“Not enough to build a new wing to the Astor Library, nor to set up a parson in a gothic temple; still, enough to engage me, heart and hand, in her service. First and last, my receipts have been a thousand dollars, besides money for the outlays.” “Which have amounted to——” “More than as much more. This is a matter of life and death, you know, sir; and prices rise accordingly. All I have received has been handed to me either in gold or in good current paper. The first troubled me a good deal; for I was not certain some more pieces might not be recognized, though they were all eagles and half-eagles.” “Has any such recognition occurred?” demanded Dunscomb, with interest. “To be frank with you, ’Squire Dunscomb, I sent the money to town at once, and set it afloat in the great current in Wall Street, where it could do neither good nor harm on the trial. It would have been very green in me to pay out the precise coin among the people of Duke’s. No one could say what might have been the consequences.” “It is not very easy for me to foretell the consequences of the substitutes which, it seems, you _did_ use. A fee to a counsel I can understand; but what the deuce you have done, legally, with a thousand dollars out-of-doors, exceeds my penetration I trust you have not been attempting to purchase jurors, Timms?” “Not I, sir. I know the penalties too well, to venture on such a defence. Besides, it is too soon to attempt that game. Jurors may be bought; sometimes _are_ bought, I have heard say”—here Timms screwed up his face into a most significant mimicry of disapprobation—“but _I_ have done nothing of the sort in the ‘State _vs_. Mary Monson.’ It is too soon to operate, even should the testimony drive us to _that_, in the long run.” “I forbid all illegal measures, Timms. You know my rule of trying causes is never to overstep the limits of the law.” “Yes, sir; I understand your principle, which will answer, provided both sides stick to it. But, let a man act as close to what is called honesty as he please, what certainty has he that his adversary will observe the same rule? This is the great difficulty I find in getting along in the world, ’Squire; opposition upsets all a man’s best intentions. Now, in politics, sir, there is no man in the country better disposed to uphold respectable candidates and just principles than I am myself; but the other side squeeze us up so tight, that before the election comes off, I’m ready to vote for the devil, rather than get the worst of it.” “Ay, that’s the wicked man’s excuse all over the world, Timms. In voting for the gentleman you have just mentioned, you will remember you are sustaining the enemy of your race, whatever may be his particular relation to his party. But in this affair at Biberry, you will please to remember it is not an election, nor is the devil a candidate. What success have you had with the testimony?”