razen assuming. The banker's
forced composure was not natural! He should have been an angry banker.
Of the two men, Lake was the less at ease. The prisoner's face turned at
last toward the door. Blank unrecognition was in his eyes as they swept
past Ellinor, but he shook his head once more, very slightly.

There was a sense of mystery in the air--a buzz and burr of whispers; a
rustle of moving feet. The audience noticeably relaxed its implacable
attitude toward the accused, eyed him with a different interest, seemed
to feel for the first time that, after all, he was accused merely, and
that his defense had not yet been heard. The prosecutor felt this subtle
change; it lamed his periods.

"It is true, Your Honor, that no eye save God's saw this guilty man do
this deed; but the web of circumstantial evidence is so closely drawn,
so far-reaching, so unanswerable, so damning, that no defense can avail
him except the improbable, the impossible establishment of an alibi so
complete, so convincing, as to satisfy even his bitterest enemy! We will
ask you, Your Honor, when you have seen how fully the evidence bears out
our every contention, to commit the prisoner, without bail, to answer
the charge of robbery and attempted murder!"

Then, by the door, Jeff saw the girl start up. She swept down the
aisle, radiant, brave, unfearing, resolute, all half-gods gone; she
shone at him--proud, glowing, triumphant!

A hush fell upon the thrilled room. Jeff was on his feet, his hand held
out to stay her; his eyes spoke to hers. She stopped as at a command.
Scarcely slower, Billy was at her side. "Wait! Wait!" he whispered. "See
what he has to say. There will be always time for that." Jeff's eyes
held hers; she sank into an offered chair.

Cheated, disappointed, the court took breath again. Their dramatic
moment had been nothing but their own nerves; their own excited
imaginings had attached a pulse-fluttering significance to the flushed
cheeks of a prying girl, seeking a better place to see and hear, to
gratify her morbid curiosity.

Jeff turned to the bench.

"Your Honor, I have a perfectly good line of defense; and I trust no
friend of mine will undertake to change it. I will keep you but a
minute," he said colloquially. "I will not waste your time combating
the ingenious theory which the prosecution has built up, or in
cross-examination of their witnesses, who, I feel sure"--here he bowed
to the cloud of witnesses--"will testify