im.
He was not young, and looked a man suited to the prosecution of these
secret Mormons. He had a ponderous brow, a deep, cavernous eye that
emitted gleams but betrayed no color or expression. His mouth was the
saving human feature of his stony face.

Shefford took the man upon the judge's right hand to be a lawyer, and
the one on his left an officer of court, perhaps a prosecuting attorney.
Presently this fellow pounded upon the table and stood up as if to
address a court-room. Certainly he silenced that hallful of people. Then
he perfunctorily and briefly stated that certain women had been arrested
upon suspicion of being sealed wives of Mormon polygamists, and were to
be herewith tried by a judge of the United States Court. Shefford felt
how the impressive words affected that silent hall of listeners, but
he gathered from the brief preliminaries that the trial could not be
otherwise than a crude, rapid investigation, and perhaps for that the
more sinister.

The first woman on the foremost bench was led forward by a deputy to a
vacant chair on the platform just in front of the judge's table. She was
told to sit down, and showed no sign that she had heard. Then the judge
courteously asked her to take the chair. She refused. And Stone nodded
his head as if he had experienced that sort of thing before. He stroked
his chin wearily, and Shefford conceived an idea that he was a kind man,
if he was a relentless judge.

"Please remove your veil," requested the prosecutor.

The woman did so, and proved to be young and handsome. Shefford had
a thrill as he recognized her. She was Ruth, who had been one of his
best-known acquaintances in the hidden village. She was pale, angry,
almost sullen, and her breast heaved. She had no shame, but she seemed
to be outraged. Her dark eyes, scornful and blazing, passed over the
judge and his assistants, and on to the crowd behind the railing.
Shefford, keen as a blade, with all his faculties absorbed, fancied he
saw Ruth stiffen and change slightly as her glance encountered some
one in that crowd. Then the prosecutor in deliberate and chosen words
enjoined her to kiss the Bible handed to her and swear to tell the
truth. How strange for Shefford to see her kiss the book which he had
studied for so many years! Stranger still to hear the low murmur from
the listening audience as she took the oath!

"What is your name?" asked Judge Stone, leaning back and fixing the
cavernous eyes upon he