Isom
Chase?"

Ollie's pale face grew scarlet; she hung her head.

"Yes," she answered, in voice shamed and low.

Her mother, shocked and astounded by this public revelation, sat as if
crouching in the place where Ollie had left her. Judge Maxwell nodded
encouragingly to the woman who was making her open confession.

"Go on," said he.

His eyes shifted from her to Joe Newbolt, who was looking at Ollie with
every evidence of acute suffering and sympathy in his face. The judge
studied him intently; Joe, his attention centered on Ollie, was
insensible to the scrutiny.

Ollie told how she and Morgan had made their plans in the orchard that
afternoon, and how she had gone to the house and prepared to carry out
the compact that night, not knowing that Joe had overheard them and sent
Morgan away. She had a most attentive and appreciative audience. She
spoke in a low voice, her face turned toward the jury, according to
Hammer's directions. He could not afford to have them lose one word of
that belated evidence.

"I knew where Isom hid his money," said she, "and that night when I
thought Joe was asleep I took up the loose board in the closet of the
room where Isom and I slept and took out that little sack. There was
another one like it, but I only took my share. I'd worked for it, and
starved and suffered, and it was mine. I didn't consider that I was
robbing him."

"You were not," Hammer assured her. "A wife cannot rob her husband, Mrs.
Chase. And then what did you do?"

"I went downstairs with that money in my hand and laid it on the kitchen
table while I fixed my hat. It was dark in the kitchen, and when I was
ready to go to meet Mr. Morgan in the place agreed on between us, I
struck a match to find my way to the door without bumpin' into a chair
or something and making a noise that would wake up Joe.

"I didn't know he was already up and watching for me to start. He was at
the door when I opened it, and he told me to light the lamp. I wouldn't
do it. I didn't want him to see me all dressed and ready to leave, and I
wanted to try to slip that sack of money off the table before he saw it,
too. He came in; I guess he put his hat down on the table in the dark,
and it fell on top of the sack.

"When he lit the lamp in a minute you couldn't have told there was
anything under the hat unless you stood in a certain place, where it
showed a little under the brim. Joe told me he knew all about Morgan and
me, and that he'