Page:That Royle Girl (Balmer).pdf/225

 stenographers claimed the center, and to the left sat the defense. The judge presided from a dais against the wall at the center; to his left, as he faced the room, was the witness stand, also confronting the room; and further to his left and facing, not the room, but the judge's seat and the witness stand, was the jury box.

The judge's seat now was empty, and so was the chair for the witness; the jury box also was vacant, but Max Elmen's bald head shone at the table for the counsel for the defense and Max Elmen's spectacled eyes scrutinized his opponents. A companion bald head, less rotund, somewhat more youthfully fringed with hair, marked the presence of Max's son, Herman.

The glint of light moved up Max Elmen's scalp as the Senior counsel inclined his head slightly in sleepy salutation; and Calvin nodded in reply and glanced away. The Royle girl was not at the table of the defense; nor was the prisoner there; he had not yet been brought from the jail.

Before he was aware that he had found her, Calvin was staring into the Royle girl's eyes.

She was in a row of people, some of them seated, others standing just within the rail beyond Elmen's table. Apparently she had turned at the opening of the door and, since she now was relapsing upon her chair, she must have arisen in some impulse which, plainly, had been disappointed. Eagerness faded from her eyes; her lips, which had parted, pressed tight in pale fright, and Calvin, staring at her, summoned to her the eyes of those who watched him; then he felt the swing of the eyes to himself again and hostilely, more hostilely than before.

He turned aside slightly, and advanced, looking down at the opening in the railing through which he strode to his place at the table for the prosecution, realizing that she had risen and turned in her quick, pretty eagerness