words with which to answer her. He had dreaded seeing
her, and now--she knew. He lit the lamp, and Eve dragged the unwilling
boy in with her; and as she passed him over to Peter's bed he fell
back on it groaning.

"Peter," she cried now, speaking with a rush, since dawn was so near.
"Can't something be done? Surely, surely, there is extenuation! He did
it all to defend Elia. Will was killing him out there at the bluff.
Look at him! Can't you see his suffering? That's why Jim killed him.
Elia's just told me so. He even took these things from--from the body
after--thinking it might save Jim. He brought them to me just now; and
he says he's been down at the saloon, and never said a word to help
Jim. He said he was frightened to go in. Did Jim tell them it was to
save Elia? Oh, surely they can be made to understand it was not
wilful--wilful murder! They can't hang him. It's--it's--horrible!"

But as the astonished Peter listened to her words, words which told
him a side of the story he had never even dreamed of before, his eyes
drifted and fixed themselves on the now ghastly face of the boy. He
compelled the terror-stricken eyes and held them with his own. And
when Eve ceased speaking he answered her without turning. He was
reading, reading through the insane mind of the boy, right down into
his very soul. In the long days he had had Elia working with him he
had studied him closely. And he had learned the twists and warps of
his nature as no one else understood them.

"Jim said nothing at all!" Peter said slowly.

"Nothing? What do you mean? He--he must have told them of--of Elia?"

Suddenly Peter's eyes shot in the direction of the door. A faint,
distant sound reached them. It was a sound of bustle from the
direction of the saloon. Eve heard too. They both understood.

"Oh, God!" she cried.

But Peter's eyes were on Elia's face once more. They were stern, and a
curious light was in them.

"I seem to see it now," he said slowly. "Jim denied his guilt because
he was innocent. But he admitted that the knife which killed Will was
his, although no knife was found. He spoke the truth the whole time.
He would not stoop to a lie, because he was innocent. Eve, that man
was shielding the real culprit. Do you know any one that Jim would be
likely to give his life for? I do." Suddenly he swung round on Elia,
and, with an arm outstretched, and a great finger pointing, he cried,
"Why did you kill Will Henderson?"

Inspiratio