"I might ask the Court to dismiss this case immediately on the ground that there is nothing to put before the jury. But the wicked and cruel charge may follow the accused all her life, therefore I propose, with the Court's permission, to waive my right of reply and call such positive evidence of her innocence as will enable her to leave this court without a stain on her character." "The fool!" thought Stowell. But just at that moment the clock of the Castle struck one, and the Governor said, "The Court will adjourn for luncheon and resume at two." As Stowell stepped off the bench his eye caught a glimpse of the inscription on a brass plate which had lately been affixed to the wall under his father's portrait-- "_Justice is the most sacred thing on earth._" His head dropped; he felt like a traitor. III When the trial was resumed the Attorney-General had not returned to court, so Hudgeon represented the Crown. He was offensive from the first, but Gell, whose spirits had risen perceptibly, was not to be put out. The witness he called first was Mrs. Collister. The old mother had to be helped into the witness-box. Her poor face was wet with recent tears, and in administering the oath Stowell hardly dared to look at her. Remembering the admissions she had made to him at Ballamoar he knew that she had come to give false evidence in her daughter's cause. She made a timid, reluctant and sometimes inaudible witness. More than once Hudgeon complained that he could not hear, and Gell, with great tenderness, asked her to speak louder. "Speak up, Mrs. Collister. There's nothing to fear. The Court will protect you," he said. But Stowell, who saw what was hidden behind the veil of the old woman's soul, knew it was another and higher audience she was afraid of. With many pauses she repeated, in answer to Gell's questions, the story she had told before--that her daughter had returned home ill on the fifth of April, that she had put her to bed in the dairy-loft and that the girl had never left it until Cain the constable came to arrest her. "You saw her day and night while she was at your house?" "Aw, yes, Sir, last thing at night and first thing in the morning." "And you know nothing that conflicts with what she says--that she never had a child and therefore could not have killed it?" "'Deed no, Sir, nothing whatever." She had answered in a tremulous voice which the Deemster found deeply affecting. Once or twice she had lifted her weak eyes to his with a pitiful look of supplication, and he had had to turn his own eyes away. "I should do it myself," he thought. "And now, Mrs. Collister," said Gell, "if you were here this morning you heard what the Attorney-General said--that your daughter had been of a lawless disposition and had run away from home without apparent reason. Is there any truth in that?" "Bessie was always a good girl, Sir. It was lies the gentleman was putting on her."