gh of relief. Rummaging for a
moment among his papers, he looked up and said with an encouraging
smile:

"Now, if you please, we will go over that evidence--bit by bit."

CHAPTER XVII.

The news that Judge Brewster would appear for the defendant at the
approaching trial of Howard Jeffries went through the town like
wildfire, and caused an immediate revival in the public interest, which
was beginning to slacken for want of hourly stimulation. Rumor said that
there had been a complete reconciliation in the Jeffries family, that
the banker was now convinced of his son's innocence and was determined
to spend a fortune, if necessary, to save him. This and other reports of
similar nature were all untrue, but the judge let them pass without
contradiction. They were harmless, he chuckled, and if anything, helped
Howard's cause.

Meantime, he himself had not been idle. When once he made up his mind to
do a thing he was not content with half measures. Night and day he
worked on the case, preparing evidence, seeing witnesses and experts,
until he had gradually built up a bulwark of defense which the police
would find difficult to tear down. Yet he was not wholly reassured as to
the outcome until Annie, the day following the interview in his office,
informed him breathlessly that she had found the mysterious woman. The
judge was duly elated; now it was plain sailing, indeed! There had
always been the possibility that Howard's confession to the police was
true, that he had really killed Underwood. But now they had found the
one important witness, the mysterious woman who was in the apartment a
few minutes before the shooting and who was in possession of a letter in
which Underwood declared his intention of shooting himself, doubt was no
longer possible. Acquittal was a foregone conclusion. So pleased was the
judge at Annie's find that he did not insist on knowing the woman's
name. He saw that Annie preferred, for some reason, not to give it--even
to her legal adviser--and he let her have her way, exacting only that
the woman should be produced the instant he needed her. The young woman
readily assented. Of course, there remained the "confession," but that
had been obtained unfairly, illegally, fraudulently. The next important
step was to arrange a meeting at the judge's house at which Dr.
Bernstein, the hypnotic expert, would be present and to which should be
invited both Captain Clinton and Howard's father. In front of