ast your face does; though I know how
quick and just you are. He is a bad man--too well I know it--but, as my
dear husband used to say, he has a large lot of children."

"Well, Mrs. Carroway, I admire you the more, for considering what he has
not considered. Let us put aside that. The question is--guilty or not
guilty? If he is guilty, shall he get off, and innocent men be hanged
for him? Six men are in jail at this present moment for the deed which
we believe he did. Have they no wives, no fathers and mothers, no
children--not to speak of their own lives? The case is one in which the
Constitution of the realm must be asserted. Six innocent men must die
unless the crime is brought home to the guilty one. Even that is not
all as regards yourself. You may not care for your own life, but you
are bound to treasure it seven times over for the sake of your seven
children. While John Cadman is at large, and nobody hanged instead of
him, your life is in peril, ma'am. He knows that you know him, and have
denounced him. He has tried to scare you into silence; and the fright
caused your sad illness. I have reason to believe that he, by scattering
crafty rumors, concealed from the neighbors your sad plight, and that
of your dear children. If so, he is worse than the devil himself. Do you
see your duty now, and your interest also?"

Mrs. Carroway nodded gently. Her strength of mind was not come back yet,
after so much illness. The baby lay now on its father's breast, and the
mother's had been wild for it.

"I am sorry to have used harsh words," resumed Mordacks; "but I always
have to do so. They seem to put things clearer; and without that, where
would business be? Now I will not tire you if I can help it, nor ask a
needless question. What provocation had this man? What fanciful cause
for spite, I mean?"

"Oh, none, Mr. Mordacks, none whatever. My husband rebuked him for
being worthless, and a liar, and a traitor; and he threatened to get
him removed from the force; and he gave him a little throw down from the
cliff--but what little was done was done entirely for his good."

"Yes, I see. And, after that, was Cadman ever heard to threaten him?"

"Many times, in a most malicious way, when he thought that he was not
heeded. The other men may fear to bear witness. But my Geraldine has
heard him."

"There could be no better witness. A child, especially a pretty little
girl, tells wonderfully with a jury. But we must have a great d