pause. The trial seemed to Eli Smith to have shifted from the court to this shabby room, and he was now the culprit.