The district attorney spoke this disclaimer of officiousness or persecution with genuine feeling, but it was scarcely necessary for any who knew him. The name of Noah Bigelow, like that of Shagarach, was guaranty in itself that the cause would be tried with courtesy and fairness. Yet something in his bearing might have told the psychologist that the nature of the man, unsuspicious, candid and slow to entertain a conviction of guilt, would be equally slow to part with such a conviction when it had once obtained a lodging.
The outline of the evidence to be presented consumed more than an hour in its delivery; and the reading, in a high drawl, of the minutes of the previous trial, occupied the remaining time until the noon recess tediously. If the jury had not been provided with a typewritten copy it would have profited little by this latter proceeding.
CHAPTER XLIX.
THE BATTERIES OPEN FIRE.
Assistant District Attorney Badger conducted the examination of the first witness for the government, who gave his name as the Rev. St. George Thornton and wore the manner of an Oxford graduate.
"You knew the uncle of the accused, Prof. Arnold?"
"Excellently. He had been for many years an attendant at my church."
"The Church of the Messiah, of the Episcopal denomination?"
"The Episcopal church, sir; we do not consider it a denomination."