y, she merely remarked, flashing upon me, however, in a
way I do not yet understand: 'Well, you have got what you desired, and
now can go.' And I went, Byrd, went; and I felt puzzled, I don't know
why, and a little bit sore about the heart, too, as if---- Well, I can't
even tell what I mean by that _if_. The only thing I am sure of is, that
Mansell's cause hasn't been helped by this day's job, and that if this
lady is asked on the witness stand where she was during the hour every
one believed her to be safely shut up with the telescopes and charts, we
shall hear----"

"What?"

"Well, that she _was_ shut up with them, most likely. Women like her are
not to be easily disconcerted even on the witness stand."

XXVI.

"HE SHALL HEAR ME!"

There's some ill planet reigns;
I must be patient till the heavens look
With an aspect more favorable.--WINTER'S TALE.

THE time is midnight, the day the same as that which saw this irruption
of Hickory into Professor Darling's observatory; the scene that of Miss
Dare's own room in the northeast tower. She is standing before a table
with a letter in her hand and a look upon her face that, if seen, would
have added much to the puzzlement of the detectives.

The letter was from Mr. Orcutt and ran thus:

I have seen Mr. Mansell, and have engaged myself
to undertake his defence. When I tell you that out
of the hundreds of cases I have tried in my still
short life, I have lost but a small percentage,
you will understand what this means.

In pursuance to your wishes, I mentioned your name
to the prisoner with an intimation that I had a
message from you to deliver. But he stopped me
before I could utter a word. "I receive no
communication from Miss Dare!" he declared, and,
anxious as I really was to do your bidding, I was
compelled to refrain; for his tone was one of
hatred and his look that of ineffable scorn.

This was all, but it was enough. Imogene had read these words over three
times, and now was ready to plunge the letter into the flame of a
candle to destroy it. As it burned, her grief and indignation took
words:

"He is alienated, completely alienated," she gasped; "and I do not
wonder. But," and here the full majesty of her nature broke forth in one
grand gesture, "he shall hear me yet! As there is a God ab