_Judge._ Usher, that is the third time the engine-driver has blown his whistle! Tell him that on the very next occasion I shall send him to prison for contempt of court. _Usher._ Yes, m'lud. [_Exit Usher._ _Facetious Counsel._ The noise is so deafening, we might even call it a "part-heard case." [_Laughter._ _Judge._ Well, let's get on. (_To Witness._) You say you actually saw the prisoner mix the arsenic with the Madeira? _Witness._ I did, m'lud. _Judge._ Well, Gentlemen of the Jury, perhaps we had better, as a matter of form, have the prisoner before us. By the bye, where _is_ the prisoner? _Usher_ (_returning_). I believe he's in the dog-box, m'lud. They had to put him there, he was so refractory in the guard's van. _Judge._ That shows the advantages of this new way of going Circuit. A dog-box is just the sort of receptacle for a person accused of murder in the first class--I mean in the first degree. When do we get to Blankchester Junction? _Foreman._ In a quarter of an hour, m'lud, by my time-tables. And I should like to say that most of the Jury wish to get out there--they feel the oscillations of this carriage so much. If your Lordship would sum up now-- _Judge_ (_with alacrity_). Quite so. Blankchester is a convenient place for _me_ to alight, I think. [_Sums up lucidly in about five minutes, and Jury at once brings in verdict of Guilty of Manslaughter._ _Judge_ (_surprised_). Manslaughter, Gentlemen! Perhaps, after all, I was wrong in not summing up in the Booking-Office. It would have given time for more consideration. [_Awful collision occurs._ _Judge_ (_at bottom of an embankment_). Usher, Usher! I haven't pronounced sentence yet! Bring the prisoner before me! _Usher_ (_wounded_). Beg your Lordship's pardon--prisoner's escaped! _Judge._ Escaped? Well, I can sentence him in his absence quite as well. Oh, dear, my back _is_ bad! Those law-books came down on the top of me, I believe. The sentence of the Court is that the prisoner be imprisoned, when found, for three years. _Facetious Counsel_ (_turning up from a heap of wreckage_). As a _First Class_ misdemeanant, of course? _Judge_ (_catching the spirit of the joke_). First Class! No--Third Class, for Portland! [_Left on Circuit._ * * * * * ONLY FANCY!