There was also a certain judge on the bench with whom the words “justice” and “moral conviction” became obsolete terms as soon as he entered upon the study of “law.” He also prided himself upon his ability to enforce the dictates of law in all their naked severity, in spite of all the clamourings of public opinion. Nay, public opinion was his especial bugbear, and his judicial eye always rested with particular disfavour upon anyone unfortunate enough to be deemed a popular favourite. He had read all about Annie’s adventures, and had at once dubbed her in his own mind an unwomanly schemer. He didn’t like unwomanly women. They set a bad example to others. Therefore an example must be made of them, and they must be shown that the dictum of one of her Majesty’s judges cannot be lightly upset. Poor man! He was but human, and he could hardly be expected to view with favour an attempt to upset the judgment he had himself given when Harley Riddell was tried for the diamond robbery. Do not mistake me, dear reader, our noble judge would sacrifice his own private feelings if law bade him do so. But law must be paramount, and if law was ever doubtful, it must always consider itself opposed to sentimentalism and unwarranted interference. Thus it happened that, by the enforcement of this enactment or of that, all the cherished proofs of Harley’s innocence and Hugh Stavanger’s guilt were ruthlessly torn to shreds, and more than one heart was turning sick with disappointment, when a strange commotion was heard among the crowd of people at the entrance of the court. There were loud cries of “Silence in Court.” But these cries were unheeded. Indeed, the commotion waxed louder and became momentarily more irrepressible, as a man pushed his way through the crowd, while his name flew before him. It was Hilton Riddell! Hilton Riddell was that day a name to conjure with, and even the judge himself permitted his mind to entertain emotions that were not strictly of a legal tendency. But how describe the joy and delight of the mother who had pictured him lying dead at the bottom of the sea? Of the brother who thought that for his sake he had perished? Of the friends who now saw light ahead for Harley? Or the dismay of the two scoundrels who, though they were freed from the weight of bloodguiltiness, yet saw condemnation in store for them as the result of the evidence of this man, who had been given up by the sea for their undoing?