was no wiser than those in their generations before him
who had failed to read a woman's heart. Alice saw that cloud hovering
before the sun of his felicity. She lifted her hands and gave them to
him, as one restoring to its owner something that cannot be denied.

Face to face for a moment they stood thus, hands clasped in hands. For
them the world was empty of prying eyes, wondering minds, impertinent
faces. For a moment they were alone.

The jurors had come out of the box, and were following the crowd. Hammer
was gathering up his books and papers, Judge Maxwell and the prosecuting
attorney were talking with Mrs. Newbolt. The sheriff was waiting near
the bar, as if he had some duty yet before him to discharge. A smile had
come over Colonel Price's face, where it spread like a benediction as
Joe and Alice turned to enter the world again.

"I want to shake hands with you, Joe," said the sheriff, "and wish you
good luck. I always knowed you was as innercent as a child."

Joe obliged him, and thanked him for his expression, but there
were things in the past which were not so easily wiped from the
memory--especially a chafed ring around his left wrist, where the
sheriff's iron had galled him when he had fretted against it during
the tense moments of those past days.

Sam Lucas offered Joe his hand.

"No hard feeling, Joe, I hope?" said he.

"Well, not in particular--oh, well, you were only doing your duty, as
you saw it," said Joe.

"You could have saved the county a lot of money, and yourself and your
friends a lot of trouble and anxiety, if you'd told us all about this
thing at the beginning," complained Lucas, with lingering severity.

"As for that--" began Colonel Price.

"You knew it, Miss Price," Lucas cut in. "Why didn't you make him
tell?"

"No," said Alice, quietly, "I didn't know, Mr. Lucas. I only believed in
him. Besides that, there are some things that you can't _make_ a
gentleman tell!"

"Just so," said Judge Maxwell, coming down from the bench with his books
under his arm.

"Bless your heart, honey," said Mrs. Newbolt, touching Alice's hair with
gentle, almost reverent hand, "you knew him better than his old mother
did!"

Colonel Price bowed ceremoniously to Mrs. Newbolt.

"I want you and Joe to come home with us for some refreshment," said he,
"after which the boy and I must have a long, long talk. Mr. Hammer,
sir," said he, giving that astonished lawyer his hand, "I beg the honor
of shak