wondered what the day would bring forth, and as he paced
up and down his room in order to get a little exercise, he squared back
his shoulders and held his head high. He felt fit and ready for battle
and longed for activity of some kind. As the morning hours wore slowly
away he became restless and impatient. The silence of his room was
affecting his nerves, and he thought with a shudder of men who were
condemned for life to solitary confinement. What more horrible
punishment could be meted out to any man? He was sure that he would go
mad in a few days.

Jasper could eat but little of the meagre dinner the jailor brought
him. He was hoping that there would be a letter or some message for
him, and when there was none he felt sadly disappointed. How long
would it be before he had any word from the lawyer? he wondered.

He was brooding at the table when the door again opened and to his
great joy and surprise Mr. Westcote entered. Jasper sprang to his feet
and seized the hand held out to him.

"Are you quite repentant now?" Mr. Westcote smilingly asked.

"Quite," was the reply. "I think this dose will do me all my life. I
am willing to do anything you ask me, even to blacking your boots."

"That's good, so obey me at once and leave this confounded hole."

"What, go with you?"

"Certainly. What else would have brought me here but to take you away?"

"To the court-room, I suppose," was the bitter rejoinder.

"Not at all. But come now, and I will explain everything on our way to
the city. My car is just outside."

How good Jasper felt to be once again out of doors, and he expanded his
chest and inhaled great draughts of the fresh air.

"My, that's great!" he exclaimed. "It will take me a long time to get
the poison of that cell out of my lungs, and----"

"The bitterness out of your soul, eh?" Mr. Westcote quietly asked, as
Jasper paused.

"Yes, that's what I was going to say. But I'm afraid it will be a much
harder thing to do. I've been the sport of fools so long that the
bitterness of my soul has become a chronic disease."

"Tut, tut, don't talk that way any more," Mr. Westcote chided. "Jump
on board now, and let us be off. I'll tell you something that will
sweeten your soul and make life worth living."

To Jasper it seemed almost like a dream as he leaned back and listened
to what his companion told him about the net of evidence which had been
woven about Sydney Bramshaw. He did not mentio