looking to the horses for an early start somewhere -- rushed in then,
and took Drew. He had nothing to say. What could he say? He couldn't say
he was a blackguard who'd taken advantage of a poor unprotected girl
because she loved him. They found the back door unlocked, by the way,
which was put down to the burglar; of course Browne couldn't explain
that he came home too muddled to lock doors after him.

"And the girl? She shrieked and fell when the row started,
and they found her like a log on the floor of her room after it was over.

"They found in Jack's overcoat pocket a parcel containing a cold chisel,
small screw-wrench, file, and one or two other things
that he'd bought that evening to tinker up the old printing press.
I knew that, because I'd lent him a hand a few nights before,
and he told me he'd have to get the tools. They found some scratches
round the key-hole and knob of the office door that I'd made myself,
scraping old splashes of paint off the brass and hand-plate so as to make
a clean finish. Oh, it taught me the value of circumstantial evidence!
If I was judge I wouldn't give a man till the `risin' av the coort' on it,
any more than I would on the bare word of the noblest woman breathing.

"At the preliminary examination Jack Drew said he was guilty.
But it seemed that, according to law, he couldn't be guilty
until after he was committed. So he was committed for trial
at the next Quarter Sessions. The excitement and gabble
were worse than the Dean case, or Federation, and sickened me,
for they were all on the wrong track. You lose a lot of life
through being behind the scenes. But they cooled down presently
to wait for the trial.