But the alarm was false, there was no sign of the jury, and the talk rose again, as the wind will in a storm.
"We shall want a glass when this is over," whispered one of the pair who had argued about the case.
"And we'll have it, too, old man!" rejoined his friend.
The white-haired man was grimly interested.

So this was the way men talked while waiting to hear a fellow-creature sentenced to death! It was worth knowing.

And this was what the newspaper men would call a low buzz--an expectant hush--this animated babble! Yet the air was charged with emotion, suppressed perhaps, but none the less distinguishable in every voice.

Within earshot a perspiring young pressman was informing his friends that to come there comfortably you should commit the murder yourself, then they gave you the Royal Box; but his teeth could be heard chattering through the feeble felicity.

The white-headed listener curled a contemptuous nostril.