Published in Short Stories1894 The jury re-entered the court after half an hour's consultation. It all comes back to me as vividly as though I stood in the dock at this very moment. The dense fog that hung over the well of the court ; the barrister's wigs that bobbed up through it, and were drowned again in that seething cauldron ; the rays of the guttering candles (for the murder trial had lasted far into the evening) that loomed through it and wore a sickly halo ; the red robes and red faces of my lord judge opposite that stared through it and outshone the candles; the black crowd around, seen mistily ; the voice of the usher calling " Silence ! " the shuffling of the jurymen's feet; the pallor on their faces as I leant forward and tried to read the verdict on them ; the very smell of th