"Well, that's it," Conn said. "Merlin thought himself out of a death sentence."
They crowded into the lift and went down to the office below. Everybody who knew what had been going on upstairs was there. Most of them were nursing drinks; almost everybody was smoking. All of them were silent, until Judge Ledue took his cigar from his mouth.
"Has the jury reached a verdict?" he asked, clinging with courtroom formality to his self-control.
"Yes, your Honor. We find the defendant, Merlin, not guilty as charged."
In the uproar his words released, Rodney Maxwell got to his feet and came quickly to Conn.
"Flora called just a while ago. Your mother is conscious; she's asking for us. Flora says she seems perfectly normal."
"We'll go right away; take a recon-car. General, will you explain things till I get back? Sylvie, do you want to come with us?"
XXII
It was autumn again, the second autumn since he had landed from the City of Asgard at Storisende and taken the Countess Dorothy home to Litchfield. Again the fields were bare and brown; all up and down the Gordon Valley the melons were harvested, and the wine-pressing was ready to start.