her over the rims
of his spectacles with a fatherly kindness.

She turned from him and looked out of the window. It was the middle of a
hot, still day, no breeze stirring, and wonderfully quiet. For the
moment, there was no sound, in the house or outside.

"Oh!" she cried, her voice a revelation of the extent to which her
doubts had oppressed her. "It was like that, out there--quiet, still! If
you could only understand!"

"My dear child," he said, "rely on me. The sheriff is bound to assert
himself, to keep in the front of things; he's that kind of a man. He'll
make an arrest any time, or announce that he will. Don't you see the
danger?" He leaned forward and took her hand, a move to which she seemed
oblivious. "Don't you see I must have facts to go on--if I'm to help
you?"

At that, she disengaged her hand, and sat very straight, her face again
a little turned from him. A twitch, like a shudder cut short, moved her
whole body, so that the heel of her slipper rapped smartly on the floor.

"I wish," she whispered dully, "I wish I knew what to do!"

"Tell me," he urged, as if he spoke to a child.

She showed him her face, very white, with sudden shadows under the
eyes.

"I must, I think; I must tell you," she said, not much louder than the
previous whisper. "You were right. I didn't tell the whole story of what
I saw. Believe me, I didn't think it mattered. I thought, really, things
would right themselves and explanations be unnecessary. But you
knew--didn't you?"

"Yes. I knew." He realized her ordeal, helping her through it. "What
were they doing?"

She held her chin high.

"It was all true, what I told you in the library, my being waked up by
father's moving about, my going to the window, my seeing Berne and the
judge facing each other across--her--there at the end of the awful
yellow arm of light. But that wasn't all. The moment the light flashed
on, the judge threw back his head a little, like a man about to cry out,
shout for help. I am sure that was it.

"But Berne was too quick for that. Berne put out his hand; his arm shot
across her; and his hand closed the judge's mouth. The judge made no
noise whatever, but he shook his head from side to side two or three
times--I'm not certain how many--while Berne leant over the body and
whispered to him. It seemed to me I could almost hear the words, but I
didn't.

"Then Berne took his hand from the judge's mouth. I think, before that,
the judge made a sig