"What good can she do?"
"She can make him confess the truth. What the man won't do for justice he may do for love. However, I'll see him at once. Justice will make the first attempt--Love the second."
"And both will fail!" cried Prain. "You'd better catch Dean, my good man."
"That's easier said than done," retorted Gebb; and the two parted, each more or less exasperated. And very naturally, for the perplexities of the Grangebury murder case were enough to anger the mildest natures, and those of Prain and Gebb were rather the reverse.
Irritated and puzzled by the complexion of affairs, Gebb did not let the grass grow under his feet, but at once visited the prison in which Arthur Ferris was confined. He easily obtained permission to see him and entered to find the young man looking ill and worn, but as firm as ever in his policy of silence, Gebb came to the reason of his visit forthwith.
"Well, Mr. Ferris, you are a nice gentleman to stay here, when a word from you in the Court would clear you of all this."
"What word?" asked Ferris, suspecting a snare, and speaking cautiously.
"Why! word where you were at the time of the murder. I know you did not kill Miss Gilmar."
"How do you know that?" asked the young man, with a start.
"Because you were in the Grangebury Town Hall listening to the lecture on Dickens," replied Gebb. "Mr. Alder told me."