The people of Prince George did not often get a chance to listen to a man like him, therefore he wished to give them the worth of their money.

He was a dignified, ruddy little gentleman, clad in a well turned cutaway that fell from his highly convex middle like the wings of a pouter pigeon.

“My lord and gentlemen of the jury,” he began in a voice of insinuating modesty and sweetness, “in this room during the past four days we have witnessed the unfolding of an extraordinary drama.

“Through all the criminal annals of this country we may search in vain for a precedent to this case.  In the past we have had to try Indians and half-breeds for rebelling against the government.

“In such cases punishment was always tempered with mercy; we were in the position of a parent chastising his child.

“Here we are faced by a different situation.  Here we have a white man, one of our own race charged with inciting and leading the natives to rebel against authority.  By tongue and deed he strove to unloosen the passions of hell to his own profit!

“Every man of middle age in this Western country knows what Indian warfare means.  The flesh crawls at the picture of shrieking, painted demons that is called up, the flames, the tortures, the dishonored homes—­gentlemen, it—­it is difficult for me to speak of this matter with a becoming restraint.

“When we come to examine the evidence we are faced by a well-nigh inextricable confusion.  But, gentlemen, the main issue is clear.

“We see the prisoner having made his first false step drawn by inevitable succession deeper and deeper into the quicksands of passion and violence.  Out of the mass of details I ask you to choose three facts which in themselves constitute a strong presumptive case.

“First, the trouble at Fort Enterprise—­that pleasant little Eden of the far north, invaded, alas! by the serpent—­the beginning of the trouble I say was exactly coincident with the arrival of Ambrose Doane.

“Second, in every scene of violence that followed we find him a leading figure.  Third, all trouble ceased upon his arrest.

“Let us glance in passing at the first act of lawlessness, the seizing of the Company’s mill.  The prisoner admits that he forcibly broke into the mill, hoping, no doubt, that by confessing the minor offense he may persuade you to believe him when he denies the greater.  This is a very ancient expedient of accused persons.

“He ground his grain and carried it back to the Indians, and they stored it in an empty shack across the river.  This is conceded by both sides.

“On the following night during the progress of a barbaric dance among the Kakisas, at which the prisoner was a guest—­an honored guest, remember—­an alarm of fire was given.

“Upon running to the scene they found the shack in flames.  It was completely destroyed, together with its contents.