"The doctor will make them stand round. But I wanted to tell you that I have been wondering upon what or whom 'Dolphus relies for his defence. Adam has such a strong backing, there seems to be no doubt of his acquittal. I did not know this till I went to-day, or how little difference the emancipation has really made as to the justice or injustice meted out to niggers. I supposed--I have been absent since the close of the war--that the evidence given at the trial would be all-important. Now I think the conclusion is foregone; judge and jury, whoever the jurors may be, have already fallen into the belief that I and my cousins have insisted on." She had dropped her work; she was absorbed in his every word. "It's a bad principle, of course," she said; "but as to Adam, it is working out all right. I suppose--I suppose, Mr. Durgan, that 'Dolphus did kill poor Eve? I'd feel pretty mean if he's being punished for nothing." "I believe he did; but I have no proof." "I don't mind telling you, Mr. Durgan, that I got Mr. Alden to get a lawyer--quite privately, of course--to offer his services to 'Dolphus--to tell him we would pay the costs, because Adam and Eve were our 'help,' and of course we wanted to see only justice done. 'Dolphus wouldn't accept it. He refused; we don't know why. He told the lawyer he knew 'a game worth two of that.' Of course, if there is miscarriage of justice, we can't feel quite so badly as if we hadn't made the offer." "What do you think he meant by 'knowing a better game'?" "It wasn't just fooling, was it, Mr. Durgan?" Underneath her quiet there was now a tremulous eagerness; her faded eyes looked to his with sorrowful appeal. "No; after seeing him to-day, I am inclined to think more of him than I did; but I think he's up to tricks of some sort. May I tell you what he said to me, Miss Claxton?" "I'm just praying to the Lord all the time, Mr. Durgan, and trying to leave it all in His hands. He won't let us suffer more than is right; and I hope He'll give us grace to bear what He sends, if it isn't the full deliverance I pray for." Durgan was nonplused. "Do you mean to say you would rather not hear what the man said? because I must tell Alden, and as it concerns you most, I thought----" "Yes, I guess perhaps I ought to hear it. And if you tell me you don't need to tell Mr. Alden, because I know better than you what he ought to hear--that is, if it concerns me." This seemed a simple and self-evident view of the case; Durgan hardly knew how he could have thought of interfering. Nor did he find it at all easy to put significance into the prisoner's words apart from his own foreknowledge and prejudgment of the case. "'Dolphus suggested to me that I would not wish to see justice done in--to say the truth--in your own case, Miss Claxton. He challenged me, asking if I were willing to make a sacrifice to prove your innocence."