would feel if we had killed a man,
and then add a young woman's natural sensitiveness and pity. You can
guess what she is going through. I've sat with her for hours. It's
pitiful--simply pitiful. Anything you can do, O'Bannon, that will make
it easier for her I shall take as a personal favor to me, a favor I
shall never forget, believe me."

The governor smiled his human, all-embracing smile, almost like a
priest. There was a moment's silence. Albee's experience was that there
usually was a moment while the idea sank in.

Then the younger man asked with great deliberation, "Just what is your
interest in this case, Governor Albee?"

Perfectly calm himself, Albee noted with some amusement the strain in
the other's tone. He had expected the question--a natural one. It was
natural the fellow should wish to be assured that the favor he was
about to do was a real one, a substantial one, something that would be
remembered. He would be taking a certain chance, considering the
newspaper interest and all the local resentment over the case.
Reelection might be rendered impossible. Albee thought to himself that
Lydia would forgive a slight exaggeration of the bond between them if
that exaggeration served to set her free.

"Well, that's rather an intimate question, Mister District Attorney," he
said. "To most people I should answer that she is a lady whom I esteem
and admire; but to you--in strictest confidence--I don't mind saying
that I have every hope and expectation of making her my wife." And he
added less solemnly, "What are you young fellows thinking of to let an
old man like me get ahead of you, eh?" Bending forward he slapped the
other man on the shoulder.

O'Bannon stood up as if a mighty hand had reached from the ceiling and
pulled him upright. The action was all that was left of the primitive
impulse to wring Albee's neck.

"There is nothing I can do to help Miss Thorne," he said. "You know
enough about criminal procedure to know that. The case against her is
very strong."

"Oh, very strong--in the newspapers," said the governor with another of
his waves of his hand. "But you mustn't let your cases be tried in the
newspapers. I always made it a rule never to let the newspapers
influence me in a case."

"I have a better rule than that," said the other. "I don't let anything
influence me except the facts in the case." He was still standing, and
Albee now rose too.

"I see," he said, not quite so suavely as bef