eans for doing this seem to be lacking to the chance
wayfarer, but if there were a lumberman here, he would tell you that the
logs which are frequently floated down this stream to the station afford
an easy means of passage to one accustomed to ride them, as I have been
when a lad, during the year I spent in the Maine woods. At all events,
it was upon a log that happened to be lodged against the banks, and
which I pushed out into the stream by means of the 'pivy' or long spiked
pole which I found lying in the grass at its side, that I crossed the
river on that fatal day; and if the detective, who has already made such
an effort to controvert the defence, will risk an attempt at this
expedient for cutting short his route, I have no doubt he will be able
to show you that a man can pass from Mrs. Clemmens' house to the station
at Monteith Quarry, not only in ninety minutes, but in less, if the
exigencies of the case seem to demand it. I did it."

And without a glance at Imogene, but with an air almost lofty in its
pride and manly assertion, the prisoner sank back into his seat, and
resumed once more his quiet and unshaken demeanor.

This last change in the kaleidoscope of events, that had been shifting
before their eyes for the last half hour, was too much for the continued
equanimity of a crowd already worked up into a state of feverish
excitement. It had become apparent that by stripping away his defence,
Mansell left himself naked to the law. In this excitement of the jury,
consequent upon the self-accusation of Imogene, the prisoner's admission
might prove directly fatal to him. He was on trial for this crime;
public justice demanded blood for blood, and public excitement clamored
for a victim. It was dangerous to toy with a feeling but one degree
removed from the sentiment of a mob. The jury might not stop to
sympathize with the self-abnegation of these two persons willing to die
for each other. They might say: "The way is clear as to the prisoner at
least; he has confessed his defence is false; the guilty interpose false
defences; we are acquit before God and men if we convict him out of his
own mouth."

The crowd in the court-room was saying all this and more, each man to
his neighbor. A clamor of voices next to impossible to suppress rose
over the whole room, and not even the efforts of the officers of the
court, exerted to their full power in the maintenance of order, could
have hushed the storm, had not the spe