e continents; threads whose intricate windings led through
trackless forest and dim-lit church; through court of fashion and hut
of poverty; back through the dark mazes of mortal thought, where no
light shines upon the carnal aims and aspirations of the human mind;
back even to the doors of a palace itself, even to the proudest throne
of the Old World.

But none of these elements found expression in the indictment against
the frightened defendant, the small-visioned man who had sought to
imitate the mighty Ames, and yet who lacked sufficient intelligence of
that sort which manifests in such a perversion of skill and power.
Ames was a tremendous corruptionist, who stood beyond the laws simply
because of the elemental fact that he himself made those laws. Ketchim
was a plain deceiver. And his deception was religious fervor. Mingling
his theology with fraud, he employed the unholy alliance for the
purpose of exploiting the credulous who attended his prayer meetings
and commented with bated breath upon his beautiful showing of
religious zeal. He was but one of a multitude afflicted with the
"dollar mania." His misfortune was that his methods were so antique
that they could not long fail of detection. And it was because of his
use of the mails for the purpose of deceit that the indictment had
been drawn against Philip O. Ketchim _et al._ by the long-suffering,
tolerant complainant, called the people.

Nominally the people's interests were in the hands of the Public
Prosecutor, a certain smug young worldling named Ellis. But, as that
gentleman owed his appointment to Ames, it is not surprising that at
his right hand sat Hood and his well trained staff. Nominally, too,
Judge Spencer conducted the trial strictly upon its merits, not all of
which lay with the people. But the judge might have been still
prosecuting petty cases back in the unknown little district from
which he came, had it not been for the great influence of Ames, long
since, who had found him on a certain occasion useful. And so the jury
panel contained none but those who, we may be very sure, were amenable
to the tender pressure of a soft hand lined with yellow gold. And only
those points of evidence were sustained which conduced to the
incrimination of the miserable defendant. Ketchim was doomed before
the trial began.

And yet, to subserve the dark schemes of Ames, and to lengthen the
period of torture to which his victims should be subjected, the trial
wa