anged."

Richard listened, lingering as Larry wished, appalled at this
revelation, until they arrived at the edge of the crowd around the
door, eagerly trying to wedge themselves in wherever the chance
offered.

"Oh! Sir Kildene--we are here--now what to do! How can we go in
there?" said Amalia.

Larry moved them aside slowly, pushing Amalia between Richard and
himself, and intimating to those nearest him that they were required
within, until a passage was gradually made for the three, and thus
they reached the door and so gained admittance. And that was how they
came to be there, crowded in a corner, all during the testimony of
Betty Ballard, unheeded by those around them--mere units in the throng
trying to hear the evidence and see the principals in the drama being
enacted before them.

[1] The ruling of the court upon this point was afterwards justified
by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin in the case of Buel _v._
State, 104 Wis. 132, decided in 1899.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

BETTY BALLARD'S TESTIMONY

Betty Ballard stood, her slight figure drawn up, poised, erect, her
head thrown back, and her eyes fixed on the Elder's face. The silence
of the great audience was so intense that the buzzing of flies
circling around and around near the ceiling could be heard, while the
people all leaned forward as with one emotion, their eyes on the
principals before them, straining to hear, vivid, intent.

Richard saw only Betty, heeding no one but her, feeling her presence.
For a moment he stood pale as death, then the red blood mounted from
his heart, staining his neck and his face with its deep tide and
throbbing in his temples. The Elder felt her scrutiny and looked back
at her, and his brows contracted into a frown of severity.

"Miss Ballard," said the lawyer, "you are called upon to identify the
prisoner in the box."

She lifted her eyes to the judge's face, then turned them upon Milton
Hibbard, then fixed them again upon the Elder, but did not open her
lips. She did not seem to be aware that every eye in the court room
was fastened upon her. Pale and grave and silent she stood thus, for
to her the struggle was only between herself and the Elder.

"Miss Ballard, you are called upon to identify the prisoner in the
box. Can you do so?" asked the lawyer again, patiently.

Again she turned her clear eyes on the judge's face, "Yes, I can."
Then, looking into the Elder's eyes, she said: "He is your son, E