"Do you think so?" An instant Steele's eyes rested on the speaker. "No
doubt you are right." A sardonic flash seemed to play on the nobleman.
"At all events you voice the accepted belief."

"I'm glad you defend, don't prosecute people, Mr. Steele," said the girl
irrelevantly.

"A pleasanter task, perhaps!"

"Speaking of sending prisoners out of the country," broke in Sir
Charles, "I am not in favor of the penal system myself."

"Rather a simple way of getting rid of undesirables--transportation--it
has always seemed to me," dissented Lord Ronsdale.

"Don't they sometimes escape and come back to England?" asked the girl.

"Not apt to, when death for returning stares them in the face," remarked
the nobleman.

"Death!" The girl shivered slightly.

John Steele smiled. "The penalty should certainly prove efficacious," he
observed lightly.

"Is not such a penalty--for returning, I mean--very severe, Mr. Steele?"
asked Jocelyn Wray.

"That," he laughed, "depends somewhat on the point of view, the
criminal's, or society's!" His gaze returned to her; the bright bit of