yrd's eye took in its travels over the
scene of action, and the diagram which he hastily drew on the back of an
envelope. The table was noticed, too, and an inventory of its articles
taken, after which he opened the side-door and looked carefully out into
the lane.

To observe him now with his quick eye flashing from spot to spot, his
head lifted, and a visible air of determination infused through his
whole bearing, you would scarcely recognize the easy, gracefully
indolent youth who, but a little while before, lounged against the
tables and chairs, and met the most penetrating eye with the sleepy gaze
of a totally uninterested man. Dr. Tredwell, alert to the change, tapped
the letter in his pocket complacently. "I have roused up a weasel," he
mentally decided, and congratulated himself accordingly.

It was two o'clock when Mr. Byrd went forth to join Mr. Ferris in the
court-room. As he stepped from the door, he encountered, to all
appearance, just the same crowd that had encumbered its entrance a half
hour before. Even the old crone had not moved from her former position,
and seeing him, fairly pounced upon him with question after question,
all of which he parried with a nonchalant dexterity that drew shout
after shout from those who stood by, and, finally, as he thought, won
him the victory, for, with an angry shake of the head, she ceased her
importunities, and presently let him pass. He hastened to improve the
chance to gain for himself the refuge of the streets; and, having done
this, stood for an instant parleying with a trembling young girl, whose
real distress and anxiety seemed to merit some attention. Fatal delay.
In that instant the old woman had got in front of him, and when he
arrived at the head of the street he found her there.

"Now," said she, with full-blown triumph in her venomous eyes, "perhaps
you will tell me something! You think I am a mumbling old woman who
don't know what she is bothering herself about. But I tell you I've not
kept my eyes and ears open for seventy-five years in this wicked world
without knowing a bit of the devil's own work when I see it." Here her
face grew quite hideous, and her eyes gleamed with an aspect of gloating
over the evil she alluded to, that quite sickened the young man,
accustomed though he was to the worst phases of moral depravity. Leaning
forward, she peered inquiringly in his face. "What has _she_ to do with
it?" she suddenly asked, emphasizing the pronoun w