e
was gone. I hadn't been conscious that any one was near enough to take
it, but there was a crowd on the boat, and my package disappeared;
naturally, I didn't mention it to my friends."

The look she bent upon him was full of perplexity. "Of course it can't
be traced," she said to herself. "Did the box have the name of the
store, or any name of a manufacturer or dealer upon it? Try and
remember," she said.

"Really, I cannot say; I didn't notice, except that the clerk wrapped it
in plain white paper," he replied.

"Were you in Providence on this trip, or have you been there recently?"
she continued.

"Not in four years," he answered and she gave an involuntary sigh of
relief.

"Have you expressed any annoyance to your medical friends over the
development of tuberculosis in the knee of little Alice Bell, or have
you stated that the case baffled you?" she asked with considerable
concern.

"Yes, I have said to at least two surgeons that I was annoyed at what I
believe to be the recurrence of an old condition, but never that I was
baffled. It is perfectly simple."

"How I wish I could find that letter," she said, more to herself than to
him. "The post-office department has ransacked the country for it, but it
seems to have disappeared as completely as did your package on the boat.
I do wish I could clear up two or three things to my own satisfaction,
but you can't help me, and there is no need of annoying you with them."
She looked about the small room set aside for the consultation of
prisoners with their counsel, but gained no inspiration from the bare
walls, and rose to go, extending her hand as she did so.

"You do believe in my innocence?" he asked.

She gave no direct answer in words, but as her eyes met his he knew that
he was no longer alone in his struggles, and whatever her belief in the
merits of his case, her faith in him was supreme.

"It is not a question of what I believe," she said at last, "but of what
the State can prove on the one hand, and what we shall be able to show
on the other."

"You are worried," he said quickly.

"Yes," she said, "I am; your life may be at stake, and if I fail to
clear you every one in the country will say that I should never have
taken this case, and they will be right. Even now, Dr. Earl, are you
certain it would not be better to employ counsel eminent in this branch
of the profession? I shall be very glad to serve in second place."

"This is no time for flat