The prisoner shook as with an ague at my disclosures, and his coarse goatee fluttered in sympathy with his flying heart. A few questions were put to him, and after admitting that he had visited the Kendrick place, he turned to denial, and became glib in his own defense. Big Sam translated to me in an undertone, and I could feel the anger in his voice rising higher and higher at each prevarication. At last Big Sam sprang to his feet, and pointing at me, thundered a question at Little John. Little John hesitated, stumbled in his speech, hastily denied his words, then stopped and looked about him with evident realization that he was lost; and with a scream of terror he would have fallen had not the guards caught him and brought him roughly to his feet. "Mr. Hampden, what shall be done with this man?" asked Big Sam. "I have a warrant out for his arrest for disturbing the peace. I’m afraid I haven’t evidence enough to satisfy our courts on a higher charge." "Well, this court is satisfied--you believe him guilty, Mr. Hampden?" "He is certainly guilty of attempted abduction." He apparently put the same question to the two stern-faced men beside us, and they gave assent in brief phrases. "The court is unanimous," said Big Sam. "Guilty of attempted abduction, violation of the bargain between the tongs, sacrificing the interests of his race to the interest of his tong by challenging the white vengeance. What should the penalty be, Mr. Hampden?" "I think in our court he would get two years for the attempted abduction, assuming that he was convicted." "A mild punishment, Mr. Hampden. I do not wonder that crime flourishes in your country with justice so feeble. But we have no prisons at our command. Death or exile or fine--these are the punishments we can enforce." I shuddered at his words and tone, but it seemed impossible that we were discussing more than a theoretical case. "Do you mean to say that our judgment will be carried out?" I cried. "Certainly. An example is necessary; an offense has been committed; the guilty is before us for sentence." "I should be satisfied with exile," I said, as Big Sam’s eye demanded my choice. He spoke to the two stern-faced men beside us, and at their answer turned to me. "All but you, Mr. Hampden, favor death. It is less costly, and more effective." "But he has not committed a capital offense," I protested. "It is a capital offense by the laws of his own land. And if he had succeeded in burning Mr. Kendrick’s house and killing Mr. Kendrick’s family, I understand that it would have been a capital offense, even by the emasculate laws of your country. Is he the less guilty that his accomplices failed in the parts he had arranged for them?" "Our laws give a lower punishment to the attempt than to the completed offense," I objected.