ou heard or read a full account of this trial?"

She was trembling, now. Was it from fear of the truth, or under that
terror of the unknown embodied in this question.

"I do not know," said she. "What I heard was from my nurse and Mr.
Moffat. I read very little, and that was only about the first days of
the trial and the swearing in of jurors. This is the first time I have
heard any mention made of marks, and I do not understand yet what you
allude to."

District Attorney Fox cast at Mr. Moffat an eloquent glance, which that
gentleman bore unmoved; then turning back to the witness, he addressed
her in milder and more considerate tones than were usually heard from him
in cross-examination, and asked: "Did you hold your sister's hands all
the time she lay dying, as you thought, on the lounge?"

"Yes, yes."

"And did not see her raise them once?"

"No, no."

"How was it when you let go of them? Where did they fall then?"

"On her breast. I laid them down softly and crossed them. I did not leave
her till I had done this and closed her eyes."

"And what did you do then?"

"I went for the note, to burn it."

"Miss Cumberland, in your direct examination, you said that you stopped
still as you crossed the floor at the time, thinking that your sister
called, and that you looked back at her to see."

"Yes, sir."

"Were her hands crossed then?"

"Yes, sir, just the same."

"And afterward, when you came from the fire after waiting some little
time for courage?"

"Yes, yes. There were no signs of movement. Oh, she was
dead--quite dead."

"No statements, Miss Cumberland. She looked the same, and you saw no
change in the position of her hands?"

"None; they were just as I left them."

"Miss Cumberland, you have told us how, immediately after taking the
poison, she staggered about the room, and sank first on a chair and then
on the lounge. Were you watching her then?"

"Oh, yes--every moment."

"Her hands as well as her face?"

"I don't know about her hands. I should have observed it if she had done
anything strange with them."

"Can you say she did not clutch or grip her throat during any of
this time?"

"Yes, yes. I couldn't have forgotten it, if she had done that. I remember
every move she made so well. She didn't do that."

Mr. Fox's eye stole towards the jury. To a man, they were alert, anxious
for the next question, and serious, as the arbitrators of a man's life
ought to be.

Satisfied, he pu