rcumstances of the moment
ran the other way. But still it was possible."

And Captain Clayton was of opinion that Peter was beginning to be
moved from the determined know-nothingness of his primary evidence.
He had seen the flash. And then, as his master had run up the bank,
he didn't know whether he hadn't caught the flying figure of a man.

"I had the poor boy's head on my knees, Captain Clayton; and how is a
poor man to look much about him then?"

In this condition stood Captain Clayton's mind in regard to Peter,
when he heard, for the first time, a word about the widow Dolan and
the widow Dolan's daughter.

The woman swore by all her gods that she knew nothing of Lax. But
then she had already fallen into the difficulty of having been
selected as capable of giving evidence. It generally happens that no
one first person will be found even to indicate others, so that there
is no finding a beginning to the case. But when a witness has been
indicated, the witness must speak.

"The big blackguard!" exclaimed Mrs. Dolan, when she heard of the
evil that had been brought her; "to have the imperence to mention my
name!"

It was felt, all the country through, to be an impertinence,--for
anybody to drag anybody else into the mess of troubles which was
sure to arise from an enforced connection with a law court. Most
unwillingly the circumstances were drawn from Mrs. Dolan, and with
extreme difficulty also from that ingenious young lady her daughter.
But, still, it was made to appear that Lax had taken refuge in their
cottage, and had gone down from thence to a little brook, where he
effected the cleansing of his pistol. The young lady had done all in
her power to keep her mother silent, but the mother had at last been
tempted to speak of the weapon which Lax had used.

Now there was no further question of letting Lax go loose from
prison! That very irate barrister, Mr. O'Donnell, who was accustomed
to speak of all the Landleague criminals as patriotic lambs,--whose
lamb-like qualities were exceeded only by their patriotism,--did not
dare to intimate such a wish any further. But he did urge, with all
that benevolence for which he was conspicuous, that the trial should
come on at that immediate spring assizes. A rumour had, however,
already reached the ears of Captain Clayton, and others in his
position, that a great alteration was to be effected in the law.
This, together with Mrs. Dolan's evidence, might enable him to h