a little, maybe say she was sorry. And then the Lord
answers my prayer, and _you_ come--and you sort of give me the impression
that you made the appointment with yourself to see how a fellow looks
when he pops off."

The shimmer of light came into the blue eyes again. She seemed to have
done with her mental analysis of him, and he saw that a bit of color
was creeping into her cheeks, pale when she had entered the room.

"You wouldn't be the first I've seen pop off," she assured him. "There
have been a number, and I've never cried very much. I'd rather see a
man die than some animals. But I shouldn't like to see YOU do it. Does
that comfort you--like the woman you prayed the Lord for?"

"It does," gasped Kent. "But why the devil, Miss Marette--"

"Marette," she corrected again.

"Yes, Marette--why the devil have you come to see me at just the moment
I'm due to explode? And what's your other name, and how old are you,
and what do you want of me?"

"I haven't any other name, I'm twenty, and I came to get acquainted
with you and see what you are like."

"Bully!" exclaimed Kent. "We're getting there fast! And now, why?"

The girl drew her chair a few inches nearer, and for a moment Kent
thought that her lovely mouth was trembling on the edge of a smile.

"Because you have lied so splendidly to save another man who was about
to die."

"_Et tu, Brute_!" sighed Kent, leaning back against his pillows. "Isn't
it possible for a decent man to kill another man and not be called a
liar when he tells about it? Why do so many believe that I lie?"

"They don't," said the girl. "They believe you--now. You have gone so
completely into the details of the murder in your confession that they
are quite convinced. It would be too bad if you lived, for you surely
would be hanged. Your lie sounds and reads like the truth. But I know
it is a lie. You did not kill John Barkley."

"And the reason for your suspicion?"

For fully half a minute the girl's eyes rested on, his own. Again they
seemed to be looking through him and into him. "Because I know the man
who DID kill him," she said quietly, "and it was not you."

Kent made a mighty effort to appear calm. He reached for a cigar from
the box that Cardigan had placed on his bed, and nibbled the end of it.
"Has some one else been confessing?" he asked.

She shook her head the slightest bit.

"Did you--er--see this other gentleman kill John Barkley?" he insisted.

"No."

"Then