-what did you and
Joe do?" he asked.

"We heard somebody coming in a minute. We didn't know who it could be,
but I was afraid. I knew if it got out on me about my start to run off
with Morgan, and all the rest of it, I'd be ruined and disgraced
forever.

"Joe knew it too, better than I did. I didn't have to tell him, and I
never even hinted for him to do what he did. I never even thought of
that. I asked him what we'd do, and he told me to go upstairs and leave
him to do the talking. I went. I was coward enough to go and leave him
to bear the blame. When Joe lied at the inquest to save me, I backed him
up in it, and I stuck to it up till now. Maybe I was a little mad at him
for coming between me and Mr. Morgan, but that was just a streak. That's
the only lie Joe's told, and you can see he never would have told that
to save himself. I don't want to see him suffer any more for me."

Ollie concluded her recital in the same low, dragging and spiritless
voice in which she had begun it. Conscience whipped her through, but
it could not make her unafraid. Hammer turned to the prosecutor
with questioning eyes. Lucas announced that he did not desire to
cross-examine the witness, and the judge dismissed her.

Ollie went back to her mother. No demonstration accompanied her passing,
but a great sigh sounded over the room as the tenseness of the listening
strain relaxed, and the fulness of satisfaction came in its place.

Mrs. Newbolt still clung to her son's hand. She nodded at the
prosecuting attorney with glowing eyes, as if glorying over him in the
moment of his defeat. Alice Price smiled joyously, and leaned back from
her posture of concentration. The colonel whispered to her, bringing the
palms of his hands together in silent but expressive applause. The
prosecuting attorney stood.

"Your honor--" he began, but Judge Maxwell, lifting his head from the
reflecting pose into which he had fallen when Ollie left the stand,
silenced him with an impatient gesture.

"One moment, Mr. Prosecutor," said he.

The prosecutor flushed, and sat down in ruffled dignity.

"I merely wanted to make a motion for dismissal," said he, sarcastically,
as if it was only the merest incidental in the day's proceedings.

"That is not the procedure," said the judge. "The state owes it to this
defendant to absolve him before the public of the obloquy of this
unfounded and cruel accusation."

"Vindication is what we demand, your honor," said Hamm