A flash of Andree's coquetry had just sought and found the admiring eyes of a young lawyer's clerk. She started; half-laughed, and hesitated.
"I—I suppose," she said.
"Why did you not tell Corporal Heriot when you saw him?"
"I do not like him sufficient," said Andree sedately, with her chin up. A laugh went round, and Andree shrilled to it. Dick saw the glow on her face, and the consciousness in her actions, and he smiled. It was so exactly the vain, irresponsible nature which he had always ascribed to her. Surely it would disgust Tempest? But Tempest sat still with his head in his hand, and he did not move as Andree's simple evidence went through to the end. She did not quite understand why they had quarrelled. It was all si vite—si sauvage. Robison did pull out Ogilvie's knife. Oui, she saw that. Oui, she saw him strike, and then she did run.
Dick's evidence established a little more, although it was scarcely needed; for Robison pleaded guilty without extenuating circumstances, receiving his sentence with stolid indifference. A man behind Dick leaned forward.
"That fellow has an iron will," he said. "Or is it just brutal stupidity?"
"It is will, I think," said Dick, and shuddered a little to think what that will might do to Jennifer before long. And then he went out to get through as best he might the hours before he would see Jennifer in that dock.
Yesterday Tempest had driven Jennifer through the town and along the tall banks of the Saskatchewan River, assuring her that she had nothing to fear, and that this absurd charge must fall to pieces on the least investigation. And Jennifer did not mean to fear. But when she stood with her bare hands on the edge of the dock, and saw the white wigs bobbing below her, and the stand of the jury opposite, and the judge in his scarlet robes, her strong courage failed for a moment. Tempest and Dick and Slicker were all there. But they could not help. It was one of those crucial moments when the soul must stand alone. Then, as the oath was administered to the first witness, she straightened and stood still.
