lked of on election
night. Frank liked her poetry. With a spirit less morbid she would have
made a name for herself he thought.

Aleta was doing more and more settlement work. She had been playing
second lead at the theater and had had a New York offer. Frank could not
understand why she refused it. But Norah did, though she kept the secret
from Frank.

"Do you know how many talesmen have been called in the Calhoun trial?"
Aleta asked, looking up from the newspaper. "There were nearly 1500 in
the Ruef case. They called that a record." She laughed.

"Of course Pat Calhoun would wish to outdo Abe Ruef," said Frank.
"That's only to be expected. He's had close to 2500, I reckon."

"Not quite," Aleta referred to the printed sheet. "Your paper says 2370
veniremen were called into court. That's what money can do. If he'd been
some poor devil charged with stealing a bottle of milk from the
doorstep, how long would it take to convict him?"

"It's a rotten world," the other girl spoke with a sudden gust of
bitterness. "A world without honor or justice."

"Or a nightmare," said Frank, with a glance at Aleta.

"Well, if it is, I'm going to wake up soon--in one way or another," said
Norah. "I will promise you that." To Frank the words seemed ominous. He
left soon afterward.

The Calhoun trial dragged interminably. Heney, not entirely recovered
from his wound, but back in court, faced a battery of the country's
highest priced attorneys. There were A.A. and Stanley Moore, Alexander
King, who was Calhoun's law partner in the South; Lewis F. Byington, a
former district attorney; J.J. Barrett, Earl Rogers, a sensationally
successful criminal defender from Los Angeles, and Garret McEnerney.
Heney had but one assistant, John O'Gara, a deputy in Langdon's office.

For five long months the Prosecution fought such odds. Heney lost his
temper frequently in court. He was on the verge of a nerve prostration.
Anti-prosecution papers hinted that his faculties were failing. Langdon
more or less withdrew from the fight. He was tired of it; had declined
to be a candidate for the district attorneyship in the Fall. Heney was
the Prosecution's only hope. He consented to run; which added to his
legal labors the additional tasks of preparing for a campaign.

It was not to be wondered at that Heney failed to convict Calhoun. The
jury disagreed after many ballots. A new trial was set. But before a
jury was empanelled the November ballot gave the