“It only remains for us,” he said, “to bring forward actual evidence of his previous attempts.  By an agreement already made with the Court and the leaders of the defence, we are permitted to put in evidence authentic letters from witnesses to these scenes, which the defence is free to examine.  Out of several cases of such outrages we have decided to select one—­ the clearest and most scandalous.  I will therefore, without further delay, call on my junior, Mr. Gould, to read two letters—­one from the Sub-Warden and the other from the porter of Brakespeare College, in Cambridge University.”

Gould jumped up with a jerk like a jack-in-the-box, an academic-looking paper in his hand and a fever of importance on his face.  He began in a loud, high, cockney voice that was as abrupt as a cock-crow:—­

“Sir,—­Hi am the Sub-Warden of Brikespeare College, Cambridge—­”

“Lord have mercy on us,” muttered Moon, making a backward movement as men do when a gun goes off.

“Hi am the Sub-Warden of Brikespeare College, Cambridge,” proclaimed the uncompromising Moses, “and I can endorse the description you gave of the un’appy Smith.  It was not alone my unfortunate duty to rebuke many of the lesser violences of his undergraduate period, but I was actually a witness to the last iniquity which terminated that period.  Hi happened to passing under the house of my friend the Warden of Brikespeare, which is semi-detached from the College and connected with it by two or three very ancient arches or props, like bridges, across a small strip of water connected with the river.  To my grive astonishment I be’eld my eminent friend suspended in mid-air and clinging to one of these pieces of masonry, his appearance and attitude indicatin’ that he suffered from the grivest apprehensions.  After a short time I heard two very loud shots, and distinctly perceived the unfortunate undergraduate Smith leaning far out of the Warden’s window and aiming at the Warden repeatedly with a revolver.  Upon seeing me, Smith burst into a loud laugh (in which impertinence was mingled with insanity), and appeared to desist.  I sent the college porter for a ladder, and he succeeded in detaching the Warden from his painful position.  Smith was sent down.  The photograph I enclose is from the group of the University Rifle Club prizemen, and represents him as he was when at the College.—­ Hi am, your obedient servant, Amos Boulter.

“The other letter,” continued Gould in a glow of triumph, “is from the porter, and won’t take long to read.

“Dear Sir,—­It is quite true that I am the porter of Brikespeare College, and that I ’elped the Warden down when the young man was shooting at him, as Mr. Boulter has said in his letter.  The young man who was shooting at him was Mr. Smith, the same that is in the photograph Mr. Boulter sends.—­ Yours respectfully, Samuel Barker.”

Gould handed the two letters across to Moon, who examined them.  But for the vocal divergences in the matter of h’s and a’s, the Sub-Warden’s letter was exactly as Gould had rendered it; and both that and the porter’s letter were plainly genuine.  Moon handed them to Inglewood, who handed them back in silence to Moses Gould.