The story of the man's crime was a short and simple one.

He had been ringleader in a highway robbery lately committed, and taken in the very act, with the booty upon his person.

The evidence was clear as daylight; no one attempted to dispute it or deny the accusation.
Was this, then, all that had brought the assembly together?
The man was of a name known to comparatively few of those present.

His crime was an ordinary felony, and his defence appeared to be hopeless.

It was evidently something else than this for which these onlookers had crowded into court, and it was not long before their curiosity was satisfied.
A witness stood forward to be questioned as to the associates of the prisoner.