"It is useless to talk to me," she answered, with anger. "He deserves to die. And it will be a good riddance for you, and for the world. He was stirring the passions of mobs that will yet make work for hangmen." "But he is not on trial for this," she pleaded, "You should be the last to reproach him with it. Think of all the sacrifices for you--his career, his wife and children, his father, his friends. Surely there is yet one spark of love for him in your heart?" Kate shook her head. "Then for my sake, I beg of you--you are a woman. You have loved. Have mercy on me! You asked me once for help--did I fail you?" The blond face softened. "No, you didn't. I'm sorry for you. If it were your life, I'd save it if I swore a thousand lies--but for him, the brute--I can feel him strangling me now--you have not felt his hands on your throat." "No," said the soft contralto voice, "not on my throat; it would have been a relief to have felt them there. They were on my soul. But I love him---" Kate was relentless, and Ruth left, shivering with anguish and angry pride. The new trial dragged its length to the second jury. Ruth spent and pledged the last dollar of her fortune. Once more she heard the foreman, in tones that seemed far off in space, say the fatal word-- "Guilty!" She stood by his side again before the judge and heard the words of death fall from his lips, this time with blanched face and cold little fingers locked in agony. Again the gates at Sing Sing closed, and a woman turned her footsteps toward the Governor's Mansion at Albany. CHAPTER XXXV BETWEEN TWO FIRES Ruth trembled at the thought of her appeal to King. She knew his iron will, his intense love, and the certainty with which he had long regarded their coming union. His ambitions were still mounting, and daily with better assurances of success. His party had chosen another man their candidate for the Presidency, and had been overwhelmed in defeat, while he had been re-elected Governor by a larger plurality. He received her with grave tenderness. "Morris," she cried, pathetically, seizing his hand and holding it, "he is not guilty of murder. Everything has been against him in these trials. They were not fair. He killed that man in what men have always called a fair fight. You are a manly man. You believe in justice. You will not let them kill him!" She could feel the strong man's hand tremble in hers, looked up into his face, and saw a tear quiver on his lashes.