ss times."

Gilder sniffed indignantly.

"And for what reason?" he demanded. "It's too absurd to think about."

"In similar cases," the lawyer answered, "those actually guilty of the
thefts have thus sought to throw suspicion on the innocent in order
to avoid it on themselves when the pursuit got too hot on their trail.
Sometimes, too, such evidence has been manufactured merely to satisfy a
spite against the one unjustly accused."

"It's too absurd to think about," Gilder repeated, impatiently. "The
judge and the jury found no fault with the evidence."

Demarest realized that this advocacy in behalf of the girl was hardly
fitting on the part of the legal representative of the store she was
supposed to have robbed, so he abruptly changed his line of argument.

"She says that her record of five years in your employ ought to count
something in her favor."

Gilder, however, was not disposed to be sympathetic as to a matter so
flagrantly opposed to his interests.

"A court of justice has decreed her guilty," he asserted once again,
in his ponderous manner. His emphasis indicated that there the affair
ended.

Demarest smiled cynically as he strode to and fro.

"Nowadays," he shot out, "we don't call them courts of justice: we call
them courts of law."

Gilder yielded only a rather dubious smile over the quip. This much he
felt that he could afford, since those same courts served his personal
purposes well in deed.

"Anyway," he declared, becoming genial again, "it's out of our hands.
There's nothing we can do, now."

"Why, as to that," the lawyer replied, with a hint of hesitation, "I am
not so sure. You see, the fact of the matter is that, though I helped to
prosecute the case, I am not a little bit proud of the verdict."

Gilder raised his eyebrows in unfeigned astonishment. Even yet, he was
quite without appreciation of the attorney's feeling in reference to the
conduct of the case.

"Why?" he questioned, sharply.

"Because," the lawyer said, again halting directly before the desk, "in
spite of all the evidence against her, I am not sure that Mary Turner is
guilty--far from it, in fact!"

Gilder uttered an ejaculation of contempt, but Demarest went on
resolutely.

"Anyhow," he explained, "the girl wants to see you, and I wish to urge
you to grant her an interview."

Gilder flared at this suggestion, and scowled wrathfully on the lawyer,
who, perhaps with professional prudence, had turned away in hi