that he turned his bald head slowly in the direction of the
foreman. Was he in sympathy with a man who had promised to be as
silent as himself?

In the meantime, nothing was said or done. Helpless silence
prevailed in every part of the room.

"Why the devil doesn't somebody begin?" cried the invalid. "Have
you all forgotten the evidence?"

This startling question roused the jury to a sense of what was
due to their oaths, if not to themselves. Some of them
recollected the evidence in one way, and some of them recollected
it in another; and each man insisted on doing justice to his own
excellent memory, and on stating his own unanswerable view of the
case.

The first man who spoke began at the middle of the story told by
the witnesses in court. "I am for acquitting the captain,
gentlemen; he ordered out the boats, and saved the lives of the
crew."--"And I am for finding him guilty, because the ship struck
on a rock in broad daylight, and in moderate weather."--"I agree
with you, sir. The evidence shows that the vessel was steered
dangerously near to the land, by direction of the captain, who
gave the course."--"Come, come, gentlemen! let us do the captain
justice. The defense declares that he gave the customary course,
and that it was not followed when he left the deck. As for his
leaving the ship in moderate weather, the evidence proves that he
believed he saw signs of a storm brewing."--"Yes, yes, all very
well, but what were the facts? When the loss of the ship was