not heed, and the rest
follows as a matter of course. The life she throws away he will not
accept. He is innocent, but his defence is false! He says so, and leaves
the jury to decide on the verdict. There can be no doubt," Hickory
finally concluded, "that some of these circumstances are consistent
only with his belief that Miss Dare is a murderess: such, for instance,
as his scratching out her face in the picture. Others favor the theory
in a less degree, but this is what I want to impress upon both your
minds," he declared, turning first to Mr. Ferris and then to Mr. Byrd:
"_If any fact, no matter how slight, leads us to the conviction that
Craik Mansell, at any time after the murder, entertained the belief that
Miss Dare committed it, his innocence follows as a matter of course. For
the guilty could never entertain a belief in the guilt of any other
person._"

"Yes," said Mr. Ferris, "I admit that, but we have got to see into Mr.
Mansell's mind before we can tell what his belief really was."

"No," was Hickory's reply; "let us look at his actions. I say that that
defaced picture is conclusive. One day he loves that woman and wants her
to marry him; the next, he defaces her picture. Why? She had not
offended him. Not a word, not a line, passes between them to cause him
to commit this act. But he does hear of his aunt's murder, and he does
recall her sinister promise: 'Wait; there is no telling what a day will
bring forth.' I say that no other cause for his act is shown except his
conviction that she is a murderess."

"But," persisted Mr. Ferris, "his leaving the house, as he acknowledges
he did, by this unfrequented and circuitous road?"

"I have said before that I cannot explain his presence there, or his
flight. All I am now called upon to show is, some fact inconsistent with
any thing except a belief in this young woman's guilt. I claim I have
shown it, and, as you admit, Mr. Ferris, if I show _that_, he is
innocent."

"Yes," said Byrd, speaking for the first time; "but we have heard of
people manufacturing evidence in their own behalf."

"Come, Byrd," replied Hickory, "you don't seriously mean to attack my
position with that suggestion. How could a man dream of manufacturing
evidence of such a character? A murderer manufactures evidence to throw
suspicion on other people. No fool could suppose that scratching out the
face of a girl in a photograph and locking it up in his own desk, would
tend to bring her to