wn glance. They were disconcerted one and
all by this turn of events, without precedent in the experience of
any, and none more disconcerted--though not in the same sense--than Sir
Terence. To him this was checkmate--fool's mate indeed. An unexpected
yet ridiculously simple move had utterly routed him at the very outset
of the deadly game that he was playing. He had sat there determined to
have either Tremayne's life or the truth, publicly avowed, of Tremayne's
dastardly betrayal. He could not have told you which he preferred. But
one or the other he was fiercely determined to have, and now the springs
of the snare in which he had so cunningly taken Tremayne had been forced
apart by utterly unexpected hands.

"It's a lie!" he bellowed angrily. But he bellowed, it seemed, upon deaf
ears. The court just sat and stared, utterly and hopelessly at a loss
how to proceed. And then the dry voice of Wellington followed Sir
Terence, cutting sharply upon the dismayed silence.

"How can you know that?" he asked the adjutant. "The matter is one
upon which few would be qualified to contradict Miss Armytage. You will
observe, Sir Harry, that even Captain Tremayne has not thought it worth
his while to do so."

Those words pulled the captain from the spell of sheer horrified
amazement in which he had stood, stricken dumb, ever since Miss Armytage
had spoken.

"I--I--am so overwhelmed by the amazing falsehood with which Miss
Armytage has attempted to save me from the predicament in which I stand.
For it is that, gentlemen. On my oath as a soldier and a gentleman,
there is not a word of truth in what Miss Armytage has said."

"But if there were," said Lord Wellington, who seemed the only person
present to retain a cool command of his wits, "your honour as a soldier
and a gentleman--and this lady's honour--must still demand of you the
perjury."

"But, my lord, I protest--"

"You are interrupting me, I think," Lord Wellington rebuked him coldly,
and under the habit of obedience and the magnetic eye of his lordship
the captain lapsed into anguished silence.

"I am of opinion, gentlemen," his lordship addressed the court, "that
this affair has gone quite far enough. Miss Armytage's testimony has
saved a deal of trouble. It has shed light upon much that was obscure,
and it has provided Captain Tremayne with an unanswerable alibi. In
my view--and without wishing unduly to influence the court in its
decision--it but remains to pronounc