The excitement became painfully intense.

Ralph was on his feet, looking at the witness, and feeling that somehow Bud and Dr.Small--his good angel and his demon--were playing an awful game, or which he was the stake.
The crowd swayed to and fro, but remained utterly silent, waiting to hear the least whisper from the witness, who stood trembling a moment with his hands over his face, and then fainted.
The fainting of a person in a crowd is a signal for everybody else to make fools of themselves.

There was a rush toward the fainting man, there was a cry for water.

Everybody asked everybody else to open the window, and everybody wished everybody else to stand back and give him air.

But nobody opened the window, and nobody stood back.