To Harold it seemed as though he and all the people of the room were dead--that only his brain was alive.
Then Mrs.Excell burst into sobbing.

The judge looked away into space, his dim eyes seeing nothing that was near, his face an impassive mask of colorless flesh.

The old lawyer's words had stirred his blood, sluggish and cold with age, but his brain absorbed the larger part of his roused vitality, and when he spoke his voice had an unwontedly flat and dry sound.
"The question for you to decide," he said, instructing the jury, "is whether the boy struck the blow in self-defense, or whether he assaulted with intent to do great bodily injury.

The fact that he was provoked by a man older and stronger than himself naturally militates in his favor, but the next question is upon the boy's previous character.

Did he carry deadly weapons?
Is he at heart dangerous to his fellows?
His youth should be in mind, but it should also be remembered that he is a lad of high intellectual power, older than most men of his age.