“Corwin was insulting my sister-in-law,” Leigh went on. “He was lying about her and blackening her. I wouldn’t stand for it. I didn’t wait to tell father. Father has never been just to her. I went home and got his pistol. I was going to hold it to Corwin’s head and make him write a retraction--that’s what I went there to do!” Daniel shook his head mournfully. He recognized the familiar methods of the heroes of light fiction and the movies. Leigh had been acting a story, or, rather, he had started to act a story, and had failed. How in the world could he get this side of it--before a jury? “What did Corwin say? What did he do when you got there, Leigh? What made you shoot an unarmed man?” Leigh winced. His brother’s tone, and the bald statement of an ugly fact, drove the truth home, but he set his teeth hard, scowling into space for a moment. The change in him moved Daniel again. Leigh had been a boy in the morning; to-night he had killed a man! “I’ve told you,” he said hoarsely. “I shot him for his lies about Fanchon. I--I had to shoot him, Dan. He wasn’t fit to live!” As Leigh spoke, he flung his arm out with a gesture of passionate fury. Daniel caught the arm and held it. “Leigh, tell me the whole of it. I’m your lawyer--do you hear?” Something in Daniel, his strength and his will, conquered, and the younger brother yielded to it. He drew a quick breath and straightened himself, feeling the clasp of Daniel’s hand on his arm. Then he told his story--told it from the beginning to the end, his voice only breaking a little. “I suppose he died right away,” he said as he finished. “He didn’t move any more. He deserved it--but, oh Lord, Dan! I don’t want to see another man die because I shot him! Maybe I’m a coward, but I don’t!” “You’re no coward,” replied Daniel quietly. “It’s a trying thing to see even a brute like that die, I reckon.” He glanced at the boy’s face and hesitated. “We’re going to put up a big fight, Leigh.” Leigh’s mouth twisted oddly; he was trying to keep his lips from shaking. “I reckon I can stand for it, Dan. Mother----” He looked at his brother. “You’ll see her soon. You know how she loves you. We’re all behind you, boy!” Dan rose as he spoke. He hated to leave Leigh, but it was inevitable. He stood looking down at him, aware that Leigh winked back fresh tears at the thought of his mother. But the prisoner’s thoughts shifted elsewhere. He looked up shyly, reluctantly. “And Fanchon?” Daniel’s face hardened. “She’s locked in her room, Leigh, and won’t see any of us. She treats us like enemies now. She hasn’t even asked where you are.” Leigh’s face went from red to white. “She’d see me, though!” he cried with conviction. “You don’t understand--you don’t know her!”