nd could be produced at any time. Poor
Mrs. Rallston! She winced at the professional technicalities, but wrote
a hurried despatch, care of the Rocky Mountain Detective Agency,
enjoining him to come to them at once; breathing no word of reproach or
blame, but telling him that his letters were now in Ray's hands, and
they felt that he bitterly regretted the part he had taken in connection
with Gleason. He must come and exonerate her brother from the charge of
accepting a bribe, to which he was assigned as the sole witness.

There was a further conference that need not be detailed. Colonel Rand
desired first to see some of the prominent business men whom he knew, as
he proposed to have Ray bailed out instanter no matter what that young
gentleman's wishes might be, and Blake, giving her his arm, escorted
Mrs. Rallston through the bustling streets until they reached the jail.
Even then there was a little knot of hangers-on watching with wolfish
curiosity every comer. The officials touched their hats to Blake and his
veiled companion, and looked admiringly at her tall, graceful form.
Already something was beginning to whisper that justice had been blinder
than ever, had been groping painfully in the dark, and had nabbed the
wrong man. Mr. Perkins and his jury had been basely and ungratefully
alluded to as a batch of leather heads, and it behooved the sheriffs and
others to look to the buttered side of their bread, lest it, too, should
fall in the municipal mud. Blake felt her trembling as they passed
through the office into a long and dimly-lighted hall.

"Courage, Mrs. Rallston," he whispered. "We are going to lose him, you
and I, but it's to a very different captivity. Oh, he's gone _this_ time
past all saving. Just wait till you see her!" And before she could ask
one question in her wonderment, a door was opened, there was a fond,
welcoming cry of "Nell!" and for the first time in all her life, so far
as Ray could tell, the sister fell forward, fainting, into his arms.
Blake assisted in carrying her to the sofa, brought a glass of water,
and then, as she began to revive, he silently withdrew and left them
together.

Later that afternoon Colonel Rand, Mr. Green, and Blake had a quiet
consultation with the prisoner. The matter of bail, said Rand, was
already settled. On his representations half a dozen prominent citizens
had signified their willingness to act. Mr. Green stated that he had
received advice of other offers, a