4—The girl who gave Prescott the letter corresponds with Lillian’s faithful maid, who has been in the family for many years. 5—The fact of her having the closet key upstairs is significant in itself. 6—Her trunk is locked and the key gone—she says she will produce it when Joe has leisure to examine the trunk—there is no hurry—the morrow will do—evidently _something_ is to occur between now and to-morrow. * * * * * This was the indictment. Against it, on the opposite page, he had written the defense—it came under one head: “1—Lillian is my ideal of womanly perfection—if she prove guilty my faith is gone forever. I have never yet been able to _believe_ her guilty while in her presence—it is only when away that these terrible facts make me fear it is so.” A peculiar case this. If Lillian could plead her own cause, she would undoubtedly win it. For a long time Eric Darrell sat and looked at his notes. They covered about all of the case. He could not but see how overwhelming the evidence was against Lillian and how meager her defense. Still he kept hoping for the best, trusting that something would turn up to send the balance over to the other side. Had it been any one other than Lillian, the detective must have declared that there could be no hope—the case would be virtually closed. With such a client, however, he had hope to the end, because all his sympathies were enlisted in behalf of Joe and his wife. He was not the man to waste time in useless speculation, and when he had calmly reviewed the situation, he made up his mind what ought to be done. Would it be possible to save Lillian even though she were guilty? He could not face her—his first thought had been to see her and speak of the terrible nature of the indictment hanging over her like the sword of Damocles, suspended by a single hair—perhaps she was influenced by some strange power the artist possessed—mesmerized, made a slave by some peculiar phase in a powerful organization—Eric had known of such things, although he did not pretend to understand them. When he came to think it over, however, he concluded that he could not muster up courage enough to say these things to her face. He was certain that, strong-nerved man as he was, he would utterly fail when he sat opposite those eyes, and felt them upon him. Was there any other source to which he might apply? He ran over the field. What of Paul Prescott? The thought seemed absurd at first but presently he began to realize that there was a chance back of it. The man was a character and might not be as bad as appearances indicated. Perhaps moral suasion might influence him, and in case that failed a threat would possibly have the desired effect. The more he thought over the matter the better he looked upon the idea. At last he determined to try it. There could be no harm done. At the same time he had a chance to accomplish a great work. A new thought had entered Eric’s head.