Not a word was spoken until they reached the hotel. Then Lucy, taking Elwood's hand, said: "Thank you, true, dear friend! I can say no more now. Go back, for Joseph's sake, and when the day is over come here and tell me, if you can, that I have not injured him in trying to help him." When Elwood returned to the court-room, Rachel Miller was on the witness stand. Her testimony confirmed the interpretation of Julia's character which had been suggested by Lucy Henderson's. The sweet, amiable, suffering wife began to recede into the background, and the cold, false, selfish wife to take her place. All Mr. Spenham's cross-examination failed to give the prosecution any support until he asked the question:— "Have you discovered nothing whatever, since your return to the house, which will throw any light upon Mrs. Asten's death?" Mr. Pinkerton, Elwood, and Madeline all felt that the critical moment had come. Philip's absence threatened to be a serious misfortune. "Yes," Rachel Miller answered. "Ah!" exclaimed the prosecuting attorney, rubbing his hair; "what was it?" "The paper in which the arsenic was put up." "Will you produce that paper?" he eagerly asked. "I cannot now," said Rachel; "I gave it to Mr. Philip Held, so that he might find out something more." Joseph listened with a keen, undisguised interest. After the first feeling of surprise that such an important event had been kept from his knowledge, his confidence in Philip's judgment reassured him. "Has Mr. Philip Held destroyed that paper?" Mr. Spenham asked. "He retains it, and will produce it before this court to-morrow," Mr. Pinkerton replied. "Was there any mark, or label, upon it, which indicated the place where the poison had been procured?" "Yes," said Rachel Miller. "State what it was." "Ziba Linthicum's Drug store, No. 77 Main Street, Magnolia," she replied, as if the label were before her eyes. "Let Ziba Linthicum be summoned at once!" Mr. Spenham cried. Mr. Pinkerton, however, arose and stated that the apothecary's testimony required that of another person who was present when the poison was purchased. This other person had been absent in a distant part of the country, but had been summoned, and would arrive, in company with Mr. Philip Held, on the following morning. He begged that Mr. Linthicum's evidence might be postponed until then, when he believed that the mystery attending the poisoning would be wholly explained. Mr. Spenham violently objected, but he again made the mistake of speaking for nearly half an hour on the subject,—an indiscretion into which he was led by his confirmed political habits. By the time the question was decided, and in favor of the defence, the afternoon was well advanced, and the court adjourned until the next day. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XXIX. NEW EVIDENCE.