“I plead guilty, sir,” said Frank, without a tremor.

He had been two full days in the cells by now, and it had not improved his appearance.  He was still deeply sunburned, but he was a little pale under the eyes, and he was unshaven.  He had also deliberately rumpled his hair and pulled his clothes to make them look as untidy as possible.  He answered in a low voice, so as to attract as little attention as possible.  He had given one quick look at the magistrates as he came in, to make sure he had never met them out shooting or at dinner-parties, and he had been deeply relieved to find them total strangers.

“You plead guilty, eh?” said the General.

Frank nodded.

“Well, well! let’s hear the whole story.  Where is the complainant?”

A rather pale and awe-stricken child appeared somewhere in a little box opposite Frank, with a virtuous mother in black silk behind her.  It appeared that this child was on her way to her aunt—­her father was a grocer—­with a tin of salmon that had been promised and forgotten (that was how she came to be out so late).  As she reached the corner by Barker’s Lane a man had jumped at her and seized the tin. (No; he had not used any other violence.) She had screamed at the top of her voice, and Mrs. Jennings’ door had opened.  Then the man had run away.

“Had she seen the man clearly?” No, she hadn’t seen him at all; she had just seen that he was a man. ("Called himself one,” put in a voice.) The witness here cast an indignant—­almost vindictive—­look at Frank.

Then a few corroborations were issued.  Mrs. Jennings, a widow lady, keeping house for her brother who was a foreman in Marks’ yard, ratified the statement about the door being opened.  She was going to shut up for the night when she heard the child scream.  Her brother, a severe-looking man, with a black beard, finished her story.  He had heard his sister call out, as he was taking off his boots at the foot of the stairs; he had run out with his laces dangling, in time to see the man run past the public-house fifty yards up the street.  No ... he, too, had not seen the man clearly, but he had seen him before, in company with another; the two had come to his yard that afternoon to ask for work and been refused, as they wanted no more hands.

“Well, what had happened then?”

He had hammered at two or three doors as he ran past, among them that of the police-constable, and himself had run on, in time to hear the prisoner’s footsteps run up the lane leading to the barn.  He had stopped then as he was out of breath, and as he thought they would have the man now, since there was no exit from the lane except through Mr. Patten’s farm-yard, and if he’d gone that way they’d have heard the dogs.

Finally the police-constable corroborated the entire story, and added that he, in company with the foreman and two other men, had “proceeded” to the barn immediately, and there had found the prisoner, who was pretending to be asleep, with the tin of salmon (produced and laid on the table) hidden inside his jacket.  He had then taken him into custody.