to her quite naturally.

"You do not believe him guilty, father?" she repeated.

"Don't you?" And there was something eager in his voice as he uttered
the words.

"Why, father, how could he be? It is madness to suppose such a thing!"

"I cannot discuss it with you," he said; and his voice was almost
harsh. "Go to bed, my child. Good-night."

She looked at him searchingly, and for the first time in her life she
felt almost afraid of him. His face was drawn and haggard, and in his
eyes was a look she never saw before.

"You do not believe him guilty, do you?"

"My God, I don't know," he replied hoarsely. "I would give--I would
give----" And then he ceased speaking.

"I tell you he's innocent," replied the girl. "And I am going to----"

But Judge Bolitho did not hear her. "Go to bed--go to bed!" he said;
and taking her by the arm he led her from the room, and, closing the
door, turned the key. A moment later he had unlocked the door and
called her back.

"What is that you said about--about something you were going to do?" he
asked.

"Surely, father, you do not believe him guilty?" was her reply. "I
know that the evidence is black against him; but he could not do it!
He could not do it!"

As the judge looked at his daughter's face, a ray of hope shone into
his heart. If the trial had impressed her in this way, might not the
jury also be led to doubt the evidence given? He knew that many men
had been hanged on circumstantial evidence, but it might be that they
would refuse to accept the evidence in this case as sufficient.

"You see," persisted the girl, and he noticed that her lace was full of
anguish, that her eyes shone with an unnatural light--"he could not do
it, father."

"Do you mean to say that you regard the evidence as insufficient?"

It was utterly unlike him to talk with her about any trial in which he
was engaged. Such things, he had always maintained, were not for
women. They had neither the training nor the acumen to give an opinion
worth considering. But now he caught at the girl's words like a
drowning man might catch at a straw.

"Oh, I know the evidence is terrible enough," she replied. "But that
doesn't convince me a bit. Father, you cannot allow them to hang him."

He stood still looking at her steadily, and as he did so the horror of
the whole situation seized him more terribly than ever. He knew what
she did not know. His mind was filled with thoughts of which