While Sewell talked in this open and indiscreet way of the old Judge, his meaning was to show with what perfect confidence he treated his companion, and at the same time how fair and natural it would be to expect frankness in return. The crafty lawyer, however, trained in the school where all these feints and false parries are the commonest tricks of fence, never ventured beyond an expression of well-got-up astonishment, or a laugh of enjoyment at some of Sewell's smartnesses. “You want a light?” said Sewell, seeing that the other held his cigar still unlit in his fingers. “Thanks. I was forgetting it. The fact is, you kept me so much amused, I never thought of smoking; nor am I much of a smoker at any time.” “It 's the vice of the idle man, and you are not in that category. By the way, what a busy time you must have of it now, with all these commitments?” “Not so much as one might think. The cases are numerous, but they are all the same. Indeed, the informations are identical in nearly every instance. Tim Branegan had two numbers of the 'Green Flag' newspaper, some loose powder in his waistcoat-pocket, and an American drill-book in the crown of his hat.” “And is that treason-felony?” “With a little filling-up it becomes so. In the rank of life these men belong to, it's as easy to find a rebel as it would be in Africa to discover a man with a woolly head.” “And this present movement is entirely limited to that class?” said Sewell, carelessly. “So we thought till a couple of days ago, but we have now arrested one whose condition is that of a gentleman.” “With anything like strong evidence against him?” “I have not seen the informations myself, but Burrowes, who has read them, calls them highly important; not alone as regards the prisoner, but a number of people whose loyalty was never so much as suspected. Now the Viceroy is away, the Chief Secretary on the Continent, and even Balfour, who can always find out what the Cabinet wishes,--Balfour absent, we are actually puzzled whether the publicity attending the prosecution of such a man would not serve rather than damage the rebel cause, displaying, as it would, that there is a sympathy for this movement in a quarter far removed from the peasant.” “Is n't it strange that the Chief Baron should have, the other evening, in the course of talk, hit upon such a possibility as this, and said, 'I wonder would the Castle lawyers be crafty enough to see that such a case should not be brought to trial? One man of education, and whose motives might be ascribed to an exalted, however misdirected, patriotism,' said he, 'would lift this rabble out of the slough of their vulgar movement, and give it the character of a national rising.'” “But what would he do? Did he say how he would act?” “He said something about 'bail,' and he used a word I wasn't familiar with--like estreating: is there such a word?”