"Prisoner at the bar, the jury have found the only verdict which it was possible for them to return after hearing the evidence." He stopped here, and Ronnie expected to hear the usual admonition which precedes the formal sentence, but the judge went on to the performance of his dread duty. "The sentence of this court is, and this court doth ordain, that you be taken from the place whence you came, and from thence to a place of execution, and there you shall be hanged by the neck until you are dead, and your body shall afterwards be buried within the precincts of the prison in which you were last confined. And may God have mercy upon your soul." Ambrose listened, his lips moving. He was repeating to himself word by word the sentence of the law. He had the appearance of a man who was intensely interested. A warder touched his arm and awoke him from his absorption. He started, smiled apologetically, and, turning, walked down the stairs and out of sight. "Good-bye, my friend--I shall see you once again," said Ronnie. He had decided to leave nothing undone that would authorize his presence at the execution. Going into the hall to see the procession of the judge with his halberdiers and his trumpet men, he saw Sir John passing and his eyes were red. Ronnie was amused. "Are you traveling back to town tonight, Ronnie?" "No, Sir John. I leave in the morning." Sir John wrinkled his brows in thought. "You saw him? Did you ever see a man like him? I am bewildered and baffled. Poor Sault, and yet why 'poor'? Poor world, I think, to lose a soul as great as his." "He is also a murderer," said Ronnie with gentle sarcasm. "He has brutally killed two men--" "There is nothing brutal in Ambrose Sault," Sir John checked himself. "I go back by the last train. I am dining with the judge in his lodgings and he told me I might bring you along." "Thank you, I've a lot of work to do," said Ronnie so hastily that the other searched his face. "I suppose you are alone here?" "Quite--the truth is, I promised to drive with a friend of mine." "A man?" Lola came through the big doors at that moment. "I was looking for you, Ronnie--my dear, I am bored to tears--" Sir John looked after them and shook his head. "Rotten," he said. That a man could bring his light o' love to this grim carnival of pain! X Late in the afternoon Christina received a note delivered by hand. "Mother, would you mind if I spent the night with Miss Merville?" Mrs. Colebrook shook her head without speaking. In these days she lived in an atmosphere of gloom, for she had adopted the right of chief griever. "Nobody else seems to care about poor Mr. Sault," she had said many times. "I really can't understand you, Christina, after all he has done for you, I won't say that you're heartless, because I will never believe that about a child of mine. You're young."