Oh woman, woman! when to ill thy mind
  Is bent, all hell contains no fouler fiend.

She had said no word.  Between the judge and jury nothing had passed, and yet through the alpha rays of that mysterious medium of communication by which all men as men are united where woman is concerned, the thought was directly transmitted and unanimously acknowledged that here for sure was a hell cat!

It was as naught to them that she testified to the outrageous illegality of the Appleboys’ territorial ambitions, the irascibility of the wife, the violent threats of the husband; or that Mrs. Appleboy had been observed to mail a suspicious letter shortly before the date of the canine assault.  They disregarded her.  Yet when Tutt upon cross-examination sought to attack her credibility by asking her various pertinent questions they unhesitatingly accepted his implied accusations as true, though under the rules of evidence he was bound by her denials.

Peck 1:  “Did you not knock Mrs. Appleboy’s flower pots off the piazza?” he demanded significantly.

“Never!  I never did!” she declared passionately

But they knew in their hearts that she had.

Peck 2:  “Didn’t you steal her milk bottles?”

“What a lie!  It’s absolutely false!”

Yet they knew that she did.

Peck 3:  “Didn’t you tangle up their fish lines and take their thole-pins?”

“Well, I never!  You ought to be ashamed to ask a lady such questions!”

They found her guilty.

“I move to dismiss, Your Honor,” chirped Tutt blithely at the conclusion of her testimony.

Judge Witherspoon shook his head.

“I want to hear the other side,” he remarked.  “The mere fact that the defendant put up a sign warning the public against the dog may be taken as some evidence that he had knowledge of the animal’s vicious propensities.  I shall let the case go to the jury unless this evidence is contradicted or explained.  Reserve your motion.”

“Very well, Your Honor,” agreed Tutt, patting himself upon the abdomen.  “I will follow your suggestion and call the defendant.  Mr. Appleboy, take the stand.”

Mr. Appleboy heavily rose and the heart of every fat man upon the jury, and particularly that of the Abyssinian brother upon the back row, went out to him.  For just as they had known without being told that the new Mrs. Tunnygate was a vixen, they realized that Appleboy was a kind, good-natured man—­a little soft, perhaps, like his clams, but no more dangerous.  Moreover, it was plain that he had suffered and was, indeed, still suffering, and they had pity for him.  Appleboy’s voice shook and so did the rest of his person as he recounted his ancient friendship for Tunnygate and their piscatorial association, their common matrimonial experiences, the sudden change in the temperature of the society of Throggs Neck, the malicious destruction of their property and the unexplained aggressions of Tunnygate upon the lawn.  And the jury, believing, understood.