"Calmly she watched the poison flow into Lloyd's veins; then stepped back and dropped the syringe between the head-board and the mattress of the other empty bed. As her hands closed over Lloyd's coat the hall door was pushed open--admitting only a friendly dog. "Quickly she resumed her search, but another interruption stopped her. The sitting-room door opened. She started violently and stood with fast-beating heart. A hesitating step crossed the threshold. Gradually her breath came back and her guilty heart beat more slowly. A blind man could not harm her. She removed the pocket-book just as Goddard tripped over the dog. The sound of his fall aroused the stupefied figure on the bed. Faintly he whispered a name--a familiar name--the name of----" [Illustration: "Another interruption stopped her.... A hesitating step crossed the threshold."] A shriek rang out--the cry of a soul in torture! The spell-bound officers sprang to their feet. Spectators climbed on their chairs for a better view. "Sit down! Sit down!" roared the judge advocate. A figure tottered out into the aisle. "Air! Air! I must have air!" The judge advocate stepped aside. "For God's sake, let me go!" "That is just what we cannot do. Guard, here is your prisoner," and Warren caught Mrs. Bennett as she fell. CHAPTER XXVI BY A HAIR'S BREADTH Again and again Colonel Andrews demanded order in the court-room, but the spectators were utterly demoralized and refused to be quiet. It was only after Mrs. Bennett had been carried unconscious into another room that the confusion somewhat abated. Nancy, trembling in every limb, in the reaction which followed her terror and shock, collapsed in her chair, incapable of speech. Mrs. Arnold, whose complexion had turned pasty from her emotions, clung frantically to Mrs. Warren and begged tearfully to be taken home. Colonel Andrews, purple in the face with his exertions, bellowed in a voice at last heard above the racket: "This unseemly behavior must cease! Major Lane, call the guard and clear the room!" Silence quickly followed the order, and Warren turned and addressed the excited court: "I ask your indulgence for precipitating such a scene. I returned to this room intending to ask a stay of proceedings so that I could have time to gather evidence against Mrs. Bennett; but, on hearing the judge advocate's argument against postponement, I saw my opportunity to force a confession from the guilty woman by giving details of Captain Lloyd's murder which would induce her to think there had been an eye-witness to her crime. "Sitting there, confident that another was practically convicted for Captain Lloyd's murder, the shock of my unexpected words affected her as I hoped they would, and she betrayed herself." "Is that the only evidence you can offer to prove Mrs. Bennett's guilt?" demanded the judge advocate, harshly. "My next witness is Miss Mary Phelps, a nurse of the United States Sanitary Commission," was Warren's noncommittal reply.