Williams knew this very well; and he also knew that it had been done to entitle the respective parties to costs, in the event of anything occurring to give either side an advantage; the cause being one of those nuts out of which practitioners are very apt to extract the whole of the kernel before they are done with it. “Yes, I am aware of that, and I believe we are quite ready. I see that Mr. Town is here, and I observe several of his witnesses; but I have so much business, I have no wish to try a long slander cause; words spoken in heat, and never thought of again, but to make a profit of them.” “You are employed against us in the murder case, I hear?” “I rather think the friends of the deceased so regard it; but I have scarcely had time to look at the testimony before the coroner”—This was a deliberate mystification, and Timms perfectly understood it as such, well knowing that the other had given the out-door work of the case nearly all of his time for the last fortnight—“and I don’t like to move in one of these big matters without knowing what I am about. Your senior counsel has not yet arrived from town, I believe?” “He cannot be here until Wednesday, having to argue a great insurance case before the Superior Court to-day and to-morrow.” This conversation occurred after the grand jury had been charged, the petit jurors sworn, and the judge had heard several motions for correcting the calendar, laying causes over, &c. &c. Two hours later, the District Attorney being absent in his room, engaged with the grand jury, Williams arose, and addressed the court, which had just called the first civil cause on the calendar. “May it please the court,” he said, coolly, but with the grave aspect of a man who felt he was dealing with a very serious matter—“there is a capital indictment depending, a case of arson and murder, which it is the intention of the State to call on at once.”