led Wilson by a fall.
Only a more powerful man could have done so.

"Had you any doubt as to who that more powerful man might be?"

"None, not I. I knew that the man whose game it was to have the
warrant was the likest man to have grabbed it. It warn't on the body.
There was not a scrap of evidence against Ray, or I should have taken
him then and there."

"You tried to take him afterwards, and failed."

"That's true enough. The man has the muscles of an ox."

The next two witnesses were a laborer from Wythburn, who spoke again
to passing Sim on the road on the night of the murder, and meeting
Wilson a mile farther north, and Sim's landlord, who repeated his
former evidence.

There was a stir in the court as counsel announced his last witness. A
woman among the spectators was muttering something that was inaudible
except to the few around her. The woman was Mrs. Garth. Willy Ray
stood near her, but could not catch her words.

The witness stepped into the box. There was no expression of surprise
on Ralph's face when he saw who stood there to give evidence against
him. It was the man who had been known in Lancaster as his "Shadow";
the same that had (with an earlier witness) been Robbie Anderson's
companion in his night journey on the coach; the same that passed
Robbie as he lay unconscious in Reuben Thwaite's wagon; the same that
had sat in the bookseller's snug a week ago; the same that Mrs. Garth
had recognized in the corridor that morning; the same that Justice
Hide had narrowly scrutinized when he rose in the court to claim the
honor of ferreting the facts out of the woman Rushton.

He gave the name of Mark Wilson.

"Your name again?" said Justice Hide, glancing at a paper in his hand.

"Mark Wilson."

Justice Hide beckoned the sheriff and whispered something. The sheriff
crushed his way into an inner room.

"The deceased James Wilson was your brother?"

"He was."

"Tell my lords and the jury what you know of this matter."

"My brother was a zealous agent of our gracious King," said the
witness, speaking in a tone of great humility. "He even left his
home--his wife and family--in the King's good cause."

At this moment Sim was overtaken by faintness. He staggered, and would
have fallen. Ralph held him up, and appealed to the judges for a seat
and some water to be given to his friend. The request was granted, and
the examination continued.

The witness was on the point of being dismissed when the