ll
not back out like so many women do.

"'One other thing I think I ought to tell you. While we were talking he
picked up the postal Dr. Earl sent me, from Magnolia, and then he began
all over again and talked awfully about him. I don't know why, but he
hates him and will injure him if he can.

"'You will find this at your office when you get back from the country;
even now I can't bear to tell the whole truth, and yet I suppose you
must know it if you are to help me. What fools women are, Miss Holland;
I ought to hate him, and yet if it were to be the last word I should
ever write--now, as I always have, I love Orrin Morris.

"'Your unhappy friend,
'EMMA BELL.'"

Silvia had scarcely finished the letter, pausing instinctively before
she read the name of the guilty man, when the large man, who had been
furtively keeping guard of the little group of witnesses where Dr.
Morris was seated, sprang toward Morris in a vain attempt to knock from
his hand a vial which he but that instant had touched to his lips. At
the same moment a smaller man on the other side of the group made a
similar effort, but they were both too late. Almost instantly the doomed
man became rigid, a slight froth appeared on his lips, the pupils of his
eyes dilated and the lids opened in a wide and horrible stare. There was
a general rush in his direction on the part of the medical men gathered
for the trial, but the first of the physicians to gain his side saw the
hopelessness of any effort to save him and waved the crowd back. In less
than five minutes he was dead, and in the sudden appalled silence the
bailiffs cleared a way and removed the body, a considerable portion of
the curious crowd following.

Every day during the trial Dr. Morris had occupied practically the same
seat in the courtroom. His naturally colorless face gave no indication
of the emotions within, and when Silvia's address told him all too
plainly that his deeds were to be publicly uncovered, he turned a trifle
more livid, but otherwise gave no evidence of his feelings. He had known
for several days that he was under surveillance and he understood, at
last, that the reason for his subpoena as an expert for the defense was
to keep him constantly in attendance on the court, but he faced his
ordeal with resolute will, if not with supreme courage. As often before
during his career he