forms of the law are our heritage from the ages!" he thundered back. "The
so-called delays and technicalities are the checks devised by human
experience against the rash judgments and rasher actions by the volatile
element of society! They are the safeguards, the bulwarks of society! It is
better that a hundred guilty men escape than that one innocent man should
suffer!"

The old judge was magnificent, his eyes alight, his nostrils expanded, his
head reared back defiantly, all the great power of his magnetism and his
authority brought to bear. Keith was thrilled. He considered that the
discussion had been lifted to a high moral plane.

By rights Judge Caldwell should have been crushed, but he seemed
undisturbed,

"Well," he remarked comfortably, "on that low average we must have quite a
few innocent men among us after all."

"What do you mean, sir?" demanded Judge Girvin, halted in mid career and
not catching the allusion.

"Surely, Judge, you don't mean to imply that you endorse Coleman and his
gang?" put in Calhoun Bennett courteously but incredulously.

"Endorse them? Certainly not!" disclaimed Caldwell. "I need my job," he
added with a chuckle.

Bennett tossed back his hair, and a faint disgust appeared in his dark
eyes, but he said nothing more. Caldwell lit a cigar with pudgy fingers.