CHAPTER XXXIII.

The little dingy courtroom had never witnessed such a crowd before as the one that packed it from the justice's desk to the door, and even out into the hall and down the dirty steps.

Women, men and even little children, had come to see Miss Evelyn Chandler, of whom they had read in social circles, and many of them seen, under arrest!

Her reception-dress was covered by the long cloak that had concealed her gown when she started upon that memorable visit to the rooms of Ben Mauprat upon that fatal night.

A pair of long, black gloves covered her hands, and a black hat with nodding plumes shaded her lovely face.

She leaned upon the arm of Lynde Pyne as she entered, pale, but composed, while he was ghastly. Immediately behind her was Luis Kingsley, haggard and gray of countenance, while Leonie, followed by a policeman, brought up the rear.

She still wore her masculine garments, but with an air of timidity and modesty, now that the world knew her sex.

She had scarcely made her appearance than Andrew Pryor leaped forward, seizing her effusively by the hand.

"You, Neil!" he cried, almost breaking into tears in his delight. "This is the greatest happiness of my life! How came you here? Who has been getting you into trouble? I knew that something had happened to you when you did not come back; but thank the Lord I've found you at last! How did you happen to be here? Tell me all about it, my boy, and I will see that you are released at once!"

Leonie's face was crimson.

She could not keep from smiling, while tears dimmed her vision.

"I am afraid that you will find I have deceived you, Mr. Pryor, and then I shall lose the friendship that I have valued as one of my best possessions, and I have few."

"You have deceived me?" he exclaimed. "Nonsense! How have you deceived me? I tell you, it is not possible! What is it that they accuse you of? My friend Lynde Pyne is here. He is a lawyer and he shall defend you. Why, he has tried as hard to find you as I have, and seemed even more interested. Don't be afraid! He will get you out of here soon enough!"

With utmost good nature he patted Leonie upon the shoulder, and allowed her to take the seat the officer indicated, turning his attention to that individual.

"What is that boy accused of?" he asked. "He is as innocent as I am! Never did a wrong thing in his life!"

"That is no boy!" answered the policeman with a short laugh; "that is a girl."

Mr. Pryor staggered back as though the officer had threatened to arrest him.

"A girl!" he gasped. "Have you all gone mad? Why, that boy is Neil Lowell, and he worked for me as my private secretary. He is the best fellow in existence, and never did a wrong act in his life!"

"She is a girl, for all that!" returned the officer, serenely.

Andrew Pryor sat down very suddenly. He seemed to be utterly overcome by the intelligence he had received.

His eyes were riveted upon Leonie as though they could never be removed.

Then by degrees he began to put certain circumstances together.

He remembered the refusal to attend the stag supper, and a smile came to his face; that was followed by many other minor things that all seemed important now, then his hand came down upon his knee with peculiar force.

"And Pyne knew it all the time!" he exclaimed, below his breath, with a firmness that left no room for contradiction. "I see it all now as clearly as can be. Of course he knew! Well, this beats a novel!"

His reflections were cut short by the opening of court!

There is so great a sameness about such trials that there is little to tell of the occurrences of the next hour or more.

Leonie was discharged for want of evidence against her, but Evelyn Chandler and Luis Kingsley were both held to wait the action of the Grand Jury, the one to answer to the charge of grand larceny, the other of felonious concealment of a will.

There was great excitement evidenced when Leonard Chandler took the stand against his adopted daughter, but the questions that were put to him were few, and answered in a tone that was not audible to those twenty feet removed from him.

Then there was a murmur of voices when Lynde Pyne asked for bail for his client, which was strenuously opposed by Leonard Chandler on the ground that she had demanded it of him, expressing a determination to leave the state before the trial.

Thereupon the bail was fixed at a figure that Pyne could not cover, since the will had not yet been admitted to probate, and the money was not his until it had.

Miss Chandler and Kingsley were therefore placed in the hands of officers of the court to be conducted back to prison.

"Take courage!" Lynde whispered to her at parting. "What can be done for you I will do, you may be sure of that. I will procure the bail and you will be released within a few hours at most."

She had scarcely left his presence than he turned to look for Leonie.

Andrew Pryor was holding her firmly by the hands while she half smiled into his face.

"You little rascal--I mean witch!" he exclaimed. "Why did you not tell me of this long ago? Did you feel that you could not trust me? It is the most extraordinary thing I ever heard of! Where did you get the information that enabled you to do a man's work?"

"You forget that I was a typewriter for a number of years, and that I learned a man's business through copying it for him," she answered, deeply affected by his kindness.

"You are coming right home with me. You shall still be my private secretary if you are a girl."

"You are so good, sir!"

"Oh, hang it all, I forgot about the fortune you will have now, and that you will not have need of me any longer. I am half sorry for the good fortune that robs me of you."

"I am as poor as I was before, Mr. Pryor, and if you will allow me to return to you, you will save me many hours of distress over what my future is to be. I am forced to earn my living now as formerly."

"But, my dear, how is that?"

"Changing my male attire for that of a girl will not alter my circumstances, unfortunately."

"I don't understand it, but come home, and we will talk it over there. Mrs. Pryor has been just as anxious about you as I have, and will be as glad to see you. So will the girls, though hanged if I don't believe they will be disappointed at the change in your sex, for they were all more than half in love with you. Besides that, you have a cousin there----"

"And another here, that you will not give an opportunity of speaking to her," interrupted Pyne. "You must not be so selfish, Mr. Pryor. You believe me that I am glad to find in you a cousin, do you not, Leonie? I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart."

She placed her hand in his proffered one without lifting her eyes.

"It is so good of you!" she returned gently. "I realize how hard it must be for you when you remember that my mother's disgrace is the first that has ever stained your noble family. Perhaps some day you will let me tell you the story, and then you may find a little sympathy for the woman who was driven to the act of which she was guilty to save her child from starving."

"And my uncle allowed that torture to rest upon his wife? I wonder that you can look upon one of us, knowing that it was one of our blood that caused you such suffering!"

"It was not his fault."

"This is not the time to speak of things like those!" Mr. Pryor cut in. "I am going to take her home with me now, Pyne. You will know where to find her when you want to see her, and you also know that you will be always welcome."

They shook hands again and separated.

Andrew Pryor led Leonie, still in her ragged costume, down to his carriage, placed her inside with old-school courtesy, and gave the order for "home."

"I can hardly realize it," he exclaimed, when he had closed the door, "that you are really a girl! What a surprise it will be to Mrs. Pryor and the girls. And you put on that costume as a sort of private detective?"

"Oh, no! I put it on because after I discovered Miss Chandler to be dishonest I was arrested as an accomplice, and in order not to be forced to tell my story, I ran away. I did it for safety! What I have discovered about my birth, came to me as the result of accident!"

"A remarkably timely accident! If I can curb my curiosity until we get home, I must hear all about where you went when you left my house, and how you happened to be detained. I shall keep you talking for a week."

"There is just one thing that I must do first of all if you will let me," returned Leonie, almost reverently, "and that is to pay a visit to Liz. Poor woman! But for her, I might still have been there in that room surrounded by rats and beaten almost to death by that demon, Mauprat. I have felt within the last few hours as though the life of that helpless child of hers had been the price of my freedom and of Lynde's restoration to his fortune."

"Lynde's restoration?"

"Yes, certainly. And it seems to me that I owe her a debt that never can be repaid for that, not to speak of her great kindness to me. But for her I think I should have gone mad."

"Yes, of course you shall pay the visit. That is all right, but what is this about Lynde's fortune? Surely you know that if you prove yourself the daughter of Roger Pyne the money is yours."

"The money is not mine, sir. My father never even knew of my existence, and I have no more right to the money than you have. Surely a man has the privilege of leaving money that is his where he wishes. But I tell you this, that right or wrong, I would put my hand in the fire and burn it off before I touch a cent of it. It was never intended for me, and I will have nothing to do with it. Please say nothing more about it, but let this settle it forever!"