of the 'unfortunate' class has poisoned a man with whom she lived. She is one of those cold-blooded persons who are born for the gallows. There is enough evidence to hang her ten times. We shall be forced to submit to the inevitable."
"You disappoint me," said Northcote. "I was thinking of a real fighting case."
The solicitor smiled, with a faint suggestion of patronage.
"I beg your pardon, I'm sure," said the young man, quickly. "Had there been any life in the case you would not have carried it to one so obscure. Even as it is, I ought to be grateful to you—and I am grateful indeed—for putting it in my way."
"The circumstances of this case are somewhat peculiar," said the solicitor. "We are under rather severe pressure in the matter of time. The case will be called on the day after to-morrow at the Central Criminal Court."
"That hardly explains away your kindness towards myself. Even at this short notice you could have got plenty of men to have consented to a verdict."
"I am aware of it, but then it is not quite the method of Whitcomb and Whitcomb. We like 'Thorough' to be our motto. If we accept a client, we feel we owe it to ourselves to leave no stone unturned, irrespective of position or emolument."
"But I understand this case is too dead to be fought?"
"Ah, we are now about to approach the first of the 'peculiar' circumstances. At five o'clock this evening Tobin himself was holding this brief, but
