"There's the fellows what sits on the jury, mister!" whispered Melky. "Half-a-crown each they gets for the job--and a nice mess they makes of it, sometimes. They've the power to send a man for trial for his life, has them chaps--all depends on their verdict. But lor' bless yer!--they takes their tip from the Coroner--he's the fellow what you've got to watch." Then Melky looked around more narrowly, and suddenly espied the legal-looking man who was talking to the police. He dug his elbow into Lauriston. "Mister!" he whispered. "You be careful what you say when you get into that there witness-box. See that man there, a-talking to the detectives?--him with the gold nippers on his blooming sharp nose? That's Mr. Parminter!--I knows him, well enough. He's a lawyer chap, what the police gets when there's a case o' this sort, to ask questions of the witnesses, d'ye see? Watch him, Mr. Lauriston, if he starts a-questioning you!--he's the sort that can get a tale out of a dead cod-fish--s'elp me, he is! He's a terror, he is!--the Coroner ain't in it with him--he's a good sort, the Coroner, but Parminter--Lord love us! ain't I heard him turn witnesses inside out--not half! And here is the Coroner." Lauriston almost forgot that he was an important witness, and was tempted to consider himself nothing but a spectator as he sat and witnessed the formal opening of the Court, the swearing-in of the twelve jurymen, all looking intensely bored, and the preliminaries which prefaced the actual setting-to-work of the morning's business. But at last, after some opening remarks from the Coroner, who said that the late Mr. Daniel Multenius was a well-known and much respected tradesman of the neighbourhood, that they were all sorry to hear of his sudden death, and that there were circumstances about it which necessitated a careful investigation, the business began--and Lauriston, who, for professional purposes, had heard a good many legal cases, saw, almost at once, that the police, through the redoubtable Mr. Parminter, now seated with his clerk at the table, had carefully arranged the presenting of evidence on a plan and system of their own, all of which, so it became apparent to him, was intended to either incriminate himself, or throw considerable suspicion upon him. His interest began to assume a personal complexion.