with an effort.

"You had to wait while it was sent for?"

"Yes."

"In other words, Miss Thorne, you must have waited not less than five
minutes after the telephone call came?"

"Probably not."

"Answer yes or no, please."

"No." She flung it at him.

"Then if that telephone came at thirteen minutes before three you must
have left not earlier than eight minutes to three, and the accident took
place at 3:12, you ran the distance--it is actually thirteen miles and a
half--in twenty minutes; that is, at the rate of forty miles an hour."

Wiley protested that there was nothing in evidence to show that the
telephone call had been made at thirteen minutes before three, and
O'Bannon replied that with the consent of the court he would put the
records of the telephone company in evidence to prove the exact hour.
This point settled, a pause followed. Lydia half rose, supposing the
ordeal over, but O'Bannon stopped her.

"One moment," he said. "You say you have not been arrested for exceeding
the speed law for several years. Have you ever been stopped by a
policeman?"

Wiley was up in protest at once.

"I object, Your Honor, on the ground of irrelevancy."

The judge said to O'Bannon, "What is the purpose of the question?"

"Credibility, Your Honor. I wish to show that the defendant is not a
competent witness as to her own speed."

The judge locked his fingers together, with his elbows on the arms of
his chair, and took a ruminative half spin.

"The fact that she was once stopped by the police will not determine
that. She might have been violating some other ordinance."

"I will show, if Your Honor permits it, that it was for speeding that
she was stopped."

Eventually the question was admitted; and Lydia, testifying more and
more reluctantly, more and more aware that the impression she was making
was bad, was forced to testify that in the autumn Drummond himself had
stopped her. Asked what he had said to her, she answered scornfully that
she didn't remember.

"Did he say: 'What do you think this is--a race track?'"

"I don't remember."

"Did he warn you that if you continued to drive so fast he would arrest
you?"

"No."

If hate could kill, the district attorney would have been struck down by
her glance.

"You don't remember any of the conversation that took place between
you?"

"No."

"And you cannot explain why a traffic officer stopped you and let you go
without even a warning?"

"No."

"