Valencia woman, puts
another face on the business."

"Come, now, Fred, the poor woman is really mighty upset over Rood's
death! All she says is that she doesn't really believe the boy did it."

"And for that reason, and that reason alone," father broke in, "she is
going to throw all her influence with the defense--thousands of dollars
spent, and Lord knows what wires pulled, to get him off. Man, you
can't believe it! Don't you know she's going to fight us every inch of
the way? You'll need every scrap of testimony you can dig up! And
such an important piece as--" They were advancing up the hall. I
shrank back and closed the door.

Faintly I heard the voices in the hall going on a few moments longer,
then the front door shut with a deep sound, and the house was still. I
got back into bed but it was not to sleep.

It seemed that since I had been away from the city this strange thing
had happened: the Spanish Woman, whom the papers had described as
mourning for Rood, had taken up the defense of Montgomery. I couldn't
understand it. It would seem that I ought to have been glad--I, who
had been so anxious to find a champion for him--but queerly enough the
only feeling that came was one of fear, as if, instead of saving, she
had been dragging him into worse danger. I lay, staring now at the
ceiling, now at the window, where, toward dawn, a paling light began to
shine. I no longer felt the nervous anxieties that had kept me awake
through the earlier part of the night. I was calmed by one great
dread,--the thought of the Spanish Woman! Her presence rose up and
possessed my imaginary court room, obliterating the figures of the
judge and the lawyers, until it seemed that she and I and the prisoner
were the only persons in the room, and that the one person she was
fighting in all the city was myself.

The next morning when I came in to breakfast father laid his hand on my
cheek, which felt very burning, and said, "You are not fit to answer
one question." My throat was dry, and it was hard work to swallow
things, but he stood over me and made me eat a good breakfast. After
that he had me go over the story of what I had seen on the morning I
had been coming home with my basket of mushrooms. When that was done,
"Now remember," he said, "all you will have to do will be to tell that
same story, and to answer to the best of your recollection all
questions put to you. If you are careful to do that they can't confus