ent, and her own father was the murderer! Jem must be saved, and
she must do it; for was she not the sole repository of the terrible
secret? And how could she prove Jem's innocence without admitting her
father's guilt?

When she could think calmly, she realised that she must discover where
Jem had been on the Thursday night when the murder had been committed.
Tremblingly she went to Mrs. Wilson, and learnt what she wanted to know.
Jem had walked towards Liverpool with his cousin Will, a sailor who had
spent all his money in Manchester, and could not afford railway-fare.
Will's ship was to sail on Tuesday, and on Tuesday Jem was to be tried
at the Liverpool assizes.

Job Legh engaged a lawyer to defend Jem, and Mary prepared to go to
Liverpool to find the one man whose evidence could save her lover. Ere
she left, a policeman brought her a bit of parchment. Her heart misgave
her as she took it; she guessed its purport. It was a summons to bear
witness against Jem Wilson at the assizes.

_IV.--"Not Guilty_"

Arrived at Liverpool on Monday, after the bewilderment of a railway
journey--the first she had ever made--Mary found her way to the little
court, not far from the docks, were Jem's sailor cousin lodged.

"Is Will Wilson here?" she asked the landlady.

"No, he is not," replied the woman, curtly.

"Tell me--where he is?" asked Mary, sickening.

"He's gone this very morning, my poor dear," answered the landlady,
relenting at the sight of Mary's obvious distress. "He's sailed, my
dear--sailed in the John Cropper this very blessed morning!"

Mary staggered into the house, stricken into hopelessness. Yet hope was
not dead. The landlady's son told her that the John Cropper would be
waiting for high-water to cross the sandbanks at the river's mouth, and
that there was a chance that a sailing-boat might overtake the vessel.

Mary hurried down to the docks, spent every penny she had in hiring a
boat, and presently was tossing on the water for the first time in her
life, alone with two rough men.

The boatmen hailed the John Cropper just as the crew were heaving
anchor, and told their errand. The captain refused with a dreadful oath
to stop his ship for anyone, whoever swung for it. But Will Wilson,
standing at the stern, shouted through his hands, "So help me God, Mary
Barton, I'll come back in the pilot-boat time enough to save his life!"

As the ship receded in the distance, Mary asked anxiously when the
pilo