"And I again take leave to differ. Why now, there's"--Mr. Longsett pointed with his finger--"one--two--three--four--five of us as says not guilty. We're agreeing more and more every minute. I dare bet any money we'll all be like one family before we get outside this room. If the foreman ain't got no particular objection I'll have a moistener. I never could eat dry." Taking a black bottle out of an inner pocket in his overcoat he applied it to his lips. Such of the eleven as were not keenly observant ostentatiously turned their eyes another way. He took a long and hearty pull, then he smacked his lips. "Good stuff that; I always like a drop when I've been eating--helps digestion." "This is more than human nature can stand," groaned Mr. Timmins. "Mr. Foreman, I move that the magistrates be informed that we are unable to agree, and I request that you put that motion without further delay." "I second that motion," said Captain Rudd. "And I say no!" Jacob flourished his bottle. Mr. Timmins's visage, as he confronted Mr. Longsett, became slightly inflamed. "We don't care what you say. Do you think we're going to sit here, watching you guzzling, as long as ever you please? If you want to give a proper verdict you give one which is according to the evidence--we're not going to let you play the fool with us, Jacob, my boy." Extending the open palm of his left hand, Mr. Longsett marked time on it with the bottle which he was holding in his right. "Excuse me, Mr. Foreman, but perhaps I know a bit of law as well as the rest of you, and I say that the law is this, that before a jury can tell the court anything it's got to agree upon what it's going to tell. And what I mean by that is this, that before any one of us--I don't care if it's the foreman, or who it is!--can tell the court that we disagree we've got to agree to disagree--and I don't agree!" Mr. Moss put a question to the foreman. "Is that really the case?" The foreman smiled a wintry smile--and temporised. "I shouldn't positively like to say." "But I do say positively. You can ask the magistrates, if you like, and see if I'm not right. Why, if you go into court now and say that we disagree I shall say we don't! I shall say that if we only have a little more time we shall agree yet; all we want's a chance of talking it over." The foreman, pressing his fingers together, addressed Mr. Longsett with an air that was acid. "Then, according to you, if one member of a jury chooses to make himself objectionable his colleagues are at his mercy?" Jacob rose from his seat in such a flame of passion that it almost seemed he was going to hurl his bottle at the foreman's head.