or the last time. It was a look of
farewell. He was no longer a prisoner, he was a condemned man. He
nodded to some of the people whom he had known in Brunford, and then,
with a proud smile, he left the box, under the vigilance of two
policemen, who led him to the condemned cell.

CHAPTER XXVIII

PAUL'S MOTHER AND MARY

When Mary Bolitho left her father on the night following the first day
of the trial, she was naturally much excited. She could not understand
the great change which had come over him. Never before had she known
him to be so much moved by any case with which he had to do. She
wondered why it was, and in the solitude of her room began to think of
reasons. Had he learnt something about Paul of which she was ignorant?
Had he discovered the real murderer? She had sat throughout the day's
trial, and no word had fallen, no argument of whatever sort had been
urged, that in the slightest degree shook her faith in the man she
loved.

She quickly dismissed this from her mind, however. Whatever her
father's conduct might mean, she saw no sign that he believed in Paul's
innocence. Still, her conversation with him caused all sorts of
fancies to flash through her brain, and, sitting down before her fire,
she, for the thousandth time, tried to think of means whereby she could
save him.

"I must save him; I must!" she said to herself. "Paul knows of
something which he refuses to tell me. He is shielding someone."

Naturally she knew nothing of what her father had learnt that night,
had no suspicion of the revelations which, when they became known to
her, would destroy the thousand fancies which she had cherished and
revolutionise her life. The one dominant thought in her mind was that
the man whom, in spite of herself, she had learnt to love, was charged
with murder, and that unless something was done to nullify the evidence
which had been brought to court that day he would have to pay the
penalty with his life. Paul, for some reason unknown to her, would not
use the means she was sure he had in his power in order to save his
life. Of course it was pure surmise on her part, but she was perfectly
certain of it; and what he would not do she must do.

Throughout the evening she had been reading the Brunford papers, in
which the whole story had been described. Paul's first appearance
before the magistrates; the coroner's inquest; and, again, the second
appearance before the local justices; and