to right paths. For
nearly an hour he spoke, and then, amidst an excitement which was
painful in the extreme, the jury went away to consider their verdict.

Minute after minute passed away, while everyone waited in painful
suspense for the jurymen to return. The old feeling of uncertainty had
come back to the spectators, the barristers, who had been so eagerly
listening to the case, discussed in whispers what the probable result
would be, and more than one woman had to be carried out of the court in
a state of collapse. Men sat with hard, set faces, scarcely daring to
move. How long they were away I do not know, but it seemed to all
present like an eternity.

Presently the foreman of the jury appeared, and the judge returned to
his chair.

"Gentlemen, are you agreed as to the verdict?"

"No, we are not agreed."

It was as though a mighty sob arose from the throats of all present.
The judge, who wore an uneasy look as he reentered the court, seemed
perturbed. A look of eager expectation was on the faces of the
barristers. As for Paul, he became instinct with new life. His case
was not hopeless--they were not agreed. The fiendishly clever speech
of Mr. Bakewell and the deadly summing-up of the judge had not secured
a verdict of guilty. He felt almost like a conqueror. Hope was in his
heart. He would live even yet. The judge looked at his watch, as if
in doubt what to do, but it was evident that he quickly made up his
mind.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE VERDICT

"If you will tell me the points on which you are disagreed," said the
judge at length, "I may be able to throw some light upon them, and
also, perhaps, advise you."

"The points are these," said the foreman of the jury. "First of all,
some among us are far from being convinced that the prisoner, if he
were the murderer, would be likely to leave the knife in the murdered
man's body. If he had struck the blow in a passion, and had then,
overcome by panic, run away for fear of the consequences of what he had
done, we could have understood it. But as we are dealing with
circumstantial evidence, it seems utterly unlikely that a man who had
premeditated a murder should have run away leaving a weapon which could
be easily traced to him. That, at least, is the feeling of some
members of the jury, and is one of the points which causes us to be
divided.

"The second is this: there are some among us who feel very strongly the
point of the prisoner's