g with his niece."

"I didn't know he had a niece."

"Miss King, or, to be quite accurate, Mrs. Lorimer, is his niece, and
he's staying with her."

Major Kent started and laid down his teacup. Then a look of relief
came into his face, and he smiled.

"You'll give up that absurd theory of yours now, I suppose," he said,
"and admit that Miss King isn't a murderess. I always knew she wasn't,
though I couldn't convince you."

"I don't see," said Meldon, "that anything has happened to invalidate
the evidence on which we originally concluded that Miss King is Mrs.
Lorimer."

"Don't be an ass, J. J. You say she's the judge's niece; so of course
she can't--"

"You apparently think," said Meldon, "that a judge's niece, merely
because her uncle happens to occupy a position of legal eminence,
couldn't possibly commit a crime. You're entirely wrong. Some of the
greatest women criminals the world has ever seen have been the nieces
of men of high position. Look at Lucrezia Borgia, for instance. Her
uncle was a Pope; and whatever our religious opinions may be we must
admit that a Pope is a bigger man than an ordinary judge, and yet
Lucrezia is famous for some of the most remarkable crimes in all
history. I could quote other instances, but that one ought to be
sufficient to convince you that relationship to a judge is no
safeguard--"

"That wasn't what I meant, J. J. You say that this judge tried Mrs.
Lorimer. Now if--"

"Do you mean to suggest," said Meldon, "that a judge wouldn't try his
own niece for murder?"

"Of course he wouldn't. How could he?"

"You're entirely wrong," said Meldon. "As a matter of fact any
right-minded and really upright judge, such as we have every reason to
suppose this Sir Gilbert Hawkesby is, would take a special pride in
trying his own niece. He'd like to hang her if he could, always
supposing that he felt sure that she was guilty. If there's one thing
judges are more determined about than another it's their independence
of all considerations of private friendship in the discharge of their
duties. There are several recorded instances of judges hanging their
own sons. The expression, 'A Roman father,' arises, as well as I
recollect, from an incident of the sort, and the men who have done that
kind of thing have always been regarded as the brightest examples of
incorruptibility. Every lawyer is brought up in the tradition that he
can't do a finer action, if he becomes a judge