of my failure
that I had gained five minutes upon them."

"And what did you reply?"

"That I hoped I could make something on _them_; but that five minutes
wasn't much when a clean fifteen was wanted," returned Hickory, with
another droll look at the experts and an askance appeal at Byrd, which
being translated might read: "How in the deuce could this man have known
what I was whispering to you on the other side of the court-room? Is he
a wizard, this Orcutt?"

He forgot that a successful lawyer is always more or less of a wizard.

XXXIII.

A LATE DISCOVERY.

Oh, torture me no more, I will confess.--KING LEAR.

WITH the cross-examination of Hickory, the defence rested, and the day
being far advanced, the court adjourned.

During the bustle occasioned by the departure of the prisoner, Mr. Byrd
took occasion to glance at the faces of those most immediately concerned
in the trial.

His first look naturally fell upon Mr. Orcutt. Ah! all was going well
with the great lawyer. Hope, if not triumph, beamed in his eye and
breathed in every movement of his alert and nervous form. He was looking
across the court-room at Imogene Dare, and his features wore a faint
smile that indelibly impressed itself upon Mr. Byrd's memory. Perhaps
because there was something really peculiar and remarkable in its
expression, and perhaps because of the contrast it offered to his own
feelings of secret doubt and dread.

His next look naturally followed that of Mr. Orcutt and rested upon
Imogene Dare. Ah! she was under the spell of awakening hope also. It was
visible in her lightened brow, her calmer and less studied aspect, her
eager and eloquently speaking gaze yet lingering on the door through
which the prisoner had departed. As Mr. Byrd marked this look of hers
and noted all it revealed, he felt his emotions rise till they almost
confounded him. But strong as they were, they deepened still further
when, in another moment, he beheld her suddenly drop her eyes from the
door and turn them slowly, reluctantly but gratefully, upon Mr. Orcutt.
All the story of her life was in that change of look; all the story of
her future, too, perhaps, if---- Mr. Byrd dared not trust himself to
follow the contingency that lurked behind that _if_, and, to divert his
mind, turned his attention to Mr. Ferris.

But he found small comfort there. For the District Attorney was not
alone. Hickory stood at his side, and Hickory was whispering i