The Court was crowded in every part. For the trial of Hugh Stavanger and Captain Cochrane upon various indictments had aroused immense public interest, and countless rumours were afloat respecting the wonderful acumen, devotion, and heroism of Miss Annie Cory. She was inundated with applications for interviews, and greatly as she disliked much of the questioning to which she was subjected, she submitted to it with the best grace she could muster, for Harley’s sake. Soon she found herself a popular idol. Her sayings and doings were recorded in every paper in the land that could obtain authentic information on the subject, and some of the more obscure journals that were endowed with smart editors determined to rescue them from their obscurity, published racy accounts of fictitious interviews with her, which were so extraordinarily full of favourable criticism that none but her enemies could have taken serious exception to them. She was photographed so often that at last she rebelled, and vowed that she would never enter a photographer’s studio again. She figured as Miss Una Stratton, as Miss Cory, and as Mr. Bootle, her various presentments being so totally different that curiosity to see her rose to its highest pitch, and caused her every movement to be watched with the keenest interest. Briny, too, came in for his share of attention. For had it not transpired that his mistress in all probability owed her life to him? And that he was a cordially beloved member of the Cory family? Through the publication of his history a curious thing came to pass. One day an elderly gentleman sought an interview with Mr. Cory. Briny was in the hall when he arrived, and welcomed him with the wildest demonstrations of affection. It transpired that Briny’s original name had been Neptune; that his master’s name was Woodstock; that the latter had been ordered by his doctors to do a little sea-voyaging; and that after going out to America, he had engaged a return passage for himself and his dog on board a timber-laden vessel bound for England, and not likely to make such a rapid passage as a steamer, his object being to spend a few weeks over the voyage.