Say, Judge, we're not opponents--we're
partners in this case."

"Hod----" began the other; but Hod Brooks was the master mind. "I
believe we can show, some time, somehow," said he, "that the boy didn't
do it. I know the boy's _mother_. Of course, his father wasn't so much!"
He broke out into his great laugh, but in the corners of his eyes there
was visible a dampness.

Judge Henderson hesitated for just a moment. "Believe at least this
much, Hod," said he. "I didn't know as much at first as I do now.
She--she told me all--I saw it all--last night. I want to tell the
truth--near as I know. When I saw the boy in Blackman's court--it didn't
seem possible, and yet it did. But who gave you the notion? What made
_you_ suspect it? You didn't suspect it then, in the justice court, did
you?"

"Only vaguely," said Hod Brooks; "not so very much. I'll tell you who
did--a woman."

"Aurora?"

"No--Miss Julia. Miss Julia sat there looking from the face of Don Lane
to your own face. There was something in her face--I can't tell what.
Why, hell! I don't suppose a man ever does know what's going on in a
woman's heart, least of all a crude man like me, that never had any fine
feelings in all his life. But there was something there in Miss Julia's
face--I can't tell what. In some way, in her mind, she was connecting
those two faces that she saw before her. If I hadn't seen her face, I
wouldn't ever have suspected you of being the father of that boy!

"But something stuck in my mind. Now, this morning, getting ready to
prepare my case, defending this boy, I went over to Miss Julia's
library. I still remembered what I had seen. I found this picture
there--she had that other picture there, hanging on her wall, too. She
had them both! One was on the wall and the other on her desk. Now, she
had certainly established some connection in her own mind between those
two pictures, or else she wouldn't have had them there both right
before her."

"Then you, too, know," interrupted Henderson, "the story of those two
women--how they brought him up from babyhood--and kept the secret? Why
did Miss Julia do that?"

"Because she was a woman."

"But why didn't she tell?"

"Because she was a woman."

"But why--what makes you suppose she ever would care in the first place
for this boy when he was a baby?"

"Again, because she was a woman, Judge!"

"She came and told me all about her friendship for Aurora. But she
admitted she didn't know who