And so it happened that an hour later the _Morning Mail_ man was telling Mr. Ougheltree of the Twentieth Century Bank and head of the bankers clique that owned the _Mail_, that he had to stand by this man Ilingsworth from start to finish. And as a result of this interview the few spectators at the afternoon session of the court had heard the celebrated Worth Higgins inform the Court that he had been retained to conduct the case for the defence, as well as the Court's complimentary remarks in reply. But Worth Higgins had been of little service to the defendant, though he had drawn from his witnesses, especially Ilingsworth, all that they knew or suspected about Wilkinson's management of the seventeen bankrupt trust companies--a feat which, as will readily be imagined, was all that the _Morning Mail_ required of him. In truth, Higgins had done Ilingsworth more harm than good. The defendant had deliberately purchased a gun; had lain in wait; had shot a man down in cold blood. Not the man he had aimed at, it is true, but the principle was the same. "Will the defendant deny that he did the shooting?" had been Higgins' query to Boggs. "Of course he will," had been his fellow-counsel's answer. "He's as innocent as a new-born babe." And with that Higgins had put the defendant on the stand and heard him deny it--a weak, wabbling denial it was, in reality merely a recital of his wrongs. "That's all," Higgins said, when the testimony was over, and then he had added in an aside to his junior: "His goose is cooked." Nevertheless, at the suggestion of the _Morning Mail_ man, he had taken all the exceptions possible, remarking to that gentleman's intimation that the case was going up for an appeal: "A good thing it is, for it's a gone case here." And Higgins had been quite right. For, a short time after this the jury had filed back and pronounced the one word of doom.