he could tramp round an exercise yard, he could eat and drink,
he could use his tongue when allowed, he could do many things--but
always within limits. He was held--held by an unseen power which could
materialize, could make itself very much seen, at a second's notice.
There he would stop until he was carried off to his trial; he would come
and go during that trial, the unseen power always holding him. And one
day he would either go out of the power's clutches--free, or he would be
carried off, not to this remand prison but a certain cell in another
place in which he would sit, or lounge, or lie, with nothing to do,
until a bustling, businesslike man came in one morning with a little
group of officials and in his hand a bundle of leather straps. Held!--by
the strong, never-relaxing clutch of the law. That----

"Buck up!" whispered Selwood, in the blunt language of irreverent, yet
good-natured, youth. "He's coming!"

Peggie looked up to see Barthorpe staring at her through the iron bars.
He was not over good to look at. He had a two days' beard on his face;
his linen was not fresh; his clothes were put on untidily; he stood with
his hands in his pockets lumpishly--the change wrought by incarceration,
even of that comparative sort, was great. He looked both sulky and
sheepish; he gave Selwood no more than a curt nod; his first response to
his cousin was of the nature of a growl.

"Hanged if I know what you've come for!" he said. "What's the good of
it? You may mean well, but----"

"Oh, Barthorpe, how can you!" exclaimed Peggie. "Of course we've come!
Do you think it possible we shouldn't come? You know very well we all
believe you innocent."

"Who's all?" demanded Barthorpe, half-sneeringly. "Yourself, perhaps,
and the parlour-maid!"

"All of us," said Selwood, thinking it was time a man spoke.
"Cox-Raythwaite, Mr. Tertius, myself. That's a fact, anyhow, so you'd
better grasp it."

Barthorpe straightened himself and looked keenly at Selwood. Then he
spoke naturally and simply.

"I'm much obliged to you, Selwood," he said. "I'd shake hands with you if
I could. I'm obliged to the others, too--especially to old Tertius--I've
wronged him, no doubt. But"--here his face grew dark and savage--"if you
only knew how I was tricked by that devil! Is he caught?--that's what I
want to know."

"No!" answered Selwood. "But never mind him--we've come here to see what
we can do for you. That's the important thing."

"What can