"Mr. Chester did come that way, sir, walking carefully on the ice. But for the men I should have gone up to him at once. I did not like to let them see me, and so waited a little, meaning to follow him when they were gone, and give him the coffee. He passed close by us and fell. I heard the men laugh low--_so_ low just as he came up. I heard them call out, and saw other people come up. "They lifted him from the ice--these two men--and held his face up to the cold air. I thought that he was dead, his face shone so white, and it seemed as if the thought hardened me into ice. I could not speak nor move. Everything went dark around me. I felt the coffee-pitcher slip from my hand and break upon the stones, but could not even try to save it. He had been so kind to me--there was only one thought come to me through the cold--they would take him home to his wife, dead. I knew it would break her heart, and still I could not move. When I did get a little strength, those two men were going down the street, and Mr. Chester walked between them. I followed after, but the fright had made me weak, and my eyes were so full of tears that I could only see them moving before me like people in a fog. "Just before I reached the house, two men--the same who had gone home with Mr. Chester--went by me, walking very fast and laughing. I knew them by the laugh, for they gave me no time to look up. I hoped by that to find Mr. Chester not so badly hurt as he seemed. This gave me strength, and I got home sooner than I should have done. When I went in Mr. Chester sat by the fire trembling like a leaf, and his wife stood over him bathing his head, paler than I ever saw her before or since!" The little girl paused here, her eyes fell, and the eager look died on her face, for she saw that cold, sneering smile, peculiar to the Mayor, drawing down his upper lip--and it struck a chill to her heart. "Did you see the faces of those men--can you point them out again?" questioned the Mayor. "I did not see their faces plain enough to know them again, but by the voice of that man," and she pointed toward Smith, "I am sure he was one of them!" "And this is all you know!" said the Mayor. "It is all!" was the faint reply. "It is all!" and the child crept to the side of Chester, and put her hand in his. He pressed that little hand, looked down kindly upon her, and then her tears began to flow. The Mayor arose. "We have heard the evidence," he said, "and it has been carefully written down. In a few days, or weeks at farthest, the case shall be decided--it requires consideration; it requires a patient review of the evidence. Until the decision, Mr. Chester, you are suspended, without pay." The Mayor ended his speech with a gentle bend of the head, and prepared to withdraw. The clerk rolled up his minutes and the witnesses went out, anxious to quit a scene that had been more exciting than they expected.