Colonel Armant and the now vindicated prisoner went out of the court room, down the steps and into his office in the basement of the court house.
The woman sank relaxed into a chair.
“Colonel,” she said, “you saved me to-day!”
The lawyer looked at her in surprise.
“Why no,” he replied, “I didn’t save you to-day!”
His voice descended into its long dwindling whine.
“I saved you, Ellen, when you asked me to save you. While McNagel ran to fetch you I put back into the bookcase the law book from which Collander was copying out the citation for his brief—the law book that he held up before him to ward off your first shot—the bullet-hole is in the cover of it.
“Ellen,” he said, “if you had fired down over that book the second time instead of up under it, as you did, I don’t know how in hell I could have managed to clear you!”