“‘Oh, it is so comforting to think my own friends and neighbors believe me,’ sighed Joe.
“The two would have talked much longer, no doubt, but Joseph Wyvil spoke through the grating and told Joe that Mr. Rocke, his counsel, was waiting in the corridor to speak to him.
“Then Lil took leave of Joe, promising to come back as often and to stay as long as prison rules would allow.
“Joseph Wyvil showed Mr. Rocke into the cell and led Lil out, and took her home to the quiet lodgings he had provided for her.
“After this, Lil went every morning to see her boy-husband, and was permitted by the kindness of the governor to spend most of the day with him.
“Mr. Rocke, the counsel, and Joseph Wyvil, the brother, did all they could to keep up the spirits of the young pair, and succeeded better than any outsider could have believed.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE TRIAL
“And so the time passed to the day on which the judges entered the town to hold the assizes.
“The docket was an unusually full one for this term, and many cases had to be tried before that of John Weston, charged with the murder of John Ketcham, was called.
“The remarkable feature in this case was the fact that it involved the first case of highway robbery that had occurred in that neighborhood for more than half a century, and seemed the revival of a phase of crime that had passed into history and should have been impossible in this age.