“My worthy Samuel Taylor,” laughed the solicitor, “I hope you will not forget I want to get to Norbiton to-night.” “There is one other point,” said the young man imperturbably, “on which I wish to render myself clear.” Mr. Whitcomb permitted himself a shrug of unmistakable expostulation. “What, another!” he muttered under his breath. “This fellow is the devil!” “I do not propose to take the line of insanity.” Northcote spoke with a quietness which seemed to deepen the reverberation of Mr. Whitcomb’s subsequent exclamation. “Then you hang her!” “On the contrary,” said Northcote, “I promise an acquittal.” For a moment the solicitor was robbed of speech by this extraordinary announcement. “Upon my word,” he exclaimed, with a more manifest impatience than any he had yet shown, “you can hardly have read your brief. There is nothing to extenuate the crime; and the evidence of it is overwhelming.” “Circumstantial, apparently.” “You must know that in a capital charge the prosecution relies almost invariably upon circumstantial evidence.” “So much the worse for it in this particular instance.” “I am at a loss to understand.” The solicitor spoke in accents of alarm. “There is not a man living who could overthrow the present evidence.” The young man smiled darkly. The symptoms of his inebriation had yielded to the clarifying influence of a liqueur and two cups of strong black coffee. His calmness was now forming a memorable contrast to the marked excitement of the older man. “My dear Mr. Whitcomb,” he said, “I suggest, as you wish to get to Norbiton, that we adjourn this discussion until Friday evening, by which time Emma Harrison, _alias_ Cox, _alias_ Marshall, will be restored to society.” “Such an undertaking is entirely reckless,” said the solicitor bluntly. “Quite the last thing that Tobin himself would attempt would be to upset the theory of the prosecution. The chain of evidence could not be more complete. Even he, in the opinion of many the most brilliant common law man we have at the present moment at the bar, would be content to urge extenuating circumstances, and call witnesses in their support.” “Since you have seen fit to entrust the conduct of this case to me,” said Northcote, “I shall beg to be conceded as free a hand as would have been conceded to Michael Tobin.” “Is your request quite reasonable?” said the solicitor. “Tobin has years of experience and success behind him.” “You can trust me not to attempt more than I can perform,” said Northcote. “Really, sir,” said Mr. Whitcomb, genuinely alarmed by such an obduracy, “I cannot admit your right, in the circumstances in which you stand at present, to overstep the bounds that are so clearly indicated by persons of experience.” “I take this brief into court free of all restriction,” was the young man’s rejoinder.