me out all right!" he told himself and sighed.

If it did _not_ come out all right, where was his peace of mind; where
was the calm, where the long reposeful days he had so valued? But this
thought he put from him as unworthy. After all Elizabeth's happiness
was something he desired infinitely more than he desired his own. But
why could it not have been some one else? Why was it North; what unkind
fate had been busy there?

"She sees more in him than I could ever see!" he said aloud, as he
touched his horse with the whip.

Twenty minutes later he drove up before the court-house, hitched and
blanketed his horse, and passing around the building, now dark and
deserted, reached the entrance to the jail. In the office he found
Conklin at his desk. The sheriff was rather laboriously engaged in
making the entry in his ledger of North's committal to his charge, a
formality which, out of consideration for his prisoner's feelings, he
had dispensed with at the time of the arrest.

"I wish to see Mr. North. I suppose I may?" his visitor said, after he
had shaken hands with Conklin.

"Certainly, General! Want to go up, or shall I bring him down here to
you?"

"I'd prefer that--I'd much prefer that!" answered the general hastily.

He felt that it would be something to tell Elizabeth that the interview
had taken place in the sheriff's office.

"All right, just as you say; have a chair." And Conklin left the room.

The general glanced about him dubiously. Had it not been for his deep
love for Elizabeth he could have wished himself anywhere else and
charged with any other mission. He dropped heavily into a chair. North's
arrest, and the results of that arrest as he now saw them in that
cheerless atmosphere, loomed large before his mind's eye. He reflected
that a trial for murder was a horrible and soul-racking experience. He
devoutly and prayerfully hoped that it would not come to this in North's
case.

His meditation was broken in on by the sound of echoing steps in the
brick-paved passageway, and then North and Conklin entered the room. On
their entrance the general quitted his chair and advanced to meet the
young fellow, whose hand he took in silence. The sheriff glanced from
one to the other; and understanding that there might be something
intimate and personal in their relation, he said:

"I'll just step back into the building, General; when you and Mr. North
have finished your talk, you can call me."

"Thank you!" s