The Red Mouse: A Mystery Romance

by William Hamilton Osborne

  X

  The trial of James Lawrence Challoner had progressed with uncommonhaste, the fourth day finding all the witnesses heard and the case readyto sum up to the jury. The court-room was crowded: the newspapers werethere; the people were there; public opinion was there. Brief and to thepoint had been the State's case--made up out of Pemmican's evidence andthe confession of the prisoner. But in the prosecutor's presentment ofhis evidence there had been an undercurrent as unusual as it wasunexpected: every question that he hurled at Pemmican had a hiddenmeaning; every interrogation point had a sting hidden in its tail. Notthat he made any attempt to switch the issue or to side-track the facts,but it was clearly apparent that from start to finish he was making asupreme effort to include within his facts, to embrace within the issueand to place on trial, together with the prisoner, one other culprit inthis celebrated case--Cradlebaugh's.

  However, if such were the prosecutor's chief purpose, it failed. Thorne,the counsel for the defence--who represented more than one client inthis case--met him at every turn, parried his every thrust.

  "Objection sustained," the Court had ruled wearily many times during thetrial, "the prosecutor will proceed."

  And upon such occasions Graham Thorne, from the counsel's table in thefront, had flashed a triumphant glance at Peter Broderick; and PeterBroderick, in turn, from his seat in the rear of the court-room, wouldreturn the gaze with a smile, the brilliancy of which was outshone onlyby the big diamond that blazed from where it rested comfortably on hishighly coloured shirt-front. To these two--not in the least interestedin the outcome of the trial, so far as Challoner was concerned--the casewas highly satisfactory. There was no crevice in the mystery ofCradlebaugh's in which Murgatroyd could insert the thin edge of a wedge;its foundation still remained unshaken after the impact of his batteringram; the Challoner case was to be the Challoner case, and nothing more.

  "... That's all, Mr. Pemmican," were the words with which the prosecutorhad concluded the examination of his principal witness.

  On Pemmican of the low brow leaving the witness stand, he had glancedexpectantly toward the counsel for the defence. Throughout the trialthere was in his manner a peculiar deference toward Thorne which hadbeen there from the first day. Under Murgatroyd's sharp interrogation hehad seemed quite at ease; but his attitude toward Thorne had alwaysappeared to be that of a man whose hand was constantly kept raised toward off blows. However, notwithstanding that he had been recalled atleast five times, Pemmican, on the whole, apparently was well satisfiedwith his performance. Unquestionably he had been loyal and wary, and hadconfined his testimony as to motive to the woman in the case--a row overa lady--keeping that portentous game of cards well into thebackground--out of sight.

  "Surely you're not going to detain me any longer?" whispered Pemmican tothe officers who had placed themselves on either side of him. "What!You're not going to let me go?"

  "Not on your life!" remarked one of them genially; and showing to theprisoner a slip of paper which he drew from his pocket: "There's awarrant for your arrest."

  Pemmican for a moment looked bewildered and murmured incredulously:--

  "... my arrest?"

  "Sure," replied the officer. "The chiefs begun his raid onCradlebaugh's, and you're one of the main guys...."

  Pemmican wiped his forehead and stammered sulkily:--

  "And--and the prosecutor's goin' to lock me up after all I've done forhim?"

  "That's what!" replied the officer, and a moment later addedcomplacently: "Unless you can get bail."

  "Confound 'em!" exclaimed Pemmican. "They won't go my bail!"

  The detective placed his ear quite close to Pemmican.

  "_Who_ won't go your bail?" he queried interestedly.

  Pemmican smiled.

  "They," he returned, not for an instant off his guard.

  "If Prosecutor Murgatroyd only knew who _they_ are," went on thedetective, "if he knew who backed you up, there'd be some interestinggoings on 'round here."

  "He won't find out from me," replied Pemmican, doggedly. "I play astraight game with the men who hand out my bread and butter. You can layyour bets on that!"

  "Sh-h-h-! The prosecutor's talkin' over there," whispered the detective,raising his hand, and he hustled the prisoner out of the room, asMurgatroyd, rising once more, bowed toward the bench and announced:--

  "The State rests, if the Court please."

  And then Thorne at his end of the table also rose to his feet anddeclared:--

  "The defence rests."

  Presently he began to address the Jury. During the trial his line ofdefence had been insanity--the defence of the defenceless, the forlornhope of the hopeless. The Bench had frowned at it; the Jury had shakenits head as one man: insanity to juries in the metropolis had become asa red rag to a bull. But the crowd in the court-room had leaned forwardwith huge expectation,--waiting for the hidden places to be revealedwith much the same anticipation and interest one experiences in waitingfor the denouement of a stage drama.

  Before turning to the jury, however, for his last effort, Thorne stoopeddown for an instant and whispered to Mrs. Challoner:--

  "I'm sorry, Mrs. Challoner, that we couldn't do better with our facts.It seems to me to be the weakest defence I have ever seen put up in anycase. Indeed, it seems to me we have no defence at all."

  But somewhat to his astonishment this remark was received by MiriamChalloner with that same degree of confidence that had characterised herattitude all through the trial. On her face was a certain unexplainablesomething which not only he had noted but which the people had noted,the men at the press-table had noted, and commented upon freely in theircopy--a glow that had never faded from the eyes of the woman, a flushupon her cheek that had never paled, and which said more plainly thanwords that she was certain of the acquittal of her husband.

  "Devilish fine actress!" Thorne thought to himself, for such optimism ina case like this was wholly beyond his comprehension; and it was with acertain feeling of admiration that he heard her whisper with areassuring smile:--

  "You're making a glorious fight, Mr. Thorne; you're bound to succeed."

  And indeed, such was her marvellous hopefulness, that it succeeded inenheartening him, and was reflected in his illustrations to the jurywhen dwelling at some length on the many fine points in the character ofthe accused. He was particularly happy in impressing upon his hearersthat Challoner was a man with a most peculiar temperament and mentalbias; that if Challoner had taken the life of Colonel Hargraves, it wasonly after the man's soul and mind had eaten poison from the hands ofhis enemy--Colonel Hargraves.

  Of the life and character of that gentleman, he had little to add towhat was already known, and was seemingly content to dismiss him with:--

  "The least said of him the better, now that he is gone."

  Thorne paused.

  Suddenly he assumed a dramatic pose, and now turning toward a beautifuland fashionably gowned young woman with a bar of sunlight streaming downher face, who occupied a seat underneath the third high window in thecourt-room, he riveted his gaze on her, all eyes following in thatdirection.

  "There," he said, his voice sinking to a whisper, but a whisper thatcould be heard all over the court-room, "is the woman in the case--thereal culprit! A temptress! A vampire! A Circe! A woman who has made amess of the lives of two men, and only God knows how many others! Awoman who played the game to her own selfish ends!... And here you havethe result!"

  For a full minute Letty Love unblushingly returned the lawyer's probingglances; plainly she rejoiced in the stares which she felt were focusedupon her,--for no one knew better than she that her beauty was infectingall present,--and it was not until she had drunk her fill of the cup ofpublicity that she turned her head away and looked out upon the sunlitstreet.

  From where he sat Challoner, too, was able for a brief moment to see theface of the woman who was responsible for his misfortunes. That samesecond, however, brought his wife also into his line of vision, makingi
t possible for him to contrast the two countenances; and he wassurprised to find himself not only admiring the wealth of colouring andglow upon Miriam's face, but actually loathing himself for ever havingadmired the ugly lines which he now saw on the sunlit face of LettyLove; and his whole nature revolted against her.

  "If only I had left her to Colonel Hargraves," he muttered to himself;and immersed in similar bitter reflections, he lost all but hiscounsel's concluding words:--

  "... and all that I want, all that I ask of you, gentlemen of the jury,is that you give us what we have not had so far--a fair, square deal!"

  Thorne sat down, satisfied that he had made an impression. At allevents, he had done the best he could--under the circumstances. Out ofhis material he had hewn the inevitable result--debauchery; out of thisdebauchery he fashioned the conclusion--insanity; out of a victim he hadmade a murderer; out of a murderer he had made a hero whoseirresponsible emotions cried out to a jury of his peers for justice,even for retribution against the murdered man. Base metal though itwere, it seemed pure gold to his listeners. Even the jurors drew longbreaths and looked each other questioningly in the eye; the crowdmurmured its sympathy; and Thorne, glancing at the little coterie behindthe prisoner, was pleased to see that even in the eyes of ShirleyBloodgood he had raised a new hope for Challoner.

  In the interim that followed Shirley and Miriam leaned over and shookhands with Thorne.

  "We can't lose," whispered Miriam; and again there returned to her facethat mysterious expression of confidence which was decidedlyinexplicable to her lawyer. And so it was that a little while later heturned to Shirley and said:--

  "Does she understand that we must lose?"

  Miss Bloodgood shook her head.

  "Oh, no! No one can tell her that." And bestowing on him a rare smile,she added: "And now, Mr. Thorne, after what you have said no one cantell _me_ that either."

  Well pleased with her flattery, Thorne returned the smile, but he warnedher that when those twelve men got into the jury room they would getdown to facts.

  And it so happened that the twelve men got down to the facts before theyeven started for the jury room, for already the prosecutor had begun hisspeech and was stripping the case of everything save the truth.

  "This, gentlemen," he now told the jury, quietly, "is not an unusualcase; it's an every-day story growing out of jealousy and hatred; onebad man shot another bad man--that's all."

  At this the temperature of the crowd dropped from the fever-heat offrenzied sympathy down to the freezing-point of common-sense. Challonerstirred uneasily; Shirley Bloodgood shivered; only Miriam Challoner satwith the same placid look on her face.

  Murgatroyd now left his jury, walked to the table where the prisonersat, and without taking his eyes from the face of the accused, hecontinued:--

  "... This man Challoner is a wilful, deliberate murderer! This is nothis first offence--he began to murder years ago...."

  At this point the prosecutor went back to the time when Challonermarried a beautiful young girl, emphasising the fact that he had marriedthis mere slip of a girl for her money.

  "Her money! And he has never earned a dollar since!" he told hislisteners with great scorn. "And his life! What has he made of it? Ah!You men know the things that are done in this city between midnight andmorning, and the up-hill fight that is being made to clean it ofcorruption and vice! Well, this degenerate, this profligate, did thesethings of the under-world. They appealed to him; he was no mere youth tobe led astray!"

  Challoner winced; not that he quailed before the menacing posture thatthe prosecutor had assumed, but because of a guilty consciousness thatthe accusing lips meant every word that they uttered. The audienceshifted uneasily in their seats; Shirley Bloodgood held her breath asshe placed a protecting arm about Miriam, which Miriam gently shook off;for what need had she for sympathy?

  Murgatroyd returned to his place in front of the jury rail, and brieflyreviewed the evidence.

  Then with great emotion in his voice he went on:--

  "And what part, gentlemen, did the wife have in all this? His wife, whosat through the weary hours of the night waiting for the thing sheloved, while her husband not only lavished his affections but her moneyon others--his friends. His friends! Had he friends? If so, where arethey? No, long ago he turned his back on his real friends; they were inthe light; he sought the darkness."

  As the prosecutor went on with his merciless flaying, Challoner grew hotand cold by turns.

  "... Gentlemen, behold the result of riotous living!" he declared,pointing his finger at the prisoner. "The pace that kills!...

  "And so, in view of these facts, in view of the prisoner's privatehistory, I tell you that the defence here is absurd, ridiculous.Gentlemen, on behalf of the people, in the name of justice, I ask you toconvict this man."

  For an instant he stood eyeing the twelve jurors. Then, raising hisright hand solemnly he brought it down with full sudden force upon therailing between himself and them.

  "And let me warn you, gentlemen of the jury," he continued ominously,"that the honour, the integrity of this metropolis hangs in the balance.If you acquit this defendant and set him free, the people of this State,the people of the country, will say henceforth that all that a murdererneed have to secure an acquittal--his freedom, is money, money, money."

  As the prosecutor seated himself, there was a gasp of relief from thepeople in the court-room. Broderick ventured inside of the railed spaceset aside for counsel and shook hands with Thorne.

  "Counsellor," he said, "you certainly handled that trial like a veteran.You saw your duty and you did it."

  Thorne nodded his thanks, and answered:--

  "I held Murgatroyd down to the woman in the case, all right. He had tostick to that one motive. This verdict will let everybody out----"

  "But Challoner," added Broderick.

  "Everybody but Challoner," agreed Thorne; "and the incident will beclosed."

  Broderick, with a certain self-satisfied air, went on:--

  "When you were talking, I put up ten dollars with a chap back there inthe court-room that Challoner'd go free."

  "Not in a thousand years!" declared Thorne, flatly.

  "I'm afraid you're right," said Broderick, and added with a twinkle inhis eye: "I hate to lose that ten. Still if I do lose it, it'll betougher for Challoner and her--" he jerked his head toward Mrs.Challoner at the other end of the table--"than it will be for me. Oh,well, such is life! The world is full of the wives of criminals, andthey all marry again and have children and live happily ever after."

  Once more, he glanced in the direction of Miriam Challoner, andpresently commented in a low voice:--

  "There's a plucky little woman, Thorne; nothin' can feaze her. I've beenwatchin' her; and she's just as sure of that jury as I am of my ownassembly district after it has gone through my trousers pockets thenight before election." And clapping Thorne on the shoulder familiarly,he took his departure, saying:--

  "I'll be back to hear the verdict."

  * * * * *

  It was nearly two o'clock. The Court had charged the jury; the jury hadfiled out; they were still locked up in the jury-room. The crowd hadleft the court-room, Challoner had been taken down-stairs, Pemmican hadbeen housed in jail under the gambling warrants; only Thorne, Miriam andShirley remained.

  "Wasn't that a terrible arraignment of Prosecutor Murgatroyd!" exclaimedShirley. "When he faced Laurie and told him what he thought of him--itwas simply awful!" and the girl covered her face with her hands as if toshut out the sight of it all.

  "Why, Shirley," said Miriam quietly, "it's a prosecutor's business tosay these things about a prisoner. It's all in a day's work, isn't it,Mr. Thorne?" And she smiled faintly.

  Thorne was about to speak when a uniformed attendant suddenly entered atone door and swung across the court-room to another. In passing, hecalled to Thorne:--

  "The jury has agreed!" He disappeared in the direction of theprosecutor
's private office.

  A moment later another court-officer strode toward the judge's privatechambers, and likewise announced in passing:--

  "The jury's coming in!"

  Thorne looked cheerful, by way of encouragement to the women. Shirleyblanched, her lips whitened, she trembled from head to foot; but Thornenoted that Miriam's eyes only grew brighter; she concealed her agitationwell.

  "It will all be over in a minute now," Miriam exclaimed joyfully, "andhe'll be free, free!"

  Without, within, everywhere was bustle, expectation. The crowd filedback into the court-room; Murgatroyd came in from his private office;the Court took its seat upon the bench; and then just as Broderickwaddled in, the barred door in the far corner opened, and Challoner, asthough in a daze, walked down the aisle, an officer in front and onebehind him. The clerk glanced about him to see that all was inreadiness, and then nodding to an officer, he said:--

  "Bring 'em in!"

  A minute that seemed minutes elapsed, and then the jury filed in--a jurywhose faces, whose demeanour told nothing, gave no sign. Then there wasan interval of silence, and in that interval a cutting pang seized uponthe soul of every human present--the agony of suspense, the travail thatprecedes the birth of a verdict.

  "Gentlemen of the jury," said the clerk rapidly, "have you agreed uponyour verdict?"

  "We have," came in chorus.

  "Who do you say shall answer for you?"

  The eleven men pointed toward their foreman.

  "Gentlemen of the jury," said the clerk, "look upon the prisoner;prisoner, look upon the jury. Gentlemen of the jury, how do you say youfind--guilty or not guilty?"

  The foreman glanced upon the piece of paper which he held in his lefthand and gripped the rail before him with his right.

  "Guilty," he replied.

  "What's that?" exclaimed Graham Thorne in affected astonishment.

  "What?" came from Miriam Challoner shrilly; and the next moment all thecolour had left her face; she was pale as death.

  "Guilty, your Honour," repeated the foreman in a louder tone.

  "Guilty of what?" queried the Court impatiently.

  "Of murder in the first degree," answered the jury as one man.

  "Gentlemen of the jury, your verdict is guilty of murder in the firstdegree, and so say all of you?" reeled off the clerk, looking at hisminutes.

  They nodded.

  "You are discharged, gentlemen, with the thanks of the Court," announcedthe Court with approval. "Be here to-morrow morning at ten o'clock."

  Meanwhile Challoner sat sullen, desperate, his chin resting on his hand,glaring into space. Around him was confusion, expostulation. Thespectators were pressing forward toward the rail to get another look atthe accused, while the jury was passing out. All of a sudden the soundof buzzing whispers died down and was followed in a moment by anintenser silence. There was a stir among those in the front seats, andthe judge, looking up, was surprised to see that it was caused by thedefendant's wife, who had moved from her place and was making her way tothe prosecutor's desk, determination standing out on her countenance.Immediately all eyes were fixed on her, as she placed her hand uponMurgatroyd's arm, and looking him full in the face, exclaimedhysterically:--

  "They found him guilty--guilty, do you understand? What have you got tosay?"

  Murgatroyd looked at her, but he did not answer. Her grasp became aclutch as she repeated:--

  "What have you got to say to me? Speak!"

  Murgatroyd was imperturbable.

  Miriam, aghast at his coolness, stared at him; then she began again:--

  "You--you--" Her voice failed her, and relaxing her grasp, she clung tothe table for support. Shirley ran to her, held her, saying gently:--

  "Miriam, dear, you are beside yourself--come, come away!"

  But Miriam braced herself and resolutely shook herself free from herfriend.

  "No," she replied evenly, "I am not going!" and her voice rose as shewent on: "Don't let anybody go! What I have to say I want all of you tohear!" And tottering over toward the bench as the spectators pressedtumultuously forward, Peter Broderick among the rest, she exclaimed:--

  "Your Honour! Your Honour!"

  "What is it, Madam?" asked the justice. And considering that the Courtbelieved that it had to deal with a case of hysteria, the voice wassurprisingly little tinged with irritability; but then the learned judgefelt that he must make some concession to a woman of Mrs. Challoner'shigh social standing; and therefore he added politely: "You must bebrief."

  "I shall be brief," answered Mrs. Challoner, sending an accusing glancetoward the prosecutor. "I desire to make a charge against Mr.Murgatroyd, the prosecutor of the pleas!" She was well contained, buther tone was harsh, cutting.

  The Court glanced sympathetically at her, and then smiled gently,indulgently in the direction of the prosecutor.

  "I accuse him of bribery!" she went on. "He promised to set my husbandfree!"

  Shirley Bloodgood clutched her once more, pleading with her to stop.

  "Miriam, what are you saying? You must stop this...."

  "Bribery?" asked the justice, somewhat startled. "Bribery?"

  For an instant there was a subdued uproar. Graham Thorne pressed forwardtoward the Court; Broderick from the crowd behind pushed his way intothe enclosure; reporters thrust their pads and pencils into the scene;spectators stirred, became noisy; but Murgatroyd never moved.

  "Let Mrs. Challoner go on," demanded Thorne.

  The Court rapped loudly with his gavel; the crowd slumped into silence.

  "Clear this court-room!" ordered the justice, standing up until hiscommand was obeyed.

  The process took five minutes. At the end of that period none was leftwithin the room except the officers and those within the rail, whichincluded Broderick. No court-officer who valued his position dared todisturb Broderick.

  "Now close the doors!" ordered the justice.

  That took an instant more. At last, the Court said:--

  "Now, Mrs. Challoner...."

  Miriam's Challoner's eyes flashed fire.

  "I want everybody here," she cried, "to know and understand what thisman has done! He arrested my husband," she went on, her face stillturned toward Murgatroyd, her eyes holding his glance; "I begged of himto set him free--he refused. He told me he could do nothing forme--could do nothing but his duty. I couldn't move him; he wouldn'tbudge an inch until finally I offered him money."

  She paused. Peter Broderick moved a few steps nearer, gnawing hisfinger-nails; Thorne watched Murgatroyd closely; but Murgatroyd wasunmoved. He returned Miriam's glance with interest; he gave no sign.

  "... until I offered money," she repeated. "I offered him one hundredthousand dollars; he refused to take it."

  "Naturally," interposed the Court.

  "He refused to take it," went on Miriam, irritated by the interruption,"because he knew there was more. He demanded eight hundred and sixtythousand dollars--all I had,--to set my husband free! He took it andagreed to set him free. And now," she concluded, advancing towardMurgatroyd as though with a threat upon her tongue, "see how he has kepthis word!"

  "It can't be true," Shirley Bloodgood was heard to say, half aloud.

  Broderick crept up close to Thorne and nudged him. The latterinterpreted correctly the action.

  "Let Mrs. Challoner go on," suggested Thorne; and the Court ordered Mrs.Challoner to proceed.

  "That's all," said Miriam, quite close to the prosecutor now, "exceptwhat I have to say to Mr. Murgatroyd."

  And now as she stood before him, her eyes glistening, her breastheaving, remembering only that she was a woman robbed of her mate, shecried:--

  "I am going to make you suffer for this as you made him suffer in thiscourt-room," and she waved her hand toward Challoner. "I'll invoke everylaw against you," she went on, "and if the law can't help me, I'll spendmy life to make you pay for this. You made an agreement with me and youmust keep it, or I will...." Suddenly she sank exhausted into the chai
rnext to Challoner and buried her face upon the prisoner's shoulder.

  "Laurie, Laurie," she sobbed in her despair. For the first timeChalloner showed some feeling; he found her hand and patted it withaffection for a moment.

  The justice shook his head. Presently he said incredulously:--

  "Mrs. Challoner, this is a terrible charge to make."

  She sprang up but immediately sank back again.

  "It's true, it's true," she wailed.

  Shirley turned to Thorne and said feelingly:--

  "The trial has been too much for her. She's overwrought."

  Broderick, who overheard the remark, grinned sardonically. Turning toThorne, he remarked:--

  "I'm an expert in these matters. It's got all the earmarks of the realthing. Murgatroyd did well." And then, as one who enjoyed all theprivileges of the court-room, he advanced close to the bench, andshading his mouth, while he spoke, suggested genially:--

  "Your Honour, get out the Penal Code."

  But the Court merely beckoned to Thorne and suggested that he takecharge of his client; that the strain had been too much for her. Andmuch as Thorne wanted to believe her story, he felt as the Court felt:that the tale was little short of preposterous.

  "But--it's true," Miriam persisted to her counsel, "incredible as it mayseem."

  Thorne eyed her steadily for a few moments. At last, he said:--

  "At any rate, it may have some effect upon the verdict." And thenaddressing himself to the bench, he exclaimed: "Your Honour, Mrs.Challoner assures me that this charge is absolutely true." And finallyturning to Murgatroyd: "I should like to hear from Prosecutor Murgatroydas to the truth or falsity of this?"

  As the two men faced each other, Shirley once more touched Miriam's arm,and said affectionately:--

  "Miriam, do you realise all that you are saying?--Look into my eyes,dear, and tell me candidly is it true?..."

  "Before God, I swear it." And a moment later she added: "And he neverkept his word."

  "Well, Mr. Prosecutor, what have you got to say?" asked the Court, atrifle apologetically.

  During the pause that immediately ensued, Miriam Challoner wondered whatMurgatroyd would say; what he could say; what was left for him to say.The prosecutor stood in the centre of an open space, and looking firstat Miriam, then at Thorne, and finally at the Court, he answeredgravely:--

  "Your Honour, I have heard the charge. I don't see that it behooves meto answer it at this time, nor indeed," bowing toward the Court, "beforethis tribunal. If it be a charge made in earnest--as it seems tobe--then the only question that can possibly interest this Court, iswhether I have done my duty toward the people of the State. The chargeassumes the proportions of a bribe to free a guilty man. My answer is, Ihave convicted Challoner. If there was a bribe, it was a bribe thatdidn't work."

  The Court stared with the rest. Peter Broderick gazed at Murgatroyd inopen-mouthed admiration; even Miriam felt baffled unaccountably.

  "Mr. Thorne," said the Court, "if this charge be made in good faith, andeven assuming it to be literally true, isn't the prosecutor right? Itcannot be that this charge is true; but if Mrs. Challoner claims it tobe true, if you believe it to be true, her remedy, then, is to go to theGrand Jury and indict, to the legislature and impeach." He pausedjudicially, and added: "The fullest refutation, after all, is that theprosecutor did convict."

  Thorne considered for an instant.

  "I agree entirely with your Honour," he assented, bowing.

  "The incident is closed," went on the Court, rising. "You have yourremedy--Good afternoon!" And he left the court-room.

  And still Murgatroyd stood his ground while the others stood aloof.Presently two officers seized Challoner and disappeared with him throughthe barred door. Graham Thorne then approached the prosecutor andexclaimed:--

  "Prosecutor, we have wondered all along just what your price might be.Now we know."

  "The last dollar that a woman has," sneered Peter Broderick.

  And still Murgatroyd gave no sign. It was only when Shirley Bloodgoodapproached him and he heard the tremor in her voice that the mantrembled imperceptibly.

  "Mr. Murgatroyd," she declared, "I am forced to believe all that Miriamhas said. Oh, Billy, Billy, it is inconceivable that you are the manthat I have respected all these years! You have lost the one thing Iadmired most in you." Her voice broke, and turning to Miriam, she cried:"Come, Miriam, dear, we're going home."

  Mrs. Challoner touched Thorne upon the arm, and said with a final lookat Murgatroyd:--

  "I want you to take every legal measure to indict, to impeach this man,and I want you to begin at once."

  After all had gone, Murgatroyd remained for some time where they hadleft him, imperturbable, inscrutable, gazing doggedly into space.