Queen of Hearts by Fred M. White — Read

Parkhurst was fain to admit that much remained to be done without much time in which to accomplish it. Still, he had established the possibility of a mistake on the part of the police and he was not the man to abandon hope so long as a single glimmer of it was left. He felt as sure as he could be sure of anything that he was almost within grasping distance of the actual murderer without being able to go to Scotland Yard and lay his discovery before the authorities there, and, within a day or two, Tom Gilchrist had to stand his trial.

It was a wet and depressing afternoon when at length Gilchrist faced a jury charged with what appeared on the face of it to be a cold-blooded murder. He gave one glance round the crowded court and the public gallery at the back, to the judge, sitting in state upon his throne, and something like a thrill passed through him when he saw, not far from the solicitor's table, the pale face and hollow eyes of Maudie Vascombe. It was only for a moment or two, and then he felt that he could look at her no longer. He knew that presently she would be ordered out of court with the rest of the witnesses when Sir Timothy Jessop, KC, had finished his opening statement, and from the bottom of his heart he wished she had not come at all. And then, for the next hour of two, the case went drearily on, so that Tom, listening to the solemn periods of the advocate for the Crown, found himself, before the great man had finished, almost believing himself guilty of the crime.