rtraying how the simple
courtesy of a gentleman might be misunderstood by a mad boor of a
husband. She left it to their common sense; they were not fools.

They had striven to prove the prisoner bad-tempered. She did not need
to prove anything of the sort concerning John Borg. They all knew his
terrible fits of anger; they all knew that his temper was proverbial in
the community; that it had prevented him having friends and had made
him many enemies. Was it not very probable, therefore, that the masked
men were two such enemies? As to what particular motive actuated these
two men, she could not say; but it rested with them, the judges, to
know whether in all Alaska there were or were not two men whom John
Borg could have given cause sufficient for them to take his life.

Witness had testified that no traces had been found of these two men;
but the witness had not testified that no traces had been found of St.
Vincent, Pierre La Flitche, or John the Swede. And there was no need
for them so to testify. Everybody knew that no foot-marks were left
when St. Vincent ran up the trail, and when he came back with La
Flitche and the other man. Everybody knew the condition of the trail,
that it was a hard-packed groove in the ground, on which a soft
moccasin could leave no impression; and that had the ice not gone down
the river, no traces would have been left by the murderers in passing
from and to the mainland.

At this juncture La Flitche nodded his head in approbation, and she
went on.

Capital had been made out of the blood on St. Vincent's hands. If they
chose to examine the moccasins at that moment on the feet of Mr. La
Flitche, they would also find blood. That did not argue that Mr. La
Flitche had been a party to the shedding of the blood.

Mr. Brown had drawn attention to the fact that the prisoner had not
been bruised or marked in the savage encounter which had taken place.
She thanked him for having done so. John Borg's body showed that it
had been roughly used. He was a larger, stronger, heavier man than St.
Vincent. If, as charged, St. Vincent had committed the murder, and
necessarily, therefore, engaged in a struggle severe enough to bruise
John Borg, how was it that he had come out unharmed? That was a point
worthy of consideration.

Another one was, why did he run down the trail? It was inconceivable,
if he had committed the murder, that he should, without dressing or
preparation for escape, r