nce, she wanted time to think! I could see that my chief was
astonished, too.

"I'll try to keep it from coming to that, since you wish it," he said
slowly. "I'll not be able to call you, then, to testify in your own
behalf--and that always hurts. But I hope the case will break down at
once--I believe it will. At any rate, don't worry. I want you to rely
on me."

She looked up at him again, smiling.

"I shall," she murmured softly. "I'm sure I could desire no better
champion!"

Well, plainly, if he won this case he would win something else
besides. I think even the policeman in the corner saw it, for he
turned away with a discretion rare in policemen, and pretended to
stare out of the window.

I don't know what my chief would have said--his lips were trembling so
he could not speak for the moment--and just then there came a tap at
the door, and the coroner's clerk looked in.

"We're ready to begin, sir," he said.

"Very well," cried Mr. Royce. "I'll come at once. Good-by for the
moment, Miss Holladay. I repeat, you may rely on me," and he hastened
from the room as confidently as though she had girded him for the
battle. Instead, I told myself, she had bound him hand and foot before
casting him down into the arena.

CHAPTER II

In the Grip of Circumstance

The outer room was crowded from end to end, and the atmosphere reeked
with unpleasant dampness. Only behind the little railing before the
coroner's desk was there breathing space, and we sank into our seats
at the table there with a sigh of relief.

One never realizes how many newspapers there are in New York until one
attends an important criminal case--that brings their people out in
droves and swarms. The reporters took up most of the space in this
small room, paper and pencils were everywhere in evidence, and in one
corner there was a man with a camera stationed, determined, I suppose,
to get a photograph of our client, should she be called to the stand,
since none could be obtained in any other way.

I saw Singleton, the district attorney, come in and sit down near the
coroner, and then the jury filed in from their room and took their
seats. I examined them, man by man, with some little anxiety, but they
all seemed intelligent and fairly well-to-do. Mr. Royce was looking
over their names, and he checked them off carefully as the clerk
called the roll. Then he handed the list up to the coroner with a
little nod.

"Go ahead," he said. "The