hmond had given her promise to marry Maurice Rodaine, the action of
a coroner's jury that night had removed her from hope forever. A son
of a man who has been called a slayer has little right to love a woman,
even if that woman has a bit of mystery about her. All things can be
explained--but murder!

It was growing late, but Fairchild did not seek bed. Instead he sat by
the window, staring out at the shadows of the mountains, out at the
free, pure night, and yet at nothing. After a long time, the door
opened, and a big form entered--Harry--to stand silent a moment, then
to come forward and lay a hand on the other man's shoulder.

"Don't let it get you, Boy," he said softly--for him. "It's going to
come out all right. Everything comes out all right--if you ain't wrong
yourself."

"I know, Harry. But it's an awful tangle right now."

"Sure it is. But it ain't as if a sane person 'ad said it against you.
There 'll never be anything more to that; Farrell 'll 'ave 'er adjudged
insane if it ever comes to anything like that. She 'll never give no
more testimony. I 've been talking with 'im--'e stopped in just after
you came upstairs. It's only a crazy woman."

"But they took her word for it, Harry. They believed her. And they
gave the verdict--against my father!"

"I know. I was there, right beside you. I 'eard it. But it 'll come
out right, some way."

There was a moment of silence, then a gripping fear at the heart of
Fairchild.

"Just how crazy is she, Harry?"

"'Er? Plumb daft! Of course, as Mother 'Oward says, there 's times
when she 's straight--but they don't last long. And, if she 'd given
'er testimony in writing, Mother 'Oward says it all might 'ave been
different, and we 'd not 'ave 'ad anything to worry about."

"In writing?"

"Yes, she 's 'arfway sane then. It seems 'er mind 's disconnected,
some wye. I don't know 'ow--Mother 'Oward 's got the 'ole lingo, and
everybody in town knows about it. Whenever anybody wants to get
anything real straight from Crazy Laura, they make 'er write it. That
part of 'er brain seems all right. She remembers everything she does
then and 'ow crazy it is, and tells you all about it."

"But why did n't Farrell insist upon that tonight?"

"'E could n't have gotten 'er to do it. And nobody can get 'er to do
it as long has Squint's around--so Mother 'Oward says. 'E 's got a
influence about 'im. And she does exactly what 'e 'll sye--all 'e 's
got