Our friend realized vaguely that he was about to be tried. He wondered what for⁠—whether or not his victim might be dead, and if so, what they would do with him. Hang him, perhaps, or beat him to death⁠—nothing would have surprised Jurgis, who knew little of the laws. Yet he had picked up gossip enough to have it occur to him that the loud-voiced man upon the bench might be the notorious Justice Callahan, about whom the people of Packingtown spoke with bated breath.