murder of her brother, for I heard her ask Bowles if he thought there was any danger of detection. I also heard her ask him if a doctor could tell when any one had died from poison, and how much strychnine it would take to produce death. Oh, doctor, it made the blood freeze in my veins to hear her discussing the murder of her brother. But, mind you, I had no idea then that she intended to murder her own brother. I followed her and Bowles back to Mr. Ragland’s residence. They halted at the end of the garden, and talked, for a long time, in an under-tone; at last Bowles took her in his arms and kissed her. Then she went into the house, while he retraced his steps to his head-quarters. I immediately returned home and jotted down in my diary the things I had seen, just as I have related them to you. Now, how can the lawyers keep that wicked woman from hanging? I should like you to tell me if you can.’ “You may imagine what my feelings were when Miss Tadpoddle had finished her remarkable story; but I shall not try to describe them. That Viola Bramlett was lost, beyond all question, seemed to be a fixed fact, and that it would nearly kill Lottie I knew full well. I tried to argue Miss Bramlett’s case to myself so as to bring her out unstained; but the proof rose, like huge Olympus, before me. Everything seemed to point unmistakably to her as the guilty party; and if she was guilty at all, it was clear that she had sunk so far down in the pit of infamy as to render it necessary for me to separate her and Lottie. CHAPTER XX. “Time was gliding on unusually slow--it always does when we want it to go fast, and never fails to gallop when we want it to walk. A fortnight had stolen by since my last interview with the interesting Miss Tadpoddle. Dabbs and Tadpoddle were still working like beavers, but accomplishing nothing that anybody wanted them to do. Everything they did seemed to add new links to the strong chain of evidence against Miss Bramlett. Public sentiment, which at first had been strong in favor of her innocence, had undergone a radical change, and was now as strong against her as it had been in her favor. I hate public sentiment--I detest it, for it is a heartless tyrant, anyway, as often wrong as right, and always on extremes. Miss Tadpoddle and Miss Clattermouth were, to a great extent, responsible for the sudden change in public sentiment. Their busy tongues had never been idle for a moment. “‘I declare,’ said Miss Clattermouth, ‘the meanest thing Miss Bramlett did was to attempt to involve Mr. Bowles in her scheme of murder. He is a thoughtless, jolly, good-hearted young man, unsuspicious by nature, and the very kind of a man to be deceived by such a honey-tongued hussy as Viola Bramlett.’