ce at what the
policeman was carrying, and then, to his horror, perceived that it was
a human hand, the fingers still gay with precious rings. The next
moment they all came up to where he was, and he heard someone in the
crowd saying:

'That's the hand of the woman that was murdered. A gentleman has just
found it in Newton Bay.'

The fearful truth burst on him like a thunder-clap. The blood forsook
his veins; he staggered helplessly to the nearest seat and sank down
upon it, moaning to himself: 'Lost! She is lost!'

The firm ground on which he had been standing had crumbled all at
once. The law point on which he had relied to save Eleanor's life, in
spite of the crushing weight of evidence against her, was robbed by
this accidental discovery of more than half its strength. Who could
any longer pretend to doubt whether a murder had been committed? Hence
Tressamer's despair. Coupled with what Eleanor had said to him in
their interview, however, it drove him to seek more earnestly than he
would otherwise have done for some theory of defence upon the facts,
some means whereby, if possible, to force a doubt into the minds of
the jury, and wring from them a verdict of acquittal.

To this task he now devoted himself. He assumed the part of a
detective rather than a barrister. In the case of an ordinary client
conduct such as this would not have been tolerated for a moment by the
rigid etiquette of the Bar; but where a case is of such a nature that
the barrister is personally concerned, and where he acts as a private
individual pursuing his own interests, etiquette has nothing to say.
In joining the Bar a man does not cease to be a citizen and to enjoy
the rights and privileges of ordinary mortals. It is only in his
professional character that his acts come under that rigid supervision
which is at once the dread and envy of inferior professions.

But, in any event, George Tressamer's present mood would not have let
him give much weight to considerations of such a character. Too much
was at stake. He had to keep in constant communication with Eleanor,
to encourage her in face of the ordeals of the coroner and the
magistrates, and to protect her from the zeal of the various graduates
of the Incorporated Law Society who were thirsting to win glory in her
defence.

As a blind to the public, he caused the rumour to be spread that she
was without professional advice. This idea was confirmed when it got
to be known that she ha