"Ah!" Ronnie, glancing covertly at the jury, saw a little ripple of excitement pass over the stolid faces of the men. Behind him, among the barristers, he could hear excited breathing. "Now, just one more question, Mr. Hodges, and then I have finished with you. Have you ever seen Mrs. Peterson in company with William Towers at 'The Red Lion'?" "M' lord"--Brunton, scruples and caution thrown to the winds, leaped upright,--"I protest at this attempt to cast aspersions----" But Mr. Justice Heber, who had now taken Ronnie's point, allowed the question; and John Hodges, reluctantly, answered it with a "Yes." The K.C.'s attempt, in reëxamination, to prove the disinterestedness of the book-maker, added to Ronnie's elation. If only Cartwright succeeded in securing that evidence---- But Brunton's examination of the next witness pricked the bubble of his opponent's momentary elation. The "hanging prosecutor" was fighting again, fighting as he had never battled in his life, for a conviction. The gray eyes no longer dared look at the dock; the woman in the dock, thought Brunton, was the woman who had wronged him, the creature he must destroy. "I swear to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," said James Travers, a big blond seafaring man whose square-shouldered bulk almost filled the witness-box. And he spoke the truth according to his lights. A story deadly enough, even without Brunton's prompting. He and Bob Fielding had been shipmates during the war. Bob Fielding had often spoken to him about his cousin Lucy. Bob Fielding made no secret of the fact that he was in love with his cousin; "that he'd have cut off his right hand rather than that she should marry Bill Towers." Further, James Travers had visited Bob Fielding about three days before the commission of the crime. "Did he, on that visit, speak to you about the deceased?" asked Brunton. "Yes." "What did he say?" "He said that Bill Towers ought to be shot." "Did he say anything about Mrs. Towers?" "Yes, he said that she ought to have some one to look after her." "Did he say she ought to have something to look after herself with?" Despite Ronnie's protest at the leading question, his lordship allowed it; and James Travers answered, "Yes." "And what happened then?" "He showed me a pistol." "A pistol!" Brunton signaled to the clerk of the court, and the clerk handed up a revolver to the witness. "Is that the pistol?" "Yes." "Was this weapon loaded when you last saw it?" "It was." "Did Fielding make any remark about it?" "Yes. He said: 'That'll cook Bill's goose for him.'"