hey will try to get him off on the ground of self-defence.
Still, I don't think they would have much of a chance, especially as
his case will come before Judge Brent; but if John lives past twelve
o'clock on Saturday night, it is the law of the State that Radnor
cannot be tried for murder. Then, at most, he will get a term of years
in a state prison, but that will not bother him to any great extent. He
has a strong political backing, and if his party wins the next state
election, which seems likely, the governor will doubtless pardon him
out before a year is over."

"Is it possible," cried the wife, "that such an enormous miscarriage of
justice can take place in a State that pretends to be civilised?"

The lawyer shrugged his shoulders. "I don't bank much on our
civilisation," he said. "Such things occur every year, and many times a
year."

The wife walked up and down the room, while her brother tried to calm
and soothe her.

"It is terrible--it is awful!" she cried, "that such a dastardly crime
may go unavenged!"

"My dear sister," said the lawyer, "do not let your mind dwell so much
on vengeance. Remember that whatever happens to the villain who caused
all this misery, it can neither help nor injure your husband."

"Revenge!" cried the woman, suddenly turning upon her brother; "I swear
before God that if that man escapes, I will kill him with my own hand!"

The lawyer was too wise to say anything to his sister in her present
frame of mind, and after doing what he could to comfort her he
departed.

On Saturday morning Mrs. Forder confronted the physicians.

"I want to know," she said, "and I want to know definitely, whether
there is the slightest chance of my husband's recovery or not. This
suspense is slowly killing me, and I must know the truth, and I must
know it now."

The physicians looked one at the other. "I think," said the elder,
"that it is useless to keep you longer in suspense. There is not the
slightest hope of your husband's recovery. He may live for a week or
for a month perhaps, or he may die at any moment."

"I thank you, gentlemen," said Mrs. Forder, with a calmness that
astonished the two men, who knew the state of excitement she had
laboured under for a long time past. "I thank you. I think it is better
that I should know."

All the afternoon she sat by the bedside of her insensible and scarcely
breathing husband. His face was wasted to a shadow from his long
contest with death. The