Banning was announcing to the judge that the "prosecution rests" when she sprang to her feet, eyes flashing, every nerve on the qui vive. Dudley, sensing what was going to happen, made a quick motion to catch her wrist. But she swept him aside.
"I am the guilty one!" she cried.
Her voice was a primitive, choking, half-hysterical scream.
It struck the courtroom like a thunderclap.
There was a stunned silence as she groped her way up to the witness-chair and stood there quivering with emotion.
"I shot him. My husband is innocent. He has been trying to protect me. But I can't let him go to prison—I can't!" She was shaken by sobs and she wondered if she were going to faint. But she recovered her grip upon herself and her voice rang out firmly. She was facing the jury. "I needed money desperately. I borrowed it from Rao-Singh and when I went to pay it back alone in his study—he—attacked me. I seized his gun to defend myself. In the desperate struggle the gun went off—he was shot. It was an accident, but if you would still say that I shot him—"
She seized her gown at the left shoulder and ripped it savagely to her waist.
She turned her exposed back to the jury. She pointed to the red Bengal tiger scar,
