hould learn that they might just as well spare themselves the
trouble.

Thus musing he went down to the office. A few Court cases had to be
disposed of, during which from his seat in front of the bench he could
see Tasker, the agent, who bore him no goodwill either, ostentatiously
sketching a gallows on his blotting pad. Darrell was absent, having
returned to the Main Camp.

"Would you mind stepping this way, Mr Musgrave?" said Mr Shaston, when
the court had risen, leading the way into his private office. "Sit
down, please. There is a matter of very serious moment on which I
should like a little conversation with you. Perhaps it will save a
great deal of explanation, and beating around the bush, if we come to
the point at once. In a word, _this_ has come under my notice--no
matter how--and if you have any explanation to offer I shall be glad to
hear it."

"This" being the file of the _Bryonville Sentinel_ open at the report of
the Stillwell's Flat case. Roden took it, and looked at it hard and
earnestly--his own portrait, lifelike at the present day, the
sensational headlines, the equivocal verdict, the acquittal.

This, then, was how the matter had been unearthed; for as he glanced at
the paper he recalled old Dr Simpson's hobby. That kindly-natured old
man would not have stirred a finger to harm him. It was Lambert who had
unearthed this, Lambert whom he had to thank. Ten long years ago! and
now here, in another hemisphere thousands and thousands of miles away,
this blood-spectre sprang up once more, hideous and blighting.

"Well?" said Shaston, as he handed it back.

"I have no explanation to offer."

"Do I understand then that you admit your identity with the--er--the
person, whose trial is here reported?"

"You will please understand that I admit nothing. I do not feel in the
least called upon to make either admissions or explanations. I will,
however, just add this remark. The person, whoever he may be, whose
trial is there reported, appears to have been acquitted. That means, I
take it, that he has been cleared of the charge."

"All very well as a legal fiction, Mr Musgrave," was the icy rejoinder;
"but you and I know perfectly that the manner of a person's acquittal
makes all the difference in the world."

"Then, if a man is once under suspicion, he is always under it, no
matter how completely or publicly he may have been cleared? Is that
your deliberate opinion, Mr Shaston?"

The ot