He did not take a step toward the door as he spoke, but Durgan believed that he would fain have done so. Alden was standing very square, alert, and upright. "Mr. Courthope, this is a very strange thing. There is nothing that Adolphus knows better than that I believe him to be guilty, and will not defend him." The stranger expressed astonishment in word and action. He moved back a few steps, and sat down weakly on the bench by the wall; but Durgan observed that he thus neared the door, tho appearing to settle himself for conversation. "You are scarcely a hundred yards from the place where this 'Dolphus stabbed a beautiful quadroon woman, and left her dead," said Durgan. "She was found just here at----" "How ghastly!" interrupted the other in unfeigned distress. "I confess to being afraid of ghosts--horribly afraid. But, gentlemen, I beg you to think what an awful business it would be to have that poor nigger hanged." There was no doubt as to the truth of the emotion he now displayed, any more than in the matter of his former terror. "It isn't fair, you know," he said; "for the punishment is out of all proportion to the crime, even if he is guilty. To be killed suddenly, when you are not expecting it, you know, is no suffering at all--nothing to compare with sitting for weeks expecting a horrible and deliberate end. Then the disgrace, the execration of the public." His thin voice had risen now in actual terror at the picture he had conjured up. "Save the poor devil if you can." His eyes turned instinctively toward Durgan's. "Sir, I do not know who you are, but I recognize a man of feeling and of honor. I protest the very thought of such a fate for this poor fellow appals me. I beseech you, have pity on the poor wretch, as you would desire pity in--in--your worst extremity." He rose after he had spoken, moving about restlessly, as if in the attempt to control himself. His unfeigned appeal seemed to touch even Alden. His manner to the man suddenly became kinder. "There is one thing that I can do for you," said the lawyer. "If you will write a short letter formally empowering me to find better counsel for the defence, I will--telegraph to a man I know in Atlanta to undertake it. Of course you must formally authorize me." "Certainly; certainly. I quite understand," said the stranger eagerly, coming toward the table where Alden was arranging paper. "What's that?" he said sharply, as he sat down. There was a scrambling upon the hill above, in which Durgan recognized the well-known run of Bertha with her dogs in leash. He determined at once to meet her and send her back, altho he hardly knew why. He said to Courthope evasively, "There are cattle grazing on all these hills." At the moment he felt reproach for the lie, because the stranger seemed to trust him implicitly, for he seated himself and took the pen.