e you laugh!" It was only a look, but Lydia saw that
they regained their seriousness like a lot of schoolboys when the head
master enters.

"Call Alma Wooley," said O'Bannon.

Alma Wooley, the last witness for the People, was the girl to whom
Drummond had been engaged. A little figure in the deepest mourning
mounted the stand, so pale that she looked as if a strong ray would
shine clear through her, and though her eyes were dry, her voice had the
liquid sound that comes with much crying. Many of the jury had known her
when she worked in her father's shop. She testified that her name was
Alma Wooley, her age nineteen, that she lived with her father.

"Miss Wooley," said O'Bannon, "you were sent for to go to the hospital
on the eleventh of this March, were you not?"

An almost inaudible "Yes, sir," was the answer.

"You saw Drummond before he died?"

She bent her head.

"How long were you with him?"

She just breathed the answer, "About an hour."

Juror Number 6 spoke up and said that he could not hear. The judge in a
loud roar--offered as an example--said, "You must speak louder. You must
speak so that the last juror can hear you. No, don't look at me. Look at
the jury."

Thus admonished, Miss Wooley raised her faint, liquid voice and
testified that she had been present while Drummond was making his
statement.

"Tell the jury, what took place."

"I said----"

Her voice sank out of bearing. Wiley sprang up.

"Your Honor, I must protest. I cannot hear the witness. It is impossible
for me to protect my client's interests if I cannot hear."

The stenographer was directed to read his notes aloud, and he read
rapidly and without the least expression:

"Question: 'Tell the jury what took place.' Answer: 'I said, "Oh, Jack,
darling, what did they do to you?" And he said, "It was her, dear. She
got me after all."'"

Wiley was on his feet again, protesting in a voice that drowned all
other sounds. A bitter argument between the lawyers took place. They
argued with each other, they went and breathed their arguments into the
ear of the judge. In the end Miss Wooley's testimony was not allowed to
contain anything in reference to any previous meeting between Drummond
and Lydia, but was limited to a bare confirmation of the details of
Drummond's own statement. Technically the defense had won its point, but
the emotional impression the girl had left was not easily effaced, nor
the suspicion that the defense had som