After Annie had gone, for the first time since his incarceration Reginald collapsed. He threw himself on his bed and sobbed until verily he thought his heart would break. Then the gaoler entered.
“Come, come, my dear lad,” said the man, walking up to the prisoner and laying a kindly and sympathetic hand on his shoulder. “Keep up, my boy, keep up. We have all to die. God is love, lad, and won’t forsake you.”
“Oh,” cried the prisoner, “it is not death I fear. I mourn but for those I leave behind.”
A few more weeks, and Reginald’s case came on for trial.
It was short, perhaps, but one of the most sensational ever held in the Granite City, as the next chapter will prove.
Chapter Twenty Seven.
A Sensational Murder Trial.
The good people of Aberdeen—yclept the Granite City—are as fond of display and show as even the Londoners, and the coming of the lords, who are the judges that try the principal cases, is quite an event of the year, and looked forward to with longing, especially by the young people.