Men, such as those jurors, must be powerfully moved or they would shrink from a verdict of guilty! But Moxlow persevered in his level tones, he was not to be hurried.

He felt the case as good as won, and there was the taste of triumph in his mouth, for he was going to convict his man in spite of the best criminal lawyer in the state! Yet presently the level tones became more and more incisive, and Moxlow would walk toward North, his long finger extended, to loose a perfect storm of words that cut and stung and insulted.

He went deep into North's past, and stripped him bare; shabby, mean, and profligate, he pictured those few short years of his manhood until he became the broken spendthrift, desperately in need of money and rendered daring by the ruin that had overtaken him.
Moxlow's speech lasted three hours, and when he ended a burning mist was before North's eyes.

He saw vaguely the tall figure of the prosecuting attorney sink into a chair, and he gave a great sigh of relief.

Perhaps North expected Belknap to perform some miracle of vindication in his behalf, certainly when his counsel advanced to the rail that guarded the bench there were both authority and confidence in his manner, and soon the dingy court room was echoing to the strident tones of the old criminal lawyer's voice.