social point of view.
Throw mud enough and a great deal of it is sure to stick, is a trite
axiom. The crime was an exceptionally brutal one, and the bare
suspicion of it still clinging to a man was enough. To do him justice,
Lambert himself felt a repulsion towards one who could ever have
colourably lain under so horrible a suspicion, which was not altogether
the outcome of his hatred of this particular individual. What would
Mona think of it? What action would Musgrave's superior take in the
matter? Surely no man could continue to hold an official position with
such a stigma clinging to him. Musgrave would be called upon to resign,
of course. And then an uneasy misgiving assailed the plotter's mind,
and there loomed up ugly visions of suits for slander, defamation, what
not. The man had stood his trial and had been acquitted. It would be a
ticklish matter spreading the story around.

The more he looked at it the less he liked it. Nothing was easier than
to start this kind of ball rolling, nothing on earth more difficult than
to stop its progress once it was fairly in motion. Lambert wanted to
see the end of this thing; to which effect he resolved to sleep upon it.

Having accordingly slept upon it, he decided that two heads were better
than one. If anybody in Doppersdorp were competent to carry this affair
through, that individual was Sonnenberg.

Not for a moment did it occur to Lambert that he was about to perpetrate
a wholly mean and dishonourable act, or if it did, he excused it on the
ground that all's fair in love and war. Musgrave had cut him out in a
certain quarter; Musgrave had had his day; now he, Lambert, was going to
have his. He was not quite fool enough to suppose that he could walk
into Mona's heart over, figuratively speaking, the other's dead body;
nevertheless he would tumble down their own fair house of cards, would,
in fact, separate them; and from this purpose he never swerved.

Sonnenberg, when put in possession of this new weapon against their
common enemy, fairly howled with delight; when he saw the portrait, and
read the report of the case, his exultation knew no bounds.

"We have him! we have him, by God!" he yelled. "Ha, ha! I shall get
the value of my fifteen pounds now. This is worth fifty of the
gun-selling trap."

"But, wait now. Let's be careful," urged Lambert. "It's an awkward
thing, you know, spreading about a story of this kind. Might get
ourselves into tr