orm, who promptly approached.

"You see resistance is worse than useless, and since there is no
escape, come quietly."

"You are insulting me, under some frightful mistake. I am a lady. Do I
look like a criminal?"

"General Darrington has been robbed and murdered, and I have
telegraphic orders to arrest and hold a woman named Beryl Brentano, who
corresponds in every respect with the description of the person
suspected of having committed the crime."

Hitherto she had attributed the insult of the interview to some
question of mistaken identity, but as she slowly comprehended the
possibility that she was the person accused, and intended for arrest, a
sickening horror seized and almost paralyzed her, blanching her face
and turning her to stone. As he led her along the street, she staggered
from the numbness that possessed her, and her eyes stared blankly, like
those of a somnambulist. When she had been ushered into a room where
several policemen were lounging and smoking, the intolerable sense of
shame and indignation shook off her apathy.

"This is a cruel and outrageous wrong, and only base cowards could
wantonly insult an unprotected and innocent woman. You call yourselves
men? Have you no mothers, no sisters, whose memory can arouse some
reverence, some respect for womanhood in your brutal souls?"

Electric lamps set in the sockets of some marble face, might perhaps
resemble the blaze that leaped up in her eyes, as she wrenched her arm
from the officer's profaning touch, and her voice rang like the clash
of steel.

"Madam, we are allowed no discretion; we are only the blind and deaf
machines that obey orders. Read the warrant, and you will understand
that our duty is imperative."

Again and again she read the paper, in which the sheriff of the county
where Elm Bluff is situated, demanded her arrest and return to X---, on
the charge of robbery and murder committed during the night which she
had spent at the station. Then several telegrams were placed before
her. The description of herself, her dress, even of the little basket
and shawl, was minutely accurate; and by degrees the horror of her
situation, and her utter helplessness, became frightfully distinct. The
papers fell from her nerveless fingers, and one desperate cry broke
from her white lips:

"O just God! Will you permit such a shameful, cruel outrage? Save me
from this horrible injustice and disgrace!"

Seeing neither the men, nor the room, her str