tails of that tragedy which had played
such havoc with her, drove Nora into a morbid humor which neither Garth
nor the inspector could alter. She followed Garth on the stand. She was
dressed in black. The appeal of her personality was irresistible. It was
clear that if the two criminals had ever had a chance Nora would destroy
it.

Slim and George sat by their counsel. George could not quite hide the
animal character of his face, but he had managed to soften it somewhat.
Evidently he endeavoured to impress the jurors with the idea that he was
a good-natured fellow who had been involved in the case through some
curious mischance. At Nora's appearance, Garth noticed, there came into
his eyes a survival of the passion he had so recklessly declared in the
steel-lined room.

Slim, on the other hand, let slip nothing of the criminal. His quiet
clothing gave him an air almost clerical. His sharp features expressed a
polite interest. He could not, a casual spectator would have said, be
capable of the evil with which he was charged.

Garth watched the men perpetually. He saw the hatred slip through while
he quietly told the story that would condemn them to death. During
Nora's recital, too, both men exposed something of their powerful desire
for revenge against these two who quietly droned away their lives.

Garth took Nora from the courtroom well aware that, given the
opportunity, Slim and George would not let them move a foot without
exacting full payment.

Garth respected Nora's mood. He put her in a cab and sent her home, then
wandered restlessly about the down town streets.

Perhaps Nora's attitude was partly responsible for his feeling of
oppression, of imminence. Nothing could happen, he told himself again.
Slim and George would start for the death house to-morrow. They would
have no chance. If they delegated such work to their subordinates still
at large, Garth fancied that he could take care of himself and Nora,
too. It was the exceptional cunning of Slim and George that he shrank
from, had feared ever since the night Nora and he had trapped them.

Angry with himself he went to headquarters. The inspector admitted that
he, too, would breathe easier when the two were in the chair.

The next day Garth managed to dismiss his premonition. He chatted with
two or three detectives in the outside office. The inspector sent for
him. The moment he answered the summons he knew something disastrous
had occurred. He felt th