Had the police spy whose testimony is likely to hang me, climbed the tree a moment sooner than he did, he would have seen that.

Are you ready to take my case ?" Clifton is a fair fellow and I knew if he once accepted the fact I thus urged upon him, he would work for me with all the skill and ability my desperate situation demanded.

I, therefore, watched him with great anxiety for the least change in the constrained attitude and fixed, unpromising gaze with which he had listened to me, and was conscious of a great leap of heart as the set expression of his features relaxed, and he responded almost warmly: "I will take your case, Ranelagh.

God help me to make it good against all odds." I was conscious of few hopes, but some of the oppression under which I laboured lifted at those words.

I had assured one man of my innocence! It was like a great rock in the weary desert.