s you keep in the road, while
the river curves so frequently and with so much abruptness--see, I will
endeavor to give you some notion of it here--that you would only waste
time in attempting to make any short cuts. But, once over the
bridge----"

"I have only to foot it," burst in Hickory, taking up the sketch which
the other had now completed, and glancing at it with a dubious eye. "Do
you know, Byrd," he remarked in another moment, "that it strikes me
Mansell did not take this roundabout road to the station?"

"Why?"

"Because it _is_ so roundabout, and he is such a clearheaded fellow.
Couldn't he have got there by some shorter cut?"

"No. Don't you remember how Orcutt cross-examined the station-master
about the appearance which Mansell presented when he came upon the
platform, and how that person was forced to acknowledge that, although
the prisoner looked heated and exhausted, his clothes were neither
muddied nor torn? Now, I did not think of it at the time, but this was
done by Orcutt to prove that Mansell did take the road I have jotted
down here, since any other would have carried him through swamps
knee-deep with mud, or amongst stones and briers which would have put
him in a state of disorder totally unfitting him for travel."

"That is so," acquiesced Hickory, after a moment's thought. "Mansell
must be kept in the path. Well, well, we will see to-morrow if wit and a
swift foot can make any thing out of this problem."

"Wit? Hickory, it _will_ be wit and not a swift foot. Or luck, maybe I
should call it, or rather providence. If a wagon should be going along
the highway, now----"

"Let me alone for availing myself of it," laughed Hickory. "Wagon! I
would jump on the back of a mule sooner than lose the chance of gaining
a minute on these experts whose testimony we are to hear to-morrow.
Don't lose confidence in old Hickory yet. He's the boy for this job if
he isn't for any other."

And so the matter was settled.

XXXI.

THE CHIEF WITNESS FOR THE DEFENCE.

Your _If_ is the only peace-maker; much virtue in _If_.--AS YOU
LIKE IT.

THE crowd that congregated at the court-house the next morning was even
greater than at any previous time. The opening speech of Mr. Orcutt had
been telegraphed all over the country, and many who had not been
specially interested in the case before felt an anxiety to hear how he
would substantiate the defence he had so boldly and confidently put
forth.