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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Hand and Ring, by Anna Katharine Green
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Hand and Ring
+
+
+Author: Anna Katharine Green
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 17, 2010  [eBook #31681]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAND AND RING***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Emmy, and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
+generously made available by Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/toronto)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 31681-h.htm or 31681-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31681/31681-h/31681-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31681/31681-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/handring00greeuoft
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).
+
+
+
+
+
+HAND AND RING
+
+by
+
+ANNA KATHARINE GREEN
+
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+   =The Leavenworth Case.= A LAWYER'S STORY. 16mo, cloth,
+      $1.00; paper, 50 cents; 4to, paper                     20
+
+   =A Strange Disappearance.= 16mo, cloth, $1.00; paper      50
+
+   =The Sword of Damocles.= 16mo, cloth, $1.00; paper        50
+
+   =X. Y. Z.= A DETECTIVE STORY. 16mo, paper                 25
+
+   =The Defence of the Bride, and other Poems.= Square,
+      8vo., flexible cloth                                 1 00
+
+
+          G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, PUBLISHERS,
+          NEW YORK AND LONDON.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: "'Look out,' cried the detective, 'or you will get
+yourself into trouble,' and he tightened his grip on the old creature's
+arm."--(Page 43.) (_Frontispiece_.)]
+
+
+
+HAND AND RING
+
+by
+
+ANNA KATHARINE GREEN
+
+Author of "The Leavenworth Case", "The Sword of Damocles", "The
+Defense of the Bride" Etc., Etc.
+
+
+          "For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
+          with most miraculous organ."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+G. P. Putnam's Sons
+New York: 27 & 29 West 23d Street
+London: 25 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden
+1883
+
+Copyright by
+Anna Katharine Green
+1883
+
+Press of
+G. P. Putnam's Sons
+New York
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  _BOOK I._
+
+  THE GENTLEMAN FROM TOLEDO.
+
+  CHAPTER                                             PAGE
+
+      I. A Startling Coincidence                         1
+     II. An Appeal to Heaven                            17
+    III. The Unfinished Letter                          31
+     IV. Imogene                                        49
+      V. Horace Byrd                                    67
+     VI. The Skill of an Artist                         85
+    VII. Miss Firman                                    95
+   VIII. The Thick-set Man                             115
+     IX. Close Calculations                            128
+      X. The Final Test                                146
+     XI. Decision                                      162
+
+
+  _BOOK II._
+
+  THE WEAVING OF A WEB.
+
+    XII. The Spider                                    168
+   XIII. The Fly                                       175
+    XIV. A Last Attempt                                189
+     XV. The End of a Tortuous Path                    199
+    XVI. Storm                                         205
+   XVII. A Surprise                                    213
+  XVIII. A Brace of Detectives                         214
+    XIX. Mr. Ferris                                    233
+     XX. A Crisis                                      245
+    XXI. A Heart's Martyrdom                           258
+   XXII. Craik Mansell                                 264
+  XXIII. Mr. Orcutt                                    278
+   XXIV. A True Bill                                   299
+    XXV. Among Telescopes and Charts                   306
+   XXVI. "He Shall Hear Me!"                           313
+
+
+  _BOOK III._
+
+  THE SCALES OF JUSTICE.
+
+    XXVII. The Great Trial                             315
+   XXVIII. The Chief Witness for the Prosecution       322
+     XXIX. The Opening of the Defence                  350
+      XXX. Byrd Uses his Pencil Again                  356
+     XXXI. The Chief Witness for the Defence           369
+    XXXII. Hickory                                     383
+   XXXIII. A Late Discovery                            392
+    XXXIV. What Was Hid Behind Imogene's Veil          411
+     XXXV. Pro and Con                                 436
+    XXXVI. A Mistake Rectified                         465
+   XXXVII. Under the Great Tree                        475
+  XXXVIII. Unexpected Words                            502
+    XXXIX. Mr. Gryce                                   516
+       XL. In the Prison                               529
+      XLI. A Link Supplied                             555
+     XLII. Consultations                               568
+    XLIII. Mrs. Firman                                 573
+     XLIV. The Widow Clemmens                          587
+      XLV. Mr. Gryce Says Good-bye                     600
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+  "'Look out,' cried the detective, 'or you will get yourself
+      into trouble,' and he tightened his grip on the old
+      creature's arm."                                    _Frontispiece_
+
+  "Taking her hand in his, he looked at her long and
+      searchingly. 'Imogene,' he exclaimed, 'there is
+      something weighing on your heart.'"                           58
+
+  "He paused, sick and horror-stricken. Her face had risen
+      upon him from the back of the chair, and was staring
+      at him like that of a Medusa."                               252
+
+  Diagram                                                          364
+
+  "The curtains parted and disclosed the form of Imogene.
+      'I am coming,' she murmured, and stepped forth."             402
+
+          NOTE.--A portion of these illustrations originally
+          appeared in _Frank Leslie's Illustrated
+          Newspaper_, and have been used in this volume
+          through the courtesy of Mrs. Leslie.
+
+
+
+
+HAND AND RING.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I.
+
+THE GENTLEMAN FROM TOLEDO.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+A STARTLING COINCIDENCE.
+
+          By the pricking of my thumbs,
+          Something wicked this way comes.
+                                --MACBETH.
+
+
+THE town clock of Sibley had just struck twelve. Court had adjourned,
+and Judge Evans, with one or two of the leading lawyers of the county,
+stood in the door-way of the court-house discussing in a friendly way
+the eccentricities of criminals as developed in the case then before the
+court. Mr. Lord had just ventured the assertion that crime as a fine art
+was happily confined to France; to which District Attorney Ferris had
+replied:
+
+"And why? Because atheism has not yet acquired such a hold upon our
+upper classes that gentlemen think it possible to meddle with such
+matters. It is only when a student, a doctor, a lawyer, determines to
+put aside from his path the secret stumbling-block to his desires or
+his ambition that the true intellectual crime is developed. That brute
+whom you see slouching along over the way is the type of the average
+criminal of the day."
+
+And he indicated with a nod a sturdy, ill-favored man, who, with pack on
+his back, was just emerging from a grassy lane that opened out from the
+street directly opposite the court-house.
+
+"Such men are often seen in the dock," remarked Mr. Orcutt, of more than
+local reputation as a criminal lawyer. "And often escape the penalty of
+their crimes," he added, watching, with a curious glance, the lowering
+brow and furtive look of the man who, upon perceiving the attention he
+had attracted, increased his pace till he almost broke into a run.
+
+"Looks as if he had been up to mischief," observed Judge Evans.
+
+"Rather as if he had heard the sentence which was passed upon the last
+tramp who paid his respects to this town," corrected Mr. Lord.
+
+"Revenons à nos moutons," resumed the District Attorney. "Crime, as an
+investment, does not pay in this country. The regular burglar leads a
+dog's life of it; and when you come to the murderer, how few escape
+suspicion if they do the gallows. I do not know of a case where a murder
+for money has been really successful in this region."
+
+"Then you must have some pretty cute detective work going on here,"
+remarked a young man who had not before spoken.
+
+"No, no--nothing to brag of. But the brutes are so clumsy--that is the
+word, clumsy. They don't know how to cover up their tracks."
+
+"The smart ones don't make tracks," interposed a rough voice near them,
+and a large, red-haired, slightly hump-backed man, who, from the looks
+of those about, was evidently a stranger in the place, shuffled forward
+from the pillar against which he had been leaning, and took up the
+thread of conversation.
+
+"I tell you," he continued, in a gruff tone somewhat out of keeping with
+the studied abstraction of his keen, gray eye, "that half the criminals
+are caught because they do make tracks and then resort to such
+extraordinary means to cover them up. The true secret of success in this
+line lies in striking your blow with a weapon picked up on the spot, and
+in choosing for the scene of your tragedy a thoroughfare where, in the
+natural course of events, other men will come and go and unconsciously
+tread out your traces, provided you have made any. This dissipates
+suspicion, or starts it in so many directions that justice is at once
+confused, if not ultimately baffled. Look at that house yonder," the
+stranger pursued, pointing to a plain dwelling on the opposite corner.
+"While we have been standing here, several persons of one kind or
+another, and among them a pretty rough-looking tramp, have gone into the
+side gate and so around to the kitchen door and back. I don't know who
+lives there, but say it is a solitary old woman above keeping help, and
+that an hour from now some one, not finding her in the house, searches
+through the garden and comes upon her lying dead behind the wood-pile,
+struck down by her own axe. On whom are you going to lay your hand in
+suspicion? On the stranger, of course--the rough-looking tramp that
+everybody thinks is ready for bloodshed at the least provocation. But
+suspicion is not conviction, and I would dare wager that no court, in
+face of a persistent denial on his part that he even saw the old woman
+when he went to her door, would bring in a verdict of murder against
+him, even though silver from her private drawer were found concealed
+upon his person. The chance that he spoke the truth, and that she was
+not in the house when he entered, and that his crime had been merely one
+of burglary or theft, would be enough to save him from the hangman."
+
+"That is true," assented Mr. Lord, "unless all the other persons who had
+been seen to go into the yard were not only reputable men, but were
+willing to testify to having seen the woman alive up to the time he
+invaded her premises."
+
+But the hump-backed stranger had already lounged away.
+
+"What do you think about this, Mr. Byrd?" inquired the District
+Attorney, turning to the young man before alluded to. "You are an expert
+in these matters, or ought to be. What would you give for the tramp's
+chances if the detectives took him in hand?"
+
+"I, sir?" was the response. "I am so comparatively young and
+inexperienced in such affairs, that I scarcely dare presume to express
+an opinion. But I have heard it said by Mr. Gryce, who you know stands
+foremost among the detectives of New York, that the only case of murder
+in which he utterly failed to get any clue to work upon, was that of a
+Jew who was knocked down in his own shop in broad daylight. But this
+will not appear so strange when you learn the full particulars. The
+store was situated between two alley-ways in Harlem. It had an entrance
+back and an entrance front. Both were in constant use. The man was found
+behind his counter, having evidently been hit on the head by a
+slung-shot while reaching for a box of hosiery. But though a succession
+of people were constantly passing by both doors, there was for that very
+reason no one to tell which of all the men who were observed to enter
+the shop, came out again with blood upon his conscience. Nor were the
+circumstances of the Jew's life such as to assist justice. The most
+careful investigation failed to disclose the existence of any enemy, nor
+was he found to possess in this country, at least, any relative who
+could have hoped to be benefited by the few dollars he had saved from a
+late bankruptcy. The only conclusion to be drawn is that the man was
+secretly in the way of some one and was as secretly put out of it, but
+for what purpose or by whose hand, time has never disclosed."
+
+"There is one, however, who knows both," affirmed Judge Evans,
+impressively.
+
+"The man himself?"
+
+"God!"
+
+The solemnity with which this was uttered caused a silence, during which
+Mr. Orcutt looked at his watch.
+
+"I must go to dinner," he announced, withdrawing, with a slight nod,
+across the street.
+
+The rest stood for a few minutes abstractedly contemplating his
+retreating figure, as with an energetic pace all his own he passed down
+the little street that opened opposite to where they stood, and entered
+the unpretending cottage of a widow lady, with whom he was in the habit
+of taking his mid-day meal whenever he had a case before the court.
+
+A lull was over the whole village, and the few remaining persons on the
+court-house steps were about to separate, when Mr. Lord uttered an
+exclamation and pointed to the cottage into which they had just seen Mr.
+Orcutt disappear. Immediately all eyes looked that way and saw the
+lawyer standing on the stoop, having evidently issued with the utmost
+precipitation from the house.
+
+"He is making signs," cried Mr. Lord to Mr. Ferris; and scarcely knowing
+what they feared, both gentlemen crossed the way and hurried down the
+street toward their friend, who, with unusual tokens of disturbance in
+his manner, ran forward to meet them.
+
+"A murder!" he excitedly exclaimed, as soon as he came within speaking
+distance. "A strange and startling coincidence. Mrs. Clemmens has been
+struck on the head, and is lying covered with blood at the foot of her
+dining-room table."
+
+Mr. Lord and the District Attorney stared at each other in a maze of
+surprise and horror easily to be comprehended, and then they rushed
+forward.
+
+"Wait a moment," the latter suddenly cried, stopping short and looking
+back. "Where is the fellow who talked so learnedly about murder and the
+best way of making a success of it. He must be found at once. I don't
+believe in coincidences." And he beckoned to the person they had called
+Byrd, who with very pardonable curiosity was hurrying their way. "Go
+find Hunt, the constable," he cried; "tell him to stop and retain the
+humpback. A woman here has been found murdered, and that fellow must
+have known something about it."
+
+The young man stared, flushed with sudden intelligence, and darted off.
+Mr. Ferris turned, found Mr. Orcutt still at his side, and drew him
+forward to rejoin Mr. Lord, who by this time was at the door of the
+cottage.
+
+They all went in together, Mr. Ferris, who was of an adventurous
+disposition, leading the way. The room into which they first stepped was
+empty. It was evidently the widow's sitting-room, and was in perfect
+order, with the exception of Mr. Orcutt's hat, which lay on the
+centre-table where he had laid it on entering. Neat, without being
+prim, the entire aspect of the place was one of comfort, ease, and
+modest luxury. For, though the Widow Clemmens lived alone and without
+help, she was by no means an indigent person, as a single glance at her
+house would show. The door leading into the farther room was open, and
+toward this they hastened, led by the glitter of the fine old china
+service which loaded the dining-table.
+
+"She is there," said Mr. Orcutt, pointing to the other side of the room.
+
+They immediately passed behind the table, and there, sure enough, lay
+the prostrate figure of the widow, her head bleeding, her arms extended,
+one hand grasping her watch, which she had loosened from her belt, the
+other stretched toward a stick of firewood, that, from the mark of blood
+upon its side, had evidently been used to fell her to the floor. She was
+motionless as stone, and was, to all appearance, dead.
+
+"Sickening, sickening!--horrible!" exclaimed Mr. Lord, recoiling upon
+the District Attorney with a gesture, as if he would put the frightful
+object out of his sight. "What motive could any one have for killing
+such an inoffensive woman? The deviltry of man is beyond belief!"
+
+"And after what we have heard, inexplicable," asserted Mr. Ferris. "To
+be told of a supposable case of murder one minute, and then to see it
+exemplified in this dreadful way the next, is an experience of no common
+order. I own I am overcome by it." And he flung open a door that
+communicated with the lane and let the outside air sweep in.
+
+"That door was unlocked," remarked Mr. Lord, glancing at Mr. Orcutt, who
+stood with severe, set face, looking down at the outstretched form
+which, for several years now, had so often sat opposite to him at his
+noonday meal.
+
+With a start the latter looked up. "What did you say? The door unlocked?
+There is nothing strange in that. She never locked her doors, though she
+was so very deaf I often advised her to." And he allowed his eyes to run
+over the wide stretch of low, uncultivated ground before him, that, in
+the opinion of many persons, was such a decided blot upon the town.
+"There is no one in sight," he reluctantly admitted.
+
+"No," responded the other. "The ground is unfavorable for escape. It is
+marshy and covered with snake grass. A man could make his way, however,
+between the hillocks into those woods yonder, if he were driven by fear
+or understood the path well. What is the matter, Orcutt?"
+
+"Nothing," affirmed the latter,--"nothing, I thought I heard a groan."
+
+"You heard me make an exclamation," spoke up Mr. Ferris, who by this
+time had sufficiently overcome his emotion to lift the head of the
+prostrate woman and look in her face. "This woman is not dead."
+
+"What!" they both cried, bounding forward.
+
+"See, she breathes," continued the former, pointing to her slowly
+laboring chest. "The villain, whoever he was, did not do his work well;
+she may be able to tell us something yet."
+
+"I do not think so," murmured Mr. Orcutt. "Such a blow as that must have
+destroyed her faculties, if not her life. It was of cruel force."
+
+"However that may be, she ought to be taken care of now," cried Mr.
+Ferris. "I wish Dr. Tredwell was here."
+
+"I will go for him," signified the other.
+
+But it was not necessary. Scarcely had the lawyer turned to execute this
+mission, when a sudden murmur was heard at the door, and a dozen or so
+citizens burst into the house, among them the very person named. Being
+coroner as well as physician, he at once assumed authority. The widow
+was carried into her room, which was on the same floor, and a brother
+practitioner sent for, who took his place at her head and waited for any
+sign of returning consciousness. The crowd, remanded to the yard, spent
+their time alternately in furtive questionings of each other's
+countenances, and in eager look-out for the expected return of the
+strange young man who had been sent after the incomprehensible humpback
+of whom all had heard. The coroner, closeted with the District Attorney
+in the dining-room, busied himself in noting certain evident facts.
+
+"I am, perhaps, forestalling my duties in interfering before the woman
+is dead," intimated the former. "But it is only a matter of a few hours,
+and any facts we can glean in the interim must be of value to a proper
+conduct of the inquiry I shall be called upon to hold. I shall therefore
+make the same note of the position of affairs as I would do if she were
+dead; and to begin with, I wish you to observe that she was hit while
+setting the clock." And he pointed to the open door of the huge
+old-fashioned timepiece which occupied that corner of the room in which
+she had been found. "She had not even finished her task," he next
+remarked, "for the clock is still ten minutes slow, while her watch is
+just right, as you will see by comparing it with your own. She was
+attacked from behind, and to all appearances unexpectedly. Had she
+turned, her forehead would have been struck, while, as all can see, it
+is the back of her head that has suffered, and that from a right-hand
+blow. Her deafness was undoubtedly the cause of her immobility under the
+approach of such an assailant. She did not hear his step, and, being so
+busily engaged, saw nothing of the cruel hand uplifted to destroy her. I
+doubt if she even knew what happened. The mystery is that any one could
+have sufficiently desired her death to engage in such a cold-blooded
+butchery. If plunder were wanted, why was not her watch taken from her?
+And see, here is a pile of small change lying beside her plate on the
+table,--a thing a tramp would make for at once."
+
+"It was not a thief that struck her."
+
+"Well, well, we don't know. I have my own theory," admitted the coroner;
+"but, of course, it will not do for me to mention it here. The stick was
+taken from that pile laid ready on the hearth," he went on. "Odd,
+significantly odd, that in all its essential details this affair should
+tally so completely with the supposable case of crime given a moment
+before by the deformed wretch you tell me about."
+
+"Not if that man was a madman and the assailant," suggested the District
+Attorney.
+
+"True, but I do not think he was mad--not from what you have told me.
+But let us see what the commotion is. Some one has evidently arrived."
+
+It was Mr. Byrd, who had entered by the front door, and deaf to the low
+murmur of the impatient crowd without, stood waiting in silent patience
+for an opportunity to report to the District Attorney the results of his
+efforts.
+
+Mr. Ferris at once welcomed him.
+
+"What have you done? Did you find the constable or succeed in laying
+hands on that scamp of a humpback?"
+
+Mr. Byrd, who, to explain at once, was a young and intelligent
+detective, who had been brought from New York for purposes connected
+with the case then before the court, glanced carefully in the direction
+of the coroner and quietly replied:
+
+"The hump-backed scamp, as you call him, has disappeared. Whether he
+will be found or not I cannot say. Hunt is on his track, and will report
+to you in an hour. The tramp whom you saw slinking out of this street
+while we stood on the court-house steps is doubtless the man whom you
+most want, and him we have captured."
+
+"You have?" repeated Mr. Ferris, eying, with good-natured irony, the
+young man's gentlemanly but rather indifferent face. "And what makes you
+think it is the tramp who is the guilty one in this case? Because that
+ingenious stranger saw fit to make him such a prominent figure in his
+suppositions?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the detective, flushing with a momentary
+embarrassment he however speedily overcame; "I do not found my opinions
+upon any man's remarks. I only---- Excuse me," said he, with a quiet air
+of self-control that was not without its effect upon the sensible man he
+was addressing. "If you will tell me how, where, and under what
+circumstances this poor murdered woman was found, perhaps I shall be
+better able to explain my reasons for believing in the tramp as the
+guilty party; though the belief, even of a detective, goes for but
+little in matters of this kind, as you and these other gentlemen very
+well know."
+
+"Step here, then," signified Mr. Ferris, who, accompanied by the
+coroner, had already passed around the table. "Do you see that clock?
+She was winding it when she was struck, and fell almost at its foot.
+The weapon which did the execution lies over there; it is a stick of
+firewood, as you see, and was caught up from that pile on the hearth.
+Now recall what that humpback said about choosing a thoroughfare for a
+murder (and this house is a thoroughfare), and the peculiar stress which
+he laid upon the choice of a weapon, and tell me why you think he is
+innocent of this immediate and most remarkable exemplification of his
+revolting theory?"
+
+"Let me first ask," ventured the other, with a remaining tinge of
+embarrassment coloring his cheek, "if you have reason to think this
+woman had been lying long where she was found, or was she struck soon
+before the discovery?"
+
+"Soon. The dinner was still smoking in the kitchen, where it had been
+dished up ready for serving."
+
+"Then," declared the detective with sudden confidence, "a single word
+will satisfy you that the humpback was not the man who delivered this
+stroke. To lay that woman low at the foot of this clock would require
+the presence of the assailant in the room. Now, the humpback was not
+here this morning, but in the court-room. I know this, for I saw him
+there."
+
+"You did? You are sure of that?" cried, in a breath, both his hearers,
+somewhat taken aback by this revelation.
+
+"Yes. He sat down by the door. I noticed him particularly."
+
+"Humph! that is odd," quoth Mr. Ferris, with the testiness of an
+irritable man who sees himself contradicted in a publicly expressed
+theory.
+
+"Very odd," repeated the coroner; "so odd, I am inclined to think he did
+not sit there every moment of the time. It is but a step from the
+court-house here; he might well have taken the trip and returned while
+you wiped your eye-glasses or was otherwise engaged."
+
+Mr. Byrd did not see fit to answer this.
+
+"The tramp is an ugly-looking customer," he remarked, in what was almost
+a careless tone of voice.
+
+Mr. Ferris covered with his hand the pile of loose change that was yet
+lying on the table, and shortly observed:
+
+"A tramp to commit such a crime must be actuated either by rage or
+cupidity; that you will acknowledge. Now the fellow who struck this
+woman could not have been excited by any sudden anger, for the whole
+position of her body when found proves that she had not even turned to
+face the intruder, much less engaged in an altercation with him. Yet how
+could it have been money he was after, when a tempting bit like this
+remained undisturbed upon the table?"
+
+And Mr. Ferris, with a sudden gesture, disclosed to view the pile of
+silver coin he had been concealing.
+
+The young detective shook his head but lost none of his seeming
+indifference. "That is one of the little anomalies of criminal
+experience that we were talking about this morning," he remarked.
+"Perhaps the fellow was frightened and lost his head, or perhaps he
+really heard some one at the door, and was obliged to escape without
+reaping any of the fruits of his crime."
+
+"Perhaps and perhaps," retorted Mr. Ferris, who was a quick man, and
+who, once settled in a belief, was not to be easily shaken out of it.
+
+"However that may be," continued Mr. Byrd, without seeming to notice the
+irritating interruption, "I still think that the tramp, rather than the
+humpback, will be the man to occupy your future attention."
+
+And with a deprecatory bow to both gentlemen, he drew back and quietly
+left the room.
+
+Mr. Ferris at once recovered from his momentary loss of temper.
+
+"I suppose the young man is right," he acknowledged; "but, if so, what
+an encouragement we have received this morning to a belief in
+clairvoyance." And with less irony and more conviction, he added: "The
+humpback _must_ have known something about the murder."
+
+And the coroner bowed; common-sense undoubtedly agreeing with this
+assumption.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN.
+
+          Her step was royal--queen-like.--LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+IT was now half-past one. An hour and a half had elapsed since the widow
+had been laid upon her bed, and to all appearance no change had taken
+place in her condition. Within the room where she lay were collected the
+doctor and one or two neighbors of the female sex, who watched every
+breath she drew, and stood ready to notice the slightest change in the
+stony face that, dim with the shadow of death, stared upon them from the
+unruffled pillows. In the sitting-room Lawyer Orcutt conversed in a
+subdued voice with Mr. Ferris, in regard to such incidents of the
+widow's life as had come under his notice in the years of their daily
+companionship, while the crowd about the gate vented their interest in
+loud exclamations of wrath against the tramp who had been found, and the
+unknown humpback who had not. Our story leads us into the crowd in
+front.
+
+"I don't think she'll ever come to," said one, who from his dusty coat
+might have been a miller. "Blows like that haven't much let-up about
+them."
+
+"Doctor says she will die before morning," put in a pert young miss,
+anxious to have her voice heard.
+
+"Then it will be murder and no mistake, and that brute of a tramp will
+hang as high as Haman."
+
+"Don't condemn a man before you've had a chance to hear what he has to
+say for himself," cried another in a strictly judicial tone. "How do you
+know as he came to this house at all?"
+
+"Miss Perkins says he did, and Mrs. Phillips too; they saw him go into
+the gate."
+
+"And what else did they see? I warrant he wasn't the only beggar that
+was roaming round this morning."
+
+"No; there was a tin peddler in the street, for I saw him my own self,
+and Mrs. Clemmens standing in the door flourishing her broom at him. She
+was mighty short with such folks. Wouldn't wonder if some of the unholy
+wretches killed her out of spite. They're a wicked lot, the whole of
+them."
+
+"Widow Clemmens had a quick temper, but she had a mighty good heart
+notwithstanding. See how kind she was to them Hubbells."
+
+"And how hard she was to that Pratt girl."
+
+"Well, I know, but----" And so on and so on, in a hum and a buzz about
+the head of Mr. Byrd, who, engaged in thought seemingly far removed from
+the subject in hand, stood leaning against the fence, careless and
+_insouciant_. Suddenly there was a lull, then a short cry, then a
+woman's voice rose clear, ringing, and commanding, and Mr. Byrd caught
+the following words:
+
+"What is this I hear? Mrs. Clemmens dead? Struck down by some wandering
+tramp? Murdered and in her own house?"
+
+In an instant, every eye, including Mr. Byrd's, was fixed upon the
+speaker. The crowd parted, and the young girl, who had spoken from the
+street, came into the gate. She was a remarkable-looking person. Tall,
+large, and majestic in every proportion of an unusually noble figure,
+she was of a make and possessed a bearing to attract attention had she
+borne a less striking and beautiful countenance. As it was, the glance
+lingered but a moment on the grand curves and lithe loveliness of that
+matchless figure, and passed at once to the face. Once there, it did not
+soon wander; for though its beauty was incontestable, the something that
+lay behind that beauty was more incontestable still, and held you, in
+spite of yourself, long after you had become acquainted with the broad
+white brow, the clear, deep, changing gray eye, the straight but
+characteristic nose, and the ruddy, nervous lip. You felt that, young
+and beautiful as she was, and charming as she might be, she was also one
+of nature's unsolvable mysteries--a woman whom you might study, obey,
+adore, but whom you could never hope to understand; a Sphinx without an
+Oedipus. She was dressed in dark green, and held her gloves in her
+hand. Her appearance was that of one who had been profoundly startled.
+
+"Why don't some one answer me?" she asked, after an instant's pause,
+seemingly unconscious that, alike to those who knew her and to those
+who did not, her air and manner were such as to naturally impose
+silence. "Must I go into the house in order to find out if this good
+woman is dead or not?"
+
+"Shure she isn't dead yet," spoke up a brawny butcher-boy, bolder than
+the rest. "But she's sore hurt, miss, and the doctors say as how there
+is no hope."
+
+A change impossible to understand passed over the girl's face. Had she
+been less vigorous of body, she would have staggered. As it was, she
+stood still, rigidly still, and seemed to summon up her faculties, till
+the very clinch of her fingers spoke of the strong control she was
+putting upon herself.
+
+"It is dreadful, dreadful!" she murmured, this time in a whisper, and as
+if to some rising protest in her own soul. "No good can come of it,
+none." Then, as if awakening to the scene about her, shook her head and
+cried to those nearest: "It was a tramp who did it, I suppose; at least,
+I am told so."
+
+"A tramp has been took up, miss, on suspicion, as they call it."
+
+"If a tramp has been taken up on suspicion, then he was the one who
+assailed her, of course." And pushing on through the crowd that fell
+back still more awe-struck than before, she went into the house.
+
+The murmur that followed her was subdued but universal. It made no
+impression on Mr. Byrd. He had leaned forward to watch the girl's
+retreating form, but, finding his view intercepted by the wrinkled
+profile of an old crone who had leaned forward too, had drawn
+impatiently back. Something in that crone's aged face made him address
+her.
+
+"You know the lady?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes," was the cautious reply, given, however, with a leer he found not
+altogether pleasant.
+
+"She is a relative of the injured woman, or a friend, perhaps?"
+
+The old woman's face looked frightful.
+
+"No," she muttered grimly; "they are strangers."
+
+At this unexpected response Mr. Byrd made a perceptible start forward.
+The old woman's hand fell at once on his arm.
+
+"Stay!" she hoarsely whispered. "By strangers I mean they don't visit
+each other. The town is too small for any of us to be strangers."
+
+Mr. Byrd nodded and escaped her clutch.
+
+"This is worth seeing through," he murmured, with the first gleam of
+interest he had shown in the affair. And, hurrying forward, he succeeded
+in following the lady into the house.
+
+The sight he met there did not tend to allay his newborn interest. There
+she stood in the centre of the sitting-room, tall, resolute, and
+commanding, her eyes fixed on the door of the room that contained the
+still breathing sufferer, Mr. Orcutt's eyes fixed upon her. It seemed as
+if she had asked one question and been answered; there had not been time
+for more.
+
+"I do not know what to say in apology for my intrusion," she remarked.
+"But the death, or almost the death, of a person of whom we have all
+heard, seems to me so terrible that----"
+
+But here Mr. Orcutt interrupted gently, almost tenderly, but with a
+fatherly authority which Mr. Byrd expected to see her respect.
+
+"Imogene," he observed, "this is no place for you; the horror of the
+event has made you forget yourself; go home and trust me to tell you on
+my return all that it is advisable for you to know."
+
+But she did not even meet his glance with her steady eyes. "Thank you,"
+she protested; "but I cannot go till I have seen the place where this
+woman fell and the weapon with which she was struck. I want to see it
+all. Mr. Ferris, will you show me?" And without giving any reason for
+this extraordinary request, she stood waiting with that air of conscious
+authority which is sometimes given by great beauty when united to a
+distinguished personal presence.
+
+The District Attorney, taken aback, moved toward the dining-room door.
+"I will consult with the coroner," said he.
+
+But she waited for no man's leave. Following close behind him, she
+entered upon the scene of the tragedy.
+
+"Where was the poor woman hit?" she inquired.
+
+They told her; they showed her all she desired and asked her no
+questions. She awed them, all but Mr. Orcutt--him she both astonished
+and alarmed.
+
+"And a tramp did all this?" she finally exclaimed, in the odd, musing
+tone she had used once before, while her eye fell thoughtfully to the
+floor. Suddenly she started, or so Mr. Byrd fondly imagined, and moved a
+pace, setting her foot carefully down upon a certain spot in the carpet
+beneath her.
+
+"She has spied something," he thought, and watched to see if she would
+stoop.
+
+But no, she held herself still more erectly than before, and seemed, by
+her rather desultory inquiries, to be striving to engage the attention
+of the others from herself.
+
+"There is some one surely tapping at this door," she intimated, pointing
+to the one that opened into the lane.
+
+Dr. Tredwell moved to see.
+
+"Is there not?" she repeated, glancing at Mr. Ferris.
+
+He, too, turned to see.
+
+But there was still an eye regarding her from behind the sitting-room
+door, and, perceiving it, she impatiently ceased her efforts. She was
+not mistaken about the tapping. A man was at the door whom both
+gentlemen seemed to know.
+
+"I come from the tavern where they are holding this tramp in custody,"
+announced the new-comer in a voice too low to penetrate into the room.
+"He is frightened almost out of his wits. Seems to think he was taken up
+for theft, and makes no bones of saying that he did take a spoon or two
+from a house where he was let in for a bite. He gave up the spoons and
+expects to go to jail, but seems to have no idea that any worse
+suspicion is hanging over him. Those that stand around think he is
+innocent of the murder."
+
+"Humph! well, we will see," ejaculated Mr. Ferris; and, turning back, he
+met, with a certain sort of complacence, the eyes of the young lady who
+had been somewhat impatiently awaiting his reappearance. "It seems there
+are doubts, after all, about the tramp being the assailant."
+
+The start she gave was sudden and involuntary. She took a step forward
+and then paused as if hesitating. Instantly, Mr. Byrd, who had not
+forgotten the small object she had been covering with her foot,
+sauntered leisurely forward, and, spying a ring on the floor where she
+had been standing, unconcernedly picked it up.
+
+She did not seem to notice him. Looking at Mr. Ferris with eyes whose
+startled, if not alarmed, expression she did not succeed in hiding from
+the detective, she inquired, in a stifled voice:
+
+"What do you mean? What has this man been telling you? You say it was
+not the tramp. Who, then, was it?"
+
+"That is a question we cannot answer," rejoined Mr. Ferris, astonished
+at her heat, while Lawyer Orcutt, moving forward, attempted once more to
+recall her to herself.
+
+"Imogene," he pleaded,--"Imogene, calm yourself. This is not a matter of
+so much importance to you that you need agitate yourself so violently in
+regard to it. Come home, I beseech you, and leave the affairs of
+justice to the attention of those whose duty it is to look after them."
+
+But beyond acknowledging his well-meant interference by a deprecatory
+glance, she stood immovable, looking from Dr. Tredwell to Mr. Ferris,
+and back again to Dr. Tredwell, as if she sought in their faces some
+confirmation of a hideous doubt or fear that had arisen in her own mind.
+Suddenly she felt a touch on her arm.
+
+"Excuse me, madam, but is this yours?" inquired a smooth and careless
+voice over her shoulder.
+
+As though awakening from a dream she turned; they all turned. Mr. Byrd
+was holding out in his open palm a ring blazing with a diamond of no
+mean lustre or value.
+
+The sight of such a jewel, presented at such a moment, completed the
+astonishment of her friends. Pressing forward, they stared at the costly
+ornament and then at her, Mr. Orcutt's face especially assuming a
+startled expression of mingled surprise and apprehension, that soon
+attracted the attention of the others, and led to an interchange of
+looks that denoted a mutual but not unpleasant understanding.
+
+"I found it at your feet," explained the detective, still carelessly,
+but with just that delicate shade of respect in his voice necessary to
+express a gentleman's sense of presumption in thus addressing a strange
+and beautiful young lady.
+
+The tone, if not the explanation, seemed to calm her, as powerful
+natures are calmed in the stress of a sudden crisis.
+
+"Thank you," she returned, not without signs of great sweetness in her
+look and manner. "Yes, it is mine," she added slowly, reaching out her
+hand and taking the ring. "I must have dropped it without knowing it."
+And meeting the eye of Mr. Orcutt fixed upon her with that startled look
+of inquiry already alluded to, she flushed, but placed the jewel
+nonchalantly on her finger.
+
+This cool appropriation of something he had no reason to believe hers,
+startled the youthful detective immeasurably. He had not expected such a
+_dénouement_ to the little drama he had prepared with such quiet
+assurance, and, though with the quick self-control that distinguished
+him he forbore to show his surprise, he none the less felt baffled and
+ill at ease, all the more that the two gentlemen present, who appeared
+to be the most disinterested in their regard for this young lady, seemed
+to accept this act on her part as genuine, and therefore not to be
+questioned.
+
+"It is a clue that is lost," thought he. "I have made a mess of my first
+unassisted efforts at real detective work." And, inwardly disgusted with
+himself, he drew back into the other room and took up his stand at a
+remote window.
+
+The slight stir he made in crossing the room seemed to break a spell and
+restore the minds of all present to their proper balance. Mr. Orcutt
+threw off the shadow that had momentarily disturbed his quiet and
+assured mien, and advancing once more, held out his arm with even more
+kindness than before, saying impressively:
+
+"Now you will surely consent to accompany me home. You cannot mean to
+remain here any longer, can you, Imogene?"
+
+But before she could reply, before her hand could lay itself on his arm,
+a sudden hush like that of awe passed solemnly through the room, and the
+physician, who had been set to watch over the dying gasps of the poor
+sufferer within, appeared on the threshold of the bedroom door, holding
+up his hand with a look that at once commanded attention and awoke the
+most painful expectancy in the hearts of all who beheld him:
+
+"She stirs; she moves her lips," he announced, and again paused,
+listening.
+
+Immediately there was a sound from the dimness behind him, a low sound,
+inarticulate at first, but presently growing loud enough and plain
+enough to be heard in the utmost recesses of the furthermost room on
+that floor.
+
+"Hand! ring!" was the burden of the short ejaculation they heard. "Ring!
+hand!" till a sudden gasp cut short the fearful iteration, and all was
+silent again.
+
+"Great heavens!" came in an awe-struck whisper from Mr. Ferris, as he
+pressed hastily toward the place from which these words had issued.
+
+But the physician at once stopped and silenced him.
+
+"She may speak again," he suggested. "Wait."
+
+But, though they listened breathlessly, and with ever-growing suspense,
+no further break occurred in the deep silence, and soon the doctor
+announced:
+
+"She has sunk back into her old state; she may rouse again, and she may
+not."
+
+As though released from some painful tension, the coroner, the District
+Attorney, and the detective all looked up. They found Miss Dare standing
+by the open window, with her face turned to the landscape, and Mr.
+Orcutt gazing at her with an expression of perplexity that had almost
+the appearance of dismay. This look passed instantly from the lawyer's
+countenance as he met the eyes of his friends, but Mr. Byrd, who was
+still smarting under a sense of his late defeat, could not but wonder
+what that gentleman had seen in Miss Dare, during the period of their
+late preoccupation, to call up such an expression to his usually keen
+and composed face.
+
+The clinch of her white hand on the window-sill told nothing; but when
+in a few moments later she turned toward them again, Mr. Byrd saw, or
+thought he saw, the last lingering remains of a great horror fading out
+of her eyes, and was not surprised when she walked up to Mr. Orcutt and
+said, somewhat hoarsely: "I wish to go home now. This place is a
+terrible one to be in."
+
+Mr. Orcutt, who was only too glad to comply with her request, again
+offered her his arm. But anxious as they evidently were to quit the
+house, they were not allowed to do so without experiencing another
+shock. Just as they were passing the door of the room where the wounded
+woman lay, the physician in attendance again appeared before them with
+that silently uplifted hand.
+
+"Hush!" said he; "she stirs again. I think she is going to speak."
+
+And once more that terrible suspense held each and every one enthralled:
+once more that faint, inarticulate murmur eddied through the house,
+growing gradually into speech that this time took a form that curdled
+the blood of the listeners, and made Mr. Orcutt and the young woman at
+his side drop apart from each other as though a dividing sword had
+passed between them.
+
+"May the vengeance of Heaven light upon the head of him who has brought
+me to this pass," were the words that now rose ringing and clear from
+that bed of death. "May the fate that has come upon me be visited upon
+him, measure for measure, blow for blow, death for death."
+
+Strange and awe-inspiring words, that drew a pall over that house and
+made the dullest person there gasp for breath. In the silence that
+followed--a silence that could be felt--the white faces of lawyer and
+physician, coroner and detective, turned and confronted each other. But
+the young lady who lingered in their midst looked at no one, turned to
+no one. Shuddering and white, she stood gazing before her as if she
+already beheld that retributive hand descending upon the head of the
+guilty; then, as she awoke to the silence of those around her, gave a
+quick start and flashed forward to the door and so out into the street
+before Mr. Orcutt could rouse himself sufficiently from the stupor of
+the moment to follow her.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+THE UNFINISHED LETTER.
+
+          Faith, thou hast some crotchets in thy head now.
+                                    --MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
+
+
+"WOULD there be any indiscretion in my asking who that young lady is?"
+inquired Mr. Byrd of Mr. Ferris, as, after ascertaining that the
+stricken sufferer still breathed, they stood together in a distant
+corner of the dining-room.
+
+"No," returned the other, in a low tone, with a glance in the direction
+of the lawyer, who was just re-entering the house, after an unsuccessful
+effort to rejoin the person of whom they were speaking. "She is a Miss
+Dare, a young lady much admired in this town, and believed by many to be
+on the verge of matrimony with----" He nodded toward Mr. Orcutt, and
+discreetly forbore to finish the sentence.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed the youthful detective, "I understand." And he cast a
+look of suddenly awakened interest at the man who, up to this time, he
+had merely regarded as a more than usually acute criminal lawyer.
+
+He saw a small, fair, alert man, of some forty years of age, of a good
+carriage, easy manner, and refined cast of countenance, overshadowed now
+by a secret anxiety he vainly tried to conceal. He was not as handsome
+as Coroner Tredwell, nor as well built as Mr. Ferris, yet he was,
+without doubt, the most striking-looking man in the room, and, to the
+masculine eyes of the detective, seemed at first glance to be a person
+to win the admiration, if not the affection, of women.
+
+"She appears to take a great interest in this affair," he ventured
+again, looking back at Mr. Ferris.
+
+"Yes, that is woman's way," replied the other, lightly, without any hint
+of secret feeling or curiosity. "Besides, she is an inscrutable girl,
+always surprising you by her emotions--or by her lack of them," he
+added, dismissing the topic with a wave of his hand.
+
+"Which is also woman's way," remarked Mr. Byrd, retiring into his shell,
+from which he had momentarily thrust his head.
+
+"Does it not strike you that there are rather more persons present than
+are necessary for the purposes of justice?" asked the lawyer, now coming
+forward with a look of rather pointed significance at the youthful
+stranger.
+
+Mr. Ferris at once spoke up. "Mr. Orcutt," said he, "let me introduce to
+you Mr. Byrd, of New York. He is a member of the police force, and has
+been rendering me assistance in the case just adjourned."
+
+"A detective!" repeated the other, eying the young man with a critical
+eye. "It is a pity, sir," he finally observed, "that your present duties
+will not allow you to render service to justice in this case of
+mysterious assault." And with a bow of more kindness than Mr. Byrd had
+reason to look for, he went slowly back to his former place near the
+door that hid the suffering woman from sight.
+
+However kindly expressed, Mr. Byrd felt that he had received his
+dismissal, and was about to withdraw, when the coroner, who had been
+absent from their midst for the last few minutes, approached them from
+the foot of the stairs, and tapped the detective on the arm.
+
+"I want you," said he.
+
+Mr. Byrd bowed, and with a glance toward the District Attorney, who
+returned him a nod of approval, went quickly out with the coroner.
+
+"I hear you are a detective," observed the latter, taking him up stairs
+into a room which he carefully locked behind them. "A detective on the
+spot in a case like this is valuable; are you willing to assume the
+duties of your profession and act for justice in this matter?"
+
+"Dr. Tredwell," returned the young man, instantly conscious of a vague,
+inward shrinking from meddling further in the affair, "I am not at
+present master of my proceedings. To say nothing of the obedience I owe
+my superiors at home, I am just now engaged in assisting Mr. Ferris in
+the somewhat pressing matter now before the court, and do not know
+whether it would meet with his approval to have me mix up matters in
+this way."
+
+"Mr. Ferris is a reasonable man," said the coroner. "If his consent is
+all that is necessary----"
+
+"But it is not, sir. I must have orders from New York."
+
+"Oh, as to that, I will telegraph at once."
+
+But still the young man hesitated, lounging in his easy way against the
+table by which he had taken his stand.
+
+"Dr. Tredwell," he suggested, "you must have men in this town amply able
+to manage such a matter as this. A woman struck in broad daylight and a
+man already taken up on suspicion! 'Tis simple, surely; intricate
+measures are not wanted here."
+
+"So you still think it is the tramp that struck her?" quoth the coroner,
+a trifle baffled by the other's careless manner.
+
+"I still think it was not the man who sat in court all the morning and
+held me fascinated by his eye."
+
+"Ah, he held you fascinated, did he?" repeated the other, a trifle
+suspiciously.
+
+"Well, that is," Mr. Byrd allowed, with the least perceptible loss of
+his easy bearing, "he made me look at him more than once. A wandering
+eye always attracts me, and his wandered constantly."
+
+"Humph! and you are sure he was in the court every minute of the
+morning?"
+
+"There must be other witnesses who can testify to that," answered the
+detective, with the perceptible irritation of one weary of a subject
+which he feels he has already amply discussed.
+
+"Well," declared the other, dropping his eyes from the young man's
+countenance to a sheet of paper he was holding in his hand, "whatever
+_rôle_ this humpback has played in the tragedy now occupying us, whether
+he be a wizard, a secret accomplice, a fool who cannot keep his own
+secret, or a traitor who cannot preserve that of his tools, this affair,
+as you call it, is not likely to prove the simple matter you seem to
+consider it. The victim, if not her townsfolk, knew she possessed an
+enemy, and this half-finished letter which I have found on her table,
+raises the question whether a common tramp, with no motive but that of
+theft or brutal revenge, was the one to meditate the fatal blow, even if
+he were the one to deal it."
+
+A perceptible light flickered into the eyes of Mr. Byrd, and he glanced
+with a new but unmistakable interest at the letter, though he failed to
+put out his hand for it, even though the coroner held it toward him.
+
+"Thank you," said he; "but if I do not take the case, it would be better
+for me not to meddle any further with it."
+
+"But you are going to take it," insisted the other, with temper, his
+anxiety to secure this man's services increasing with the opposition he
+so unaccountably received. "The officers at the detective bureau in New
+York are not going to send another man up here when there is already one
+on the spot. And a man from New York I am determined to have. A crime
+like this shall not go unpunished in this town, whatever it may do in a
+great city like yours. We don't have so many murder cases that we need
+to stint ourselves in the luxury of professional assistance."
+
+"But," protested the young man, still determined to hold back, whatever
+arguments might be employed or inducements offered him, "how do you know
+I am the man for your work? We have many sorts and kinds of detectives
+in our bureau. Some for one kind of business, some for another; the
+following up of a criminal is not mine."
+
+"What, then, is yours?" asked the coroner, not yielding a jot of his
+determination.
+
+The detective was silent.
+
+"Read the letter," persisted Dr. Tredwell, shrewdly conscious that if
+once the young man's professional instinct was aroused, all the puerile
+objections which influenced him would immediately vanish.
+
+There was no resisting that air of command. Taking the letter in his
+hand, the young man read:
+
+          "DEAR EMILY:--I don't know why I sit down to write
+          to you to-day. I have plenty to do, and morning is
+          no time for indulging in sentimentalities; but I
+          feel strangely lonely and strangely anxious.
+          Nothing goes just to my mind, and somehow the many
+          causes for secret fear which I have always had,
+          assume an undue prominence in my mind. It is
+          always so when I am not quite well. In vain I
+          reason with myself, saying that respectable people
+          do not lightly enter into crime. But there are so
+          many to whom my death would be more than welcome,
+          that I constantly see myself in the act of
+          being----"
+
+"Struck, shot, murdered," suggested Dr. Tredwell, perceiving the young
+man's eye lingering over the broken sentence.
+
+"The words are not there," remonstrated Mr. Byrd; but the tone of his
+voice showed that his professional complacency had been disturbed at
+last.
+
+The other did not answer, but waited with the wisdom of the trapper who
+sees the quarry nosing round the toils.
+
+"There is evidently some family mystery," the young man continued,
+glancing again at the letter. "But," he remarked, "Mr. Orcutt is a good
+friend of hers, and can probably tell us what it all means."
+
+"Very likely," the other admitted, "if we choose to ask him."
+
+Quick as lightning the young man's glance flashed to the coroner's face.
+
+"You would rather not put the question to him?" he inquired.
+
+"No. As he is the lawyer who, in all probability, will be employed by
+the criminal in this case, I am sure he would rather not be mixed up in
+any preliminary investigation of the affair."
+
+The young man's eye did not waver. He appeared to take a secret resolve.
+
+"Has it not struck you," he insinuated, "that Mr. Orcutt might have
+other reasons for not wishing to give any expression of opinion in
+regard to it?"
+
+The surprise in the coroner's eye was his best answer.
+
+"No," he rejoined.
+
+Mr. Byrd at once resumed all his old nonchalance.
+
+"The young lady who was here appeared to show such agitated interest in
+this horrible crime, I thought that, in kindness to her, he might wish
+to keep out of the affair as much as possible."
+
+"Miss Dare? Bless your heart, she would not restrict him in any way. Her
+interest in the matter is purely one of curiosity. It has been carried,
+perhaps, to a somewhat unusual length for a woman of her position and
+breeding. But that is all, I assure you. Miss Dare's eccentricities are
+well known in this town."
+
+"Then the diamond ring was really hers?" Mr. Byrd was about to inquire,
+but stopped; something in his memory of this beautiful woman made it
+impossible for him to disturb the confidence of the coroner in her
+behalf, at least while his own doubts were so vague and shadowy.
+
+The coroner, however, observed the young detective's hesitation, and
+smiled.
+
+"Are you thinking of Miss Dare as having any thing to do with this
+shocking affair?" he asked.
+
+Mr. Byrd shook his head, but could not hide the flush that stole up over
+his forehead.
+
+The coroner actually laughed, a low, soft, decorous laugh, but none the
+less one of decided amusement. "Your line is not in the direction of
+spotting criminals, I must allow," said he. "Why, Miss Dare is not only
+as irreproachable a young lady as we have in this town, but she is a
+perfect stranger to this woman and all her concerns. I doubt if she even
+knew her name till to-day."
+
+A laugh is often more potent than argument. The face of the detective
+lighted up, and he looked very manly and very handsome as he returned
+the letter to the coroner, saying, with a sweep of his hand as if he
+tossed an unworthy doubt away forever:
+
+"Well, I do not wish to appear obstinate. If this woman dies, and the
+inquest fails to reveal who her assailant is, I will apply to New York
+for leave to work up the case; that is, if you continue to desire my
+assistance. Meanwhile----"
+
+"You will keep your eyes open," intimated the coroner, taking back the
+letter and putting it carefully away in his breast-pocket. "And now,
+mum!"
+
+Mr. Byrd bowed, and they went together down the stairs.
+
+It was by this time made certain that the dying woman was destined to
+linger on for some hours. She was completely unconscious, and her breath
+barely lifted the clothes that lay over the slowly laboring breast; but
+such vitality as there was held its own with scarcely perceptible
+change, and the doctor thought it might be midnight before the solemn
+struggle would end. "In the meantime, expect nothing," he exclaimed;
+"she has said her last word. What remains will be a mere sinking into
+the eternal sleep."
+
+This being so, Mr. Orcutt and Mr. Ferris decided to leave. Mr. Byrd saw
+them safely out, and proceeded to take one or two private observations
+of his own. They consisted mostly in noting the precise position of the
+various doors in reference to the hearth where the stick was picked up,
+and the clock where the victim was attacked. Or, so the coroner gathered
+from the direction which Mr. Byrd's eye took in its travels over the
+scene of action, and the diagram which he hastily drew on the back of an
+envelope. The table was noticed, too, and an inventory of its articles
+taken, after which he opened the side-door and looked carefully out into
+the lane.
+
+To observe him now with his quick eye flashing from spot to spot, his
+head lifted, and a visible air of determination infused through his
+whole bearing, you would scarcely recognize the easy, gracefully
+indolent youth who, but a little while before, lounged against the
+tables and chairs, and met the most penetrating eye with the sleepy gaze
+of a totally uninterested man. Dr. Tredwell, alert to the change, tapped
+the letter in his pocket complacently. "I have roused up a weasel," he
+mentally decided, and congratulated himself accordingly.
+
+It was two o'clock when Mr. Byrd went forth to join Mr. Ferris in the
+court-room. As he stepped from the door, he encountered, to all
+appearance, just the same crowd that had encumbered its entrance a half
+hour before. Even the old crone had not moved from her former position,
+and seeing him, fairly pounced upon him with question after question,
+all of which he parried with a nonchalant dexterity that drew shout
+after shout from those who stood by, and, finally, as he thought, won
+him the victory, for, with an angry shake of the head, she ceased her
+importunities, and presently let him pass. He hastened to improve the
+chance to gain for himself the refuge of the streets; and, having done
+this, stood for an instant parleying with a trembling young girl, whose
+real distress and anxiety seemed to merit some attention. Fatal delay.
+In that instant the old woman had got in front of him, and when he
+arrived at the head of the street he found her there.
+
+"Now," said she, with full-blown triumph in her venomous eyes, "perhaps
+you will tell me something! You think I am a mumbling old woman who
+don't know what she is bothering herself about. But I tell you I've not
+kept my eyes and ears open for seventy-five years in this wicked world
+without knowing a bit of the devil's own work when I see it." Here her
+face grew quite hideous, and her eyes gleamed with an aspect of gloating
+over the evil she alluded to, that quite sickened the young man,
+accustomed though he was to the worst phases of moral depravity. Leaning
+forward, she peered inquiringly in his face. "What has _she_ to do with
+it?" she suddenly asked, emphasizing the pronoun with an expressive
+leer.
+
+"She?" he repeated, starting back.
+
+"Yes, she; the pretty young lady, the pert and haughty Miss Dare, that
+had but to speak to make the whole crowd stand back. What had she to do
+with it, I say? Something, or she wouldn't be here!"
+
+"I don't know what you are talking about," he replied, conscious of a
+strange and unaccountable dismay at thus hearing his own passing doubt
+put into words by this vile and repellent being. "Miss Dare is a
+stranger. She has nothing to do either with this affair or the poor
+woman who has suffered by it. Her interest is purely one of sympathy."
+
+"Hi! and you call yourself a smart one, I dare say." And the old
+creature ironically chuckled. "Well, well, well, what fools men are!
+They see a pretty face, and blind themselves to what is written on it as
+plain as black writing on a white wall. They call it sympathy, and never
+stop to ask why she, of all the soft-hearted gals in the town, should be
+the only one to burst into that house like an avenging spirit! But it's
+all right," she went on, in a bitterly satirical tone. "A crime like
+this can't be covered up, however much you may try; and sooner or later
+we will all know whether this young lady has had any thing to do with
+Mrs. Clemmens' murder or not."
+
+"Stop!" cried Mr. Byrd, struck in spite of himself by the look of
+meaning with which she said these last words. "Do you know any thing
+against Miss Dare which other folks do not? If you do, speak, and let me
+hear at once what it is. But--" he felt very angry, though he could not
+for the moment tell why--"if you are only talking to gratify your
+spite, and have nothing to tell me except the fact that Miss Dare
+appeared shocked and anxious when she came from the widow's house just
+now, look out what use you make of her name, or you will get yourself
+into trouble. Mr. Orcutt and Mr. Ferris are not men to let you go
+babbling round town about a young lady of estimable character." And he
+tightened the grip he had taken upon her arm and looked at her
+threateningly.
+
+The effect was instantaneous. Slipping from his grasp, she gazed at him
+with a sinister expression and edged slowly away.
+
+"I know any thing?" she repeated. "What should I know? I only say the
+young lady's face tells a very strange story. If you are too dull or too
+obstinate to read it, it's nothing to me." And with another leer and a
+quick look up and down the street, as if she half feared to encounter
+one or both of the two lawyers whose names he had mentioned, she marched
+quickly away, wagging her head and looking back as she went, as much as
+to say: "You have hushed me up for this time, young man, but don't
+congratulate yourself too much. I have still a tongue in my head, and
+the day may come when I can use it without any fear of being stopped by
+you."
+
+Mr. Byrd, who was not very well pleased with himself or the way he had
+managed this interview, watched her till she was out of sight, and then
+turned thoughtfully toward the court-house. The fact was, he felt both
+agitated and confused. In the first place, he was disconcerted at
+discovering the extent of the impression that had evidently been made
+upon him by the beauty of Miss Dare, since nothing short of a deep,
+unconscious admiration for her personal attributes, and a strong and
+secret dread of having his lately acquired confidence in her again
+disturbed, could have led him to treat the insinuations of this babbling
+old wretch in such a cavalier manner. Any other detective would have
+seized with avidity upon the opportunity of hearing what she had to say
+on such a subject, and would not only have cajoled her into confidence,
+but encouraged her to talk until she had given utterance to all that was
+on her mind. But in the stress of a feeling to which he was not anxious
+to give a name, he had forgotten that he was a detective, and remembered
+only that he was a man; and the consequence was that he had frightened
+the old creature, and cut short words that it was possibly his business
+to hear. In the second place, he felt himself in a quandary as regarded
+Miss Dare. If, as was more than possible, she was really the innocent
+woman the coroner considered her, and the insinuations, if not threats,
+to which he had been listening were simply the result of a wicked old
+woman's privately nurtured hatred, how could he reconcile it to his duty
+as a man, or even as a detective, to let the day pass without warning
+her, or the eminent lawyer who honored her with his regard, of the
+danger in which she stood from this creature's venomous tongue.
+
+As he sat in court that afternoon, with his eye upon Mr. Orcutt, beneath
+whose ordinary aspect of quiet, sarcastic attention he thought he could
+detect the secret workings of a deep, personal perplexity, if not of
+actual alarm, he asked himself what he would wish done if he were that
+man, and a scandal of a debasing character threatened the peace of one
+allied to him by the most endearing ties. "Would I wish to be informed
+of it?" he queried. "I most certainly should," was his inward reply.
+
+And so it was that, after the adjournment of court, he approached Mr.
+Orcutt, and leading him respectfully aside, said, with visible
+reluctance:
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir, but a fact has come to my knowledge to-day with
+which I think you ought to be made acquainted. It is in reference to the
+young lady who was with us at Mrs. Clemmens' house this morning. Did you
+know, sir, that she had an enemy in this town?"
+
+Mr. Orcutt, whose thoughts had been very much with that young lady since
+she left him so unceremoniously a few hours before, started and looked
+at Mr. Byrd with surprise which was not without its element of distrust.
+
+"An enemy?" he repeated. "An enemy? What do you mean?"
+
+"What I say, Mr. Orcutt. As I came out of Mrs. Clemmens' house this
+afternoon, an old hag whose name I do not know, but whom you will
+probably have no difficulty in recognizing, seized me by the arm and
+made me the recipient of insinuations and threats against Miss Dare,
+which, however foolish and unfounded, betrayed an animosity and a desire
+to injure her that is worthy your attention."
+
+"You are very kind," returned Mr. Orcutt, with increased astonishment
+and a visible constraint, "but I do not understand you. What
+insinuations or threats could this woman have to make against a young
+lady of Miss Dare's position and character?"
+
+"It is difficult for me to tell you," acknowledged Mr. Byrd; "but the
+vicious old creature presumed to say that Miss Dare must have had a
+special and secret interest in this murder, or she would not have gone
+as she did to that house. Of course," pursued the detective, discreetly
+dropping his eyes from the lawyer's face, "I did what I could to show
+her the folly of her suspicions, and tried to make her see the trouble
+she would bring upon herself if she persisted in expressing them; but I
+fear I only succeeded in quieting her for the moment, and that she will
+soon be attacking others with this foolish story."
+
+Mr. Orcutt who, whatever his own doubts or apprehensions, could not fail
+to be totally unprepared for a communication of this kind, gave
+utterance to a fierce and bitter exclamation, and fixed upon the
+detective his keen and piercing eye.
+
+"Tell me just what she said," he demanded.
+
+"I will try to do so," returned Mr. Byrd. And calling to his aid a very
+excellent memory, he gave a _verbatim_ account of the conversation that
+had passed between him and the old woman. Mr. Orcutt listened, as he
+always did, without interruption or outward demonstration; but when the
+recital was over and Mr. Byrd ventured to look at him once more, he
+noticed that he was very pale and greatly changed in expression. Being
+himself in a position to understand somewhat of the other's emotion, he
+regained by an effort the air of polite nonchalance that became him so
+well, and quickly suggested: "Miss Dare will, of course, be able to
+explain herself."
+
+The lawyer flashed upon him a quick glance.
+
+"I hope you have no doubts on the subject," he said; then, as the
+detective's eye fell a trifle before his, paused and looked at him with
+the self-possession gained in fifteen years of practice in the criminal
+courts, and said: "I am Miss Dare's best friend. I know her well, and
+can truly say that not only is her character above reproach, but that I
+am acquainted with no circumstances that could in any way connect her
+with this crime. Nevertheless, the incidents of the day have been such
+as to make it desirable for her to explain herself, and this, as you
+say, she will probably have no difficulty in doing. If you will,
+therefore, wait till to-morrow before taking any one else into your
+confidence, I promise you to see Miss Dare myself, and, from her own
+lips, learn the cause of her peculiar interest in this affair.
+Meanwhile, let me request you to put a curb upon your imagination, and
+not allow it to soar too high into the regions of idle speculation."
+
+And he held out his hand to the detective with a smile whose vain
+attempt at unconcern affected Mr. Byrd more than a violent outbreak
+would have done. It betrayed so unmistakably that his own secret doubts
+were not without an echo in the breast of this eminent lawyer.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+IMOGENE.
+
+          You are a riddle, solve you who can.--KNOWLES.
+
+
+MR. ORCUTT was a man who for many years had turned a deaf ear and a cold
+eye to the various attractions and beguilements of woman. Either from
+natural coldness of disposition, or for some other latent cause,
+traceable, perhaps, to some fact in his past history, and not to be
+inquired into by gossiping neighbors and so-called friends, he had
+resisted, even to the point of disdain, both the blandishments of
+acknowledged belles, and the more timid but no less pleasing charms of
+the shy country misses that he met upon his travels.
+
+But one day all this was changed. Imogene Dare entered his home,
+awakening a light in the dim old place that melted his heart and made a
+man out of what was usually considered a well-ordered machine.
+
+She had been a foundling. Yes, this beautiful, disdainful, almost
+commanding woman, had in the beginning been that most unfortunate of
+beings--a child without a name. But though this fact may have influenced
+the course of her early days, it gradually disappeared from notice as
+she grew up and developed, till in Sibley, at least, it became wellnigh
+a fact forgotten. Her beauty, as well as the imposing traits of her
+character, was the cause. There are some persons so gifted with natural
+force that, once brought in contact with them, you forget their
+antecedents, and, indeed, every thing but themselves. Either their
+beauty overawes you or they, by conversation or bearing, so completely
+satisfy you of their right to your respect, that indifference takes the
+place of curiosity, and you yield your regard as if you have already
+yielded your admiration, without question and without stint.
+
+The early years of her life were passed in the house of a poor widow, to
+whom the appearance of this child on her door-step one fine day had been
+nothing more nor less than a veritable godsend. First, because she was
+herself alone in the world, and needed the mingled companionship and
+care which a little one invariably gives; and, secondly, because
+Imogene, from the very first, had been a noticeable child, who early
+attracted the attention of the neighbors, and led to many a substantial
+evidence of favor from them, as well as from the strangers who passed
+their gate or frequented their church. Insensibly to herself, and
+without help of circumstances or rearing, the girl was a magnet toward
+which all good things insensibly tended; and the widow saw this, and,
+while reaping the reward, stinted neither her affection nor her
+gratitude.
+
+When Imogene was eleven, this protector of her infancy died. But another
+home instantly offered. A wealthy couple of much kindness, if little
+culture, adopted her as their child, and gave her every benefit in life
+save education. This never having possessed themselves, they openly
+undervalued. But she was not to be kept down by the force of any
+circumstances, whether favorable or otherwise. All the graces of manner
+and refinements of thought which properly belong to the station she had
+now attained, but which, in the long struggle after wealth, had escaped
+the honest couple that befriended her, became by degrees her own,
+tempering without destroying her individuality, any more than the new
+life of restraint that now governed her physical powers, was able to
+weaken or subdue that rare and splendid physique which had been her
+fairest birthright.
+
+In the lap of luxury, therefore, and in full possession of means to come
+and go and conform herself to the genteel world and its fashions, she
+passed the next four years; but scarcely had she attained the age of
+fifteen, when bankruptcy, followed by death, again robbed her of her
+home and set her once more adrift upon the world.
+
+This time she looked to no one for assistance. Refusing all offers, many
+of them those of honorable marriage, she sought for work, and after a
+short delay found it in the household of Mr. Orcutt. The aged sister who
+governed his home and attended to all its domestic details, hired her as
+a sort of assistant, rightly judging that the able young body and the
+alert hand would bring into the household economy just that life and
+interest which her own failing strength had now for some time refused
+to supply.
+
+That the girl was a beauty and something more, who could not from the
+nature of things be kept in that subordinate position, she either failed
+to see, or, seeing, was pleased to disregard. She never sought to impose
+restraint upon the girl any more than she did upon her brother, when in
+the course of events she saw that his eye was at last attracted and his
+imagination fired by the noble specimen of girlhood that made its daily
+appearance at his own board.
+
+That she had introduced a dangerous element into that quiet home, that
+ere long would devastate its sacred precincts, and endanger, if not
+destroy, its safety and honor, she had no reason to suspect. What was
+there in youth, beauty, and womanly power that one should shrink from
+their embodiment and tremble as if an evil instead of a good had entered
+that hitherto undisturbed household? Nothing, if they had been all. But
+alas for her, and alas for him--they were not all! Mixed with the youth,
+beauty, and power was a something else not to be so readily
+understood--a something, too, which, without offering explanation to the
+fascinated mind that studied her, made the beauty unique, the youth a
+charm, and the power a controlling force. She was not to be sounded.
+Going and coming, smiling and frowning, in movement or at rest, she was
+always a mystery; the depths of her being remaining still in hiding,
+however calmly she spoke or however graciously she turned upon you the
+light of her deep gray eyes.
+
+Mr. Orcutt loved her. From the first vision he had of her face and form
+dominating according to their nature at his board and fireside, he had
+given up his will into her unconscious keeping. She was so precisely
+what all other women he had known were not. At first so distant, so
+self-contained, so unapproachable in her pride; then as her passion grew
+for books, so teachable, so industrious, so willing to listen to his
+explanations and arguments; and lastly----
+
+But that did not come at once. A long struggle took place between those
+hours when he used to encourage her to come into his study and sit at
+his side, and read from his books, and the more dangerous time still,
+when he followed her into the drawing-room and sat at her side, and
+sought to read, not from books, but from her eyes, the story of his own
+future fate.
+
+For, powerful as was his passion and deeply as his heart had been
+touched, he did not yield to the thought of marriage which such a
+passion involves, without a conflict. He would make her his child, the
+heiress of his wealth, and the support of his old age; this was his
+first resolve. But it did not last; the first sight he had of her on her
+return from a visit to Buffalo, which he had insisted upon her making
+during the time of his greatest mental conflict, had assured him that
+this could never be; that he must be husband and she wife, or else
+their relations must entirely cease. Perhaps the look with which she
+met him had something to do with this. It was such a blushing,
+humble--yes, for her, really humble and beautiful--look. He could not
+withstand it. Though no one could have detected it in his manner, he
+really succumbed in that hour. Doubt and hesitation flew to the winds,
+and to make her his own became the sole aim and object of his life.
+
+He did not, however, betray his purpose at once. Neighbors and friends
+might and did suspect the state of his feelings, but to her he was
+silent. That vague something which marked her off from the rest of her
+sex, seemed to have deepened in her temporary sojourn from his side, and
+whatever it meant of good or of ill, it taught him at least to be wary.
+At last, was it with premeditation or was it in some moment of
+uncontrollable impulse, he spoke; not with definite pleading, or even
+with any very clear intimation that he desired some day to make her his
+wife, but in a way that sufficed to tear the veil from their previous
+intercourse and let her catch a glimpse, if no more, of his heart, and
+its devouring passion.
+
+He was absolutely startled at the result. She avowed that she had never
+thought of his possessing such a regard for her; and for two days shut
+herself up in her room and refused to see either him or his sister. Then
+she came down, blooming like a rose, but more distant, more quiet, and
+more inscrutable than ever. Pride, if pride she felt, was subdued under
+a general aspect of womanly dignity that for a time held all further
+avowals in check, and made all intercourse between them at once potent
+in its attraction and painful in its restraint.
+
+"She is waiting for a distinct offer of marriage," he decided.
+
+And thus matters stood, notwithstanding the general opinion of their
+friends, when the terrible event recorded in the foregoing chapters of
+this story brought her in a new light before his eyes, and raised a
+question, shocking as it was unexpected, as to whether this young girl,
+immured as he had believed her to be in his own home, had by some
+unknown and inexplicable means run upon the secret involving, if not
+explaining, the mystery of this dreadful and daring crime.
+
+Such an idea was certainly a preposterous one to entertain. He neither
+could nor would believe she knew more of this matter than any other
+disinterested person in town, and yet there had certainly been something
+in her bearing upon the scene of tragedy, that suggested a personal
+interest in the affair; nor could he deny that he himself had been
+struck by the incongruity of her behavior long before it attracted the
+attention of others.
+
+But then he had opportunities for judging of her conduct which others
+did not have. He not only had every reason to believe that the ring to
+which she had so publicly laid claim was not her own, but he had
+observed how, at the moment the dying woman had made that tell-tale
+exclamation of "_Ring_ and _Hand!_" Miss Dare had looked down at the
+jewel she had thus appropriated, with a quick horror and alarm that
+seemed to denote she had some knowledge of its owner, or some suspicion,
+at least, as to whose hand had worn it before she placed it upon her
+own.
+
+It was not, therefore, a matter of wonder that he was visibly affected
+at finding her conduct had attracted the attention of others, and one of
+those a detective, or that the walk home after his interview with Mr.
+Byrd should have been fraught with a dread to which he scarcely dared to
+give a name.
+
+The sight of Miss Dare coming down the path as he reached his own gate
+did not tend to greatly allay his apprehensions, particularly as he
+observed she was dressed in travelling costume, and carried a small
+satchel on her arm.
+
+"Imogene," he cried, as she reached him, "what is the meaning of this?
+Where are you going?"
+
+Her face, which wore a wholly unnatural and strained expression, turned
+slowly toward his.
+
+"I am going to Buffalo," she said.
+
+"To Buffalo?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+This was alarming, surely. She was going to leave the town--leave it
+suddenly, without excuse or explanation!
+
+Looking at her with eyes which, for all their intense inquiry, conveyed
+but little of the serious emotions that were agitating his mind, he
+asked, hurriedly:
+
+"What takes you to Buffalo--to-day--so suddenly?"
+
+Her answer was set and mechanical.
+
+"I have had news. One of my--my friends is not well. I must go. Do not
+detain me."
+
+And she moved quickly toward the gate.
+
+But his tremulous hand was upon it, and he made no offer to open a
+passage for her.
+
+"Pardon me," said he, "but I cannot let you go till I have had some
+conversation with you. Come with me to the house, Imogene. I will not
+detain you long."
+
+But with a sad and abstracted gesture she slowly shook her head.
+
+"It is too late," she murmured. "I shall miss the train if I stop now."
+
+"Then you must miss it," he cried, bitterly, forgetting every thing else
+in the torture of his uncertainty. "What I have to say cannot wait.
+Come!"
+
+This tone of command from one who had hitherto adapted himself to her
+every whim, seemed to strike her. Paling quickly, she for the first time
+looked at him with something like a comprehension of his feelings, and
+quietly replied:
+
+"Forgive me. I had forgotten for the moment the extent of your claims
+upon me. I will wait till to-morrow before going." And she led the way
+back to the house.
+
+When they were alone together in the library, he turned toward her with
+a look whose severity was the fruit of his condition of mind rather than
+of any natural harshness or imperiousness.
+
+"Now, Imogene," said he, "tell me why you desire to leave my house."
+
+Her face, which had assumed a mask of cold impassiveness, confronted him
+like that of a statue, but her voice, when she spoke, was sufficiently
+gentle.
+
+"Mr. Orcutt," was her answer, "I have told you. I have a call elsewhere
+which must be attended to. I do not leave your house; I merely go to
+Buffalo for a few days."
+
+But he could not believe this short statement of her intentions. In the
+light of these new fears of his, this talk of Buffalo, and a call there,
+looked to him like the merest subterfuge. Yet her gentle tone was not
+without its effect, and his voice visibly softened as he said:
+
+"You are intending, then, to return?"
+
+Her reply was prefaced by a glance of amazement.
+
+"Of course," she responded at last. "Is not this my home?"
+
+Something in the way she said this carried a ray of hope to his heart.
+Taking her hand in his, he looked at her long and searchingly.
+
+"Imogene!" he exclaimed, "there is something serious weighing upon your
+heart. What is it? Will you not make me the confidant of your troubles?
+Tell me what has made such a change in you since--since noon, and its
+dreadful event."
+
+But her expression did not soften, and her manner became even more
+reserved than before.
+
+[Illustration: "Taking her hand in his, he looked at her long and
+searchingly. 'Imogene,' he exclaimed, 'there is something weighing on
+your heart.'"--(Page 58.)]
+
+"I have not any thing to tell," said she.
+
+"Not any thing?" he repeated.
+
+"Not any thing."
+
+Dropping her hand, he communed a moment with himself. That a secret of
+possible consequence lay between them he could not doubt. That it had
+reference to and involved the crime of the morning, he was equally sure.
+But how was he to make her acknowledge it? How was he to reach her mind
+and determine its secrets without alarming her dignity or wounding her
+heart?
+
+To press her with questions seemed impossible. Even if he could have
+found words with which to formulate his fears, her firm, set face, and
+steady, unrelenting eye, assured him only too plainly that the attempt
+would be met by failure, if it did not bring upon him her scorn and
+contempt. No; some other method must be found; some way that would
+completely and at once ease his mind of a terrible weight, and yet
+involve no risk to the love that had now become the greatest necessity
+of his existence. But what way? With all his acumen and knowledge of the
+world, he could think of but one. He would ask her hand in
+marriage--aye, at this very moment--and from the tenor of her reply
+judge of the nature of her thoughts. For, looking in her face, he felt
+forced to acknowledge that whatever doubts he had ever cherished in
+reference to the character of this remarkable girl, upon one point he
+was perfectly clear, and this was, that she was at basis honorable in
+her instincts, and would never do herself or another a real injustice.
+If a distinct wrong or even a secret of an unhappy or debasing nature
+lay between them, he knew that nothing, not even the bitterest necessity
+or the most headlong passion, would ever drive her into committing the
+dishonor of marrying him.
+
+No; if with his declaration in her ears, and with his eyes fixed upon
+hers, she should give any token of her willingness to accept his
+addresses, he felt he might know, beyond doubt or cavil, that whatever
+womanish excitability may have moved her in her demonstrations that day,
+they certainly arose from no private knowledge or suspicion detrimental
+to his future peace or to hers.
+
+Bracing himself, therefore, to meet any result that might follow his
+attempt, he drew her gently toward him and determinedly addressed her.
+
+"Imogene, I told you at the gate that I had something to say to you. So
+I have; and though it may not be wholly unexpected to you, yet I doubt
+if it would have left my lips to-night if the events of the day had not
+urged me to offer you my sympathy and protection."
+
+He paused, almost sickened; at that last phrase she had grown so
+terribly white and breathless. But something in her manner,
+notwithstanding, seemed to encourage him to proceed, and smothering his
+doubts, trampling, as it were, upon his rising apprehensions, he calmed
+down his tone and went quietly on:
+
+"Imogene, I love you."
+
+She did not shrink.
+
+"Imogene, I want you for my wife. Will you listen to my prayer, and make
+my home forever happy with your presence?"
+
+Ah, now she showed feeling; now she started and drew back, putting out
+her hands as if the idea he had advanced was insupportable to her. But
+it was only for a moment. Before he could say to himself that it was all
+over, that his worst fears had been true, and that nothing but the sense
+of some impassable gulf between them could have made her recoil from him
+like this, she had dropped her hands and turned toward him with a look
+whose deep inquiry and evident struggle after an understanding of his
+claims, spoke of a mind clouded by trouble, but not alienated from
+himself by fear.
+
+She did not speak, however,--not for some few minutes, and when she did,
+her words came in short and hurried gasps.
+
+"You are kind," was what she said. "To be your--wife"--she had
+difficulty in uttering the word, but it came at last--"would be an honor
+and a protection. I appreciate both. But I am in no mood to-night to
+listen to words of love from any man. Perhaps six months hence----"
+
+But he already had her in his arms. The joy and relief he felt were so
+great he could not control himself. "Imogene," he murmured, "my
+Imogene!" And scarcely heeded her when, in a burst of subdued agony,
+she asked to be released, saying that she was ill and tired, and must be
+allowed to withdraw to her room.
+
+But a second appeal woke him from his dream. If his worst fears were
+without foundation; if her mind was pure of aught that unfitted her to
+be his wife, there was yet much that was mysterious in her conduct, and,
+consequently, much which he longed to have explained.
+
+"Imogene," he said, "I must ask you to remain a moment longer. Hard as
+it is for me to distress you, there is a question which I feel it
+necessary to put to you before you go. It is in reference to the fearful
+crime which took place to-day. Why did you take such an interest in it,
+and why has it had such an effect upon you that you look like a changed
+woman to-night?"
+
+Disengaging herself from his arms, she looked at him with the set
+composure of one driven to bay, and asked:
+
+"Is there any thing strange in my being interested in a murder
+perpetrated on a person whose name I have frequently heard mentioned in
+this house?"
+
+"No," he murmured, "no; but what led you to her home? It was not a spot
+for a young lady to be in, and any other woman would have shrunk from so
+immediate a contact with crime."
+
+Imogene's hand was on the door, but she turned back.
+
+"I am not like other women," she declared. "When I hear of any thing
+strange or mysterious, I want to understand it. I did not stop to ask
+what people would think of my conduct."
+
+"But your grief and terror, Imogene? They are real, and not to be
+disguised. Look in the glass over there, and you will yourself see what
+an effect all this has had upon you. If Mrs. Clemmens is a stranger to
+you; if you know no more of her than you have always led me to suppose,
+why should you have been so unnaturally impressed by to-day's tragedy?"
+
+It was a searching question, and her eye fell slightly, but her steady
+demeanor did not fail her.
+
+"Still," said she, "because I am not like other women. I cannot forget
+such horrors in a moment." And she advanced again to the door, upon
+which she laid her hand.
+
+Unconsciously his eye followed the movement, and rested somewhat
+inquiringly upon that hand. It was gloved, but to all appearance was
+without the ring which he had seen her put on at the widow's house.
+
+She seemed to comprehend his look. Meeting his eye with unshaken
+firmness, she resumed, in a low and constrained voice:
+
+"You are wondering about the ring that formed a portion of the scene we
+are discussing. Mr. Orcutt, I told the gentleman who handed it to me
+to-day that it was mine. That should be enough for the man who professes
+sufficient confidence in me to wish to make me his wife. But since your
+looks confess a curiosity in regard to this diamond, I will say that I
+was as much astonished as anybody to see it picked up from the floor at
+my feet. The last time I had seen it was when I dropped it, somewhat
+recklessly, into a pocket. How or when it fell out, I cannot say. As for
+the ring itself," she haughtily added, "young ladies frequently possess
+articles of whose existence their friends are unconscious."
+
+Here was an attempt at an explanation which, though meagre and far from
+satisfactory, had at least a basis in possibility. But Mr. Orcutt, as I
+have before said, was certain that the ring was lying on the floor of
+the room where it was picked up, before Imogene had made her appearance
+there, and was therefore struck with dismay at this conclusive evidence
+of her falsehood.
+
+Yet, as he said to himself, she might have some association with the
+ring, might even have an owner's claim upon it, incredible as this
+appeared, without being in the possession of such knowledge as
+definitely connected it with this crime. And led by this hope he laid
+his hand on hers as it was softly turning the knob of the door, and
+said, with emotion:
+
+"Imogene, one moment. This is a subject which I am as anxious to drop as
+you are. In your condition it is almost cruelty to urge it upon you, but
+of one thing I must be assured before you leave my presence, and that
+is, that whatever secrets you may hide in your soul, or whatever motive
+may have governed your treatment of me and my suit to-night, they do not
+spring from any real or supposed interest in this crime, which ought
+from its nature to separate you and me. I ask," he quickly added, as he
+saw her give a start of injured pride or irrepressible dismay, "not
+because I have any doubts on the subject myself, but because some of the
+persons who have unfortunately been witness to your strange and excited
+conduct to-day, have presumed to hint that nothing short of a secret
+knowledge of the crime or criminal could explain your action upon the
+scene of tragedy."
+
+And with a look which, if she had observed it, might have roused her to
+a sense of the critical position in which she stood, he paused and held
+his breath for her reply.
+
+It did not come.
+
+"Imogene?"
+
+"I hear."
+
+Cold and hard the words sounded--his hand went like lightning to his
+heart.
+
+"Are you going to answer?" he asked, at last.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What is that answer to be, Yes or No?"
+
+She turned upon him her large gray eyes. There was misery in their
+depths, but there was a haughtiness, also, which only truth could
+impart.
+
+"My answer is No!" said she.
+
+And, without another word, she glided from the room.
+
+Next morning, Mr. Byrd found three notes awaiting his perusal. The first
+was a notification from the coroner to the effect that the Widow
+Clemmens had quietly breathed her last at midnight. The second, a
+hurried line from Mr. Ferris, advising him to make use of the day in
+concluding a certain matter of theirs in the next town; and the third, a
+letter from Mr. Orcutt, couched in the following terms:
+
+          MR. BYRD: _Dear Sir_--I have seen the person named
+          between us, and I here state, upon my honor, that
+          she is in possession of no facts which it concerns
+          the authorities to know.
+
+                                         TREMONT B. ORCUTT.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+HORACE BYRD.
+
+          But now, I am cabin'd, cribbed, confin'd, bound in
+          To saucy doubts and fears.--MACBETH.
+
+
+HORACE BYRD was by birth and education a gentleman. He was the son of a
+man of small means but great expectations, and had been reared to look
+forward to the day when he should be the possessor of a large income.
+But his father dying, both means and expectations vanished into thin
+air, and at the age of twenty, young Horace found himself thrown upon
+the world without income, without business, and, what was still worse,
+without those habits of industry that serve a man in such an emergency
+better than friends and often better than money itself.
+
+He had also an invalid mother to look after, and two young sisters whom
+he loved with warm and devoted affection; and though by the kindness and
+forethought of certain relatives he was for a time spared all anxiety on
+their account, he soon found that some exertion on his part would be
+necessary to their continued subsistence, and accordingly set about the
+task of finding suitable employment, with much spirit and no little
+hope.
+
+But a long series of disappointments taught him that young men cannot
+leap at a bound into a fine salary or even a promising situation; and
+baffled in every wish, worn out with continued failures, he sank from
+one state of hope to another, till he was ready to embrace any prospect
+that would insure ease and comfort to the helpless beings he so much
+loved.
+
+It was while he was in this condition that Mr. Gryce--a somewhat famous
+police detective of New York--came upon him, and observing, as he
+thought, some signs of natural aptitude for _fine work_, as he called
+it, in this elegant but decidedly hard-pushed young gentleman, seized
+upon him with an avidity that can only be explained by this detective's
+long-cherished desire to ally to himself a man of real refinement and
+breeding; having, as he privately admitted more than once to certain
+chosen friends, a strong need of such a person to assist him in certain
+cases where great houses were to be entered and fine gentlemen if not
+fair ladies subjected to interviews of a delicate and searching nature.
+
+To join the police force and be a detective was the last contingency
+that had occurred to Horace Byrd. But men in decidedly straitened
+circumstances cannot pick and choose too nicely; and after a week of
+uncertainty and fresh disappointment, he went manfully to his mother and
+told her of the offer that had been made him. Meeting with less
+discouragement than he had expected from the broken-down and unhappy
+woman, he gave himself up to the guiding hand of Mr. Gryce, and before
+he realized it, was enrolled among the secret members of the New York
+force.
+
+He was not recognized publicly as a detective. His name was not even
+known to any but the highest officials. He was employed for special
+purposes, and it was not considered desirable that he should be seen at
+police head-quarters. But being a man of much ability and of a solid,
+reliable nature, he made his way notwithstanding, and by the time he had
+been in the service a year, was looked upon as a good-fellow and a truly
+valuable acquisition to the bureau. Indeed, he possessed more than the
+usual qualifications for his calling, strange as the fact appeared not
+only to himself but to the few friends acquainted with his secret. In
+the first place, he possessed much acuteness without betraying it. Of an
+easy bearing and a polished address, he was a man to please all and
+alarm none, yet he always knew what he was about and what you were
+about, too, unless indeed you possessed a power of dissimulation much
+beyond ordinary, when the chances were that his gentlemanly instincts
+would get in his way, making it impossible for him to believe in a guilt
+that was too hardy to betray itself, and too insensible to shame to
+blush before the touch of the inquisitor.
+
+In the second place, he liked the business. Yes, notwithstanding the
+theories of that social code to which he once paid deference,
+notwithstanding the frankness and candor of his own disposition, he
+found in this pursuit a nice adjustment of cause to effect and effect
+to cause that at once pleased and satisfied his naturally mathematical
+mind.
+
+He did not acknowledge the fact, not even to himself. On the contrary,
+he was always threatening that in another month he should look up some
+new means of livelihood, but the coming month would invariably bring a
+fresh case before his notice, and then it would be: "Well, after this
+matter is probed to the bottom," or, "When that criminal is made to
+confess his guilt," till even his little sisters caught the infection,
+and would whisper over their dolls:
+
+"Brother Horace is going to be a great man when all the bad and naughty
+people in the world are put in prison."
+
+As a rule, Mr. Byrd was not sent out of town. But, on the occasion of
+Mr. Ferris desiring a man of singular discretion to assist him in
+certain inquiries connected with the case then on trial in Sibley, there
+happened to be a deficiency of capable men in the bureau, and the
+superintendent was obliged to respond to the call by sending Mr. Byrd.
+He did not do it, however, without making the proviso that all public
+recognition of this officer, in his real capacity, was to be avoided.
+And so far the wishes of his superiors had been respected. No one
+outside of the few persons mentioned in the first chapter of this story
+suspected that the easy, affable, and somewhat distinguished-looking
+young gentleman who honored the village hotel with his patronage was a
+secret emissary of the New York police.
+
+Mr. Byrd was, of all men, then, the very one to feel the utmost
+attraction toward, and at the same time the greatest shrinking from, the
+pursuit of such investigations as were likely to ensue upon the
+discovery of the mysterious case of murder which had so unexpectedly
+been presented to his notice. As a professional, he could not fail to
+experience that quick start of the blood which always follows the
+recognition of a "big affair," while as a gentleman, he felt himself
+recoil from probing into a matter that was blackened by a possibility
+against which every instinct in his nature rebelled.
+
+It was, therefore, with oddly mingled sensations that he read Mr.
+Orcutt's letter, and found himself compelled to admit that the coroner
+had possessed a truer insight than himself into the true cause of Miss
+Dare's eccentric conduct upon the scene of the tragedy. His main
+feeling, however, was one of relief. It was such a comfort to think he
+could proceed in the case without the dread of stumbling upon a clue
+that, in some secret and unforeseen way, should connect this imposing
+woman with a revolting crime. Or so he fondly considered. But he had not
+spent five minutes at the railroad station, where, in pursuance to the
+commands of Mr. Ferris, he went to take the train for Monteith, before
+he saw reason to again change his mind. For, there among the passengers
+awaiting the New York express, he saw Miss Dare, with a travelling-bag
+upon her arm and a look on her face that, to say the least, was of most
+uncommon character in a scene of so much bustle and hurry. She was
+going away, then--going to leave Sibley and its mystery behind her! He
+was not pleased with the discovery. This sudden departure looked too
+much like escape, and gave him, notwithstanding the assurance he had
+received from Mr. Orcutt, an uneasy sense of having tampered with his
+duty as an officer of justice, in thus providing this mysterious young
+woman with a warning that could lead to a result like this.
+
+Yet, as he stood at the depot surveying Miss Dare, in the few minutes
+they both had to wait, he asked himself over and over again how any
+thought of her possessing a personal interest in the crime which had
+just taken place could retain a harbor in his mind. She looked so noble
+in her quiet aspect of solemn determination, so superior in her young,
+fresh beauty--a determination that, from the lofty look it imparted,
+must have its birth in generous emotion, even if her beauty was but the
+result of a rarely modelled frame and a health of surpassing perfection.
+He resolved he would think of her no more in that or any other
+connection; that he would follow the example of her best friend, and
+give his doubts to the wind.
+
+And yet such a burr is suspicion, that he no sooner saw a young man
+approaching her with the evident intention of speaking, than he felt an
+irresistible desire to hear what she would have to say, and, led by this
+impulse, allowed himself to saunter nearer and nearer the pair, till he
+stood almost at their backs.
+
+The first words he heard were:
+
+"How long do you expect to remain in Buffalo, Miss Dare?"
+
+To which she replied:
+
+"I have no idea whether I shall stay a week or a month."
+
+Then the whistle of the advancing train was heard, and the two pressed
+hurriedly forward.
+
+The business which had taken Mr. Byrd to Monteith kept him in that small
+town all day. But though he thus missed the opportunity of attending the
+opening of the inquest at Sibley, he did not experience the vivid
+disappointment which might have been expected, his interest in that
+matter having in some unaccountable way subsided from the moment he saw
+Imogene Dare take the cars for Buffalo.
+
+It was five o'clock when he again returned to Sibley, the hour at which
+the western train was also due. In fact, it came steaming in while he
+stood there, and, as was natural, perhaps, he paused a moment to watch
+the passengers alight. There were not many, and he was about to turn
+toward home, when he saw a lady step upon the platform whose appearance
+was so familiar that he stopped, disbelieving the evidence of his own
+senses. Miss Dare returned? Miss Dare, who but a few hours before had
+left this very depot for the purpose, as she said, of making a visit of
+more or less length in the distant city of Buffalo? It could not be. And
+yet there was no mistaking her, disguised though she was by the heavy
+veil that covered her features. She had come back, and the interest
+which Mr. Byrd had lost in Sibley and its possible mystery, revived with
+a suddenness that called up a self-conscious blush to his hardy cheek.
+
+But why had she so changed her plans? What could have occurred during
+the few hours that had elapsed since her departure, to turn her about on
+her path and drive her homeward before her journey was half completed?
+He could not imagine. True, it was not his present business to do so;
+and yet, however much he endeavored to think of other things, he found
+this question occupying his whole mind long after his return to the
+village hotel. She was such a mystery, this woman, it might easily be
+that she had never intended to go to Buffalo; that she had only spoken
+of that place as the point of her destination under the stress of her
+companion's importunities, and that the real place for which she was
+bound had been some spot very much nearer home. The fact, that her
+baggage had consisted only of a small bag that she carried on her arm,
+would lend probability to this idea, yet, such was the generous
+character of the young detective, he hesitated to give credit to this
+suspicion, and indeed took every pains to disabuse himself of it by
+inquiring of the ticket-agent, whether it was true, as he had heard,
+that Miss Dare had left town on that day for a visit to her friends in
+Buffalo.
+
+He received for his reply that she had bought a ticket for that place,
+though she evidently had not used it, a fact which seemed at least to
+prove she was honest in the expression of her intentions that morning,
+whatever alteration may have taken place in her plans during the course
+of her journey.
+
+Mr. Byrd did not enjoy his supper that night, and was heartily glad
+when, in a few moments after its completion, Mr. Ferris came in for a
+chat and a cigar.
+
+They had many things to discuss. First, their own case now drawing to a
+successful close; next, the murder of the day before; and lastly, the
+few facts which had been elicited in regard to that murder, in the
+inquiry which had that day been begun before the coroner.
+
+Of the latter Mr. Ferris spoke with much interest. He had attended the
+inquest himself, and, though he had not much to communicate--the time
+having been mainly taken up in selecting and swearing in a jury--a few
+witnesses had been examined and certain conclusions reached, which
+certainly added greatly to the impression already made upon the public
+mind, that an affair of great importance had arisen; an affair, too,
+promising more in the way of mystery than the simple nature of its
+earlier manifestations gave them reason to suppose.
+
+In the first place, the widow had evidently been assaulted with a
+deliberate purpose and a serious intent to slay.
+
+Secondly, no immediate testimony was forthcoming calculated to point
+with unerring certainty to the guilty party.
+
+To be sure, the tramp and the hunchback still offered possibilities of
+suspicion; but even they were slight, the former having been seen to
+leave the widow's house without entering, and the latter having been
+proved beyond a question to have come into town on the morning train and
+to have gone at once to court where he remained till the time they all
+saw him disappear down the street.
+
+That the last-mentioned individual may have had some guilty knowledge of
+the crime was possible enough. The fact of his having wiped himself out
+so completely as to elude all search, was suspicious in itself, but if
+he was connected with the assault it must have been simply as an
+accomplice employed to distract public attention from the real criminal;
+and in a case like this, the interest naturally centres with the actual
+perpetrator; and the question was now and must be: Who was the man who,
+in broad daylight, dared to enter a house situated like this in a
+thickly populated street, and kill with a blow an inoffensive woman?
+
+"I cannot imagine," declared Mr. Ferris, as his communication reached
+this point. "It looks as if she had an enemy, but what enemy could such
+a person as she possess--a woman who always did her own work, attended
+to her own affairs, and made it an especial rule of her life never to
+meddle with those of anybody else?"
+
+"Was she such a woman?" inquired Mr. Byrd, to whom as yet no knowledge
+had come of the widow's life, habits, or character.
+
+"Yes. In all the years I have been in this town I have never heard of
+her visiting any one or encouraging any one to visit her. Had it not
+been for Mr. Orcutt, she would have lived the life of a recluse. As it
+was, she was the most methodical person in her ways that I ever knew. At
+just such an hour she rose; at just such an hour put on her kettle,
+cooked her meal, washed her dishes, and sat herself down to her sewing
+or whatever work it was she had to do. The dinner was the only meal that
+waited, and that, Mr. Orcutt says, was always ready and done to a turn
+at whatever moment he chose to present himself."
+
+"Had she no intimates, no relatives?" asked Mr. Byrd, remembering that
+fragment of a letter he had read--a letter which certainly contradicted
+this assertion in regard to her even and quiet life.
+
+"None that I am aware of," was the response. "Wait, I believe I have
+been told she has a nephew somewhere--a sister's son, for whom she had
+some regard and to whom she intended to leave her money."
+
+"She had money, then?"
+
+"Some five thousand, maybe. Reports differ about such matters."
+
+"And this nephew, where does he live?"
+
+"I cannot tell you. I don't know as any one can. My remembrances in
+regard to him are of the vaguest character."
+
+"Five thousand dollars is regarded as no mean sum in a town like this,"
+quoth Mr. Byrd, carelessly.
+
+"I know it. She is called quite rich by many. How she got her money no
+one knows; for when she first came here she was so poor she had to eat
+and sleep all in one room. Mr. Orcutt paid her something for his daily
+dinner, of course, but that could not have enabled her to put ten
+dollars in the bank as she has done every week for the last ten years.
+And to all appearances she has done nothing else for her living. You
+see, we have paid attention to her affairs, if she has paid none to
+ours."
+
+Mr. Byrd again remembered that scrap of a letter which had been shown
+him by the coroner, and thought to himself that their knowledge was in
+all probability less than they supposed.
+
+"Who was that horrid crone I saw shouldering herself through the crowd
+that collected around the gate yesterday?" was his remark, however. "Do
+you remember a wizen, toothless old wretch, whose eye has more of the
+Evil One in it than that of many a young thief you see locked up in the
+county jails?"
+
+"No; that is, I wonder if you mean Sally Perkins. She is old enough and
+ugly enough to answer your description; and, now I think of it, she
+_has_ a way of leering at you as you go by that is slightly suggestive
+of a somewhat bitter knowledge of the world. What makes you ask about
+her?"
+
+"Because she attracted my attention, I suppose. You must remember that I
+don't know any of these people, and that an especially vicious-looking
+person like her would be apt to awaken my curiosity."
+
+"I see, I see; but, in this case, I doubt if it leads to much. Old Sally
+is a hard one, no doubt. But I don't believe she ever contemplated a
+murder, much less accomplished it. It would take too much courage, to
+say nothing of strength. It was a man's hand struck that blow, Mr.
+Byrd."
+
+"Yes," was the quick reply--a reply given somewhat too quickly, perhaps,
+for it made Mr. Ferris look up inquiringly at the young man.
+
+"You take considerable interest in the affair," he remarked, shortly.
+"Well, I do not wonder. Even my old blood has been somewhat fired by its
+peculiar features. I foresee that your detective instinct will soon lead
+you to risk a run at the game."
+
+"Ah, then, you see no objection to my trying for the scent, if the
+coroner persists in demanding it?" inquired Mr. Byrd, as he followed the
+other to the door.
+
+"On the contrary," was the polite response.
+
+And Mr. Byrd found himself satisfied on that score.
+
+Mr. Ferris had no sooner left the room than the coroner came in.
+
+"Well," cried he, with no unnecessary delay, "I want you."
+
+Mr. Byrd rose.
+
+"Have you telegraphed to New York?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, and expect an answer every minute. There will be no difficulty
+about that. The superintendent is my friend, and will not be likely to
+cross me in my expressed wish."
+
+"But----" essayed the detective.
+
+"We have no time for buts," broke in the coroner. "The inquest begins in
+earnest to-morrow, and the one witness we most want has not yet been
+found. I mean the man or the woman who can swear to seeing some one
+approach or enter the murdered woman's house between the time the
+milkman left it at half-past eleven and the hour she was found by Mr.
+Orcutt, lying upon the floor of her dining-room in a dying condition.
+That such a witness exists I have no doubt. A street in which there are
+six houses, every one of which has to be passed by the person entering
+Widow Clemmens' gate, must produce one individual, at least, who can
+swear to what I want. To be sure, all whom I have questioned so far say
+that they were either eating dinner at the time or were in the kitchen
+serving it up; but, for all that, there were plenty who saw the tramp,
+and two women, at least, who are ready to take their oath that they not
+only saw him, but watched him long enough to observe him go around to
+the Widow Clemmens' kitchen door and turn about again and come away as
+if for some reason he had changed his mind about entering. Now, if there
+were two witnesses to see all that, there must have been one somewhere
+to notice that other person, known or unknown, who went through the
+street but a few minutes before the tramp. At all events, I believe such
+a witness can be found, and I mean to have him if I call up every man,
+woman, and child who was in the lane at the time. But a little
+foreknowledge helps a coroner wonderfully, and if you will aid me by
+making judicious inquiries round about, time will be gained, and,
+perhaps, a clue obtained that will lead to a direct knowledge of the
+perpetrator of this crime."
+
+"But," inquired the detective, willing, at least, to discuss the subject
+with the coroner, "is it absolutely necessary that the murderer should
+have advanced from the street? Is there no way he could have reached the
+house from the back, and so have eluded the gaze of the neighbors round
+about?"
+
+"No; that is, there is no regular path there, only a stretch of swampy
+ground, any thing but pleasant to travel through. Of course a man with a
+deliberate purpose before him might pursue that route and subject
+himself to all its inconveniences; but I would scarcely expect it of one
+who--who chose such an hour for his assault," the coroner explained,
+with a slight stammer of embarrassment that did not escape the
+detective's notice. "Nor shall I feel ready to entertain the idea till
+it has been proved that no person, with the exception of those already
+named, was seen any time during that fatal half-hour to advance by the
+usual way to the widow's house."
+
+"Have you questioned the tramp, or in any way received from him an
+intimation of the reason why he did not go into the house after he came
+to it?"
+
+"He said he heard voices quarrelling."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"Of course he was not upon his oath, but as the statement was
+volunteered, we have some right to credit it, perhaps."
+
+"Did he say"--it was Mr. Byrd now who lost a trifle of his
+fluency--"what sort of voices he heard?"
+
+"No; he is an ignorant wretch, and is moreover thoroughly frightened. I
+don't believe he would know a cultivated from an uncultivated voice, a
+gentleman's from a quarryman's. At all events, we cannot trust to his
+discrimination."
+
+Mr. Byrd started. This was the last construction he had expected to be
+put upon his question. Flushing a trifle, he looked the coroner
+earnestly in the face. But that gentleman was too absorbed in the train
+of thought raised by his own remark to notice the look, and Mr. Byrd,
+not feeling any too well assured of his own position, forbore to utter
+the words that hovered on his tongue.
+
+"I have another commission for you," resumed the coroner, after a
+moment. "Here is a name which I wish you would look at----"
+
+But at this instant a smart tap was heard at the door, and a boy entered
+with the expected telegram from New York. Dr. Tredwell took it, and,
+after glancing at its contents with an annoyed look, folded up the paper
+he was about to hand to Mr. Byrd and put it slowly back into his pocket.
+He then referred again to the telegram.
+
+"It is not what I expected," he said, shortly, after a moment of
+perplexed thought. "It seems that the superintendent is not disposed to
+accommodate me." And he tossed over the telegram.
+
+Mr. Byrd took it and read:
+
+          "Expect a suitable man by the midnight express. He
+          will bring a letter."
+
+A flush mounted to the detective's brow.
+
+"You see, sir," he observed, "I was right when I told you I was not the
+man."
+
+"I don't know," returned the other, rising. "I have not changed my
+opinion. The man they send may be very keen and very well-up in his
+business, but I doubt if he will manage this case any better than you
+would have done," and he moved quietly toward the door.
+
+"Thank you for your too favorable opinion of my skill," said Mr. Byrd,
+as he bowed the other out. "I am sure the superintendent is right. I am
+not much accustomed to work for myself, and was none too eager to take
+the case in the first place, as you will do me the justice to remember.
+I can but feel relieved at this shifting of the responsibility upon
+shoulders more fitted to bear it."
+
+Yet, when the coroner was gone, and he sat down alone by himself to
+review the matter, he found he was in reality more disappointed than he
+cared to confess. Why, he scarcely knew. There was no lessening of the
+shrinking he had always felt from the possible developments which an
+earnest inquiry into the causes of this crime might educe. Yet, to be
+severed in this way from all professional interest in the pursuit cut
+him so deeply that, in despite of his usual good-sense and correct
+judgment, he was never nearer sending in his resignation than he was in
+that short half-hour which followed the departure of Dr. Tredwell. To
+distract his thoughts, he at last went down to the bar-room.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+THE SKILL OF AN ARTIST.
+
+          A hit, a very palpable hit.--HAMLET.
+
+
+HE found it occupied by some half-dozen men, one of whom immediately
+attracted his attention, by his high-bred air and total absorption in
+the paper he was reading. He was evidently a stranger, and, though not
+without some faint marks of a tendency to gentlemanly dissipation, was,
+to say the least, more than ordinarily good-looking, possessing a large,
+manly figure, and a fair, regular-featured face, above which shone a
+thick crop of short curly hair of a peculiarly bright blond color. He
+was sitting at a small table, drawn somewhat apart from the rest, and
+was, as I have said, engrossed with a newspaper, to the utter exclusion
+of any apparent interest in the talk that was going on at the other end
+of the room. And yet this talk was of the most animated description, and
+was seemingly of a nature to attract the attention of the most
+indifferent. At all events Mr. Byrd considered it so; and, after one
+comprehensive glance at the elegant stranger, that took in not only the
+personal characteristics I have noted, but also the frown of deep
+thought or anxious care that furrowed a naturally smooth forehead, he
+passed quietly up the room and took his stand among the group of
+loungers there assembled.
+
+Mr. Byrd was not unknown to the _habitués_ of that place, and no
+cessation took place in the conversation. They were discussing an
+occurrence slight enough in itself, but made interesting and dramatic by
+the unconscious enthusiasm of the chief speaker, a young fellow of
+indifferent personal appearance, but with a fervid flow of words and a
+knack at presenting a subject that reminded you of the actor's power,
+and made you as anxious to watch his gesticulations as to hear the words
+that accompanied them.
+
+"I tell you," he was saying, "that it was just a leaf out of a play. I
+never saw its equal off the stage. She was so handsome, so impressive in
+her trouble or anxiety, or whatever it was that agitated her, and he so
+dark, and so determined in _his_ trouble or anxiety, or whatever it was
+that agitated him. They came in at different doors, she at one side of
+the depot and he at another, and they met just where I could see them
+both, directly in the centre of the room. 'You!' was her involuntary
+cry, and she threw up her hands before her face just as if she had seen
+a ghost or a demon. An equal exclamation burst from him, but he did not
+cover his eyes, only stood and looked at her as if he were turned to
+stone. In another moment she dropped her hands. 'Were you coming to see
+_me_?' came from her lips in a whisper so fraught with secret horror and
+anguish that it curdled my blood to hear it. 'Were you coming to see
+_me_?' was his response, uttered in an equally suppressed voice and with
+an equal intensity of expression. And then, without either giving an
+answer to the other's question, they both shrank back, and, turning,
+fled with distracted looks, each by the way they had come, the two doors
+closing with a simultaneous bang that echoed through that miserable
+depot like a knell. There were not many folks in the room just at that
+minute, but I tell you those that were looked at each other as they had
+not done before and would not be likely to do again. Some unhappy
+tragedy underlies such a meeting and parting, gentlemen, and I for one
+would rather not inquire what."
+
+"But the girl--the man--didn't you see them again before you left?"
+asked an eager voice from the group.
+
+"The young lady," remarked the other, "was on the train that brought me
+here. The gentleman went the other way."
+
+"Oh!" "Ah!" and "Where did she get off?" rose in a somewhat deafening
+clamor around him.
+
+"I did not observe. She seemed greatly distressed, if not thoroughly
+overcome, and observing her pull down her veil, I thought she did not
+relish my inquiring looks, and as I could not sit within view of her and
+not watch her, I discreetly betook myself into the smoking-car, where I
+stayed till we arrived at this place."
+
+"Hum!" "Ha!" "Curious!" rose in chorus once more, and then, the general
+sympathies of the crowd being exhausted, two or three or more of the
+group sauntered up to the bar, and the rest sidled restlessly out of the
+room, leaving the enthusiastic speaker alone with Mr. Byrd.
+
+"A strange scene!" exclaimed the latter, infusing just enough of seeming
+interest into his usually nonchalant tone to excite the vanity of the
+person he addressed, and make him more than ever ready to talk. "I wish
+I had been in your place," continued Mr. Byrd, almost enthusiastically.
+"I am sure I could have made a picture of that scene that would have
+been very telling in the gazette I draw for."
+
+"Do you make pictures for papers?" the young fellow inquired, his
+respect visibly rising.
+
+"Sometimes," the imperturbable detective replied, and in so doing told
+no more than the truth. He had a rare talent for off-hand sketching, and
+not infrequently made use of it to increase the funds of the family.
+
+"Well, that is something I would like to do," acknowledged the youth,
+surveying the other over with curious eyes. "But I hav'n't a cent's
+worth of talent for it. I can see a scene in my mind now--this one for
+instance--just as plain as I can see you; all the details of it, you
+know, the way they stood, the clothes they wore, the looks on their
+faces, and all that, but when I try to put it on paper, why, I just
+can't, that's all."
+
+"Your forte lies another way," remarked Mr. Byrd. "You can present a
+scene so vividly that a person who had not seen it for himself, might
+easily put it on paper just from your description. See now!" And he
+caught up a sheet of paper from the desk and carried it to a side table.
+"Just tell me what depot this was in."
+
+The young fellow, greatly interested at once, leaned over the
+detective's shoulder and eagerly replied: "The depot at Syracuse."
+
+Mr. Byrd nodded and made a few strokes with his pencil on the paper
+before him.
+
+"How was the lady dressed?" he next asked.
+
+"In blue; dark blue cloth, fitting like a glove. Fine figure, you know,
+very tall and unusually large, but perfect, I assure you, perfect. Yes,
+that is very like it," he went on watching the quick, assured strokes of
+the other with growing wonder and an unbounded admiration. "You have
+caught the exact poise of the head, as I live, and--yes, a large hat
+with two feathers, sir, two feathers drooping over the side, so; a bag
+on the arm; two flounces on the skirt; a--oh! the face? Well, handsome,
+sir, very handsome; straight nose, large eyes, determined mouth, strong,
+violently agitated expression. Well, I will give up! A photograph
+couldn't have done her better justice. You are a genius, sir, a genius!"
+
+Mr. Byrd received this tribute to his skill with some confusion and a
+deep blush, which he vainly sought to hide by bending lower over his
+work.
+
+"The man, now," he suggested, with the least perceptible change in his
+voice, that, however, escaped the attention of his companion. "What was
+he like; young or old?"
+
+"Well, young--about twenty-five I should say; medium height, but very
+firmly and squarely built, with a strong face, large mustache, brilliant
+eyes, and a look--I cannot describe it, but you have caught that of the
+lady so well, you will, doubtless, succeed in getting his also."
+
+But Mr. Byrd's pencil moved with less certainty now, and it was some
+time before he could catch even the peculiarly sturdy aspect of the
+figure which made this unknown gentleman, as the young fellow declared,
+look like a modern Hercules, though he was far from being either large
+or tall. The face, too, presented difficulties he was far from
+experiencing in the case of the lady, and the young fellow at his side
+was obliged to make several suggestions such as:--"A little more hair on
+the forehead, if you please--there was quite a lock showing beneath his
+hat;" or, "A trifle less sharpness to the chin,--so;" or, "Stay, you
+have it too square now; tone it down a hair's breadth, and you will get
+it," before he received even the somewhat hesitating acknowledgment from
+the other of: "There, that is something like him!"
+
+But he had not expected to succeed very well in this part of the
+picture, and was sufficiently pleased to have gained a very correct
+notion of the style of clothing the gentleman wore, which, it is
+needless to state, was most faithfully reproduced in the sketch, even if
+the exact expression of the strong and masculine face was not.
+
+"A really remarkable bit of work," admitted the young fellow when the
+whole was completed. "And as true to the scene, too, as half the
+illustrations given in the weekly papers. Would you mind letting me have
+it as a _souvenir_?" he eagerly inquired. "I would like to show it to a
+chap who was with me at the time. The likeness to the lady is
+wonderful."
+
+But Mr. Byrd, with his most careless air, had already thrust the picture
+into his pocket, from which he refused to withdraw it, saying, with an
+easy laugh, that it might come in play with him some time, and that he
+could not afford to part with it. At which remark the young fellow
+looked disappointed and vaguely rattled some coins he had in his pocket;
+but, meeting with no encouragement from the other, forbore to press his
+request, and turned it into an invitation to join him in a social glass
+at the bar.
+
+To this slight token of appreciation Mr. Byrd did not choose to turn a
+deaf ear. So the drinks being ordered, he proceeded to clink glasses
+with the youthful stranger, taking the opportunity, at the same time, of
+glancing over to the large, well-built man whose quiet absorption in the
+paper he was reading had so attracted his attention when he first came
+in.
+
+To his surprise he found that person just as engrossed in the news as
+ever, not a feature or an eyelash appearing to have moved since the time
+he looked at him last.
+
+Mr. Byrd was so astonished at this that when he left the room a few
+minutes later he took occasion in passing the gentleman, to glance at
+the paper he was studying so industriously, and, to his surprise, found
+it to be nothing more nor less than the advertising sheet of the New
+York _Herald_.
+
+"A fellow of my own craft," was his instantaneous conclusion. But a
+moment's consideration assured him that this could not be, as no
+detective worthy the name would place so little value upon the
+understanding of those about him as to sit for a half-hour with his eyes
+upon a sheet of paper totally devoid of news, no matter what his purpose
+might be, or how great was his interest in the conversation to which he
+was secretly listening. No; this gentleman was doubtless what he seemed
+to be, a mere stranger, with something of a serious and engrossing
+nature upon his mind, or else he was an amateur, who for some reason was
+acting the part of a detective without either the skill or experience of
+one.
+
+Whichever theory might be true, this gentleman was a person who at this
+time and in this place was well worth watching: that is, if a man had
+any reason for interesting himself in the pursuit of possible clues to
+the mystery of Mrs. Clemmens' murder. But Mr. Byrd felt that he no
+longer possessed a professional right to such interest; so, leaving
+behind him this fine-looking gentleman, together with all the inevitable
+conjectures which the latter's peculiar manner had irresistibly
+awakened, he proceeded to regain his room and enter upon that
+contemplation of the picture he had just made, which was naturally
+demanded by his regard for one of the persons there depicted.
+
+It was a vigorous sketch, and the slow blush crept up and dyed Mr.
+Byrd's forehead as he gazed at it and realized the perfection of the
+likeness he had drawn of Miss Dare. Yes, that was her form, her face,
+her expression, her very self. She it was and no other who had been the
+heroine of the strange scene enacted that day in the Syracuse depot; a
+scene to which, by means of this impromptu sketch, he had now become as
+nearly a witness as any one could hope for who had not been actually
+upon the spot. Strange! And he had been so anxious to know what had
+altered the mind of this lady and sent her back to Sibley before her
+journey was half completed--had pondered so long and vainly upon the
+whys and wherefores of an action whose motive he had never expected to
+understand, but which he now saw suggested in a scene that seriously
+whetted, if it did not thoroughly satisfy, his curiosity.
+
+The moment he had chosen to portray was that in which the eyes of the
+two met and their first instinctive recoil took place. Turning his
+attention from the face of the lady and bestowing it upon that of the
+man, he perceived there the horror and shrinking which he had imprinted
+so successfully upon hers. That the expression was true, though the
+countenance was not, he had no doubt. The man, whatever his name,
+nature, calling, or history, recoiled from a meeting with Imogene Dare
+as passionately as she did from one with him. Both had started from home
+with a simultaneous intention of seeking the other, and yet, at the
+first recognition of this fact, both had started and drawn back as if
+death rather than life had confronted them in each other's faces. What
+did it mean? What secret of a deep and deadly nature could lie between
+these two, that a scene of such evident import could take place between
+them? He dared not think; he could do nothing but gaze upon the figure
+of the man he had portrayed, and wonder if he would be able to identify
+the original in case he ever met him. The face was more or less a
+failure, of course, but the form, the cut of the clothes, the manner of
+carriage, and the general aspect of strong and puissant manhood which
+distinguished the whole figure, could not be so far from correct but
+that, with a hint from surrounding circumstances, he would know the man
+himself when he saw him. At all events, he meant to imprint the possible
+portrait upon his mind in case----in case what? Pausing he asked himself
+this question with stern determination, and could find no answer.
+
+"I will burn the sketch at once, and think of it and her no more," he
+muttered, half-rising.
+
+But he did not do it. Some remembrance crossed his mind of what the
+young fellow downstairs had said about retaining it as a _souvenir_, and
+he ended in folding it up and putting it away somewhat carefully in his
+memorandum-book, with a vow that he would leave Sibley and its troublous
+mystery at the first moment of release that he could possibly obtain.
+The pang which this decision cost him convinced him that it was indeed
+high time he did so.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+MISS FIRMAN.
+
+          I confess with all humility that at times the line
+          of demarcation between truth and fiction is
+          rendered so indefinite and indistinct, that I
+          cannot always determine, with unerring certainty,
+          whether an event really happened to me, or whether
+          _I_ only dreamed it.--LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+MR. BYRD, upon waking next morning, found himself disturbed by a great
+perplexity. Were the words then ringing in his ears, real words, which
+he had overheard spoken outside of his door some time during the past
+night, or were they merely the empty utterances of a more than usually
+vivid dream?
+
+He could not tell. He could remember the very tone of voice in which he
+fancied them to have been spoken--a tone which he had no difficulty in
+recognizing as that of the landlord of the hotel; could even recall the
+faint sounds of bustle which accompanied them, as though the person
+using them had been showing another person through the hall; but beyond
+that, all was indistinct and dream-like.
+
+The words were these:
+
+"Glad to see you back, sir. This murder following so close upon your
+visit must have been a great surprise. A sad occurrence, that, sir, and
+a very mysterious one. Hope you have some information to give."
+
+"If it is a remembrance and such words were uttered outside of my door
+last night," argued the young detective to himself, "the guest who
+called them forth can be no other than the tall and florid gentleman
+whom I encountered in the bar-room. But is it a remembrance, or only a
+chimera of my own overwrought brain struggling with a subject it will
+not let drop? As Shakespeare says, 'That is the question!'"
+
+Fortunately, it was not one which it behooved him to decide. So, for the
+twentieth time, he put the subject by and resolved to think of it no
+more.
+
+But perplexities of this kind are not so easily dismissed, and more than
+once during his hurried and solitary breakfast, did he ask himself
+whether, in case the words were real, he had not found in the landlord
+of this very hotel the one witness for which the coroner was so
+diligently seeking.
+
+A surprise awaited him after breakfast, in the sudden appearance at his
+room door of the very gentleman last alluded to.
+
+"Ha, Byrd," said he, with cheerful vivacity: "here is a line from the
+superintendent which may prove interesting to you."
+
+And with a complacent smile, Dr. Tredwell handed over a letter which had
+been brought to him by the detective who had that morning arrived from
+New York.
+
+With a dim sense of foreboding which he would have found difficult to
+explain, Mr. Byrd opened the note and read the following words:
+
+          DEAR SIR,--I send with this a man fully competent
+          to conduct a case of any ordinary difficulty. I
+          acknowledge it is for our interest that you employ
+          him to the exclusion of the person mentioned in
+          your letter. But if you or that person think that
+          he can render you any real assistance by his
+          interference, he is at liberty to act in his
+          capacity of detective in as far as he can do so
+          without divulging too widely the secret of his
+          connection with the force. ---- ----.
+
+"The superintendent need not be concerned," said Mr. Byrd, returning the
+note with a constrained bow. "I shall not interfere in this matter."
+
+"You will miss a good thing, then," remarked the coroner, shortly,
+looking keenly at the young man.
+
+"I cannot help it," observed the other, with a quick sigh of impatience
+or regret. "I should have to see my duty very clearly and possess the
+very strongest reasons for interfering before I presumed to offer either
+advice or assistance after a letter of this kind."
+
+"And who knows but what such reasons may yet present themselves?"
+ventured the coroner. Then seeing the young man shake his head, made
+haste to add in the business-like tone of one preparing to take his
+leave, "At all events the matter stands open for the present; and if
+during the course of to-day's inquiry you see fit to change your mind,
+it will be easy enough for you to notify me." And without waiting for
+any further remonstrance, he gave a quick nod and passed hastily out.
+
+The state of mind in which he left Mr. Byrd was any thing but enviable.
+Not that the young man's former determination to let this matter alone
+had been in any wise shaken by the unexpected concession on the part of
+the superintendent, but that the final hint concerning the inquest had
+aroused his old interest to quite a formidable degree, and, what was
+worse, had reawakened certain feelings which since last night it had
+been his most earnest endeavor to subdue. He felt like a man pursued by
+an implacable fate, and dimly wondered whether he would be allowed to
+escape before it was too late to save himself from lasting uneasiness,
+if not lifelong regret.
+
+A final stroke of business for Mr. Ferris kept him at the court-house
+most of the morning; but his duty in that direction being at an end, he
+no longer found any excuse for neglecting the task imposed upon him by
+the coroner. He accordingly proceeded to the cottage where the inquest
+was being held, and finding each and every available room there packed
+to its uttermost by interested spectators, took up his stand on the
+outside of a curtained window, where with but a slight craning of his
+neck he could catch a very satisfactory view of the different witnesses
+as they appeared before the jury. The day was warm and he was by no
+means uncomfortable, though he could have wished that the advantages of
+his position had occasioned less envy in the breasts of the impatient
+crowd that was slowly gathering at his back; or, rather, that their
+sense of these advantages might have been expressed in some more
+pleasing way than by the various pushes he received from the more or
+less adventurous spirits who endeavored to raise themselves over his
+shoulder or insinuate themselves under his arms.
+
+The room into which he looked was the sitting-room, and it was, so far
+as he could judge in the first casual glance he threw into it, occupied
+entirely by strangers. This was a relief. Since it had become his duty
+to attend this inquiry, he wished to do so with a free mind, unhindered
+by the watchfulness of those who knew his interest in the affair, or by
+the presence of persons around whom his own imagination had
+involuntarily woven a network of suspicion that made his observation of
+them at once significant and painful.
+
+The proceedings were at a standstill when he first came upon the scene.
+
+A witness had just stepped aside, who, from the impatient shrugs of many
+persons present, had evidently added little if any thing to the
+testimony already given. Taking advantage of the moment, Mr. Byrd leaned
+forward and addressed a burly man who sat directly under him.
+
+"What have they been doing all the morning?" he asked. "Any thing
+important?"
+
+"No," was the surly reply. "A score of folks have had their say, but not
+one of them has told any thing worth listening to. Nobody has seen any
+thing, nobody knows any thing. The murderer might have risen up through
+the floor to deal his blow, and having given it, sunk back again with
+the same supernatural claptrap, for all these stupid people seem to know
+about him."
+
+The man had a loud voice, and as he made no attempt to modulate it, his
+words were heard on all sides. Naturally many heads were turned toward
+him, and more than one person looked at him with an amused smile.
+Indeed, of all the various individuals in his immediate vicinity, only
+one forbore to take any notice of his remark. This was a heavy,
+lymphatic, and somewhat abstracted-looking fellow of nondescript
+appearance, who stood stiff and straight as an exclamation point against
+the jamb of the door-way that led into the front hall.
+
+"But have no facts been obtained, no conclusions reached, that would
+serve to awaken suspicion or put justice on the right track?" pursued
+Mr. Byrd, lowering his voice in intimation for the other to do the same.
+
+But that other was of an obstinate tendency, and his reply rose full and
+loud.
+
+"No, unless it can be considered proved that it is only folly to try and
+find out who commits a crime in these days. Nothing else has come to
+light, as far as I can see, and that much we all knew before."
+
+A remark of this kind was not calculated to allay the slight inclination
+to mirth which his former observation had raised; but the coroner
+rapping with his gavel on the table at this moment, every other
+consideration was lost in the natural curiosity which every one felt as
+to who the next witness would be.
+
+But the coroner had something to say before he called for further
+testimony.
+
+"Gentlemen," he remarked, in a clear and commanding tone that at once
+secured attention and awakened interest, "we have spent the morning in
+examining the persons who live in this street, with a view to
+ascertaining, if possible, who was in conversation with Mrs. Clemmens at
+the time the tramp went up to her door."
+
+Was it a coincidence, or was there something in the words themselves
+that called forth the stir that at this moment took place among the
+people assembled directly before Mr. Byrd? It was of the slightest
+character, and was merely momentary in its duration; nevertheless, it
+attracted his attention, especially as it seemed to have its origin in a
+portion of the room shut off from his observation by the corner of the
+wall already alluded to.
+
+The coroner proceeded without pause.
+
+"The result, as you know, has not been satisfactory. No one seems to be
+able to tell us who it was that visited Mrs. Clemmens on that day. I now
+propose to open another examination of a totally different character,
+which I hope may be more conclusive in its results. Miss Firman, are you
+prepared to give your testimony?"
+
+Immediately a tall, gaunt, but pleasant-faced woman arose from the dim
+recesses of the parlor. She was dressed with decency, if not taste, and
+took her stand before the jury with a lady-like yet perfectly assured
+air that promised well for the correctness and discretion of her
+answers. The coroner at once addressed her.
+
+"Your full name, madam?"
+
+"Emily Letitia Firman, sir."
+
+"Emily!" ejaculated Mr. Byrd, to himself, with a throb of sudden
+interest. "That is the name of the murdered woman's correspondent."
+
+"Your birthplace," pursued the coroner, "and the place of your present
+residence?"
+
+"I was born in Danbury, Connecticut," was the reply, "and I am living in
+Utica, where I support my aged mother by dress-making."
+
+"How are you related to Mrs. Clemmens, the lady who was found murdered
+here two days ago?"
+
+"I am her second cousin; her grandmother and my mother were sisters."
+
+"Upon what terms have you always lived, and what can you tell us of her
+other relatives and connections?"
+
+"We have always been friends, and I can tell you all that is generally
+known of the two or three remaining persons of her blood and kindred.
+They are, first, my mother and myself, who, as I have before said, live
+in Utica, where I am connected with the dress-making establishment of
+Madame Trebelle; and, secondly, a nephew of hers, the son of a favorite
+brother, whom she has always supported, and to whom she has frequently
+avowed her intention of leaving her accumulated savings."
+
+"The name of this gentleman and his place of residence?"
+
+"His name is Mansell--Craik Mansell--and he lives in Buffalo, where he
+has a situation of some trust in the large paper manufactory of
+Harrison, Goodman, & Chamberlin."
+
+Buffalo! Mr. Byrd gave an involuntary start, and became, if possible,
+doubly attentive.
+
+The coroner's questions went on.
+
+"Do you know this young man?"
+
+"Yes, sir. He has been several times to our house in the course of the
+last five years."
+
+"What can you tell us of his nature and disposition, as well as of his
+regard for the woman who proposed to benefit him so materially by her
+will?"
+
+"Well, sir," returned Miss Firman, "it is hard to read the nature and
+feelings of any man who has much character, and Craik Mansell has a good
+deal of character. But I have always thought him a very honest and
+capable young man, who might do us credit some day, if he were allowed
+to have his own way and not be interfered with too much. As for his
+feelings toward his aunt, they were doubtless those of gratitude, though
+I have never heard him express himself in any very affectionate terms
+toward her, owing, no doubt, to a natural reticence of disposition which
+has been observable in him from childhood."
+
+"You have, however, no reason to believe he cherished any feelings of
+animosity toward his benefactress?" continued the coroner, somewhat
+carelessly, "or possessed any inordinate desire after the money she was
+expecting to leave him at her death?"
+
+"No, sir. Both having minds of their own, they frequently disagreed,
+especially on business matters; but there was never any bitterness
+between them, as far as I know, and I never heard him say any thing
+about his expectations one way or the other. He is a man of much natural
+force, of strong, if not violent, traits of character; but he has too
+keen a sense of his own dignity to intimate the existence of desires so
+discreditable to him."
+
+There was something in this reply and the impartial aspect of the lady
+delivering it that was worthy of notice, perhaps. And such it would have
+undoubtedly received from Mr. Byrd, at least, if the words she had used
+in characterizing this person had not struck him so deeply that he
+forgot to note any thing further.
+
+"A man of great natural force--of strong, if not violent traits of
+character," he kept repeating to himself. "The description, as I live,
+of the person whose picture I attempted to draw last night."
+
+And, ignoring every thing else, he waited with almost sickening
+expectation for the question that would link this nephew of Mrs.
+Clemmens either to the tragedy itself, or to that person still in the
+background, of whose secret connection with a man of this type, he had
+obtained so curious and accidental a knowledge.
+
+But it did not come. With a quiet abandonment of the by no means
+exhausted topic, which convinced Mr. Byrd that the coroner had plans and
+suspicions to which the foregoing questions had given no clue, Dr.
+Tredwell leaned slowly forward, and, after surveying the witness with a
+glance of cautious inquiry, asked in a way to concentrate the attention
+of all present:
+
+"You say that you knew the Widow Clemmens well; that you have always
+been on friendly terms with her, and are acquainted with her affairs.
+Does that mean you have been made a confidante of her troubles, her
+responsibilities, and her cares?"
+
+"Yes, sir; that is, in as far as she ever made a confidant of any one.
+Mrs. Clemmens was not of a complaining disposition, neither was she by
+nature very communicative. Only at rare times did she make mention of
+herself or her troubles: but when she did, it was invariably to me,
+sir--or so she used to say; and she was not a woman to deceive you in
+such matters."
+
+"Very well, then, you are in a position to tell us something of her
+history, and why it is she kept herself so close after she came to this
+town?"
+
+But Miss Firman uttered a vigorous disclaimer to this. "No, sir," said
+she, "I am not. Mrs. Clemmens' history was simple enough, but her
+reasons for living as she did have never been explained. She was not
+naturally a quiet woman, and, when a girl, was remarkable for her
+spirits and fondness for company."
+
+"Has she had any great sorrow since you knew her--any serious loss or
+disappointment that may have soured her disposition, and turned her, as
+it were, against the world?"
+
+"Perhaps; she felt the death of her husband very much--indeed, has never
+been quite the same since she lost him."
+
+"And when was that, if you please?"
+
+"Full fifteen years ago, sir; just before she came to this town."
+
+"Did you know Mr. Clemmens?"
+
+"No, sir; none of us knew him. They were married in some small village
+out West, where he died--well, I think she wrote--a month if not less
+after their marriage. She was inconsolable for a time, and, though she
+consented to come East, refused to take up her abode with any of her
+relatives, and so settled in this place, where she has remained ever
+since."
+
+The manner of the coroner suddenly changed to one of great
+impressiveness.
+
+"Miss Firman," he now asked, "did it ever strike you that the hermit
+life she led was due to any fear or apprehension which she may have
+secretly entertained?"
+
+"Sir?"
+
+The question was peculiar and no one wondered at the start which the
+good woman gave. But what mainly struck Mr. Byrd, and gave to the moment
+a seeming importance, was the fact that she was not alone in her
+surprise or even her expression of it; that the indefinable stir he had
+before observed had again taken place in the crowd before him, and that
+this time there was no doubt about its having been occasioned by the
+movements of a person whose elbow he could just perceive projecting
+beyond the door-way that led into the hall.
+
+But there was no time for speculation as to whom this person might be.
+The coroner's questions were every moment growing more rapid, and Miss
+Firman's answers more interesting.
+
+"I asked," here the coroner was heard to say, "whether, in your
+intercourse with Mrs. Clemmens, you have ever had reason to suppose she
+was the victim of any secret or personal apprehension that might have
+caused her to seclude herself as she did? Or let me put it in another
+way. Can you tell me whether you know of any other person besides this
+nephew of hers who is likely to be benefited by Mrs. Clemmens' death?"
+
+"Oh, sir," was the hasty and somewhat excited reply, "you mean young Mr.
+Hildreth!"
+
+The way in which this was said, together with the slight flush of
+satisfaction or surprise which rose to the coroner's brow, naturally
+awoke the slumbering excitement of the crowd and made a small sensation.
+A low murmur ran through the rooms, amid which Mr. Byrd thought he heard
+a suppressed but bitter exclamation. He could not be sure of it,
+however, and had just made up his mind that his ears had deceived him,
+when his attention was attracted by a shifting in the position of the
+sturdy, thick-set man who had been leaning against the opposite wall,
+but who now crossed and took his stand beside the jamb, on the other
+side of which sat the unknown individual toward whom so many inquiring
+glances had hitherto been directed.
+
+The quietness with which this change was made, and the slight, almost
+imperceptible, alteration in the manner of the person making it, brought
+a sudden enlightenment to Mr. Byrd, and he at once made up his mind that
+this dull, abstracted-looking nonentity leaning with such apparent
+unconcern against the wall, was the new detective who had been sent up
+that morning from New York. His curiosity in regard to the identity of
+the individual round the corner was not lessened by this.
+
+Meantime the coroner had answered the hasty exclamation of the witness,
+by disclaiming the existence of any special meaning of his own, and had
+furthermore pressed the question as to who this Mr. Hildreth was.
+
+She immediately answered: "A gentleman of Toledo, sir; a young man who
+could only come into his property by the death of Mrs. Clemmens."
+
+"How? You have not spoken of any such person as connected with her."
+
+"No," was her steady response; "nor was he so connected by any tie of
+family or friendship. Indeed, I do not know as they were ever
+acquainted, or, as for that matter, ever saw each other's faces. The
+fact to which I allude was simply the result of a will, sir, made by Mr.
+Hildreth's grandfather."
+
+"A will? Explain yourself. I do not understand."
+
+"Well, sir, I do not know much about the law, and may make a dozen
+mistakes in telling you what you wish to know; but what I understand
+about the matter is this: Mr. Hildreth, the grandfather of the gentleman
+of whom I have just spoken, having a large property, which he wanted to
+leave in bulk to his grandchildren,--their father being a very
+dissipated and reckless man,--made his will in such a way as to prevent
+its distribution among his heirs till after the death of two persons
+whom he mentioned by name. Of these two persons one was the son of his
+head clerk, a young boy, who sickened and died shortly after Mr.
+Hildreth himself, and the other my cousin, the poor murdered woman, who
+was then a little girl visiting the family. I do not know how she came
+to be chosen by him for this purpose, unless it was that she was
+particularly round and ruddy as a child, and looked as if she might live
+for many years."
+
+"And the Hildreths? What of them during these years?"
+
+"Well, I cannot exactly say, as I never had any acquaintance with them
+myself. But I know that the father, whose dissipated habits were the
+cause of this peculiar will tying up the property, died some little time
+ago; also one or two of his children, but beyond that I know little,
+except that the remaining heirs are a young gentleman and one or two
+young girls, all of the worldliest and most fashionable description."
+
+The coroner, who had followed all this with the greatest interest, now
+asked if she knew the first name of the young gentleman.
+
+"Yes," said she, "I do. It is Gouverneur."
+
+The coroner gave a satisfied nod, and remarked casually, "It is not a
+common name," and then, leaning forward, selected a paper from among
+several that lay on the table before him. "Miss Firman," he inquired,
+retaining this paper in his hand, "do you know when it was that Mrs.
+Clemmens first became acquainted with the fact of her name having been
+made use of in the elder Mr. Hildreth's will?"
+
+"Oh, years ago; when she first came of age, I believe."
+
+"Was it an occasion of regret to her? Did she ever express herself as
+sorry for the position in which she stood toward this family?"
+
+"Yes, sir; she did."
+
+The coroner's face assumed a yet greater gravity, and his manner became
+more and more impressive.
+
+"Can you go a step farther and say that she ever acknowledged herself to
+have cherished apprehensions of her personal safety, during these years
+of weary waiting on the part of the naturally impatient heirs?"
+
+A distressed look crossed the amiable spinster's face, and she looked
+around at the jury with an expression almost deprecatory in its nature.
+
+"I scarcely know what answer to give," she hesitatingly declared. "It is
+a good deal to say that she was apprehensive; but I cannot help
+remembering that she once told me her peace of mind had left her since
+she knew there were persons in the world to whom her death would be a
+matter of rejoicing. 'It makes me feel as if I were keeping people out
+of their rights,' she remarked at the same time. 'And, though it is not
+my fault, I should not be surprised if some day I had to suffer for
+it.'"
+
+"Was there ever any communication made to Mrs. Clemmens by persons
+cognizant of the relation in which she stood to these Hildreths?--or any
+facts or gossip detailed to her concerning them, that would seem to give
+color to her fears and supply her with any actual grounds for her
+apprehensions?"
+
+"No; only such tales as came to her of their expensive ways of living
+and somewhat headlong rush into all fashionable freaks and follies."
+
+"And Gouverneur Hildreth? Any special gossip in regard to him?"
+
+"No!"
+
+There are some noes that are equivalent to affirmations. This was one of
+them. Naturally the coroner pressed the question.
+
+"I must request you to think again," he persisted. Then, with a change
+of voice: "Are you sure you have never heard any thing specially
+derogatory to this young man, or that Mrs. Clemmens had not?"
+
+"I have friends in Toledo who speak of him as the fastest man about
+town, if that could be called derogatory. As for Mrs. Clemmens, she may
+have heard as much, and she may have heard more, I cannot say. I know
+she always frowned when his father's name was mentioned."
+
+"Miss Firman," proceeded the coroner, "in the long years in which you
+have been more or less separated from Mrs. Clemmens, you have,
+doubtless, kept up a continued if not frequent correspondence with her?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Do you think, from the commencement and general tone of this letter,
+which I found lying half finished on her desk, that it was written and
+intended for yourself?"
+
+Taking the letter from his outstretched hand, she fumbled nervously for
+her glasses, put them on, and then glanced hurriedly at the sheet,
+saying as she did so:
+
+"There can be no doubt of it. She had no other friend whom she would
+have been likely to address as 'Dear Emily.'"
+
+"Gentlemen of the Jury, you have a right to hear the words written by
+the deceased but a few hours, if not a few minutes, previous to the
+brutal assault that has led to the present inquiry. Miss Firman, as the
+letter was intended for yourself, will you be kind enough to read it
+aloud, after which you will hand it over to the jury."
+
+With a gloomy shake of her head, and a certain trembling in her voice,
+that was due, perhaps, as much to the sadness of her task as to any
+foreboding of the real nature of the words she had to read, she
+proceeded to comply:
+
+          "DEAR EMILY:--I don't know why I sit down to write
+          to you to-day. I have plenty to do, and morning is
+          no time for indulging in sentimentalities. But I
+          feel strangely lonely and strangely anxious.
+          Nothing goes just to my mind, and somehow the many
+          causes for secret fear which I have always had,
+          assume an undue prominence in my mind. It is
+          always so when I am not quite well. In vain I
+          reason with myself, saying that respectable people
+          do not lightly enter into crime. But there are so
+          many to whom my death would be more than welcome,
+          that I constantly see myself in the act of  being----
+
+"Good heavens!" ejaculated the spinster, dropping the paper from her
+hand and looking dismally around upon the assembled faces of the now
+deeply interested spectators.
+
+Seeing her dismay, a man who stood at the right of the coroner, and who
+seemed to be an officer of the law, quietly advanced, and picking up the
+paper she had let fall, handed it to the jury. The coroner meanwhile
+recalled her attention to herself.
+
+"Miss Firman," said he, "allow me to put to you one final question
+which, though it might not be called a strictly legal one, is surely
+justified by the gravity of the situation. If Mrs. Clemmens had finished
+this letter, and you in due course had received it, what conclusion
+would you have drawn from the words you have just read?"
+
+"I could have drawn but one, sir. I should have considered that the
+solitary life led by my cousin was telling upon her mind."
+
+"But these terrors of which she speaks? To what and whom would you have
+attributed them?"
+
+"I don't like to say it, and I don't know as I am justified in saying
+it, but it would have been impossible for me, under the circumstances,
+to have thought of any other source for them than the one we have
+already mentioned."
+
+"And that is?" inexorably pursued the coroner.
+
+"Mr. Gouverneur Hildreth."
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+THE THICK-SET MAN.
+
+          Springs to catch woodcocks.--HAMLET.
+
+
+IN the pause that followed, Miss Firman stepped aside, and Mr. Byrd,
+finding his attention released, stole a glance toward the hall-way and
+its nearly concealed occupant. He found the elbow in agitated movement,
+and, as he looked at it, saw it disappear and a hand project into view,
+groping for the handkerchief which was, doubtless, hidden in the hat
+which he now perceived standing on the floor in the corner of the
+door-way. He looked at that hand well. It was large, white, and
+elegantly formed, and wore a seal ring of conspicuous size upon the
+little finger. He had scarcely noticed this ring, and wondered if others
+had seen it too, when the hand plunged into the hat, and drawing out the
+kerchief, vanished with it behind the jamb that had already hidden so
+much from his view.
+
+"A fine gentleman's hand, and a fine gentleman's ring," was Mr. Byrd's
+mental comment; and he was about to glance aside, when, to his great
+astonishment, he saw the hand appear once more with the handkerchief in
+it, but without the ring which a moment since had made it such a
+conspicuous mark for his eyes.
+
+"Our fine gentleman is becoming frightened," he thought, watching the
+hand until it dropped the handkerchief back into the hat. "One does not
+take off a ring in a company like this without a good reason." And he
+threw a quick glance at the man he considered his rival in the detective
+business.
+
+But that worthy was busily engaged in stroking his chin in a feeling
+way, strongly suggestive of a Fledgerby-like interest in his absent
+whisker; and well versed as was Mr. Byrd in the ways of his
+fellow-detectives, he found it impossible to tell whether the
+significant action he had just remarked had escaped the attention of
+this man or not. Confused if not confounded, he turned back to the
+coroner, in a maze of new sensations, among which a growing hope that
+his own former suspicions had been of a wholly presumptuous character,
+rose predominant.
+
+He found that functionary preparing to make a remark.
+
+"Gentlemen," said he; "you have listened to the testimony of Mrs.
+Clemmens' most confidential friend, and heard such explanations as she
+had to give, of the special fears which Mrs. Clemmens acknowledges
+herself to have entertained in regard to her personal safety. Now, while
+duly impressing upon you the necessity of not laying too much stress
+upon the secret apprehensions of a woman living a life of loneliness and
+seclusion, I still consider it my duty to lay before you another bit of
+the widow's writing, in which----"
+
+Here he was interrupted by the appearance at his side of a man with a
+telegram in his hand. In the pause which followed his reading of the
+same, Mr. Byrd, with that sudden impulse of interference which comes
+upon us all at certain junctures, tore out a leaf from his
+memorandum-book, and wrote upon it some half dozen or so words
+indicative of the advisability of examining the proprietor of the
+Eastern Hotel as to the name and quality of the several guests
+entertained by him on the day of the murder; and having signed this
+communication with his initial letters H. B., looked about for a
+messenger to carry it to the coroner. He found one in the person of a
+small boy, who was pressing with all his might against his back, and
+having despatched him with the note, regained his old position at the
+window, and proceeded to watch, with a growing interest in the drama
+before him, the result of his interference upon the coroner.
+
+He had not long to wait. The boy had no sooner shown himself at the door
+with the note, than Dr. Tredwell laid down the telegram he was perusing
+and took this new communication. With a slight smile Mr. Byrd was not
+slow in attributing to its true source, he read the note through, then
+turned to the officer at his side and gave him some command that sent
+him from the room. He then took up the slip he was on the point of
+presenting to the jury at the time he was first interrupted, and
+continuing his remarks in reference to it, said quietly:
+
+"Gentlemen, this paper which I here pass over to you, was found by me in
+the recess of Mrs. Clemmens' desk at the time I examined it for the
+address of Miss Firman. It was in an envelope that had never been
+sealed, and was, if I may use the expression, tucked away under a pile
+of old receipts. The writing is similar to that used in the letter you
+have just read, and the signature attached to it is 'Mary Ann Clemmens.'
+Will Mr. Black of the jury read aloud the words he will there find
+written?"
+
+Mr. Black, in whose hand the paper then rested, looked up with a flush,
+and slowly, if not painfully, complied:
+
+          "I desire"--such was the language of the writing
+          before him--"that in case of any sudden or violent
+          death on my part, the authorities should inquire
+          into the possible culpability of a gentleman
+          living in Toledo, Ohio, known by the name of
+          Gouverneur Hildreth. He is a man of no principle,
+          and my distinct conviction is, that if such a
+          death should occur to me, it will be entirely due
+          to his efforts to gain possession of property
+          which cannot be at his full disposal until my
+          death.
+
+                         "MARY ANN CLEMMENS, Sibley, N. Y."
+
+"A serious charge!" quoth a juryman, breaking the universal silence
+occasioned by this communication from the dead.
+
+"I should think so," echoed the burly man in front of Mr. Byrd.
+
+But Mr. Byrd himself and the quiet man who leaned so stiffly and
+abstractedly against the wall, said nothing. Perhaps they found
+themselves sufficiently engaged in watching that half-seen elbow, which
+since the reading of this last slip of paper had ceased all movement and
+remained as stationary as though it had been paralyzed.
+
+"A charge which, as yet, is nothing but a charge," observed the coroner.
+"But evidence is not wanting," he went on, "that Mr. Hildreth is not at
+home at this present time, but is somewhere in this region, as will be
+seen by the following telegram from the superintendent of the Toledo
+police." And he held up to view, not the telegram he had just received,
+but another which he had taken from among the papers on the table before
+him:
+
+          "Party mentioned not in Toledo. Left for the East
+          on midnight train of Wednesday the 27th inst. When
+          last heard from was in Albany. He has been living
+          fast, and is well known to be in pecuniary
+          difficulties, necessitating a large and immediate
+          amount of money. Further particulars by letter.
+
+"That, gentlemen, I received last night. To-day," he continued, taking
+up the telegram that had just come in, "the following arrives:
+
+          "Fresh advices. Man you are in search of talked of
+          suicide at his club the other night. Seemed in a
+          desperate way, and said that if something did not
+          soon happen he should be a lost man. Horse-flesh
+          and unfortunate speculations have ruined him. They
+          say it will take all he will ultimately receive to
+          pay his debts.
+
+"And below:
+
+          "Suspected that he has been in your town."
+
+A crisis was approaching round the corner. This, to the skilled eyes of
+Mr. Byrd, was no longer doubtful. Even if he had not observed the
+wondering glances cast in that direction by persons who could see the
+owner of that now immovable elbow, he would have been assured that all
+was not right, by the alert expression which had now taken the place of
+the stolid and indifferent look which had hitherto characterized the
+face of the man he believed to be a detective.
+
+A panther about to spring could not have looked more threatening, and
+the wonder was, that there were no more to observe this exciting
+by-play. Yet the panther did not spring, and the inquiry went on.
+
+"The witness I now propose to call," announced the coroner, after a
+somewhat trying delay, "is the proprietor of the Eastern Hotel. Ah, here
+he is. Mr. Symonds, have you brought your register for the past week?"
+
+"Yes, sir," answered the new-comer, with a good deal of flurry in his
+manner and an embarrassed look about him, which convinced Mr. Byrd that
+the words in regard to whose origin he had been so doubtful that
+morning, had been real words and no dream.
+
+"Very well, then, submit it, if you please, to the jury, and tell us in
+the meantime whether you have entertained at your house this week any
+guest who professed to come from Toledo?"
+
+"I don't know. I don't remember any such," began the witness, in a
+stammering sort of way. "We have always a great many men from the West
+stopping at our house, but I don't recollect any special one who
+registered himself as coming from Toledo."
+
+"You, however, always expect your guests to put their names in your
+book?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+There was something in the troubled look of the man which aroused the
+suspicion of the coroner, and he was about to address him with another
+question when one of the jury, who was looking over the register, spoke
+up and asked:
+
+"Who is this Clement Smith who writes himself down here as coming from
+Toledo?"
+
+"Smith?--Smith?" repeated Symonds, going up to the juryman and looking
+over his shoulder at the book. "Oh, yes, the gentleman who came
+yesterday. He----"
+
+But at this moment a slight disturbance occurring in the other room, the
+witness paused and looked about him with that same embarrassed look
+before noted. "He is at the hotel now," he added, with an attempt at
+ease, transparent as it was futile.
+
+The disturbance to which I have alluded was of a peculiar kind. It was
+occasioned by the thick-set man making the spring which, for some
+minutes, he had evidently been meditating. It was not a tragic leap,
+however, but a decidedly comic one, and had for its end and aim the
+recovery of a handkerchief which he had taken from his pocket at the
+moment when the witness uttered the name of Smith, and, by a useless
+flourish in opening it, flirted from his hand to the floor. At least, so
+the amused throng interpreted the sudden dive which he made, and the
+heedless haste that caused him to trip over the gentleman's hat that
+stood on the floor, causing it to fall and another handkerchief to
+tumble out. But Mr. Byrd, who had a detective's insight into the whole
+matter, saw something more than appeared in the profuse apologies which
+the thick-set man made, and the hurried manner in which he gathered up
+the handkerchiefs and stood looking at them before returning one to his
+pocket and the other to its place in the gentleman's hat. Nor was Mr.
+Byrd at all astonished to observe that the stand which his
+fellow-detective took, upon resettling himself, was much nearer the
+unseen gentleman than before, or that in replacing the hat, he had taken
+pains to put it so far to one side that the gentleman would be obliged
+to rise and come around the corner in order to obtain it. The drift of
+the questions propounded to the witness at this moment opened his eyes
+too clearly for him to fail any longer to understand the situation.
+
+"Now at the hotel?" the coroner was repeating. "And came yesterday? Why,
+then, did you look so embarrassed when I mentioned his name?"
+
+"Oh--well--ah," stammered the man, "because he was there once before,
+though his name is not registered but once in the book."
+
+"He was? And on what day?"
+
+"On Tuesday," asserted the man, with the sudden decision of one who sees
+it is useless to attempt to keep silence.
+
+"The day of the murder?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And why is his name not on the book at that time if he came to your
+house and put up?"
+
+"Because he did not put up; he merely called in, as it were, and did not
+take a meal or hire a room."
+
+"How did you know, then, that he was there? Did you see him or talk to
+him?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And what did you say?"
+
+"He asked me for directions to a certain house, and I gave them."
+
+"Whose house?"
+
+"The Widow Clemmens', sir."
+
+Ah, light at last! The long-sought-for witness had been found! Coroner
+and jury brightened visibly, while the assembled crowd gave vent to a
+deep murmur, that must have sounded like a knell of doom--in one pair of
+ears, at least.
+
+"He asked you for directions to the house of Widow Clemmens. At what
+time was this?"
+
+"At about half-past eleven in the morning."
+
+The very hour!
+
+"And did he leave then?"
+
+"Yes, sir; after taking a glass of brandy."
+
+"And did you not see him again?"
+
+"Not till yesterday, sir."
+
+"Ah, and at what time did you see him yesterday?"
+
+"At bedtime, sir. He came with other arrivals on the five o'clock train;
+but I was away all the afternoon and did not see him till I went into
+the bar-room in the evening."
+
+"Well, and what passed between you then?"
+
+"Not much, sir. I asked if he was going to stay with us, and when he
+said 'Yes,' I inquired if he had registered his name. He replied 'No.'
+At which I pointed to the book, and he wrote his name down and then went
+up-stairs with me to his room."
+
+"And is that all? Did you say nothing beyond what you have mentioned?
+ask him no questions or make no allusions to the murder?"
+
+"Well, sir, I did make some attempt that way, for I was curious to know
+what took him to the Widow Clemmens' house, but he snubbed me so
+quickly, I concluded to hold my tongue and not trouble myself any
+further about the matter."
+
+"And do you mean to say you haven't told any one that an unknown man had
+been at your house on the morning of the murder inquiring after the
+widow?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I am a poor man, and believe in keeping out of all sort of
+messes. Policy demands that much of me, gentlemen."
+
+The look he received from the coroner may have convinced him that policy
+can be carried too far.
+
+"And now," said Dr. Tredwell, "what sort of a man is this Clement
+Smith?"
+
+"He is a gentleman, sir, and not at all the sort of person with whom you
+would be likely to connect any unpleasant suspicion."
+
+The coroner surveyed the hotel-keeper somewhat sternly.
+
+"We are not talking about suspicions!" he cried; then, in a different
+tone, repeated: "This gentleman, you say, is still at your house?"
+
+"Yes, sir, or was at breakfast-time. I have not seen him since."
+
+"We will have to call Mr. Smith as a witness," declared the coroner,
+turning to the officer at his side. "Go and see if you cannot bring him
+as soon as you did Mr. Symonds."
+
+But here a voice spoke up full and loud from the other room.
+
+"It is not necessary, sir. A witness you will consider more desirable
+than he is in the building." And the thick-set man showed himself for an
+instant to the coroner, then walking back, deliberately laid his hand on
+the elbow which for so long a time had been the centre of Mr. Byrd's
+wondering conjectures.
+
+In an instant the fine, gentlemanly figure of the stranger, whom he had
+seen the night before in the bar-room, appeared with a bound from beyond
+the jamb, and pausing excitedly before the man, now fully discovered to
+all around as a detective, asked him, in shaking tones of suppressed
+terror or rage, what it was he meant.
+
+"I will tell you," was the ready assurance, "if you will step out here
+in view of the coroner and jury."
+
+With a glance that for some reason disturbed Mr. Byrd in his newly
+acquired complacency, the gentleman stalked hurriedly forward and took
+his stand in the door-way leading into the room occupied by the persons
+mentioned.
+
+"Now," he cried, "what have you to say?"
+
+But the detective, who had advanced behind him, still refrained from
+replying, though he gave a quick look at the coroner, which led that
+functionary to glance at the hotel-keeper and instantly ask:
+
+"You know this gentleman?"
+
+"It is Mr. Clement Smith."
+
+A flush so violent and profuse, that even Mr. Byrd could see it from his
+stand outside the window, inundated for an instant the face and neck of
+the gentleman, but was followed by no words, though the detective at his
+side waited for an instant before saying:
+
+"I think you are mistaken; I should call him now Mr. Gouverneur
+Hildreth!"
+
+With a start and a face grown as suddenly white as it had but an instant
+before been red, the gentleman turned and surveyed the detective from
+head to foot, saying, in a tone of mock politeness:
+
+"And why, if you please? I have never been introduced to you that I
+remember."
+
+"No," rejoined the detective, taking from his pocket the handkerchief
+which he had previously put there, and presenting it to the other with
+a bow, "but I have read the monogram upon your handkerchief and it
+happens to be----"
+
+"Enough!" interrupted the other, in a stern if not disdainful voice. "I
+see I have been the victim of espionage." And stepping into the other
+room, he walked haughtily up to the coroner and exclaimed: "I am
+Gouverneur Hildreth, and I come from Toledo. Now, what is it you have to
+say to me?"
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+CLOSE CALCULATIONS.
+
+
+                                    Truth alone,
+          Truth tangible and palpable; such truth
+          As may be weighed and measured; truth deduced
+          By logical conclusion--close, severe--
+          From premises incontrovertible.--MOULTRIE.
+
+
+THE excitement induced by the foregoing announcement had, in a degree,
+subsided. The coroner, who appeared to be as much startled as any one at
+the result of the day's proceedings, had manifested his desire of
+putting certain questions to the young man, and had begun by such
+inquiries into his antecedents, and his connection with Mrs. Clemmens,
+as elicited the most complete corroboration of all Miss Firman's
+statements.
+
+An investigation into his motives for coming East at this time next
+followed, in the course of which he acknowledged that he undertook the
+journey solely for the purpose of seeing Mrs. Clemmens. And when asked
+why he wished to see her at this time, admitted, with some manifestation
+of shame, that he desired to see for himself whether she was really in
+as strong and healthy a condition as he had always been told; his
+pecuniary embarrassments being such that he could not prevent his mind
+from dwelling upon possibilities which, under any other circumstances,
+he would have been ashamed to consider.
+
+"And did you see Mrs. Clemmens?" the coroner inquired.
+
+"Yes, sir; I did."
+
+"When?"
+
+"On Tuesday, sir; about noon."
+
+The answer was given almost with bravado, and the silence among the
+various auditors became intense.
+
+"You admit, then, that you were in the widow's house the morning she was
+murdered, and that you had an interview with her a few minutes before
+the fatal blow was struck?"
+
+"I do."
+
+There was doggedness in the tone, and doggedness in the look that
+accompanied it. The coroner moved a little forward in his chair and
+uttered his next question with deep gravity.
+
+"Did you approach the widow's house by the road and enter into it by
+means of the front door overlooking the lane?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"And did you meet no one in the lane, or see no one at the windows of
+any of the houses as you came by?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"How long did you stay in this house, and what was the result of the
+interview which you had with Mrs. Clemmens?"
+
+"I stayed, perhaps, ten minutes, and I learned nothing from Mrs.
+Clemmens, save that she was well and hearty, and likely to live out her
+threescore years and ten for all hint that her conversation or
+appearance gave me."
+
+He spoke almost with a tone of resentment; his eyes glowed darkly, and a
+thrill of horror sped through the room as if they felt that the murderer
+himself stood before them.
+
+"You will tell me what was said in this interview, if you please, and
+whether the widow knew who you were; and, if so, whether any words of
+anger passed between you?"
+
+The face of the young man burned, and he looked at the coroner and then
+at the jurymen, as if he would like to challenge the whole crew, but the
+color that showed in his face was the flush of shame, or, so thought Mr.
+Byrd, and in his reply, when he gave it, there was a bitterness of
+self-scorn that reminded the detective more of the mortification of a
+gentleman caught in an act of meanness than the secret alarm of a man
+who had been beguiled into committing a dastardly crime.
+
+"Mrs. Clemmens was evidently a woman of some spirit," said he, forcing
+out his words with sullen desperation. "She may have used sharp
+language; I believe indeed she did; but she did not know who I was,
+for--for I pretended to be a seller of patent medicine, warranted to
+cure all ills, and she told me she had no ills, and--and--Do you want a
+man to disgrace himself in your presence?" he suddenly flashed out,
+cringing under the gaze of the many curious and unsympathetic eyes fixed
+upon him.
+
+But the coroner, with a sudden assumption of severity, pardonable,
+perhaps, in a man with a case of such importance on his hands,
+recommended the witness to be calm and not to allow any small feelings
+of personal mortification to interfere with a testimony of so much
+evident value. And without waiting for the witness to recover himself,
+asked again:
+
+"What did the widow say, and with what words did you leave?"
+
+"The widow said she abominated drugs, and never took them. I replied
+that she made a great mistake, if she had any ailments. Upon which she
+retorted that she had no ailment, and politely showed me the door. I do
+not remember that any thing else passed between us."
+
+His tone, which had been shrill and high, dropped at the final sentence,
+and by the nervous workings of his lips, Mr. Byrd perceived that he
+dreaded the next question. The persons grouped around him evidently
+dreaded it too.
+
+But it was less searching than they expected, and proved that the
+coroner preferred to approach his point by circuitous rather than direct
+means.
+
+"In what room was the conversation held, and by what door did you come
+in and go out?"
+
+"I came in by the front door, and we stood in that room"--pointing to
+the sitting-room from which he had just issued.
+
+"Stood! Did you not sit down?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Stood all the time, and in that room to which you have just pointed?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The coroner drew a deep breath, and looked at the witness long and
+searchingly. Mr. Hildreth's way of uttering this word had been any thing
+but pleasant, and consequently any thing but satisfactory. A low murmur
+began to eddy through the rooms.
+
+"Gentlemen, silence!" commanded the coroner, venting in this injunction
+some of the uncomfortable emotion with which he was evidently
+surcharged; for his next words were spoken in a comparatively quiet
+voice, though the fixed severity of his eye could have given the witness
+but little encouragement.
+
+"You say," he declared, "that in coming through the lane you encountered
+no one. Was this equally true of your return?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I believe so. I don't remember. I was not looking up," was
+the slightly confused reply.
+
+"You passed, however, through the lane, and entered the main street by
+the usual path?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And where did you go then?"
+
+"To the depot."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"I wished to leave the town. I had done with it."
+
+"And did you do so, Mr. Hildreth?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Where did you go?"
+
+"To Albany, where I had left my traps."
+
+"You took the noon train, then?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Which leaves precisely five minutes after twelve?"
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"Took it without stopping anywhere on the way?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Did you buy a ticket at the office?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I did not have time."
+
+"Ah, the train was at the station, then?"
+
+Mr. Hildreth did not reply; he had evidently been driven almost to the
+end of his patience, or possibly of his courage, by this quick fire of
+small questions.
+
+The coroner saw this and pressed his advantage.
+
+"Was the train at the station or not when you arrived there, Mr.
+Hildreth?"
+
+"I do not see why it can interest you to know," the witness retorted,
+with a flash of somewhat natural anger; "but since you insist, I will
+tell you that it was just going out, and that I had to run to reach it,
+and only got a foothold upon the platform of the rear car at the risk of
+my life."
+
+He looked as if he wished it had been at the cost of his life, and
+compressed his lips and moved restlessly from side to side as if the
+battery of eyes levelled upon his face were so many points of red-hot
+steel burning into his brain.
+
+But the coroner, intent upon his duty, released not one jot of the
+steady hold he had taken upon his victim.
+
+"Mr. Hildreth," said he, "your position as the only person who
+acknowledges himself to have been in this house during the half-hour
+that preceded the assault, makes every thing you can tell us in
+reference to your visit of the highest importance. Was the widow alone,
+do you think, or did you see any thing--pause now and consider
+well--_any thing_ that would lead you to suppose there was any one
+beside her and yourself in the house?"
+
+It was the suggestion of a just man, and Mr. Byrd looked to see the
+witness grasp with all the energy of despair at the prospect of release
+it held out. But Mr. Hildreth either felt his cause beyond the reach of
+any such assistance, or his understanding was so dulled by misery he
+could not see the advantage of acknowledging the presence of a third
+party in the cottage. Giving a dreary shake of the head, he slowly
+answered:
+
+"There may have been somebody else in the house, I don't know; but if
+so, I didn't hear him or see him. I thought we were alone."
+
+The frankness with which he made the admission was in his favor, but the
+quick and overpowering flush that rose to his face the moment he had
+given utterance to it, betrayed so unmistakable a consciousness of what
+the admission implied that the effect was immediately reversed. Seeing
+that he had lost rather than gained in the opinions of the merciless
+inquisitors about him, he went back to his old bravado, and haughtily
+lifted his head.
+
+"One question more," resumed the coroner. "You have said that Mrs.
+Clemmens was a spirited woman. Now, what made you think so? Any
+expression of annoyance on her part at the interruption in her work
+which your errand had caused her, or merely the expression of her face
+and the general way she had of speaking?"
+
+"The latter, I think, though she did use a harsh word or two when she
+showed me the door."
+
+"And raised her voice?"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"Mr. Hildreth," intimated the coroner, rising, "will you be kind enough
+to step with me into the adjoining room?"
+
+With a look of wonder not unmixed with alarm, the young man prepared to
+comply.
+
+"I should like the attention of the jury," Dr. Tredwell signified as he
+passed through the door.
+
+There was no need to give them this hint. Not a man of them but was
+already on his feet in eager curiosity as to what their presiding
+officer was about to do.
+
+"I wish you to tell me now," the coroner demanded of Mr. Hildreth, as
+they paused in the centre of the sitting-room, "where it was you stood
+during your interview with Mrs. Clemmens, and, if possible, take the
+very position now which you held at that time."
+
+"There are too many persons here," the witness objected, visibly
+rebelling at a request of which he could not guess the full
+significance.
+
+"The people present will step back," declared the coroner; "you will
+have no trouble in taking your stand on the spot you occupied the other
+day."
+
+"Here, then!" exclaimed the young man, taking a position near the centre
+of the room.
+
+"And the widow?"
+
+"Stood there."
+
+"Facing you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I see," intimated the coroner, pointing toward the windows. "Her back
+was to the yard while you stood with your face toward it." Then with a
+quick motion, summoning the witness back into the other room, asked,
+amid the breathless attention of the crowd, whom this bit of by-play had
+wrought up to expectation: "Did you observe any one go around to the
+back door while you stood there, and go away again without attempting to
+knock?"
+
+Mr. Hildreth knitted his brow and seemed to think.
+
+"Answer," persisted the coroner; "it is not a question that requires
+thought."
+
+"Well, then, I did not," cried the witness, looking the other directly
+in the eye, with the first gleam of real manly feeling which he had yet
+displayed.
+
+"You did not see a tramp come into the yard, walk around to the kitchen
+door, wait a moment as if hesitating whether he would rap, and then turn
+and come back again without doing so?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+The coroner drew a piece of paper before him and began figuring on it.
+Earnestly, almost wildly, the young man watched him, drawing a deep
+breath and turning quite pale as the other paused and looked up.
+
+"Yet," affirmed the coroner, as if no delay had occurred since he
+received his last answer, "such a person did approach the house while
+you were in it, and if you had stood where you say, you must have seen
+him."
+
+It was a vital thrust, a relentless presentation of fact, and as such
+shook the witness out of his lately acquired composure. Glancing hastily
+about, he sought the assistance of some one both capable and willing to
+advise him in this crisis, but seeing no one, he made a vigorous effort
+and called together his own faculties.
+
+"Sir," he protested, a tremor of undisguised anxiety finding way into
+his voice, "I do not see how you make that all out. What proof have you
+that this tramp of which you speak came to the house while I was in it?
+Could he not have come before? Or, what was better, could he not have
+come after?"
+
+The ringing tone with which the last question was put startled
+everybody. No such sounds had issued from his lips before. Had he caught
+a glimpse of hope, or was he driven to an extremity in his defence that
+forced him to assert himself? The eyes of Miss Firman and of a few other
+women began to soften, and even the face of Mr. Byrd betrayed that a
+change was on the verge of taking place in his feelings.
+
+But the coroner's look and tone dashed cold water on this young and
+tender growth of sympathy. Passing over to the witness the paper on
+which he had been scribbling, he explained with dry significance:
+
+"It is only a matter of subtraction and addition, Mr. Hildreth. You have
+said that upon quitting this house you went directly to the depot, where
+you arrived barely in time to jump on the train as it was leaving the
+station. Now, to walk from this place to the depot at any pace you would
+be likely to use, would occupy--well, let us say seven minutes. At two
+minutes before twelve, then, you were still in this house. Well!" he
+ejaculated, interrupting himself as the other opened his lips, "have you
+any thing to say?"
+
+"No," was the dejected and hesitating reply.
+
+The coroner at once resumed:
+
+"But at five minutes before twelve, Mr. Hildreth, the tramp walked into
+the widow's yard. Now, allowing only two minutes for your interview with
+that lady, the conclusion remains that you were in the house when he
+came up to it. Yet you declare that, although you stood in full view of
+the yard, you did not see him."
+
+"You figure closer than an astronomer calculating an eclipse," burst
+from the young man's lips in a flash of that resolution which had for
+the last few minutes animated him. "How do you know your witnesses have
+been so exact to a second when they say this and that of the goings and
+comings you are pleased to put into an arithmetical problem. A minute or
+two one way or the other would make a sad discrepancy in your
+calculations, Mr. Coroner."
+
+"I know it," assented Dr. Tredwell, quietly ignoring the other's heat;
+"but if the jury will remember, there were four witnesses, at least, who
+testified to the striking of the town clock just as the tramp finally
+issued from the lane, and one witness, of well-known accuracy in matters
+of detail, who declared on oath that she had just dropped her eyes from
+that same clock when she observed the tramp go into the widow's gate,
+and that it was five minutes to twelve exactly. But, lest I do seem too
+nice in my calculations," the coroner inexorably pursued, "I will take
+the trouble of putting it another way. At what time did you leave the
+hotel, Mr. Hildreth?"
+
+"I don't know," was the testy response.
+
+"Well, I can tell you," the coroner assured him. "It was about twenty
+minutes to twelve, or possibly earlier, but no later. My reason for
+saying this," he went on, drawing once more before him the fatal sheet
+of paper, "is that Mrs. Dayton's children next door were out playing in
+front of this house for some few minutes previous to the time the tramp
+came into the lane. As you did not see them you must have arrived here
+before they began their game, and that, at the least calculation, would
+make the time as early as a quarter to twelve."
+
+"Well," the fierce looks of the other seemed to say, "and what if it
+was?"
+
+"Mr. Hildreth," continued the coroner, "if you were in this house at a
+quarter to twelve and did not leave it till two minutes before, and the
+interview was as you say a mere interchange of a dozen words or so, that
+could not possibly have occupied more than three minutes; _where were
+you during all the rest of the time_ that must have elapsed after you
+finished your interview and the moment you left the house?"
+
+It was a knock-down question. This aristocratic-looking young gentleman
+who had hitherto held himself erect before them, notwithstanding the
+humiliating nature of the inquiries which had been propounded to him,
+cringed visibly and bowed his head as if a stroke of vital force had
+descended upon it. Bringing his fist down on the table near which he
+stood, he seemed to utter a muttered curse, while the veins swelled on
+his forehead so powerfully that more than one person present dropped
+their eyes from a spectacle which bore so distinctly the stamp of guilt.
+
+"You have not answered," intimated the coroner, after a moment of silent
+waiting.
+
+"No!" was the loud reply, uttered with a force that startled all
+present, and made the more timid gaze with some apprehension at his
+suddenly antagonistic attitude. "It is not pleasant for a gentleman"--he
+emphasized the word bitterly--"for a _gentleman_ to acknowledge himself
+caught at a time like this in a decided equivocation. But you have
+cornered me fairly and squarely, and I am bound to tell the truth.
+Gentlemen, I did not leave the widow's house as immediately as I said. I
+stayed for fully five minutes or so alone in the small hall that leads
+to the front door. In all probability I was there when the tramp passed
+by on his way to the kitchen-door, and there when he came back again."
+And Mr. Hildreth fixed his eyes on the coroner as if he dared him to
+push him further.
+
+But Dr. Tredwell had been in his present seat before. Merely confronting
+the other with that cold official gaze which seems to act like a wall of
+ice between a witness and the coroner, he said the two words: "What
+doing?"
+
+The effect was satisfactory. Paling suddenly, Mr. Hildreth dropped his
+eyes and replied humbly, though with equal laconism, "I was thinking."
+But scarcely had the words left his lips, than a fresh flame of feeling
+started up within him, and looking from juryman to juryman he
+passionately exclaimed: "You consider that acknowledgment suspicious.
+You wonder why a man should give a few minutes to thought after the
+conclusion of an interview that terminated all hope. I wonder at it now
+myself. I wonder I did not go straight out of the house and rush
+headlong into any danger that promised an immediate extinction of my
+life."
+
+No language could have more forcibly betrayed the real desperation of
+his mind at the critical moment when the widow's life hung in the
+balance. He saw this, perhaps, when it was too late, for the sweat
+started on his brow, and he drew himself up like a man nerving himself
+to meet a blow he no longer hoped to avert. One further remark, however,
+left his lips.
+
+"Whatever I did or of whatever I was thinking, one thing I here declare
+to be true, and that is, that I did not see the widow again after she
+left my side and went back to her kitchen in the rear of the house. The
+hand that struck her may have been lifted while I stood in the hall, but
+if so, I did not know it, nor can I tell you now who it was that killed
+her."
+
+It was the first attempt at direct disavowal which he had made, and it
+had its effect. The coroner softened a trifle of his austerity, and the
+jurymen glanced at each other relieved. But the weight of suspicion
+against this young man was too heavy, and his manner had been too
+unfortunate, for this effect to last long. Gladly as many would have
+been to credit this denial, if only for the name he bore and a certain
+fine aspect of gentlemanhood that surrounded him in spite of his present
+humiliation, it was no longer possible to do so without question, and he
+seemed to feel this and do his best to accept the situation with
+patience.
+
+An inquiry which was put to him at this time by a juryman showed the
+existent state of feeling against him.
+
+"May I ask," that individual dryly interrogated, "why you came back to
+Sibley, after having left it?"
+
+The response came clear and full. Evidently the gravity of his position
+had at last awakened the latent resources of Mr. Hildreth's mind.
+
+"I heard of the death of this woman, and my surprise caused me to
+return."
+
+"How did you hear of it?"
+
+"Through the newspapers."
+
+"And you were surprised?"
+
+"I was astounded; I felt as if I had received a blow myself, and could
+not rest till I had come back where I could learn the full particulars."
+
+"So, then, it was curiosity that brought you to the inquest to-day?"
+
+"It was."
+
+The juryman looked at him astonished; so did all the rest. His manner
+was so changed, his answers so prompt and ringing.
+
+"And what was it," broke in the coroner, "that led you to register
+yourself at the hotel under a false name?"
+
+"I scarcely know," was the answer, given with less fire and some show of
+embarrassment. "Perhaps I thought that, under the circumstances, it
+would be better for me not to use my own."
+
+"In other words, you were afraid?" exclaimed the coroner, with the full
+impressiveness of his somewhat weighty voice and manner.
+
+It was a word to make the weakest of men start. Mr. Hildreth, who was
+conspicuous in his own neighborhood for personal if not for moral
+courage, flushed till it looked as if the veins would burst on his
+forehead, but he made no other reply than a proud and angry look and a
+short:
+
+"I was not aware of fear; though, to be sure, I had no premonition of
+the treatment I should be called upon to suffer here to-day."
+
+The flash told, the coroner sat as if doubtful, and looked from man to
+man of the jury as if he would question their feelings on this vital
+subject. Meantime the full shame of his position settled heavier and
+heavier upon Mr. Hildreth; his head fell slowly forward, and he seemed
+to be asking himself how he was to meet the possibly impending ignominy
+of a direct accusation. Suddenly he drew himself erect, and a gleam shot
+from his eyes that, for the first time, revealed him as a man of latent
+pluck and courage.
+
+"Gentlemen," he began, looking first at the coroner and then at the
+jury, "you have not said you consider me guilty of this crime, but you
+evidently harbor the suspicion. I do not wonder; my own words have given
+me away, and any man would find it difficult to believe in my innocence
+after what has been testified to in this place. Do not hesitate, then.
+The shock of finding myself suspected of a horrible murder is passed. I
+am willing to be arrested. Indeed, after what has here taken place, I
+not only am willing but even anxious. I want to be tried, if only to
+prove to the world my complete and entire innocence."
+
+The effect of this speech, uttered at a moment so critical, may be
+easily imagined. All the impressible people present at once signified
+their belief in his honesty, and gave him looks of sympathy, if not
+approval; while the cooler and possibly the more judicious of his
+auditors calmly weighed these assertions against the evidence that had
+been advanced, and finding the result unsatisfactory, shook their heads
+as if unconvinced, and awaited further developments.
+
+They did not come. The inquiry had reached its climax, and little, if
+any thing, more was left to be said. Mr. Hildreth was examined more
+fully, and some few of the witnesses who had been heard in the early
+part of the day were recalled, but no new facts came to light, and no
+fresh inquiries were started.
+
+Mr. Byrd, who from the attitude of the coroner could not fail to see Mr.
+Hildreth was looked upon with a suspicion that would ultimately end in
+arrest, decided that his interest in the inquest was at an end, and
+being greatly fatigued, gave up his position at the window and quietly
+stole away.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+THE FINAL TEST.
+
+          Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue,
+          in order that they should see twice as much as
+          they say.--COLTON.
+
+
+THE fact was, he wanted to think. Detective though he was and accustomed
+to the bravado with which every sort of criminal will turn to meet their
+fate when fully driven to bay, there had been something in the final
+manner of this desperate but evidently cultured gentleman, which had
+impressed him against his own will, and made him question whether the
+suspected man was not rather the victim of a series of extraordinary
+circumstances, than the selfish and brutal criminal which the evidence
+given seemed to suggest.
+
+Not that Mr. Byrd ever allowed his generous heart to blind him to the
+plain language of facts. His secret and not to be smothered doubts in
+another direction were proof enough of this; and had it not been for
+those very doubts, the probabilities are that he would have agreed with
+the cooler-headed portion of the crowd, which listened unmoved to that
+last indignant burst of desperate manhood.
+
+But with those doubts still holding possession of his mind, he could not
+feel so sure of Mr. Hildreth's guilt; and the struggle that was likely
+to ensue between his personal feelings on the one side and his sense of
+duty on the other did not promise to be so light as to make it possible
+for him to remain within eye and earshot of an unsympathetic crowd.
+
+"If only the superintendent had not left it to my judgment to
+interfere," thought he, pacing the streets with ever-increasing
+uneasiness, "the responsibility would have been shifted from my
+shoulders, and I would have left the young man to his fate in peace. But
+now I would be criminally at fault if I were to let him drift hopelessly
+to his doom, when by a lift of my finger I might possibly turn the
+attention of justice toward the real culprit."
+
+Yet the making up of his mind to interfere was a torture to Horace Byrd.
+If he was not conscious of any love for Imogene Dare, he was
+sufficiently under the dominion of her extraordinary fascinations to
+feel that any movement on his part toward the unravelling of the mystery
+that enveloped her, would be like subjecting his own self to the rack of
+public inquiry and suspicion.
+
+Nor, though he walked the streets for hours, each moment growing more
+and more settled in his conviction of Mr. Hildreth's innocence, could he
+bring himself to the point of embracing the duty presented to him, till
+he had subjected Miss Dare to a new test, and won for himself absolute
+certainty as to the fact of her possessing a clue to the crime, which
+had not been discovered in the coroner's inquiry.
+
+"The possibility of innocence on her part is even greater than on that
+of Mr. Hildreth," he considered, "and nothing, not even the peril of
+those dearest to me, could justify me in shifting the weight of
+suspicion from a guiltless man to an equally guiltless woman."
+
+It was, therefore, for the purpose of solving this doubt, that he
+finally sought Mr. Ferris, and after learning that Mr. Hildreth was
+under surveillance, and would in all probability be subjected to arrest
+on the morrow, asked for some errand that would take him to Mr. Orcutt's
+house.
+
+"I have a great admiration for that gentleman and would like to make his
+acquaintance," he remarked carelessly, hiding his true purpose under his
+usual nonchalant tones. "But I do not want to seem to be pushing myself
+forward; so if you could give me some papers to carry to him, or some
+message requiring an introduction to his presence, I should feel very
+much obliged."
+
+Mr. Ferris, who had no suspicions of his own to assist him in
+understanding the motives that led to this request, easily provided the
+detective with the errand he sought. Mr. Byrd at once started for the
+lawyer's house.
+
+It was fully two miles away, but once arrived there, he was thankful
+that the walk had been so long, as the fatigue, following upon the
+activity of the afternoon, had succeeded in quieting his pulses and
+calming down the fierce excitement which had held him under its control
+ever since he had taken the determination to satisfy his doubts by an
+interview with Miss Dare.
+
+Ringing the bell of the rambling old mansion that spread out its wide
+extensions through the vines and bushes of an old-fashioned and most
+luxuriant garden, he waited the issue with beating heart. A
+respectable-looking negro servant came to the door.
+
+"Is Mr. Orcutt in?" he asked; "or, if not, Miss Dare? I have a message
+from Mr. Ferris and would be glad to see one of them."
+
+This, in order to ascertain at a word if the lady was at home.
+
+"Miss Dare is not in," was the civil response, "and Mr. Orcutt is very
+busily engaged; but if you will step into the parlor I will tell him you
+are here."
+
+"No," returned the disappointed detective, handing her the note he held
+in his hand. "If your master is busy I will not disturb him." And,
+turning away, he went slowly down the steps.
+
+"If I only knew where she was gone!" he muttered, bitterly.
+
+But he did not consider himself in a position to ask.
+
+Inwardly chafing over his ill-luck, Mr. Byrd proceeded with reluctant
+pace to regain the street, when, hearing the gate suddenly click, he
+looked up, and saw advancing toward him a young gentleman of a
+peculiarly spruce and elegant appearance.
+
+"Ha! another visitor for Miss Dare," was the detective's natural
+inference. And with a sudden movement he withdrew from the path, and
+paused as if to light his cigar in the shadow of the thick bushes that
+grew against the house.
+
+In an instant the young stranger was on the stoop. Another, and he had
+rung the bell, which was answered almost as soon as his hand dropped
+from the knob.
+
+"Is Miss Dare in?" was the inquiry, uttered in loud and cheery tones.
+
+"No, sir. She is spending a few days with Miss Tremaine," was the clear
+and satisfactory reply. "Shall I tell her you have been here?"
+
+"No. I will call myself at Miss Tremaine's," rejoined the gentleman.
+And, with a gay swing of his cane and a cheerful look overhead where the
+stars were already becoming visible, he sauntered easily off, followed
+by the envious thoughts of Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Miss Tremaine," repeated the latter, musingly. "Who knows Miss
+Tremaine?"
+
+While he was asking himself this question, the voice of the young man
+rose melodiously in a scrap of old song, and instantly Mr. Byrd
+recognized in the seeming stranger the well-known tenor singer of the
+church he had himself attended the Sunday before--a gentleman, too, to
+whom he had been introduced by Mr. Ferris, and with whom he had
+exchanged something more than the passing civilities of the moment.
+
+To increase his pace, overtake the young man, recall himself to his
+attention, and join him in his quick walk down the street, was the work
+of a moment. The natural sequence followed. Mr. Byrd made himself so
+agreeable that by the time they arrived at Miss Tremaine's the other
+felt loath to part with him, and it resulted in his being urged to join
+this chance acquaintance in his call.
+
+Nothing could have pleased Mr. Byrd better. So, waiving for once his
+instinctive objection to any sort of personal intrusion, he signified
+his acquiescence to the proposal, and at once accompanied his new friend
+into the house of the unknown Miss Tremaine. He found it lit up as for
+guests. All the rooms on the ground floor were open, and in one of them
+he could discern a dashing and coquettish young miss holding court over
+a cluster of eager swains.
+
+"Ah, I forgot," exclaimed Mr. Byrd's companion, whose name, by-the-way,
+was Duryea. "It is Miss Tremaine's reception night. She is the daughter
+of one of the professors of the High School," he went on, whispering his
+somewhat late explanations into the ear of Mr. Byrd. "Every Thursday
+evening she throws her house open for callers, and the youth of the
+academy are only too eager to avail themselves of the opportunity of
+coming here. Well, it is all the better for us. Miss Dare despises boys,
+and in all likelihood we shall have her entirely to ourselves."
+
+A quick pang contracted the breast of Mr. Byrd. If this easy, almost
+rakish, fellow at his side but knew the hideous errand which brought him
+to this house, what a scene would have ensued!
+
+But he had no time for reflection, or even for that irresistible
+shrinking from his own designs which he now began to experience. Before
+he realized that he was fully committed to this venture, he found
+himself in the parlor bowing before the _naïve_ and laughing-eyed Miss
+Tremaine, who rose to receive him with all the airy graciousness of a
+finished coquette.
+
+Miss Dare was not visible, and Mr. Byrd was just wondering if he would
+be called upon to enter into a sustained conversation with his pretty
+hostess, when a deep, rich voice was heard in the adjoining room, and,
+looking up, he saw the stately figure he so longed and yet dreaded to
+encounter, advancing toward them through the open door. She was very
+pale, and, to Mr. Byrd's eyes, looked thoroughly worn out, if not ill.
+Yet, she bore herself with a steadiness that was evidently the result of
+her will; and manifested neither reluctance nor impatience when the
+eager Mr. Duryea pressed forward with his compliments, though from the
+fixedness of her gaze and the immobility of her lip, Mr. Byrd too truly
+discovered that her thoughts were far away from the scene of mirth and
+pleasure in which she found herself.
+
+"You see I have presumed to follow you, Miss Dare," was the greeting
+with which Mr. Duryea hailed her approach. And he immediately became so
+engrossed with his gallantries he forgot to introduce his companion.
+
+Mr. Byrd was rather relieved at this. He was not yet ready to submit
+her to the test he considered necessary to a proper understanding of the
+situation; and he had not the heart to approach her with any mere
+civility on his tongue, while matters of such vital importance to her
+happiness, if not to her honor, trembled in the balance.
+
+He preferred to talk to Miss Tremaine, and this he continued to do till
+the young fellows at his side, one by one, edged away, leaving no one in
+that portion of the room but himself and Miss Tremaine, Mr. Duryea and
+Miss Dare.
+
+The latter two stood together some few feet behind him, and were
+discussing in a somewhat languid way, the merits of a _musicale_ which
+they had lately attended. They were approaching, however, and he felt
+that if he did not speak at once he might not have another opportunity
+for doing so during the whole evening. Turning, therefore, to Miss
+Tremaine, with more seriousness than her gay and totally inconsequent
+conversation had hitherto allowed, he asked, in what he meant to be a
+simply colloquial and courteous manner, if she had heard the news.
+
+"News," she repeated, "no; is there any news?"
+
+"Yes, I call it news. But, perhaps, you are not interested in the murder
+that has lately taken place in this town?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I am," she exclaimed, all eagerness at once, while he felt
+rather than perceived that the couple at his back stood suddenly still,
+as if his words had worked their spell over one heart there at least.
+"Papa knew Mrs. Clemmens very well," the little lady proceeded with a
+bewitchingly earnest look. "Have they found the murderer, do you think?
+Any thing less than that would be no news to me."
+
+"There is every reason to suppose----" he began, and stopped, something
+in the deadly silence behind him making it impossible for him to
+proceed. Happily he was not obliged to. An interruption occurred in the
+shape of a new-comer, and he was left with the fatal word on his lips to
+await the approach of that severely measured step behind him, which by
+this time he knew was bringing the inscrutable Miss Dare to his side.
+
+"Miss Dare, allow me to present to you Mr. Byrd. Mr. Byrd, Miss Dare."
+
+The young detective bowed. With rigid attention to the forms of
+etiquette, he uttered the first few acknowledgments necessary to the
+occasion, and then glanced up.
+
+She was looking him full in the face.
+
+"We have met before," he was about to observe, but not detecting the
+least sign of recognition in her gaze, restrained the words and hastily
+dropped his eyes.
+
+"Mr. Duryea informs me you are a stranger in the town," she remarked,
+moving slowly to one side in a way to rid herself of that gentleman's
+too immediate presence. "Have you a liking for the place, or do you
+meditate any lengthy stay?"
+
+"No. That is," he rejoined, somewhat shaken in his theories by the
+self-possession of her tone and the ease and quietness with which she
+evidently prepared to enter into a sustained conversation, "I may go
+away to-morrow, and I may linger on for an indefinite length of time. It
+all depends upon certain matters that will be determined for me
+to-night. Sibley is a very pretty place," he observed, startled at his
+own temerity in venturing the last remark.
+
+"Yes."
+
+The word came as if forced, and she looked at Mr. Duryea.
+
+"Do you wish any thing, Miss Dare?" that gentleman suddenly asked. "You
+do not look well."
+
+"I am not well," she acknowledged. "No, thank you," she cried, as he
+pushed a chair toward her. "It is too warm here. If you do not object,
+we will go into the other room." And with a courteous glance that
+included both gentlemen in its invitation, she led the way into the
+adjoining apartment. Could it have been with the purpose of ridding
+herself of the assiduities of Mr. Duryea? The room contained half a
+dozen or more musical people, and no sooner did they perceive their
+favorite tenor approach than they seized upon him and, without listening
+to his excuses, carried him off to the piano, leaving Miss Dare alone
+with Mr. Byrd.
+
+She seemed instantly to forget her indisposition. Drawing herself up
+till every queenly attribute she possessed flashed brilliantly before
+his eyes, she asked, with sudden determination, if she had been right in
+understanding him to say that there was news in regard to the murder of
+Mrs. Clemmens?
+
+Subduing, by a strong inward effort, every token of the emotion which
+her own introduction of this topic naturally evoked, he replied in his
+easiest tones:
+
+"Yes; there was an inquest held to-day, and the authorities evidently
+think they have discovered the person who killed her." And obliging
+himself to meet half-way the fate that awaited him, he bestowed upon the
+lady before him a casual glance that hid beneath its easy politeness the
+greatest anxiety of his life.
+
+The test worked well. From the pallor of sickness, grief, or
+apprehension, her complexion whitened to the deadlier hue of mortal
+terror.
+
+"Impossible!" her lips seemed to breathe; and Mr. Byrd could almost
+fancy he saw the hair rise on her forehead.
+
+Cursing in his heart the bitter necessity that had forced him into this
+duty, he was about to address her in a way calculated to break the spell
+occasioned by his last words, when the rich and tuneful voice of the
+melodious singer rose suddenly on the air, and they heard the words:
+
+          "Come rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer,
+           Though the herd have fled from thee, thy home is still here;
+           Here still is the smile that no cloud can o'ercast,
+           And a heart and a hand all thy own to the last."
+
+Instantly Mr. Byrd perceived that he should not be obliged to speak.
+Though the music, or possibly the words, struck her like a blow, it
+likewise served to recall her to herself. Dropping her gaze, which had
+remained fixed upon his own, she turned her face aside, saying with
+forced composure:
+
+"This near contact with crime is dreadful." Then slowly, and with a
+quietness that showed how great was her power of self-control when she
+was not under the influence of surprise, she inquired: "And who do they
+think this person is? What name do they presume to associate with the
+murderer of this woman?"
+
+With something of the feeling of a surgeon who nerves himself to bury
+the steel in his patient's quivering flesh, he gave his response
+unhesitatingly.
+
+"A gentleman's, I believe. A young man connected with her, in some
+strange way, by financial interests. A Mr. Hildreth, of
+Toledo--Gouverneur Hildreth, I think they call him."
+
+It was not the name she expected. He saw this by the relaxation that
+took place in all her features, by the look of almost painful relief
+that flashed for a moment into the eyes she turned like lightning upon
+him.
+
+"Gouverneur Hildreth!" she repeated. And he knew from the tone that it
+was not only a different name from what she anticipated, but that it was
+also a strange one to her. "I never heard of such a person," she went on
+after a minute, during which the relentless mellow voice of the
+unconscious singer filled the room with the passionate appeal:
+
+          "Oh, what was love made for, if 't is not the same,
+           Through joy and through sorrow, through glory and shame!"
+
+"That is not strange," explained Mr. Byrd, drawing nearer, as if to
+escape that pursuing sweetness of incongruous song. "He is not known in
+this town. He only came here the morning the unfortunate woman was
+murdered. Whether he really killed her or not," he proceeded, with
+forced quietness, "no one can tell, of course. But the facts are very
+much against him, and the poor fellow is under arrest."
+
+"What?"
+
+The word was involuntary. So was the tone of horrified surprise in which
+it was uttered. But the music, now swelling to a crescendo, drowned both
+word and tone, or so she seemed to fondly imagine; for, making another
+effort at self-control, she confined herself to a quiet repetition of
+his words, "'Under arrest'?" and then waited with only a suitable
+display of emotion for whatever further enlightenment he chose to give
+her.
+
+He mercifully spoke to the point.
+
+"Yes, under arrest. You see he was in the house at or near the time the
+deadly blow was struck. He was in the front hall, he says, and nowhere
+near the woman or her unknown assailant, but there is no evidence
+against any one else, and the facts so far proved, show he had an
+interest in her death, and so he has to pay the penalty of
+circumstances. And he may be guilty, who knows," the young detective
+pursued, seeing she was struck with horror and dismay, "dreadful as it
+is to imagine that a gentleman of culture and breeding could be brought
+to commit such a deed."
+
+But she seemed to have ears for but one phrase of all this.
+
+"He was in the front hall," she repeated. "How did he get there? What
+called him there?"
+
+"He had been visiting the widow, and was on his way out. He paused to
+collect his thoughts, he said. It seems unaccountable, Miss Dare; but
+the whole thing is strange and very mysterious."
+
+She was deaf to his explanations.
+
+"Do you suppose he heard the widow scream?" she asked, tremblingly,
+"or----"
+
+A sinking of the ringing tones whose powerful vibration had made this
+conversation possible, caused her to pause. When the notes grew loud
+enough again for her to proceed, she seemed to have forgotten the
+question she was about to propound, and simply inquired:
+
+"Had he any thing to say about what he overheard--or saw?"
+
+"No. If he spoke the truth and stood in the hall as he said, the sounds,
+if sounds there were, stopped short of the sitting-room door, for he has
+nothing to say about them."
+
+A change passed over Miss Dare. She dropped her eyes, and an instant's
+pause followed this last acknowledgment.
+
+"Will you tell me," she inquired, at last, speaking very slowly, in an
+attempt to infuse into her voice no more than a natural tone of
+interest, "how it was he came to say he stood in that place during the
+assault?"
+
+"He did not say he stood in that place during the assault," was again
+the forced rejoinder of Mr. Byrd. "It was by means of a nice calculation
+of time and events, that it was found he must have been in the house at
+or near the fatal moment."
+
+Another pause; another bar of that lovely music.
+
+"And he is a gentleman, you say?" was her hurried remark at last.
+
+"Yes, and a very handsome one."
+
+"And they have put him in prison?"
+
+"Yes, or will on the morrow."
+
+She turned and leaned against a window-frame near by, looking with eyes
+that saw nothing into the still vast night.
+
+"I suppose he has friends," she faintly suggested.
+
+"Two sisters, if no one nearer and dearer."
+
+          "Thou hast called me thy angel in moments of bliss,
+           And thy angel I 'll be, 'mid the horrors of this--
+           Through the furnace, unshrinking, thy steps to pursue,
+           And shield thee, and save thee--or perish there too,"
+
+rang the mellow song.
+
+"I am not well," she suddenly cried, leaving the window and turning
+quickly toward Mr. Byrd. "I am much obliged to you," said she, lowering
+her voice to a whisper, for the last note of the song was dying away in
+a quivering _pianissimo_. "I have been deeply interested in this
+tragedy, and am thankful for any information in regard to it. I must now
+bid you good-evening."
+
+And with a stately bow into which she infused the mingled courtesy and
+haughtiness of her nature, she walked steadily away through the crowd
+that vainly sought to stay her, and disappeared, almost without a pause,
+behind the door that opened into the hall.
+
+Mr. Byrd remained for a full half-hour after that, but he never could
+tell what he did, or with whom he conversed, or how or when he issued
+from the house and made his way back to his room in the hotel. He only
+knew that at midnight he was still walking the floor, and had not yet
+made up his mind to take the step which his own sense of duty now
+inexorably demanded.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+DECISION.
+
+                                Who dares
+          To say that he alone has found the truth.
+                                                --LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+THE next morning Mr. Ferris was startled by the appearance in his office
+of Mr. Byrd, looking wretchedly anxious and ill.
+
+"I have come," said the detective, "to ask you what you think of Mr.
+Hildreth's prospects. Have you made up your mind to have him arrested
+for this crime?"
+
+"Yes," was the reply. "The evidence against him is purely
+circumstantial, but it is very strong; and if no fresh developments
+occur, I think there can be no doubt about my duty. Each and every fact
+that comes to light only strengthens the case against him. When he came
+to be examined last night, a ring was found on his person, which he
+acknowledged to having worn on the day of the murder."
+
+"He took it off during the inquest," murmured Mr. Byrd; "I saw him."
+
+"It is said by Hickory--the somewhat questionable cognomen of your
+fellow-detective from New York--that the young man manifested the most
+intense uneasiness during the whole inquiry. That in fact his attention
+was first drawn to him by the many tokens which he gave of suppressed
+agitation and alarm. Indeed, Mr. Hickory at one time thought he should
+be obliged to speak to this stranger in order to prevent a scene. Once
+Mr. Hildreth got up as if to go, and, indeed, if he had been less hemmed
+in by the crowd, there is every reason to believe he would have
+attempted an escape."
+
+"Is this Hickory a man of good judgment?" inquired Mr. Byrd, anxiously.
+
+"Why, yes, I should say so. He seems to understand his business. The way
+he procured us the testimony of Mr. Hildreth was certainly
+satisfactory."
+
+"I wish that, without his knowing it, I could hear him give his opinion
+of this matter," intimated the other.
+
+"Well, you can," rejoined Mr. Ferris, after a quick and comprehensive
+survey of Mr. Byrd's countenance. "I am expecting him here any moment,
+and if you see fit to sit down behind that screen, you can, without the
+least difficulty to yourself or him, hear all he has to impart."
+
+"I will, then," the detective declared, a gloomy frown suddenly
+corrugating his brow; and he stepped across to the screen which had been
+indicated to him, and quietly withdrew from view.
+
+He had scarcely done this, when a short, quick step was heard at the
+door, and a wide-awake voice called out, cheerily:
+
+"Are you alone, sir?"
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated Mr. Ferris, "come in, come in. I have been awaiting
+you for some minutes," he declared, ignoring the look which the man
+threw hastily around the room. "Any news this morning?"
+
+"No," returned the other, in a tone of complete self-satisfaction.
+"We've caged the bird and mustn't expect much more in the way of news.
+I'm on my way to Albany now, to pick up such facts about him as may be
+lying around there loose, and shall be ready to start for Toledo any day
+next week that you may think proper."
+
+"You are, then, convinced that Mr. Hildreth is undeniably the guilty
+party in this case?" exclaimed the District Attorney, taking a whiff at
+his cigar.
+
+"Convinced? That is a strong word, sir. A detective is never convinced,"
+protested the man. "He leaves that for the judge and jury. But if you
+ask me if there is any doubt about the direction in which all the
+circumstantial evidence in this case points, I must retort by asking you
+for a clue, or the tag-end of a clue, guiding me elsewhere. I know," he
+went on, with the volubility of a man whose work is done, and who feels
+he has the right to a momentary indulgence in conversation, "that it is
+not an agreeable thing to subject a gentleman like Mr. Hildreth to the
+shame of a public arrest. But facts are not partial, sir; and the
+gentleman has no more rights in law than the coarsest fellow that we
+take up for butchering his mother. But you know all this without my
+telling you, and I only mention it to excuse any obstinacy I may have
+manifested on the subject. He is mightily cut up about it," he again
+proceeded, as he found Mr. Ferris forebore to reply. "I am told he
+didn't sleep a wink all night, but spent his time alternately in pacing
+the floor like a caged lion, and in a wild sort of stupor that had
+something of the hint of madness in it. 'If my grandfather had only
+known!' was the burden of his song; and when any one approached him he
+either told them to keep their eyes off him, or else buried his face in
+his hands with an entreaty for them not to disturb the last hours of a
+dying man. He evidently has no hope of escaping the indignity of arrest,
+and as soon as it was light enough for him to see, he asked for paper
+and pencil. They were brought him, and a man stood over him while he
+wrote. It proved to be a letter to his sisters enjoining them to believe
+in his innocence, and wound up with what was very much like an attempt
+at a will. Altogether, it looks as if he meditated suicide, and we have
+been careful to take from him every possible means for his effecting his
+release in this way, as well as set a strict though secret watch upon
+him."
+
+A slight noise took place behind the screen, which at any other time Mr.
+Hickory would have been the first to notice and inquire into. As it was,
+it had only the effect of unconsciously severing his train of thought
+and starting him alertly to his feet.
+
+"Well," said he, facing the District Attorney with cheerful vivacity,
+"any orders?"
+
+"No," responded Mr. Ferris. "A run down to Albany seems to be the best
+thing for you at present. On your return we will consult again."
+
+"Very well, sir. I shall not be absent more than two days, and, in the
+meantime, you will let me know if any thing important occurs?" And,
+handing over his new address, Hickory speedily took his leave.
+
+"Well, Byrd, what do you think of him?"
+
+For reply, Mr. Byrd stepped forth and took his stand before the District
+Attorney.
+
+"Has Coroner Tredwell informed you," said he, "that the superintendent
+has left it to my discretion to interfere in this matter if I thought
+that by so doing I could further the ends of justice?"
+
+"Yes," was the language of the quick, short nod he received.
+
+"Very well," continued the other, "you will pardon me, then, if I ask
+you to convey to Mr. Hildreth the following message: That if he is
+guiltless of this crime he need have no fear of the results of the
+arrest to which he may be subjected; that a man has interested himself
+in this matter who pledges his word not to rest till he has discovered
+the guilty party and freed the innocent from suspicion."
+
+"What!" cried Mr. Ferris, astonished at the severe but determined
+bearing of the young man who, up to this time, he had only seen under
+his lighter and more indifferent aspect. "You don't agree with this
+fellow, then, in his conclusions regarding Mr. Hildreth?"
+
+"No, sir. Hickory, as I judge, is an egotist. He discovered Mr. Hildreth
+and brought him to the notice of the jury, therefore Mr. Hildreth is
+guilty."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I am open to doubt about it. Not that I would acknowledge it to any one
+but you, sir."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because if I work in this case at all, or make any efforts to follow up
+the clue which I believe myself to have received, it must be done
+secretly, and without raising the suspicion of any one in this town. I
+am not in a position, as you know, to work openly, even if it were
+advisable to do so, which it certainly is not. What I do must be
+accomplished under cover, and I ask you to help me in my self-imposed
+and by no means agreeable task, by trusting me to pursue my inquiries
+alone, until such time as I assure myself beyond a doubt that my own
+convictions are just, and that the man who murdered Mrs. Clemmens is
+some one entirely separated from Mr. Hildreth and any interests that he
+represents."
+
+"You are, then, going to take up this case?"
+
+The answer given was short, but it meant the deliberate shivering of the
+fairest dream of love that had ever visited Mr. Byrd's imagination.
+
+"I am."
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+THE WEAVING OF A WEB.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+THE SPIDER.
+
+          "Thus far we run before the wind."
+
+
+IN the interview which Mr. Byrd had held with Miss Dare he had been
+conscious of omitting one test which many another man in his place would
+have made. This was the utterance of the name of him whom he really
+believed to be the murderer of Mrs. Clemmens. Had he spoken this name,
+had he allowed himself to breathe the words "Craik Mansell" into the
+ears of this agitated woman, or even gone so far as to allude in the
+most careless way to the widow's nephew, he felt sure his daring would
+have been rewarded by some expression on her part that would have given
+him a substantial basis for his theories to rest upon.
+
+But he had too much natural chivalry for this. His feelings as a man got
+in the way of his instinct as a detective. Nevertheless, he felt
+positive that his suspicions in regard to this nephew of Mrs. Clemmens
+were correct, and set about the task of fitting facts to his theory,
+with all that settled and dogged determination which follows the pursuit
+of a stern duty unwillingly embraced.
+
+Two points required instant settling.
+
+First, the truth or falsehood of his supposition as to the
+identification of the person confronted by Miss Dare in the Syracuse
+depot with the young man described by Miss Firman as the nephew of Widow
+Clemmens.
+
+Secondly, the existence or non-existence of proof going to show the
+presence of this person at or near the house of Mrs. Clemmens, during
+the time of the assault.
+
+But before proceeding to satisfy himself in regard to these essentials,
+he went again to the widow's house and there spent an hour in a careful
+study of its inner and outer arrangements, with a view to the formation
+of a complete theory as to the manner and method of the murder. He found
+that in default of believing Mr. Hildreth the assailant, one supposition
+was positively necessary, and this was that the murderer was in the
+house when this gentleman came to it. A glance at the diagram on next
+page will explain why.
+
+The house, as you will see, has but three entrances: the front door, at
+which Mr. Hildreth unconsciously stood guard; the kitchen door, also
+unconsciously guarded during the critical moment by the coming and going
+of the tramp through the yard; and the dining-room door, which, though
+to all appearance free from the surveillance of any eye, was so situated
+in reference to the clock at which the widow stood when attacked, that
+it was manifestly impossible for any one to enter it and cross the room
+to the hearth without attracting the attention of her eye if not of her
+ear.
+
+[Illustration: Diagram]
+
+To be sure, there was the bare possibility of his having come in by the
+kitchen-door, after the departure of the tramp, but such a contingency
+was scarcely worth considering. The almost certain conclusion was that
+he had been in the house for some time, and was either in the
+dining-room when Mrs. Clemmens returned to it from her interview with
+Mr. Hildreth, or else came down to it from the floor above by means of
+the staircase that so strangely descended into that very room.
+
+Another point looked equally clear. The escape of the murderer--still in
+default of considering Mr. Hildreth as such--must have been by means of
+one of the back doors, and must have been in the direction of the woods.
+To be sure there was a stretch of uneven and marshy ground to be
+travelled over before the shelter of the trees could be reached; but a
+person driven by fear could, at a pinch, travel it in five minutes or
+less; and a momentary calculation on the part of Mr. Byrd sufficed to
+show him that more time than this had elapsed from the probable instant
+of assault to the moment when Mr. Ferris opened the side door and looked
+out upon the swamp.
+
+The dearth of dwellings on the left-hand side of the street, and,
+consequently, the comparative immunity from observation which was given
+to that portion of the house which over-looked the swamp, made him
+conclude that this outlet from the dining-room had been the one made use
+of in the murderer's flight. A glance down the yard to the broken fence
+that separated the widow's land from the boggy fields beyond, only
+tended to increase the probabilities of this supposition, and, alert to
+gain for himself that full knowledge of the situation necessary to a
+successful conduct of this mysterious affair, he hastily left the house
+and started across the swamp, with the idea of penetrating the woods and
+discovering for himself what opportunity they afforded for concealment
+or escape.
+
+He had more difficulty in doing this than he expected. The ground about
+the hillocks was half-sunk in water, and the least slip to one side
+invariably precipitated him among the brambles that encumbered this
+spot. Still, he compassed his task in little more than five minutes,
+arriving at the firm ground, and its sturdy growth of beeches and
+maples, well covered with mud, but so far thoroughly satisfied with the
+result of his efforts.
+
+The next thing to be done was to search the woods, not for the purpose
+of picking up clues--it was too late for that--but to determine what
+sort of a refuge they afforded, and whether, in the event of a man's
+desiring to penetrate them quickly, many impediments would arise in the
+shape of tangled underground or loose-lying stones.
+
+He found them remarkably clear; so much so, indeed, that he travelled
+for some distance into their midst before he realized that he had passed
+beyond their borders. More than this, he came ere long upon something
+like a path, and, following it, emerged into a sort of glade, where,
+backed up against a high rock, stood a small and seemingly deserted hut.
+It was the first object he had met with that in any way suggested the
+possible presence of man, and advancing to it with cautious steps, he
+looked into its open door-way. Nothing met his eyes but an empty
+interior, and without pausing to bestow upon the building a further
+thought, he hurried on through a path he saw opening beyond it, till he
+came to the end of the wood.
+
+Stepping forth, he paused in astonishment. Instead of having penetrated
+the woods in a direct line, he found that he had merely described a half
+circle through them, and now stood on a highway leading directly back
+into the town.
+
+Likewise, he was in full sight of the terminus of a line of horse-cars
+that connected this remote region of Sibley with its business portion,
+and though distant a good mile from the railway depot, was, to all
+intents and purposes, as near that means of escape as he would have been
+in the street in front of Widow Clemmens' house.
+
+Full of thoughts and inly wondering over the fatality that had confined
+the attention of the authorities to the approaches afforded by the lane,
+to the utter exclusion of this more circuitous, but certainly more
+elusive, road of escape, he entered upon the highway, and proceeded to
+gain the horse-car he saw standing at the head of the road, a few rods
+away. As he did so, he for the first time realized just where he was.
+The elegant villa of Professor Darling rising before him on the ridge
+that ran along on the right-hand side of the road, made it at once
+evident that he was on the borders of that choice and aristocratic
+quarter known as the West Side. It was a new region to him, and,
+pausing for a moment, he cast his eyes over the scene which lay
+stretched out before him. He had frequently heard it said that the view
+commanded by the houses on the ridge was the finest in the town, and he
+was not disappointed in it. As he looked across the verdant basin of
+marshy ground around which the road curved like a horseshoe, he could
+see the city spread out like a map before him. So unobstructed, indeed,
+was the view he had of its various streets and buildings, that he
+thought he could even detect, amid the taller and more conspicuous
+dwellings, the humble walls and newly-shingled roof of the widow's
+cottage.
+
+But he could not be sure of this; his eyesight was any thing but
+trustworthy for long distances, and hurrying forward to the car, he took
+his seat just as it was about to start.
+
+It carried him straight into town, and came to a standstill not ten feet
+from the railroad depot. As he left it and betook himself back to his
+hotel, he gave to his thoughts a distinct though inward expression.
+
+"If," he mused, "my suppositions in regard to this matter are true, and
+another man than Mr. Hildreth struck the fatal blow, then I have just
+travelled over the self-same route he took in his flight."
+
+But were his suppositions true? It remained for him to determine.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+THE FLY.
+
+          Like--but oh! how different.--WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+THE paper mill of Harrison, Goodman & Chamberlain was situated in one of
+the main thoroughfares of Buffalo. It was a large but otherwise
+unpretentious building, and gave employment to a vast number of
+operatives, mostly female.
+
+Some of these latter might have been surprised, and possibly a little
+fluttered, one evening, at seeing a well-dressed young gentleman
+standing at the gate as they came forth, gazing with languid interest
+from one face to another, as if he were on the look-out for some one of
+their number.
+
+But they would have been yet more astonished could they have seen him
+still lingering after the last one had passed, watching with unabated
+patience the opening and shutting of the small side door devoted to the
+use of the firm, and such employés as had seats in the office. It was
+Mr. Byrd, and his purpose there at this time of day was to see and
+review the whole rank and file of the young men employed in the place,
+in the hope of being able to identify the nephew of Mrs. Clemmens by his
+supposed resemblance to the person whose character of face and form had
+been so minutely described to him.
+
+For Mr. Byrd was a just man and a thoughtful one, and knowing this
+identification to be the key-stone of his lately formed theory, desired
+it to be complete and of no doubtful character. He accordingly held fast
+to his position, watching and waiting, seemingly in vain, for the dark,
+powerful face and the sturdily-built frame of the gentleman whose
+likeness he had attempted to draw in conjunction with that of Miss Dare.
+But, though he saw many men of all sorts and kinds issue from one door
+or another of this vast building, not one of them struck him with that
+sudden and unmistakable sense of familiarity which he had a right to
+expect, and he was just beginning to doubt if the whole framework of his
+elaborately-formed theory was not destined to fall into ruins, when the
+small door, already alluded to, opened once more, and a couple of
+gentlemen came out.
+
+The appearance of one of them gave Mr. Byrd a start. He was young,
+powerfully built, wore a large mustache, and had a complexion of unusual
+swarthiness. There was character, too, in his face, though not so much
+as Mr. Byrd had expected to see in the nephew of Mrs. Clemmens. Still,
+people differ about degrees of expression, and to his informant this
+face might have appeared strong. He was dressed in a business suit, and
+was without an overcoat--two facts that made it difficult for Mr. Byrd
+to get any assistance from the cut and color of his clothes.
+
+But there was enough in the general style and bearing of this person to
+make Mr. Byrd anxious to know his name. He, therefore, took it upon
+himself to follow him--a proceeding which brought him to the corner just
+in time to see the two gentlemen separate, and the especial one in whom
+he was interested, step into a car.
+
+He succeeded in getting a seat in the same car, and for some blocks had
+the pleasure of watching the back of the supposed Mansell, as he stood
+on the front platform with the driver. Then others got in, and the
+detective's view was obstructed, and presently--he never could tell how
+it was--he lost track of the person he was shadowing, and when the
+chance came for another sight of the driver and platform, the young man
+was gone.
+
+Annoyed beyond expression, Mr. Byrd went to a hotel, and next day sent
+to the mill and procured the address of Mr. Mansell. Going to the place
+named, he found it to be a very respectable boarding-house, and,
+chancing upon a time when more or less of the rooms were empty,
+succeeded in procuring for himself an apartment there.
+
+So here he was a fixture in the house supposed by him to hold the
+murderer of Mrs. Clemmens. When the time for dinner came, and with it an
+opportunity for settling the vexed question of Mr. Mansell's identity
+not only with the man in the Syracuse depot, but with the person who had
+eluded his pursuit the day before, something of the excitement of the
+hunter in view of his game seized upon this hitherto imperturbable
+detective, and it was with difficulty he could sustain his usual _rôle_
+of fashionable indifference.
+
+He arrived at the table before any of the other boarders, and presently
+a goodly array of amiable matrons, old and young gentlemen, and pretty
+girls came filing into the room, and finally--yes, finally--the
+gentleman whom he had followed from the mill the day before, and whom he
+now had no hesitation in fixing upon as Mr. Mansell.
+
+But the satisfaction occasioned by the settlement of this perplexing
+question was dampened somewhat by a sudden and uneasy sense of being
+himself at a disadvantage. Why he should feel thus he did not know.
+Perhaps the almost imperceptible change which took place in that
+gentleman's face as their eyes first met, may have caused the
+unlooked-for sensation; though why Mr. Mansell should change at the
+sight of one who must have been a perfect stranger to him, was more than
+Mr. Byrd could understand. It was enough that the latter felt he had
+made a mistake in not having donned a disguise before entering this
+house, and that, oppressed by the idea, he withdrew his attention from
+the man he had come to watch, and fixed it upon more immediate and
+personal matters.
+
+The meal was half over. Mr. Byrd who, as a stranger of more than
+ordinary good looks and prepossessing manners, had been placed by the
+obliging landlady between her own daughter and a lady of doubtful
+attractions, was endeavoring to improve his advantages and make himself
+as agreeable as possible to both of his neighbors, when he heard a lady
+near him say aloud, "You are late, Mr. Mansell," and, looking up in his
+amazement, saw entering the door---- Well, in the presence of the real
+owner of this name, he wondered he ever could have fixed upon the other
+man as the original of the person that had been described to him. The
+strong face, the sombre expression, the herculean frame, were unique,
+and in the comparison which they inevitably called forth, made all other
+men in the room look dwarfed if not actually commonplace.
+
+Greatly surprised at this new turn of affairs, and satisfied that he at
+last had before him the man who had confronted Miss Dare in the Syracuse
+depot, he turned his attention back to the ladies. He, however, took
+care to keep one ear open on the side of the new-comer, in the hope of
+gleaning from his style and manner of conversation some notion of his
+disposition and nature.
+
+But Craik Mansell was at no time a talkative man, and at this especial
+period of his career was less inclined than ever to enter into the
+trivial debates or good-natured repartee that was the staple of
+conversation at Mrs. Hart's table.
+
+So Mr. Byrd's wishes in this regard were foiled. He succeeded, however,
+in assuring himself by a square look, into the other's face, that to
+whatever temptation this man may have succumbed, or of whatever crime he
+may have been guilty, he was by nature neither cold, cruel, nor
+treacherous, and that the deadly blow, if dealt by him, was the
+offspring of some sudden impulse or violent ebullition of temper, and
+was being repented of with every breath he drew.
+
+But this discovery, though it modified Mr. Byrd's own sense of personal
+revolt against the man, could not influence him in the discharge of his
+duty, which was to save another of less interesting and perhaps less
+valuable traits of character from the consequences of a crime he had
+never committed. It was, therefore, no more than just, that, upon
+withdrawing from the table, he should endeavor to put himself in the way
+of settling that second question, upon whose answer in the affirmative
+depended the rightful establishment of his secret suspicions.
+
+That was, whether this young man was at or near the house of his aunt at
+the time when she was assaulted.
+
+Mrs. Hart's parlors were always thrown open to her boarders in the
+evening.
+
+There, at any time from seven to ten, you might meet a merry crowd of
+young people intent upon enjoying themselves, and usually highly
+successful in their endeavors to do so. Into this throng Mr. Byrd
+accordingly insinuated himself, and being of the sort to win instant
+social recognition, soon found he had but to make his choice in order to
+win for himself that _tête-à-tête_ conversation from which he hoped so
+much. He consequently surveyed the company with a critical eye, and soon
+made up his mind as to which lady was the most affable in her manners
+and the least likely to meet his advances with haughty reserve, and
+having won an introduction to her, sat down at her side with the stern
+determination of making her talk about Mr. Mansell.
+
+"You have a very charming company here," he remarked; "the house seems
+to be filled with a most cheerful class of people."
+
+"Yes," was the not-unlooked-for reply. "We are all merry enough if we
+except Mr. Mansell. But, of course, there is excuse for him. No one
+expects him to join in our sports."
+
+"Mr. Mansell? the gentleman who came in late to supper?" repeated Mr.
+Byrd, with no suggestion of the secret satisfaction he felt at the
+immediate success of his scheme.
+
+"Yes, he is in great trouble, you know; is the nephew of the woman who
+was killed a few days ago at Sibley, don't you remember? The widow lady
+who was struck on the head by a man of the name of Hildreth, and who
+died after uttering something about a ring, supposed by many to be an
+attempt on her part to describe the murderer?"
+
+"Yes," was the slow, almost languid, response; "and a dreadful thing,
+too; quite horrifying in its nature. And so this Mr. Mansell is her
+nephew?" he suggestively repeated. "Odd! I suppose he has told you all
+about the affair?"
+
+"He? Mercy! I don't suppose you could get him to say anything about it
+to save your life. He isn't of the talking sort. Besides, I don't
+believe he knows any more about it than you or I. He hasn't been to
+Sibley."
+
+"Didn't he go to the funeral?"
+
+"No; he said he was too ill; and indeed he was shut up one whole day
+with a terrible sore throat. He is the heir, too, of all her savings,
+they say; but he won't go to Sibley. Some folks think it is queer, but
+I----"
+
+Here her eyes wandered and her almost serious look vanished in a
+somewhat coquettish smile. Following her gaze with his own, Mr. Byrd
+perceived a gentleman approaching. It was the one he had first taken for
+Mr. Mansell.
+
+"Beg pardon," was the somewhat abrupt salutation with which this person
+advanced. "But they are proposing a game in the next room, and Miss
+Clayton's assistance is considered absolutely indispensable."
+
+"Mr. Brown, first allow me to make you acquainted with Mr. Byrd," said
+the light-hearted damsel, with a gracious inclination. "As you are both
+strangers, it is well for you to know each other, especially as I expect
+you to join in our games."
+
+"Thank you," protested Mr. Brown, "but I don't play games." Then seeing
+the deep bow of acquiescence which Mr. Byrd was making, added, with what
+appeared to be a touch of jealousy, "Except under strong provocation,"
+and holding out his arm, offered to escort the young lady into the next
+room.
+
+With an apologetic glance at Mr. Byrd, she accepted the attention
+proffered her, and speedily vanished into the midst of the laughing
+group that awaited her.
+
+Mr. Byrd found himself alone.
+
+"Check number one," thought he; and he bestowed any thing but an amiable
+benediction upon the man who had interrupted him in the midst of so
+promising a conversation.
+
+His next move was in the direction of the landlady's daughter, who,
+being somewhat shy, favored a retired nook behind the piano. They had
+been neighbors at table, and he could at once address her without fear
+of seeming obtrusive.
+
+"I do not see here the dark young gentleman whom you call Mr. Mansell?"
+he remarked, inquiringly.
+
+"Oh, no; he is in trouble. A near relative of his was murdered in cold
+blood the other day, and under the most aggravating circumstances.
+Haven't you heard about it? She was a Mrs. Clemmens, and lived in
+Sibley. It was in all the papers."
+
+"Ah, yes; I remember about it very well. And so he is her nephew," he
+went on, recklessly repeating himself in his determination to elicit all
+he could from these young and thoughtless misses. "A peculiar-looking
+young man; has the air of thoroughly understanding himself."
+
+"Yes, he is very smart, they say."
+
+"Does he never talk?"
+
+"Oh, yes; that is, he used to; but, since his aunt's death, we don't
+expect it. He is very much interested in machinery, and has invented
+something----"
+
+"Oh, Clara, you are not going to sit here," interposed the reproachful
+voice of a saucy-eyed maiden, who at this moment peeped around the
+corner of the piano. "We want all the recruits we can get," she cried,
+with a sudden blush, as she encountered the glance of Mr. Byrd. "Do
+come, and bring the gentleman too." And she slipped away to join that
+very Mr. Brown who, by his importunities, had been the occasion of the
+former interruption from which Mr. Byrd had suffered.
+
+"That man and I will quarrel yet," was the mental exclamation with which
+the detective rose. "Shall we join your friends?" asked he, assuming an
+unconcern he was far from feeling.
+
+"Yes, if you please," was the somewhat timid, though evidently pleased,
+reply.
+
+And Mr. Byrd noted down in his own mind check number two.
+
+The game was a protracted one. Twice did he think to escape from the
+merry crowd he had entered, and twice did he fail to do so. The
+indefatigable Brown would not let him slip, and it was only by a
+positive exertion of his will that he finally succeeded in withdrawing
+himself.
+
+"I wish to have a word with your mother," he explained, in reply to the
+look of protest with which Miss Hart honored his departure. "I hear she
+retires early; so you will excuse me if I leave somewhat abruptly."
+
+And to Mrs. Hart's apartment he at once proceeded, and, by dint of his
+easy assurance, soon succeeded in leading her, as he had already done
+the rest, into a discussion of the one topic for which he had an
+interest. He had not time, however, to glean much from her, for, just as
+she was making the admission that Mr. Mansell had not been home at the
+time of the murder, a knock was heard at the door, and, with an affable
+bow and a short, quick stare of surprise at Mr. Byrd, the ubiquitous Mr.
+Brown stepped in and took a seat on the sofa, with every appearance of
+intending to make a call.
+
+At this third check, Mr. Byrd was more than annoyed. Rising, however,
+with the most amiable courtesy, he bowed his acknowledgments to the
+landlady, and, without heeding her pressing invitation to remain and
+make the acquaintance of Mr. Brown, left the room and betook himself
+back to the parlors.
+
+He was just one minute too late. The last of the boarders had gone
+up-stairs, and only an empty room met his eyes.
+
+He at once ascended to his own apartment. It was on the fourth floor.
+There were many other rooms on this floor, and for a moment he could not
+remember which was his own door. At last, however, he felt sure it was
+the third one from the stairs, and, going to it, gave a short knock in
+case of mistake, and, hearing no reply, opened it and went in.
+
+The first glance assured him that his recollection had played him false,
+and that he was in the wrong room. The second, that he was in that of
+Mr. Mansell. The sight of the small model of a delicate and intricate
+machine that stood in full view on a table before him would have been
+sufficient assurance of this fact, even if the inventor himself had been
+absent. But he was there. Seated at a table, with his back to the door,
+and his head bowed forward on his arms, he presented such a picture of
+misery or despair, that Mr. Byrd felt his sympathies touched in spite of
+himself, and hastily stumbling backward, was about to confusedly
+withdraw, when a doubt struck him as to the condition of the deathly,
+still, and somewhat pallid figure before him, and, stepping hurriedly
+forward, he spoke the young man's name, and, failing to elicit a
+response, laid his hand on his shoulder, with an apology for disturbing
+him, and an inquiry as to how he felt.
+
+The touch acted where the voice had failed. Leaping from his partly
+recumbent position, Craik Mansell faced the intruder with indignant
+inquiry written in every line of his white and determined face.
+
+"To what do I owe this intrusion?" he cried, his nostrils expanding and
+contracting with an anger that proved the violence of his nature when
+aroused.
+
+"First, to my carelessness," responded Mr. Byrd; "and, secondly----" But
+there he paused, for the first time in his life, perhaps, absolutely
+robbed of speech. His eye had fallen upon a picture that the other held
+clutched in his vigorous right hand. It was a photograph of Imogene
+Dare, and it was made conspicuous by two heavy black lines which had
+been relentlessy drawn across the face in the form of a cross.
+"Secondly," he went on, after a moment, resolutely tearing his gaze away
+from this startling and suggestive object, "to my fears. I thought you
+looked ill, and could not forbear making an effort to reassure myself
+that all was right."
+
+"Thank you," ejaculated the other, in a heavy weariful tone. "I am
+perfectly well." And with a short bow he partially turned his back, with
+a distinct intimation that he desired to be left alone.
+
+Mr. Byrd could not resist this appeal. Glad as he would have been for
+even a moment's conversation with this man, he was, perhaps
+unfortunately, too much of a gentleman to press himself forward against
+the expressed wishes even of a suspected criminal. He accordingly
+withdrew to the door, and was about to open it and go out, when it was
+flung violently forward, and the ever-obtrusive Brown stepped in.
+
+This second intrusion was more than unhappy Mr. Mansell could stand.
+Striding passionately forward, he met the unblushing Brown at full tilt,
+and angrily pointing to the door, asked if it was not the custom of
+gentlemen to knock before entering the room of strangers.
+
+"I beg pardon," said the other, backing across the threshold, with a
+profuse display of confusion. "I had no idea of its being a stranger's
+room. I thought it was my own. I--I was sure that my door was the third
+from the stairs. Excuse me, excuse me." And he bustled noisily out.
+
+This precise reproduction of his own train of thought and action
+confounded Mr. Byrd.
+
+Turning with a deprecatory glance to the perplexed and angry occupant of
+the room, he said something about not knowing the person who had just
+left them; and then, conscious that a further contemplation of the stern
+and suffering countenance before him would unnerve him for the duty he
+had to perform, hurriedly withdrew.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+A LAST ATTEMPT.
+
+          When Fortune means to men most good,
+          She looks upon them with a threatening eye.--KING JOHN.
+
+
+THE sleep of Horace Byrd that night was any thing but refreshing. In the
+first place, he was troubled about this fellow Brown, whose last
+impertinence showed he was a man to be watched, and, if possible,
+understood. Secondly, he was haunted by a vision of the unhappy youth he
+had just left; seeing, again and again, both in his dreams and in the
+rush of heated fancies which followed his awaking, that picture of utter
+despair which the opening of his neighbor's door had revealed. He could
+not think of that poor mortal as sleeping. Whether it was the result of
+his own sympathetic admiration for Miss Dare, or of some subtle
+clairvoyance bestowed upon him by the darkness and stillness of the
+hour, he felt assured that the quiet watch he had interrupted by his
+careless importunity, had been again established, and that if he could
+tear down the partition separating their two rooms, he should see that
+bowed form and buried face crouched despairingly above the disfigured
+picture. The depths of human misery and the maddening passions that
+underlie all crime had been revealed to him for the first time,
+perhaps, in all their terrible suggestiveness, and he asked himself over
+and over as he tossed on his uneasy pillow, if he possessed the needful
+determination to carry on the scheme he had undertaken, in face of the
+unreasoning sympathies which the fathomless misery of this young man had
+aroused. Under the softening influences of the night, he answered, No;
+but when the sunlight came and the full flush of life with its restless
+duties and common necessities awoke within him, he decided, Yes.
+
+Mr. Mansell was not at the breakfast-table when Mr. Byrd came down. His
+duties at the mill were peremptory, and he had already taken his coffee
+and gone. But Mr. Brown was there, and at sight of him Mr. Byrd's
+caution took alarm, and he bestowed upon this intrusive busybody a close
+and searching scrutiny. It, however, elicited nothing in the way of his
+own enlightenment beyond the fact that this fellow, total stranger
+though he seemed, was for some inexplicable reason an enemy to himself
+or his plans.
+
+Not that Mr. Brown manifested this by any offensive token of dislike or
+even of mistrust. On the contrary, he was excessively polite, and let
+slip no opportunity of dragging Mr. Byrd into the conversation. Yet, for
+all that, a secret influence was already at work against the detective,
+and he could not attribute it to any other source than the jealous
+efforts of this man. Miss Hart was actually curt to him, and in the
+attitude of the various persons about the board he detected a certain
+reserve which had been entirely absent from their manner the evening
+before.
+
+But while placing, as he thought, due weight upon this fellow's
+animosity, he had no idea to what it would lead, till he went up-stairs.
+Mrs. Hart, who had hitherto treated him with the utmost cordiality, now
+called him into the parlor, and told him frankly that she would be
+obliged to him if he would let her have his room. To be sure, she
+qualified the seeming harshness of her request by an intimation that a
+permanent occupant had applied for it, and offered to pay his board at
+the hotel till he could find a room to suit him in another house; but
+the fact remained that she was really in a flutter to rid herself of
+him, and no subterfuge could hide it, and Mr. Byrd, to whose plans the
+full confidence of those around him was essential, found himself obliged
+to acquiesce in her desires, and announce at once his willingness to
+depart.
+
+Instantly she was all smiles, and overwhelmed him with overtures of
+assistance; but he courteously declined her help, and, flying from her
+apologies with what speed he could, went immediately to his room. Here
+he sat down to deliberate.
+
+The facts he had gleaned, despite the interference of his unknown enemy,
+were three:
+
+First, that Craik Mansell had found excuses for not attending the
+inquest, or even the funeral, of his murdered aunt.
+
+Secondly, that he had a strong passion for invention, and had even now
+the model of a machine on hand.
+
+And third, that he was not at home, wherever else he may have been, on
+the morning of the murder in Sibley.
+
+"A poor and meagre collection of insignificant facts," thought Mr. Byrd.
+"Too poor and meagre to avail much in stemming the tide threatening to
+overwhelm Gouverneur Hildreth."
+
+But what opportunity remained for making them weightier? He was turned
+from the house that held the few persons from whom he could hope to
+glean more complete and satisfactory information, and he did not know
+where else to seek it unless he went to the mill. And this was an
+alternative from which he shrank, as it would, in the first place,
+necessitate a revelation of his real character; and, secondly, make
+known the fact that Mr. Mansell was under the surveillance of the
+police, if not in the actual attitude of a suspected man.
+
+A quick and hearty, "Shure, you are very good, sir!" uttered in the hall
+without roused him from his meditations and turned his thoughts in a new
+direction. What if he could learn something from the servants? He had
+not thought of them. This girl, now, whose work constantly carried her
+into the various rooms on this floor, would, of course, know whether Mr.
+Mansell had been away on the day of the murder, even if she could not
+tell the precise time of his return. At all events, it was worth while
+to test her with a question or two before he left, even if he had to
+resort to the means of spurring her memory with money. His failure in
+other directions did not necessitate a failure here.
+
+He accordingly called her in, and showing her a bright silver dollar,
+asked her if she thought it good enough pay for a short answer to a
+simple question.
+
+To his great surprise she blushed and drew back, shaking her head and
+muttering that her mistress didn't like to have the girls talk to the
+young men about the house, and finally going off with a determined toss
+of her frowsy head, that struck Mr. Byrd aghast, and made him believe
+more than ever that his evil star hung in the ascendant, and that the
+sooner he quit the house the better.
+
+In ten minutes he was in the street.
+
+But one thing now remained for him to do. He must make the acquaintance
+of one of the mill-owners, or possibly of an overseer or accountant, and
+from him learn where Mr. Mansell had been at the time of his aunt's
+murder. To this duty he devoted the day; but here also he was met by
+unexpected difficulties. Though he took pains to disguise himself before
+proceeding to the mill, all the endeavors which he made to obtain an
+interview there with any responsible person were utterly fruitless.
+Whether his ill-luck at the house had followed him to this place he
+could not tell, but, for some reason or other, there was not one of the
+gentlemen for whom he inquired but had some excuse for not seeing him;
+and, worn out at last with repeated disappointments, if not oppressed
+by the doubtful looks he received from the various subordinates who
+carried his messages, he left the building, and proceeded to make use of
+the only means now left him of compassing his end.
+
+This was to visit Mr. Goodman, the one member of the firm who was not at
+his post that day, and see if from him he could gather the single fact
+he was in search of.
+
+"Perhaps the atmosphere of distrust with which I am surrounded in this
+quarter has not reached this gentleman's house," thought he. And having
+learned from the directory where that house was, he proceeded
+immediately to it.
+
+His reception was by no means cordial. Mr. Goodman had been ill the
+night before, and was in no mood to see strangers.
+
+"Mansell?" he coolly repeated, in acknowledgment of the other's inquiry
+as to whether he had a person of that name in his employ. "Yes, our
+book-keeper's name is Mansell. May I ask"--and here Mr. Byrd felt
+himself subjected to a thorough, if not severe, scrutiny--"why you come
+to me with inquiries concerning him?"
+
+"Because," the determined detective responded, adopting at once the bold
+course, "you can put me in possession of a fact which it eminently
+befits the cause of justice to know. I am an emissary, sir, from the
+District Attorney at Sibley, and the point I want settled is, where Mr.
+Mansell was on the morning of the twenty-sixth of September?"
+
+This was business, and the look that involuntarily leaped into Mr.
+Goodman's eye proved that he considered it so. He did not otherwise
+betray this feeling, however, but turned quite calmly toward a chair,
+into which he slowly settled himself before replying:
+
+"And why do you not ask the gentleman himself where he was? He probably
+would be quite ready to tell you."
+
+The inflection he gave to these words warned Mr. Byrd to be careful. The
+truth was, Mr. Goodman was Mr. Mansell's best friend, and as such had
+his own reasons for not being especially communicative in his regard, to
+this stranger. The detective vaguely felt this, and immediately changed
+his manner.
+
+"I have no doubt of that, sir," he ingenuously answered. "But Mr.
+Mansell has had so much to distress him lately, that I was desirous of
+saving him from the unpleasantness which such a question would
+necessarily cause. It is only a small matter, sir. A person--it is not
+essential to state whom--has presumed to raise the question among the
+authorities in Sibley as to whether Mr. Mansell, as heir of poor Mrs.
+Clemmens' small property, might not have had some hand in her dreadful
+death. There was no proof to sustain the assumption, and Mr. Mansell was
+not even known to have been in the town on or after the day of her
+murder; but justice, having listened to the aspersion, felt bound to
+satisfy itself of its falsity; and I was sent here to learn where Mr.
+Mansell was upon that fatal day. I find he was not in Buffalo. But this
+does not mean he was in Sibley, and I am sure that, if you will, you can
+supply me with facts that will lead to a complete and satisfactory
+_alibi_ for him."
+
+But the hard caution of the other was not to be moved.
+
+"I am sorry," said he, "but I can give you no information in regard to
+Mr. Mansell's travels. You will have to ask the gentleman himself."
+
+"You did not send him out on business of your own, then?"
+
+"No."
+
+"But you knew he was going?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And can tell when he came back?"
+
+"He was in his place on Wednesday."
+
+The cold, dry nature of these replies convinced Mr. Byrd that something
+more than the sullen obstinacy of an uncommunicative man lay behind this
+determined reticence. Looking at Mr. Goodman inquiringly, he calmly
+remarked:
+
+"You are a friend of Mr. Mansell?"
+
+The answer came quick and coldly:
+
+"He is a constant visitor at my house."
+
+Mr. Byrd made a respectful bow.
+
+"You can, then, have no doubts of his ability to prove an _alibi_?"
+
+"I have no doubts concerning Mr. Mansell," was the stern and
+uncompromising reply.
+
+Mr. Byrd at once felt he had received his dismissal. But before making
+up his mind to go, he resolved upon one further effort. Calling to his
+aid his full power of acting, he slowly shook his head with a thoughtful
+air, and presently murmured half aloud and half, as it were, to himself:
+
+"I thought, possibly, he might have gone to Washington." Then, with a
+casual glance at Mr. Goodman, added: "He is an inventor, I believe?"
+
+"Yes," was again the laconic response.
+
+"Has he not a machine at present which he desires to bring to the notice
+of some capitalist?"
+
+"I believe he has," was the forced and none too amiable answer.
+
+Mr. Byrd at once leaned confidingly forward.
+
+"Don't you think," he asked, "that he may have gone to New York to
+consult with some one about this pet hobby of his? It would certainly be
+a natural thing for him to do, and if I only knew it was so, I could go
+back to Sibley with an easy conscience."
+
+His disinterested air, and the tone of kindly concern which he had
+adopted, seemed at last to produce its effect on his companion. Relaxing
+a trifle of his austerity, Mr. Goodman went so far as to admit that Mr.
+Mansell had told him that business connected with his patent had called
+him out of town; but beyond this he would allow nothing; and Mr. Byrd,
+baffled in his attempts to elicit from this man any distinct
+acknowledgment of Mr. Mansell's whereabouts at the critical time of Mrs.
+Clemmens' death, made a final bow and turned toward the door.
+
+It was only at this moment he discovered that Mr. Goodman and himself
+had not been alone in the room; that curled up in one of the
+window-seats was a little girl of some ten or twelve years of age, who
+at the first tokens of his taking his departure slipped shyly down to
+the floor and ran before him out into the hall. He found her by the
+front door when he arrived there. She was standing with her hand on the
+knob, and presented such a picture of childish eagerness, tempered by
+childish timidity, that he involuntarily paused before her with a smile.
+She needed no further encouragement.
+
+"Oh, sir, I know about Mr. Mansell!" she cried. "He wasn't in that place
+you talk about, for he wrote a letter to papa just the day before he
+came back, and the postmark on the envelope was Monteith. I remember,
+because it was the name of the man who made our big map." And, looking
+up with that eager zeal which marks the liking of very little folks for
+some one favorite person among their grown acquaintances, she added,
+earnestly: "I do hope you won't let them say any thing bad about Mr.
+Mansell, he is so good."
+
+And without waiting for a reply, she ran off, her curls dancing, her
+eyes sparkling, all her little innocent form alive with the joy of
+having done a kindness, as she thought, for her favorite, Mr. Mansell.
+
+Mr. Byrd, on the contrary, felt a strange pang that the information he
+had sought for so long and vainly should come at last from the lips of
+an innocent child.
+
+Monteith, as you remember, was the next station to Sibley.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+THE END OF A TORTUOUS PATH.
+
+          Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.--HAMLET.
+
+
+THE arrest of Mr. Hildreth had naturally quieted public suspicion by
+fixing attention upon a definite point, so that when Mr. Byrd returned
+to Sibley he found that he could pursue whatever inquiries he chose
+without awakening the least mistrust that he was on the look-out for the
+murderer of Mrs. Clemmens.
+
+The first use he made of his time was to find out if Mr. Mansell, or any
+man answering to his description, had been seen to take the train from
+the Sibley station on the afternoon or evening of the fatal Tuesday. The
+result was unequivocal. No such person had been seen there, and no such
+person was believed to have been at the station at any time during that
+day. This was his first disappointment.
+
+He next made the acquaintance of the conductors on that line of
+street-cars by means of which he believed Mr. Mansell to have made his
+escape. But with no better result. Not one of them remembered having
+taken up, of late, any passenger from the terminus, of the appearance
+described by Mr. Byrd.
+
+And this was his second disappointment.
+
+His next duty was obviously to change his plan of action and make the
+town of Monteith the centre of his inquiries. But he hesitated to do
+this till he had made one other visit to the woods in whose recesses he
+still believed the murderer to have plunged immediately upon dealing the
+fatal blow.
+
+He went by the way of the street railroad, not wishing to be again seen
+crossing the bog, and arrived at the hut in the centre of the glade
+without meeting any one or experiencing the least adventure.
+
+This time he went in, but nothing was to be seen save bare logs, a rough
+hearth where a fire had once been built, and the rudest sort of bench
+and table; and hurrying forth again, he looked doubtfully up and down
+the glade in pursuit of some hint to guide him in his future researches.
+
+Suddenly he received one. The thick wall of foliage which at first
+glance revealed but the two outlets already traversed by him, showed
+upon close inspection a third path, opening well behind the hut, and
+leading, as he soon discovered, in an entirely opposite direction from
+that which had taken him to West Side. Merely stopping to cast one
+glance at the sun, which was still well overhead, he set out on this new
+path. It was longer and much more intricate than the other. It led
+through hollows and up steeps, and finally out into an open blackberry
+patch, where it seemed to terminate. But a close study of the
+surrounding bushes, soon disclosed signs of a narrow and thread-like
+passage curving about a rocky steep. Entering this he presently found
+himself drawn again into the woods, which he continued to traverse till
+he came to a road cut through the heart of the forest, for the use of
+the lumbermen. Here he paused. Should he turn to the right or left? He
+decided to turn to the right. Keeping in the road, which was rough with
+stones where it was not marked with the hoofs of both horses and cattle,
+he walked for some distance. Then he emerged into open space again, and
+discovered that he was on the hillside overlooking Monteith, and that by
+a mile or two's further walk over the highway that was dimly to be
+descried at the foot of the hill, he would reach the small station
+devoted to the uses of the quarrymen that worked in this place.
+
+There was no longer any further doubt that this route, and not the
+other, had been the one taken by Mr. Mansell on that fatal afternoon.
+But he was determined not to trust any further to mere surmises; so
+hastening down the hill, he made his way in the direction of the
+highway, meaning to take the walk alluded to, and learn for himself what
+passengers had taken the train at this point on the Tuesday afternoon so
+often mentioned.
+
+But a barrier rose in his way. A stream which he had barely noticed in
+the quick glance he threw over the landscape from the brow of the hill,
+separated with quite a formidable width of water the hillside from the
+road, and it was not till he wandered back for some distance along its
+banks, that he found a bridge. The time thus lost was considerable, but
+he did not think of it; and when, after a long and weary tramp, he
+stepped upon the platform of the small station, he was so eager to learn
+if he had correctly followed the scent, that he forgot to remark that
+the road he had taken was any thing but an easy or feasible one for a
+hasty escape.
+
+The accommodation-trains, which alone stop at this point, had both
+passed, and he found the station-master at leisure. A single glance into
+his honest and intelligent face convinced the detective that he had a
+reliable man to deal with. He at once commenced his questions.
+
+"Do many persons besides the quarrymen take the train at this place?"
+asked he.
+
+"Not many," was the short but sufficiently good-natured rejoinder. "I
+guess I could easily count them on the fingers of one hand," he laughed.
+
+"You would be apt to notice, then, if a strange gentleman got on board
+here at any time, would you not?"
+
+"Guess so; not often troubled that way, but sometimes--sometimes."
+
+"Can you tell me whether a young man of very dark complexion, heavy
+mustache, and a determined, if not excited, expression, took the cars
+here for Monteith, say, any day last week?"
+
+"I don't know," mused the man. "Dark complexion, you say, large
+mustache; let me see."
+
+"No dandy," Mr. Byrd carefully explained, "but a strong man, who
+believes in work. He was possibly in a state of somewhat nervous hurry,"
+he went on, suggestively, "and if he wore an overcoat at all, it was a
+gray one."
+
+The face of the man lighted up.
+
+"I seem to remember," said he. "Did he have a very bright blue eye and a
+high color?"
+
+Mr. Byrd nodded.
+
+"And did he carry a peculiarly shaped bag, of which he was very
+careful?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mr. Byrd, but remembering the model, added with
+quick assurance, "I have no doubt he did"; which seemed to satisfy the
+other, for he at once cried:
+
+"I recollect such a person very well. I noticed him before he got to the
+station; as soon in fact as he came in sight. He was walking down the
+highway, and seemed to be thinking about something. He's of the kind to
+attract attention. What about him, sir?"
+
+"Nothing. He was in trouble of some kind, and he went from home without
+saying where he was going; and his friends are anxious about him, that
+is all. Do you think you could swear to his face if you saw it?"
+
+"I think I could. He was the only stranger that got on to the cars that
+afternoon."
+
+"Do you remember, then, the day?"
+
+"Well, no, now, I don't."
+
+"But can't you, if you try? Wasn't there something done by you that day
+which will assist your memory?"
+
+Again that slow "Let me see" showed that the man was pondering. Suddenly
+he slapped his thigh and exclaimed:
+
+"You might be a lawyer's clerk now, mightn't you; or, perhaps, a lawyer
+himself? I do remember that a large load of stone was sent off that day,
+and a minute's look at my book---- It was Tuesday," he presently
+affirmed.
+
+Mr. Byrd drew a deep breath. There is sadness mixed with the
+satisfaction of such a triumph.
+
+"I am much obliged to you," he said, in acknowledgment of the other's
+trouble. "The friends of this gentleman will now have little difficulty
+in tracing him. There is but one thing further I should like to make
+sure of."
+
+And taking from his memorandum-book the picture he kept concealed there,
+he showed him the face of Mr. Mansell, now altered to a perfect
+likeness, and asked him if he recognized it.
+
+The decided Yes which he received made further questions unnecessary.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+STORM.
+
+          Oh, my offence is rank, it smells to heav'n:
+          It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't!--HAMLET.
+
+
+A DAY had passed. Mr. Byrd, who no longer had any reason to doubt that
+he was upon the trail of the real assailant of the Widow Clemmens, had
+resolved upon a third visit to the woods, this time with the definite
+object of picking up any clew, however trifling, in support of the fact
+that Craik Mansell had passed through the glade behind his aunt's house.
+
+The sky, when he left the hotel, was one vast field of blue; but by the
+time he reached the terminus of the car-route, and stepped out upon the
+road leading to the woods, dark clouds had overcast the sun, and a cool
+wind replaced the quiet zephyrs which had all day fanned the brilliant
+autumn foliage.
+
+He did not realize the condition of the atmosphere, however, and
+proceeded on his way, thinking more of the person he had just perceived
+issuing from the door-way of Professor Darling's lofty mansion, than of
+the low mutterings of distant thunder that now and then disturbed the
+silence of the woods, or of the ominous, brazen tint which was slowly
+settling over the huge bank of cloud that filled the northern sky. For
+that person was Miss Dare, and her presence here, or anywhere near him,
+at this time, must of necessity, awaken a most painful train of thought.
+
+But, though unmindful of the storm, he was dimly conscious of the
+darkness that was settling about him. Quicker and quicker grew his pace,
+and at last he almost broke into a run as the heavy pall of a large
+black cloud swept up over the zenith, and wiped from the heavens the
+last remnant of blue sky. One drop fell, then another, then a slow,
+heavy patter, that bent double the leaves they fell upon, as if a shower
+of lead had descended upon the heavily writhing forest. The wind had
+risen, too, and the vast aisles of that clear and beautiful wood
+thundered with the swaying of boughs, and the crash here and there of an
+old and falling limb. But the lightning delayed.
+
+The blindest or most abstracted man could be ignorant no longer of what
+all this turmoil meant. Stopping in the path along which he had been
+speeding, Mr. Byrd glanced before him and behind, in a momentary
+calculation of distances, and deciding he could not regain the terminus
+before the storm burst, pushed on toward the hut.
+
+He reached it just as the first flash of lightning darted down through
+the heavy darkness, and was about to fling himself against the door,
+when something--was it the touch of an invisible hand, or the crash of
+awful thunder which at this instant plowed up the silence of the forest
+and woke a pandemonium of echoes about his head?--stopped him.
+
+He never knew. He only realized that he shuddered and drew back, with a
+feeling of great disinclination to enter the low building before him,
+alone; and that presently taking advantage of another loud crash of
+falling boughs, he crept around the corner of the hut, and satisfied his
+doubts by looking into the small, square window opening to the west.
+
+He found there was ample reason for all the hesitation he had felt. A
+man was sitting there, who, at the first glimpse, appeared to him to be
+none other than Craik Mansell. But reason soon assured him this could
+not be, though the shape, the attitude--that old attitude of despair
+which he remembered so well--was so startlingly like that of the man
+whose name was uppermost in his thoughts, that he recoiled in spite of
+himself.
+
+A second flash swept blinding through the wood. Mr. Byrd advanced his
+head and took another glance at the stranger. It _was_ Mr. Mansell. No
+other man would sit so quiet and unmoved during the rush and clatter of
+a terrible storm.
+
+Look! not a hair of his head has stirred, not a movement has taken place
+in the hands clasped so convulsively beneath his brow. He is an image, a
+stone, and would not hear though the roof fell in.
+
+Mr. Byrd himself forgot the storm, and only queried what his duty was
+in this strange and surprising emergency.
+
+But before he could come to any definite conclusion, he was subjected to
+a new sensation. A stir that was not the result of the wind or the rain
+had taken place in the forest before him. A something--he could not tell
+what--was advancing upon him from the path he had himself travelled so
+short a time before, and its step, if step it were, shook him with a
+vague apprehension that made him dread to lift his eyes. But he
+conquered the unmanly instinct, and merely taking the precaution to step
+somewhat further back from view, looked in the direction of his fears,
+and saw a tall, firmly-built woman, whose grandly poised head, held
+high, in defiance of the gale, the lightning, and the rain, proclaimed
+her to be none other than Imogene Dare.
+
+It was a juxtaposition of mental, moral, and physical forces that almost
+took Mr. Byrd's breath away. He had no doubt whom she had come to see,
+or to what sort of a tryst he was about to be made an unwilling witness.
+But he could not have moved if the blast then surging through the trees
+had uprooted the huge pine behind which he had involuntarily drawn at
+the first impression he had received of her approach. He must watch that
+white face of hers slowly evolve itself from the surrounding darkness,
+and he must be present when the dreadful bolt swept down from heaven, if
+only to see her eyes in the flare of its ghostly flame.
+
+It came while she was crossing the glade. Fierce, blinding, more vivid
+and searching than at any time before, it flashed down through the
+cringing boughs, and, like a mantle of fire, enveloped her form,
+throwing out its every outline, and making of the strong and beautiful
+face an electric vision which Mr. Byrd was never able to forget.
+
+A sudden swoop of wind followed, flinging her almost to the ground, but
+Mr. Byrd knew from that moment that neither wind nor lightning, not even
+the fear of death, would stop this woman if once she was determined upon
+any course.
+
+Dreading the next few moments inexpressibly, yet forcing himself, as a
+detective, to remain at his post, though every instinct of his nature
+rebelled, Mr. Byrd drew himself up against the side of the low hut and
+listened. Her voice, rising between the mutterings of thunder and the
+roar of the ceaseless gale, was plainly to be heard.
+
+"Craik Mansell," said she, in a strained tone, that was not without its
+severity, "you sent for me, and I am here."
+
+Ah, this was her mode of greeting, was it? Mr. Byrd felt his breath come
+easier, and listened for the reply with intensest interest.
+
+But it did not come. The low rumbling of the thunder went on, and the
+wind howled through the gruesome forest, but the man she had addressed
+did not speak.
+
+"Craik!" Her voice still came from the door-way, where she had seemingly
+taken her stand. "Do you not hear me?"
+
+A stifled groan was the sole reply.
+
+She appeared to take one step forward, but no more.
+
+"I can understand," said she, and Mr. Byrd had no difficulty in hearing
+her words, though the turmoil overhead was almost deafening, "why the
+restlessness of despair should drive you into seeking this interview. I
+have longed to see you too, if only to tell you that I wish heaven's
+thunderbolts had fallen upon us both on that day when we sat and talked
+of our future prospects and----"
+
+A lurid flash cut short her words. Strange and awesome sounds awoke in
+the air above, and the next moment a great branch fell crashing down
+upon the roof of the hut, beating in one corner, and sliding thence
+heavily to the ground, where it lay with all its quivering leaves
+uppermost, not two feet from the door-way where this woman stood.
+
+A shriek like that of a lost spirit went up from her lips.
+
+"I thought the vengeance of heaven had fallen!" she gasped. And for a
+moment not a sound was heard within or without the hut, save that low
+flutter of the disturbed leaves. "It is not to be," she then whispered,
+with a return of her old calmness, that was worse than any shriek.
+"Murder is not to be avenged thus." Then, shortly: "A dark and hideous
+line of blood is drawn between you and me, Craik Mansell. _I_ cannot
+pass it, and you must not, forever and forever and forever. But that
+does not hinder me from wishing to help you, and so I ask, in all
+sincerity, What is it you want me to do for you to-day?"
+
+A response came this time.
+
+"Show me how to escape the consequences of my act," were his words,
+uttered in a low and muffled voice.
+
+She did not answer at once.
+
+"Are you threatened?" she inquired at last, in a tone that proved she
+had drawn one step nearer to the bowed form and hidden face of the
+person she addressed.
+
+"My conscience threatens me," was the almost stifled reply.
+
+Again that heavy silence, all the more impressive that the moments
+before had been so prolific of heaven's most terrible noises.
+
+"You suffer because another man is forced to endure suspicion for a
+crime he never committed," she whisperingly exclaimed.
+
+Only a groan answered her; and the moments grew heavier and heavier,
+more and more oppressive, though the hitherto accompanying outcries of
+the forest had ceased, and a faint lightening of the heavy darkness was
+taking place overhead. Mr. Byrd felt the pressure of the situation so
+powerfully, he drew near to the window he had hitherto avoided, and
+looked in. She was standing a foot behind the crouched figure of the
+man, between whom and herself she had avowed a line of blood to be
+drawn. As he looked she spoke.
+
+"Craik," said she, and the deathless yearning of love spoke in her voice
+at last, "there is but one thing to do. Expiate your guilt by
+acknowledging it. Save the innocent from unmerited suspicion, and trust
+to the mercy of God. It is the only advice I can give you. I know no
+other road to peace. If I did----" She stopped, choked by the terror of
+her own thoughts. "Craik," she murmured, at last, "on the day I hear of
+your having made this confession, I vow to take an oath of celibacy for
+life. It is the only recompense I can offer for the misery and sin into
+which our mutual mad ambitions have plunged you."
+
+And subduing with a look of inexpressible anguish an evident longing to
+lay her hand in final caress upon that bended head, she gave him one
+parting look, and then, with a quick shudder, hurried away, and buried
+herself amid the darkness of the wet and shivering woods.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+A SURPRISE.
+
+          Season your admiration for awhile.--HAMLET.
+
+
+WHEN all was still again, Mr. Byrd advanced from his place of
+concealment, and softly entered the hut. Its solitary occupant sat as
+before, with his head bent down upon his clasped hands. But at the first
+sound of Mr. Byrd's approach he rose and turned. The shock of the
+discovery which followed sent the detective reeling back against the
+door. The person who faced him with such quiet assurance was _not_ Craik
+Mansell.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+A BRACE OF DETECTIVES.
+
+          Hath this fellow no feeling of his business?--HAMLET.
+
+          No action, whether foul or fair,
+          Is ever done, but it leaves somewhere
+          A record.                            --LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+"SO there are two of us! I thought as much when I first set eyes upon
+your face in Buffalo!"
+
+This exclamation, uttered in a dry and musing tone, woke Mr. Byrd from
+the stupor into which this astonishing discovery had thrown him.
+Advancing upon the stranger, who in size, shape, and coloring was almost
+the _fac-simile_ of the person he had so successfully represented, Mr.
+Byrd looked him scrutinizingly over.
+
+The man bore the ordeal with equanimity; he even smiled.
+
+"You don't recognize me, I see."
+
+Mr. Byrd at once recoiled.
+
+"Ah!" cried he, "you are that Jack-in-the-box, Brown!"
+
+"_Alias_ Frank Hickory, at your service."
+
+This name, so unexpected, called up a flush of mingled surprise and
+indignation to Mr. Byrd's cheek.
+
+"I thought----" he began.
+
+"Don't think," interrupted the other, who, when excited, affected
+laconicism, "know." Then, with affability, proceeded, "You are the
+gentleman----" he paid that much deference to Mr. Byrd's air and manner,
+"who I was told might lend me a helping hand in this Clemmens affair. I
+didn't recognize you before, sir. Wouldn't have stood in your way if I
+had. Though, to be sure, I did want to see this matter through myself. I
+thought I had the right. And I've done it, too, as you must acknowledge,
+if you have been present in this terrible place very long."
+
+This self-satisfied, if not boastful, allusion to a scene in which this
+strange being had played so unworthy, if not unjustifiable, a part, sent
+a thrill of revulsion through Mr. Byrd. Drawing hastily back with an
+instinct of dislike he could not conceal, he cast a glance through the
+thicket of trees that spread beyond the open door, and pointedly asked:
+
+"Was there no way of satisfying yourself of the guilt of Craik Mansell,
+except by enacting a farce that may lead to the life-long remorse of the
+woman out of whose love you have made a trap?"
+
+A slow flush, the first, possibly, that had visited the hardy cheek of
+this thick-skinned detective for years, crept over the face of Frank
+Hickory.
+
+"I don't mean she shall ever know," he sullenly protested, kicking at
+the block upon which he had been sitting. "But it _was_ a mean trick,"
+he frankly enough admitted the next moment. "If I hadn't been the tough
+old hickory knot that I am, I couldn't have done it, I suppose. The
+storm, too, made it seem a bit trifling. But---- Well, well!" he
+suddenly interjected, in a more cheerful tone, "'tis too late now for
+tears and repentance. The thing is done, and can't be undone. And, at
+all events, I reckon we are both satisfied _now_ as to who killed Widow
+Clemmens!"
+
+Mr. Byrd could not resist a slight sarcasm. "I thought you were
+satisfied in that regard before?" said he. "At least, I understood that
+at a certain time you were very positive it was Mr. Hildreth."
+
+"So I was," the fellow good-naturedly allowed; "so I was. The byways of
+a crime like this are dreadful dark and uncertain. It isn't strange that
+a fellow gets lost sometimes. But I got a jog on my elbow that sent me
+into the right path," said he, "as, perhaps, you did too, sir, eh?"
+
+Not replying to this latter insinuation, Mr. Byrd quietly repeated:
+
+"You got a jog on your elbow? When, may I ask?"
+
+"Three days ago, _just_!" was the emphatic reply.
+
+"And from whom?"
+
+Instead of replying, the man leaned back against the wall of the hut and
+looked at his interlocutor in silence.
+
+"Are we going to join hands over this business?" he cried, at last, "or
+are you thinking of pushing your way on alone after you have got from me
+all that I know?"
+
+The question took Mr. Byrd by surprise.
+
+He had not thought of the future. He was as yet too much disturbed by
+his memories of the past. To hide his discomfiture, he began to pace the
+floor, an operation which his thoroughly wet condition certainly made
+advisable.
+
+"I have no wish to rob you of any glory you may hope to reap from the
+success of the plot you have carried on here to-day," he presently
+declared, with some bitterness; "but if this Craik Mansell _is_ guilty,
+I suppose it is my duty to help you in the collection of all suitable
+and proper evidence against him."
+
+"Then," said the other, who had been watching him with rather an anxious
+eye, "let us to work." And, sitting down on the table, he motioned to
+Mr. Byrd to take a seat upon the block at his side.
+
+But the latter kept up his walk.
+
+Hickory surveyed him for a moment in silence, then he said:
+
+"You must have something against this young man, or you wouldn't be
+here. What is it? What first set you thinking about Craik Mansell?"
+
+Now, this was a question Mr. Byrd could not and would not answer. After
+what had just passed in the hut, he felt it impossible to mention to
+this man the name of Imogene Dare in connection with that of the nephew
+of Mrs. Clemmens. He therefore waived the other's interrogation and
+remarked:
+
+"My knowledge was rather the fruit of surmise than fact. I did not
+believe in the guilt of Gouverneur Hildreth, and so was forced to look
+about me for some one whom I could conscientiously suspect. I fixed upon
+this unhappy man in Buffalo; how truly, your own suspicions,
+unfortunately, reveal."
+
+"And I had to have my wits started by a horrid old woman," murmured the
+evidently abashed Hickory.
+
+"Horrid old woman!" repeated Mr. Byrd. "Not Sally Perkins?"
+
+"Yes. A sweet one, isn't she?"
+
+Mr. Byrd shuddered.
+
+"Tell me about it," said he, coming and sitting down in the seat the
+other had previously indicated to him.
+
+"I will, sir; I will: but first let's look at the weather. Some folks
+would think it just as well for you to change that toggery of yours.
+What do you say to going home first, and talking afterward?"
+
+"I suppose it would be wise," admitted Mr. Byrd, looking down at his
+garments, whose decidedly damp condition he had scarcely noticed in his
+excitement. "And yet I hate to leave this spot till I learn how you came
+to choose it as the scene of the tragi-comedy you have enacted here
+to-day, and what position it is likely to occupy in the testimony which
+you have collected against this young man."
+
+"Wait, then," said the bustling fellow, "till I build you the least bit
+of a fire to warm you. It won't take but a minute," he averred, piling
+together some old sticks that cumbered the hearth, and straightway
+setting a match to them. "See! isn't that pleasant? And now, just cast
+your eye at this!" he continued, drawing a comfortable-looking flask out
+of his pocket and handing it over to the other with a dry laugh. "Isn't
+_this_ pleasant?" And he threw himself down on the floor and stretched
+out his hands to the blaze, with a gusto which the dreary hour he had
+undoubtedly passed made perfectly natural, if not excusable.
+
+"I thank you," said Mr. Byrd; "I didn't know I was so chilled," and he,
+too, enjoyed the warmth. "And, now," he pursued, after a moment, "go on;
+let us have the thing out at once."
+
+But the other was in no hurry. "Very good, sir," he cried; "but, first,
+if you don't mind, suppose you tell me what brought _you_ to this hut
+to-day?"
+
+"I was on the look-out for clues. In my study of the situation, I
+decided that the murderer of Mrs. Clemmens escaped, not from the front,
+but from the back, of the house. Taking the path I imagined him to have
+trod, I came upon this hut. It naturally attracted my attention, and
+to-day I came back to examine it more closely in the hope of picking up
+some signs of his having been here, or at least of having passed through
+the glade on his way to the deeper woods."
+
+"And what, if you had succeeded in this, sir? What, if some token of his
+presence had rewarded your search?"
+
+"I should have completed a chain of proof of which only this one link is
+lacking. I could have shown how Craik Mansell fled from this place on
+last Tuesday afternoon, making his way through the woods to the highway,
+and thence to the Quarry Station at Monteith, where he took the train
+which carried him back to Buffalo."
+
+"You could!--show me how?"
+
+Mr. Byrd explained himself more definitely.
+
+Hickory at once rose.
+
+"I guess we can give you the link," he dryly remarked. "At all events,
+suppose you just step here and tell me what conclusion you draw from the
+appearance of this pile of brush."
+
+Mr. Byrd advanced and looked at a small heap of hemlock that lay in a
+compact mass in one corner.
+
+"I have not disturbed it," pursued the other. "It is just as it was when
+I found it."
+
+"Looks like a pillow," declared Mr. Byrd. "Has been used for such, I am
+sure; for see, the dust in this portion of the floor lies lighter than
+elsewhere. You can almost detect the outline of a man's recumbent form,"
+he went on, slowly, leaning down to examine the floor more closely. "As
+for the boughs, they have been cut from the tree with a knife, and----"
+Lifting up a sprig, he looked at it, then passed it over to Hickory,
+with a meaning glance that directed attention to one or two short hairs
+of a dark brown color, that were caught in the rough bark. "He did not
+even throw his pocket-handkerchief over the heap before lying down," he
+observed.
+
+Mr. Hickory smiled. "You're up in your business, I see." And drawing his
+new colleague to the table, he asked him what he saw there.
+
+At first sight Mr. Byrd exclaimed: "Nothing," but in another moment he
+picked up an infinitesimal chip from between the rough logs that formed
+the top of this somewhat rustic piece of furniture, and turning it over
+in his hand, pronounced it to be a piece of wood from a lead-pencil.
+
+"Here are several of them," remarked Mr. Hickory, "and what is more, it
+is easy to tell just the color of the pencil from which they were cut.
+It was blue."
+
+"That is so," assented Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Quarrymen, charcoal-burners, and the like are not much in the habit of
+sharpening pencils," suggested Hickory.
+
+"Is the pencil now to be found in the pocket of Mr. Mansell a blue one?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"Have you any thing more to show me?" asked Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Only this," responded the other, taking out of his pocket the torn-off
+corner of a newspaper. "I found this blowing about under the bushes out
+there," said he. "Look at it and tell me from what paper it was torn."
+
+"I don't know," said Mr. Byrd; "none that I am acquainted with."
+
+"You don't read the Buffalo _Courier_?"
+
+"Oh, is this----"
+
+"A corner from the Buffalo _Courier_? I don't know, but I mean to find
+out. If it is, and the date proves to be correct, we won't have much
+trouble about the little link, will we?"
+
+Mr. Byrd shook his head and they again crouched down over the fire.
+
+"And, now, what did you learn in Buffalo?" inquired the persistent
+Hickory.
+
+"Not much," acknowledged Mr. Byrd. "The man Brown was entirely too
+ubiquitous to give me my full chance. Neither at the house nor at the
+mill was I able to glean any thing beyond an admission from the landlady
+that Mr. Mansell was not at home at the time of his aunt's murder. I
+couldn't even learn where he was on that day, or where he had ostensibly
+gone? If it had not been for the little girl of Mr. Goodman----"
+
+"Ah, I had not time to go to that house," interjected the other,
+suggestively.
+
+"I should have come home as wise as I went," continued Mr. Byrd. "She
+told me that on the day before Mr. Mansell returned, he wrote to her
+father from Monteith, and _that_ settled my mind in regard to him. It
+was pure luck, however."
+
+The other laughed long and loud.
+
+"I didn't know I did it up so well," he cried. "I told the landlady you
+were a detective, or acted like one, and she was very ready to take the
+alarm, having, as I judge, a motherly liking for her young boarder. Then
+I took Messrs. Chamberlin and Harrison into my confidence, and having
+got from them all the information they could give me, told them there
+was evidently another man on the track of this Mansell, and warned them
+to keep silence till they heard from the prosecuting attorney in Sibley.
+But I didn't know who you were, or, at least, I wasn't sure; or, as I
+said before, I shouldn't have presumed."
+
+The short, dry laugh with which he ended this explanation had not
+ceased, when Mr. Byrd observed:
+
+"You have not told me what _you_ gathered in Buffalo."
+
+"Much," quoth Hickory, reverting to his favorite laconic mode of speech.
+"First, that Mansell went from home on Monday, the day before the
+murder, for the purpose, as he said, of seeing a man in New York about
+his wonderful invention. Secondly, that he never went to New York, but
+came back the next evening, bringing his model with him, and looking
+terribly used up and worried. Thirdly, that to get this invention before
+the public had been his pet aim and effort for a whole year. That he
+believed in it as you do in your Bible, and would have given his heart's
+blood, if it would have done any good, to start the thing, and prove
+himself right in his estimate of its value. That the money to do this
+was all that was lacking, no one believing in him sufficiently to
+advance him the five thousand dollars considered necessary to build the
+machine and get it in working order. That, in short, he was a fanatic on
+the subject, and often said he would be willing to die within the year
+if he could first prove to the unbelieving capitalists whom he had
+vainly importuned for assistance, the worth of the discovery he believed
+himself to have made. Fourthly--but what is it you wish to say, sir?"
+
+"Five thousand dollars is just the amount Widow Clemmens is supposed to
+leave him," remarked Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Precisely," was the short reply.
+
+"And fourthly?" suggested the former.
+
+"Fourthly, he was in the mill on Wednesday morning, where he went about
+his work as usual, until some one who knew his relation to Mrs. Clemmens
+looked up from the paper he was reading, and, in pure thoughtlessness,
+cried, 'So they have killed your aunt for you, have they?' A barbarous
+jest, that caused everybody near him to start in indignation, but which
+made him recoil as if one of these thunderbolts we have been listening
+to this afternoon had fallen at his feet. And he didn't get over it,"
+Hickory went on. "He had to beg permission to go home. He said the
+terrible news had made him ill, and indeed he looked sick enough, and
+continued to look sick enough for days. He had letters from Sibley, and
+an invitation to attend the inquest and be present at the funeral
+services, but he refused to go. He was threatened with diphtheria, he
+declared, and remained away from the mill until the day before
+yesterday. Some one, I don't remember who, says he went out of town the
+very Wednesday he first heard the news; but if so, he could not have
+been gone long, for he was at home Wednesday night, sick in bed, and
+threatened, as I have said, with the diphtheria. Fifthly----"
+
+"Well, fifthly?"
+
+"I am afraid of your criticisms," laughed the rough detective. "Fifthly
+is the result of my poking about among Mr. Mansell's traps."
+
+"Ah!" frowned the other, with a vivid remembrance of that picture of
+Miss Dare, with its beauty blotted out by the ominous black lines.
+
+"You are too squeamish for a detective," the other declared. "Guess
+you're kept for the fancy business, eh?"
+
+The look Mr. Byrd gave him was eloquent. "Go on," said he; "let us hear
+what lies behind your fifthly."
+
+"Love," returned the man. "Locked in the drawer of this young
+gentleman's table, I found some half-dozen letters tied with a black
+ribbon. I knew they were written by a lady, but squeamishness is not a
+fault of mine, and so I just allowed myself to glance over them. They
+were from Miss Dare, of course, and they revealed the fact that love, as
+well as ambition, had been a motive power in determining this Mansell to
+make a success out of his invention."
+
+Leaning back, the now self-satisfied detective looked at Mr. Byrd.
+
+"The name of Miss Dare," he went on, "brings me to the point from which
+we started. I haven't yet told you what old Sally Perkins had to say to
+me."
+
+"No," rejoined Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Well," continued the other, poking with his foot the dying embers of
+the fire, till it started up into a fresh blaze, "the case against this
+young fellow wouldn't be worth very much without that old crone's
+testimony, I reckon; but with it I guess we can get along."
+
+"Let us hear," said Mr. Byrd.
+
+"The old woman is a wretch," Hickory suddenly broke out. "She seems to
+gloat over the fact that a young and beautiful woman is in trouble. She
+actually trembled with eagerness as she told her story. If I hadn't been
+rather anxious myself to hear what she had to say, I could have thrown
+her out of the window. As it was, I let her go on; duty before pleasure,
+you see--duty before pleasure."
+
+"But her story," persisted Mr. Byrd, letting some of his secret
+irritation betray itself.
+
+"Well, her story was this: Monday afternoon, the day before the murder,
+you know, she was up in these very woods hunting for witch-hazel. She
+had got her arms full and was going home across the bog when she
+suddenly heard voices. Being of a curious disposition, like myself, I
+suppose, she stopped, and seeing just before her a young gentleman and
+lady sitting on an old stump, crouched down in the shadow of a tree,
+with the harmless intent, no doubt, of amusing herself with their
+conversation. It was more interesting than she expected, and she really
+became quite tragic as she related her story to me. I cannot do justice
+to it myself, and I sha'n't try. It is enough that the man whom she did
+not know, and the woman whom she immediately recognized as Miss Dare,
+were both in a state of great indignation. That he spoke of selfishness
+and obstinacy on the part of his aunt, and that she, in the place of
+rebuking him, replied in a way to increase his bitterness, and lead him
+finally to exclaim: 'I cannot bear it! To think that with just the
+advance of the very sum she proposes to give me some day, I could make
+her fortune and my own, and win _you_ all in one breath! It is enough to
+drive a man mad to see all that he craves in this world so near his
+grasp, and yet have nothing, not even hope, to comfort him.' And at
+that, it seems, they both rose, and she, who had not answered any thing
+to this, struck the tree before which they stood, with her bare fist,
+and murmured a word or so which the old woman couldn't catch, but which
+was evidently something to the effect that she wished she knew Mrs.
+Clemmens; for Mansell--of course it was he--said, in almost the same
+breath, 'And if you did know her, what then?' A question which elicited
+no reply at first, but which finally led her to say: 'Oh! I think that,
+possibly, I might be able to persuade her.' All this," the detective
+went on, "old Sally related with the greatest force; but in regard to
+what followed, she was not so clear. Probably they interrupted their
+conversation with some lovers' by-play, for they stood very near
+together, and he seemed to be earnestly pleading with her. 'Do take it,'
+old Sally heard him say. 'I shall feel as if life held some outlook for
+me, if you only will gratify me in this respect.' But she answered: 'No;
+it is of no use. I am as ambitious as you are, and fate is evidently
+against us,' and put his hand back when he endeavored to take hers, but
+finally yielded so far as to give it to him for a moment, though she
+immediately snatched it away again, crying: 'I cannot; you must wait
+till to-morrow.' And when he asked: 'Why to-morrow?' she answered: 'A
+night has been known to change the whole current of a person's affairs.'
+To which he replied: 'True,' and looked thoughtful, very thoughtful, as
+he met her eyes and saw her raise that white hand of hers and strike the
+tree again with a passionate force that made her fingers bleed. And she
+was right," concluded the speaker. "The night, or if not the night, the
+next twenty-four hours, _did_ make a change, as even old Sally Perkins
+observed. Widow Clemmens was struck down and Craik Mansell became the
+possessor of the five thousand dollars he so much wanted in order to win
+for himself a fortune and a bride."
+
+Mr. Byrd, who had been sitting with his face turned aside during this
+long recital, slowly rose to his feet. "Hickory," said he, and his tone
+had an edge of suppressed feeling in it that made the other start,
+"don't let me ever hear you say, in my presence, that you think this
+young and beautiful woman was the one to suggest murder to this man, for
+I won't hear it. And now," he continued, more calmly, "tell me why this
+babbling old wretch did not enliven the inquest with her wonderful tale.
+It would have been a fine offset to the testimony of Miss Firman."
+
+"She said she wasn't fond of coroners and had no wish to draw the
+attention of twelve of her own townsfolk upon herself. She didn't mean
+to commit herself with me," pursued Hickory, rising also. "She was going
+to give me a hint of the real state of affairs; or, rather, set me
+working in the right direction, as this little note which she tucked
+under the door of my room at the hotel will show. But I was too quick
+for her, and had her by the arm before she could shuffle down the
+stairs. It was partly to prove her story was true and not a romance made
+up for the occasion, that I lured this woman here this afternoon."
+
+"You are not as bad a fellow as I thought," Mr. Byrd admitted, after a
+momentary contemplation of the other's face. "If I might only know how
+you managed to effect this interview."
+
+"Nothing easier. I found in looking over the scraps of paper which
+Mansell had thrown into the waste-paper basket in Buffalo, the draft of
+a note which he had written to Miss Dare, under an impulse which he
+afterward probably regretted. It was a summons to their usual place of
+tryst at or near this hut, and though unsigned, was of a character, as I
+thought, to effect its purpose. I just sent it to her, that's all."
+
+The nonchalance with which this was said completed Mr. Byrd's
+astonishment.
+
+"You are a worthy disciple of Gryce," he asserted, leading the way to
+the door.
+
+"Think so?" exclaimed the man, evidently flattered at what he considered
+a great compliment. "Then shake hands," he cried, with a frank appeal
+Mr. Byrd found it hard to resist. "Ah, you don't want to," he somewhat
+ruefully declared. "Will it change your feelings any if I promise to
+ignore what happened here to-day--my trick with Miss Dare and what she
+revealed and all that? If it will, I swear I won't even think of it any
+more if I can help it. At all events, I won't tattle about it even to
+the superintendent. It shall be a secret between you and me, and she
+won't know but what it was her lover she talked to, after all."
+
+"You are willing to do all this?" inquired Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Willing and ready," cried the man. "I believe in duty to one's
+superiors, but duty doesn't always demand of one to tell every thing he
+knows. Besides, it won't be necessary, I imagine. There is enough
+against this poor fellow without that."
+
+"I fear so," ejaculated Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Then it is a bargain?" said Hickory.
+
+"Yes."
+
+And Mr. Byrd held out his hand.
+
+The rain had now ceased and they prepared to return home. Before leaving
+the glade, however, Mr. Byrd ran his eye over the other's person and
+apparel, and in some wonder inquired:
+
+"How do you fellows ever manage to get up such complete disguises? I
+declare you look enough like Mr. Mansell in the back to make me doubt
+even now who I am talking to."
+
+"Oh," laughed the other, "it is easy enough. It's my specialty, you see,
+and one in which I _am_ thought to excel. But, to tell the truth, I
+hadn't much to contend with in this case. In build I am famously like
+this man, as you must have noticed when you saw us together in Buffalo.
+Indeed, it was our similarity in this respect that first put the idea of
+personifying him into my head. My complexion had been darkened already,
+and, as for such accessories as hair, voice, manner, dress, etc., a
+five-minutes' study of my model was sufficient to prime me up in all
+that--enough, at least, to satisfy the conditions of an interview which
+did not require me to show my face."
+
+"But you did not know when you came here that you would not have to show
+your face," persisted Mr. Byrd, anxious to understand how this man dared
+risk his reputation on an undertaking of this kind.
+
+"No, and I did not know that the biggest thunderstorm of the season was
+going to spring up and lend me its darkness to complete the illusion I
+had attempted. I only trusted my good fortune--and my wits," he added,
+with a droll demureness. "Both had served me before, and both were
+likely to serve me again. And, say she had detected me in my little
+game, what then? Women like her don't babble."
+
+There was no reply to make to this, and Mr. Byrd's thoughts being thus
+carried back to Imogene Dare and the unhappy revelations she had been
+led to make, he walked on in a dreary silence his companion had
+sufficient discretion not to break.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+MR. FERRIS.
+
+          Which of you have done this?--MACBETH.
+
+          What have we here?--TEMPEST.
+
+
+MR. FERRIS sat in his office in a somewhat gloomy frame of mind. There
+had been bad news from the jail that morning. Mr. Hildreth had attempted
+suicide the night before, and was now lying in a critical condition at
+the hospital.
+
+Mr. Ferris himself had never doubted this man's guilt. From Hildreth's
+first appearance at the inquest, the District Attorney had fixed upon
+him as the murderer of Mrs. Clemmens, and up to this time he had seen no
+good and substantial reason for altering his opinion.
+
+Even the doubts expressed by Mr. Byrd had moved him but little. Mr. Byrd
+was an enthusiast, and, naturally enough, shrank from believing a
+gentleman capable of such a crime. But the other detective's judgment
+was unswayed, and he considered Hildreth guilty. It was not astonishing,
+then, that the opinion of Mr. Ferris should coincide with that of the
+older and more experienced man.
+
+But the depth of despair or remorse which had led Mr. Hildreth to this
+desperate attempt upon his own life had struck the District Attorney
+with dismay. Though not over-sensitive by nature, he could not help
+feeling sympathy for the misery that had prompted such a deed, and while
+secretly regarding this unsuccessful attempt at suicide as an additional
+proof of guilt, he could not forbear satisfying himself by a review of
+the evidence elicited at the inquest, that the action of the authorities
+in arresting this man had been both warrantable and necessary.
+
+The result was satisfactory in all but one point. When he came to the
+widow's written accusation against one by the name of Gouverneur
+Hildreth, he was impressed by a fact that had hitherto escaped his
+notice. This was the yellowness of the paper upon which the words were
+written. If they had been transcribed a dozen years before, they would
+not have looked older, nor would the ink have presented a more faded
+appearance. Now, as the suspected man was under twenty-five years of
+age, and must, therefore, have been a mere child when the paper was
+drawn up, the probability was that the Gouverneur intended was the
+prisoner's father, their names being identical.
+
+But this discovery, while it robbed the affair of its most dramatic
+feature, could not affect in any serious way the extreme significance of
+the remaining real and compromising facts which told so heavily against
+this unfortunate man. Indeed, the well-known baseness of the father made
+it easier to distrust the son, and Mr. Ferris had just come to the
+conclusion that his duty compelled him to draw up an indictment of the
+would-be suicide, when the door opened, and Mr. Byrd and Mr. Hickory
+came in.
+
+To see these two men in conjunction was a surprise to the District
+Attorney. He, however, had no time to express himself on the subject,
+for Mr. Byrd, stepping forward, immediately remarked:
+
+"Mr. Hickory and I have been in consultation, sir; and we have a few
+facts to give you that we think will alter your opinion as to the person
+who murdered Mrs. Clemmens."
+
+"Is this so?" cried Mr. Ferris, looking at Hickory with a glance
+indicative of doubt.
+
+"Yes, _sir_," exclaimed that not easily abashed individual, with an
+emphasis decided enough to show the state of his feelings on the
+subject. "After I last saw you a woman came in my way and put into my
+hands so fresh and promising a clue, that I dropped the old scent at
+once and made instanter for the new game. But I soon found I was not the
+only sportsman on this trail. Before I had taken a dozen steps I ran
+upon this gentleman, and, finding him true grit, struck up a partnership
+with him that has led to our bringing down the quarry together."
+
+"Humph!" quoth the District Attorney. "Some very remarkable discoveries
+must have come to light to influence the judgment of two such men as
+yourselves."
+
+"You are right," rejoined Mr. Byrd. "In fact, I should not be surprised
+if this case proved to be one of the most remarkable on record. It is
+not often that equally convincing evidence of guilt is found against two
+men having no apparent connection."
+
+"And have you collected such evidence?"
+
+"We have."
+
+"And who is the person you consider equally open to suspicion with Mr.
+Hildreth?"
+
+"Craik Mansell, Mrs. Clemmens' nephew."
+
+The surprise of the District-Attorney was, as Mr. Hickory in later days
+remarked, nuts to him. The solemn nature of the business he was engaged
+upon never disturbed this hardy detective's sense of the ludicrous, and
+he indulged in one of his deepest chuckles as he met the eye of Mr.
+Ferris.
+
+"One never knows what they are going to run upon in a chase of this
+kind, do they, sir?" he remarked, with the greatest cheerfulness. "Mr.
+Mansell is no more of a gentleman than Mr. Hildreth; yet, because he is
+the second one of his caste who has attracted our attention, you are
+naturally very much surprised. But wait till you hear what we have to
+tell you. I am confident you will be satisfied with our reasons for
+suspecting this new party." And he glanced at Mr. Byrd, who, seeing no
+cause for delay, proceeded to unfold before the District Attorney the
+evidence they had collected against Mr. Mansell.
+
+It was strong, telling, and seemingly conclusive, as we already know;
+and awoke in the mind of Mr. Ferris the greatest perplexity of his
+life. It was not simply that the facts urged against Mr. Mansell were of
+the same circumstantial character and of almost the same significance as
+those already urged against Mr. Hildreth, but that the association of
+Miss Dare's name with this new theory of suspicion presented
+difficulties, if it did not involve consequences, calculated to make any
+friend of Mr. Orcutt quail. And Mr. Ferris was such a friend, and knew
+very well the violent nature of the shock which this eminent lawyer
+would experience at discovering the relations held by this trusted woman
+toward a man suspected of crime.
+
+Then Miss Dare herself! Was this beautiful and cherished woman, hitherto
+believed by all who knew her to be set high above the reach of reproach,
+to be dragged down from her pedestal and submitted to the curiosity of
+the rabble, if not to its insinuations and reproach? It seemed hard;
+even to this stern, dry searcher among dead men's bones, it seemed both
+hard and bitter. And yet, because he was an honest man, he had no
+thought of paltering with his duty. He could only take time to make sure
+what that duty was. He accordingly refrained from expressing any opinion
+in regard to Mr. Mansell's culpability to the two detectives, and
+finally dismissed them without any special orders.
+
+But a day or two after this he sent for them again, and said:
+
+"Since I have seen you I have considered, with due carefulness, the
+various facts presented me in support of your belief that Craik Mansell
+is the man who assailed the Widow Clemmens, and have weighed them
+against the equally significant facts pointing toward Mr. Hildreth as
+the guilty party, and find but one link lacking in the former chain of
+evidence which is not lacking in the latter; and that is this: Mrs.
+Clemmens, in the one or two lucid moments which returned to her after
+the assault, gave utterance to an exclamation which many think was meant
+to serve as a guide in determining the person of her murderer. She said,
+'Ring,' as Mr. Byrd here will doubtless remember, and then 'Hand,' as if
+she wished to fix upon the minds of those about her that the hand
+uplifted against her wore a ring. At all events, such a conclusion is
+plausible enough, and led to my making an experiment yesterday, which
+has, for ever, set the matter at rest in my own mind. I took my stand at
+the huge clock in her house, just in the attitude she was supposed to
+occupy when struck, and, while in this position, ordered my clerk to
+advance upon me from behind with his hands clasped about a stick of
+wood, which he was to bring down within an inch of my head. This was
+done, and while his arm was in the act of descending, I looked to see if
+by a quick glance from the corner of my eye I could detect the broad
+seal ring I had previously pushed upon his little finger. I discovered
+that I could; that indeed it was all of the man which I could distinctly
+see without turning my head completely around. The ring, then, is an
+important feature in this case, a link without which any chain of
+evidence forged for the express purpose of connecting a man with this
+murder must necessarily remain incomplete and consequently useless. But
+amongst the suspicious circumstances brought to bear against Mr.
+Mansell, I discern no token of a connection between him and any such
+article, while we all know that Mr. Hildreth not only wore a ring on the
+day of the murder, but considered the circumstance so much in his own
+disfavor, that he slipped it off his finger when he began to see the
+shadow of suspicion falling upon him."
+
+"You have, then, forgotten the diamond I picked up from the floor of
+Mrs. Clemmens' dining-room on the morning of the murder?" suggested Mr.
+Byrd with great reluctance.
+
+"No," answered the District Attorney, shortly. "But Miss Dare distinctly
+avowed that ring to be hers, and you have brought me no evidence as yet
+to prove her statement false. If you can supply such proof, or if you
+can show that Mr. Mansell had that ring on his hand when he entered Mrs.
+Clemmens' house on the fatal morning--another fact, which, by-the-way,
+rests as yet upon inference only--I shall consider the case against him
+as strong as that against Mr. Hildreth; otherwise, not."
+
+Mr. Byrd, with the vivid remembrance before him of Miss Dare's looks and
+actions in the scene he had witnessed between her and the supposed
+Mansell in the hut, smiled with secret bitterness over this attempt of
+the District Attorney to shut his eyes to the evident guiltiness of this
+man.
+
+Mr. Ferris saw this smile and instantly became irritated.
+
+"I do not doubt any more than yourself," he resumed, in a changed voice,
+"that this young man allowed his mind to dwell upon the possible
+advantages which might accrue to himself if his aunt should die. He may
+even have gone so far as to meditate the commission of a crime to insure
+these advantages. But whether the crime which did indeed take place the
+next day in his aunt's house was the result of his meditations, or
+whether he found his own purpose forestalled by an attack made by
+another person possessing no less interest than himself in seeing this
+woman dead, is not determined by the evidence you bring."
+
+"Then you do not favor his arrest?" inquired Mr. Byrd.
+
+"No. The vigorous measures which were taken in Mr. Hildreth's case, and
+the unfortunate event to which they have led, are terrible enough to
+satisfy the public craving after excitement for a week at least. I am
+not fond of driving men to madness myself, and unless I can be made to
+see that my duty demands a complete transferal of my suspicions from
+Hildreth to Mansell, I can advise nothing more than a close but secret
+surveillance of the latter's movements until the action of the Grand
+Jury determines whether the evidence against Mr. Hildreth is sufficient
+to hold him for trial."
+
+Mr. Byrd, who had such solid, if private and uncommunicable, reasons for
+believing in the guilt of Craik Mansell, was somewhat taken aback at
+this unlooked-for decision of Mr. Ferris, and, remembering the
+temptation which a man like Hickory must feel to make his cause good at
+all hazards, cast a sharp look toward that blunt-spoken detective, in
+some doubt as to whether he could be relied upon to keep his promise in
+the face of this manifest disappointment.
+
+But Hickory had given his word, and Hickory remained firm; and Mr. Byrd,
+somewhat relieved in his own mind, was about to utter his acquiescence
+in the District Attorney's views, when a momentary interruption
+occurred, which gave him an opportunity to exchange a few words aside
+with his colleague.
+
+"Hickory," he whispered, "what do you think of this objection which Mr.
+Ferris makes?"
+
+"I?" was the hurried reply. "Oh, I think there is something in it."
+
+"Something in it?"
+
+"Yes. Mr. Mansell is the last man to wear a ring, I must acknowledge.
+Indeed, I took some pains while in Buffalo to find out if he ever
+indulged in any such vanity, and was told decidedly No. As to the
+diamond you mentioned, that is certainly entirely too rich a jewel for a
+man like him to possess. I--I am a afraid the absence of this link in
+our chain of evidence is fatal. I shouldn't wonder if the old scent was
+the best, after all."
+
+
+"But Miss Dare--her feelings and her convictions, as manifested by the
+words she made use of in the hut?" objected Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Oh! _she_ thinks he is guilty, of course!"
+
+_She_ thinks! Mr. Byrd stared at his companion for a minute in silence.
+_She_ thinks! Then there was a possibility, it seems, that it was only
+her thought, and that Mr. Mansell was not really the culpable man he had
+been brought to consider him.
+
+But here an exclamation, uttered by Mr. Ferris, called their attention
+back to that gentleman. He was reading a letter which had evidently been
+just brought in, and his expression was one of amazement, mixed with
+doubt. As they looked toward him they met his eye, that had a troubled
+and somewhat abashed expression, which convinced them that the
+communication he held in his hand was in some way connected with the
+matter under consideration.
+
+Surprised themselves, they unconsciously started forward, when, in a dry
+and not altogether pleased tone, the District Attorney observed:
+
+"This affair seems to be full of coincidences. You talk of a missing
+link, and it is immediately thrust under your nose. Read that!"
+
+And he pushed toward them the following epistle, roughly scrawled on a
+sheet of common writing-paper:
+
+          If Mr. Ferris is anxious for justice, and can
+          believe that suspicion does not always attach
+          itself to the guilty, let him, or some one whose
+          business it is, inquire of Miss Imogene Dare, of
+          this town, how she came to claim as her own the
+          ring that was picked up on the floor of Mrs.
+          Clemmens' house.
+
+"Well!" cried Mr. Byrd, glancing at Hickory, "what are we to think of
+this?"
+
+"Looks like the work of old Sally Perkins," observed the other, pointing
+out the lack of date and signature.
+
+"So it does," acquiesced Mr. Byrd, in a relieved tone. "The miserable
+old wretch is growing impatient."
+
+But Mr. Ferris, with a gloomy frown, shortly said:
+
+"The language is not that of an ignorant old creature like Sally
+Perkins, whatever the writing may be. Besides, how could she have known
+about the ring? The persons who were present at the time it was picked
+up are not of the gossiping order."
+
+"Who, then, do you think wrote this?" inquired Mr. Byrd.
+
+"That is what I wish you to find out," declared the District Attorney.
+
+Mr. Hickory at once took it in his hand.
+
+"Wait," said he, "I have an idea." And he carried the letter to one
+side, where he stood examining it for several minutes. When he came back
+he looked tolerably excited and somewhat pleased. "I believe I can tell
+you who wrote it," said he.
+
+"Who?" inquired the District Attorney.
+
+For reply the detective placed his finger upon a name that was written
+in the letter.
+
+
+"Imogene Dare?" exclaimed Mr. Ferris, astonished.
+
+"She herself," proclaimed the self-satisfied detective.
+
+"What makes you think that?" the District Attorney slowly asked.
+
+"Because I have seen her writing, and studied her signature, and, ably
+as she has disguised her hand in the rest of the letter, it betrays
+itself in her name. See here." And Hickory took from his pocket-book a
+small slip of paper containing her autograph, and submitted it to the
+test of comparison.
+
+The similarity between the two signatures was evident, and both Mr. Byrd
+and Mr. Ferris were obliged to allow the detective might be right,
+though the admission opened up suggestions of the most formidable
+character.
+
+"It is a turn for which I am not prepared," declared the District
+Attorney.
+
+"It is a turn for which _we_ are not prepared," repeated Mr. Byrd, with
+a controlling look at Hickory.
+
+"Let us, then, defer further consideration of the matter till I have had
+an opportunity to see Miss Dare," suggested Mr. Ferris.
+
+And the two detectives were very glad to acquiesce in this, for they
+were as much astonished as he at this action of Miss Dare, though, with
+their better knowledge of her feelings, they found it comparatively easy
+to understand how her remorse and the great anxiety she doubtless felt
+for Mr. Hildreth had sufficed to drive her to such an extreme and
+desperate measure.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+A CRISIS.
+
+  _Queen._ Alas, how is it with you?
+           That you do bend your eye on vacancy,
+           And with the incorporeal air do hold discourse?
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+           Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
+           Starts up and stands on end.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+           Whereon do you look?
+
+  _Hamlet._ On him! On him! Look you how pale he glares!
+           His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones,
+           Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;
+           Lest, with this piteous action, you convert
+           My stern effects! then what I have to do
+           Will want true color; tears, perchance, for blood.--HAMLET.
+
+
+THAT my readers may understand even better than Byrd and Hickory how it
+was that Imogene came to write this letter, I must ask them to consider
+certain incidents that had occurred in a quarter far removed from the
+eye of the detectives.
+
+Mr. Orcutt's mind had never been at rest concerning the peculiar
+attitude assumed by Imogene Dare at the time of Mrs. Clemmens' murder.
+Time and thought had not made it any more possible for him to believe
+now than then that she knew any thing of the matter beyond what appeared
+to the general eye: but he could not forget the ring. It haunted him.
+Fifty times a day he asked himself what she had meant by claiming as her
+own a jewel which had been picked up from the floor of a strange house
+at a time so dreadful, and which, in despite of her explanations to him,
+he found it impossible to believe was hers or ever could have been hers?
+He was even tempted to ask her; but he never did. The words would not
+come. Though they faltered again and again upon his lips, he could not
+give utterance to them; no, though with every passing day he felt that
+the bond uniting her to him was growing weaker and weaker, and that if
+something did not soon intervene to establish confidence between them,
+he would presently lose all hope of the treasure for the possession of
+which he was now ready to barter away half the remaining years of his
+life.
+
+Her increasing reticence, and the almost stony look of misery that now
+confronted him without let or hindrance from her wide gray eyes, were
+not calculated to reassure him or make his future prospects look any
+brighter. Her pain, if pain it were, or remorse, if remorse it could be,
+was not of a kind to feel the influence of time; and, struck with
+dismay, alarmed in spite of himself, if not for her reason at least for
+his own, he watched her from day to day, feeling that now he would give
+his life not merely to possess her, but to understand her and the secret
+that was gnawing at her heart.
+
+At last there came a day when he could no longer restrain himself. She
+had been seated in his presence, and had been handed a letter which for
+the moment seemed to thoroughly overwhelm her. We know what that letter
+was. It was the note which had been sent as a decoy by the detective
+Hickory, but which she had no reason to doubt was a real communication
+from Craik Mansell, despite the strange handwriting on the envelope. It
+prayed her for an interview. It set the time and mentioned the place of
+meeting, and created for the instant such a turmoil in her usually
+steady brain that she could not hide it from the searching eyes that
+watched her.
+
+"What is it, Imogene?" inquired Mr. Orcutt, drawing near her with a
+gesture of such uncontrollable anxiety, it looked as if he were about to
+snatch the letter from her hand.
+
+For reply she rose, walked to the grate, in which a low wood fire was
+burning, and plunged the paper in among the coals. When it was all
+consumed she turned and faced Mr. Orcutt.
+
+"You must excuse me," she murmured; "but the letter was one which I
+absolutely desired no one to see."
+
+But he did not seem to hear her apology. He stood with his gaze fixed on
+the fire, and his hand clenched against his heart, as if something in
+the fate of that wretched sheet of paper reminded him of the love and
+hope that were shrivelling up before his eyes.
+
+She saw his look and drooped her head with a sudden low moan of mingled
+shame and suffering.
+
+"Am I killing _you_?" she faintly cried. "Are my strange, wild ways
+driving _you_ to despair? I had not thought of that. I am so selfish, I
+had not thought of that!"
+
+This evidence of feeling, the first she had ever shown him, moved Mr.
+Orcutt deeply. Advancing toward her, with sudden passion, he took her by
+the hand.
+
+"Killing me?" he repeated. "Yes, you are killing me. Don't you see how
+fast I am growing old? Don't you see how the dust lies thick upon the
+books that used to be my solace and delight? I do not understand you,
+Imogene. I love you and I do not understand your grief, or what it is
+that is affecting you in this terrible way. Tell me. Let me know the
+nature of the forces with which I have to contend, and I can bear all
+the rest."
+
+This appeal, forced as it was from lips unused to prayer, seemed to
+strike her, absorbed though she was in her own suffering. Looking at him
+with real concern, she tried to speak, but the words faltered on her
+tongue. They came at last, however, and he heard her say:
+
+"I wish I could weep, if only to show you I am not utterly devoid of
+womanly sympathy for an anguish I cannot cure. But the fountain of my
+tears is dried at its source. I do not think I can ever weep again. I am
+condemned to tread a path of misery and despair, and must traverse it to
+the end without weakness and without help. Do not ask me why, for I can
+never tell you. And do not detain me now, or try to make me talk, for I
+must go where I can be alone and silent."
+
+She was slipping away, but he caught her by the wrist and drew her back.
+His pain and perplexity had reached their climax.
+
+"You must speak," he cried. "I have paltered long enough with this
+matter. You must tell me what it is that is destroying your happiness
+and mine."
+
+But her eyes, turning toward him, seemed to echo that _must_ in a look
+of disdain eloquent enough to scorn all help from words, and in the
+indomitable determination of her whole aspect he saw that he might slay
+her, but that he could never make her speak.
+
+Loosing her with a gesture of despair, he turned away. When he glanced
+back again she was gone.
+
+The result of this interview was naturally an increased doubt and
+anxiety on his part. He could not attend to his duties with any degree
+of precision, he was so haunted by uneasy surmises as to what might have
+been the contents of the letter which he had thus seen her destroy
+before his eyes. As for her words, they were like her conduct, an
+insolvable mystery, for which he had no key.
+
+His failure to find her at home when he returned that night added to his
+alarm, especially as he remembered the vivid thunderstorm that had
+deluged the town in the afternoon. Nor, though she came in very soon and
+offered both excuses and explanations for her absence, did he experience
+any appreciable relief, or feel at all satisfied that he was not
+threatened with some secret and terrible catastrophe. Indeed, the air of
+vivid and feverish excitement which pervaded every look of hers from
+this time, making each morning and evening distinctive in his memory as
+a season of fresh fear and renewed suspense, was enough of itself to
+arouse this sense of an unknown, but surely approaching, danger. He saw
+she was on the look out for some event, he knew not what, and studied
+the papers as sedulously as she, in the hope of coming upon some
+revelation that should lay bare the secret of this new condition of
+hers. At last he thought he had found it. Coming home one day from the
+court, he called her into his presence, and, without pause or preamble,
+exclaimed, with almost cruel abruptness:
+
+"An event of possible interest to you has just taken place. The murderer
+of Mrs. Clemmens has just cut his throat."
+
+He saw before he had finished the first clause that he had struck at the
+very citadel of her terrors and her woe. At the end of the second
+sentence he knew, beyond all doubt now, what it was she had been
+fearing, if not expecting. Yet she said not a word, and by no movement
+betrayed that the steel had gone through and through her heart.
+
+A demon--the maddening demon of jealousy--gripped him for the first time
+with relentless force.
+
+"Ah, you have been looking for it?" he cried in a choked voice. "You
+know this man, then--knew him, perhaps, before the murder of Mrs.
+Clemmens; knew him, and--and, perhaps, loved him?"
+
+She did not reply.
+
+He struck his forehead with his hand, as if the moment was perfectly
+intolerable to him.
+
+"Answer," he cried. "Did you know Gouverneur Hildreth or not?"
+
+"_Gouverneur Hildreth?_" Oh, the sharp surprise, the wailing anguish of
+her tone! Mr. Orcutt stood amazed. "It is not he who has made this
+attempt upon his life!--not he!" she shrieked like one appalled.
+
+Perhaps because all other expression or emotion failed him, Mr. Orcutt
+broke forth into a loud and harrowing laugh. "And who else should it
+be?" he cried. "What other man stands accused of having murdered Widow
+Clemmens? You are mad, Imogene; you don't know what you say or what you
+do."
+
+"Yes, I am mad," she repeated--"mad!" and leaned her forehead forward on
+the back of a high chair beside which she had been standing, and hid her
+face and struggled with herself for a moment, while the clock went on
+ticking, and the wretched surveyer of her sorrow stood looking at her
+bended head like a man who does not know whether it is he or she who is
+in the most danger of losing his reason.
+
+At last a word struggled forth from between her clasped hands.
+
+"When did it happen?" she gasped, without lifting her head. "Tell me all
+about it. I think I can understand."
+
+The noted lawyer smiled a bitter smile, and spoke for the first time,
+without pity and without mercy.
+
+"He has been trying for some days to effect his death. His arrest and
+the little prospect there is of his escaping trial seem to have maddened
+his gentlemanly brain. Fire-arms were not procurable, neither was poison
+nor a rope, but a pewter plate is enough in the hands of a desperate
+man. He broke one in two last night, and----"
+
+He paused, sick and horror-stricken. Her face had risen upon him from
+the back of the chair, and was staring upon him like that of a Medusa.
+Before that gaze the flesh crept on his bones and the breath of life
+refused to pass his lips. Gazing at her with rising horror, he saw her
+stony lips slowly part.
+
+"Don't go on," she whispered. "I can see it all without the help of
+words." Then, in a tone that seemed to come from some far-off world of
+nightmare, she painfully gasped, "Is he dead?"
+
+[Illustration: "He paused, sick and horror-stricken. Her face had risen
+upon him from the back of the chair, and was staring at him like that of
+a Medusa."--(Page 252.)]
+
+Mr. Orcutt was a man who, up to the last year, had never known what it
+was to experience a real and controlling emotion. Life with him had
+meant success in public affairs, and a certain social pre-eminence that
+made his presence in any place the signal of admiring looks and
+respectful attentions. But let no man think that, because his doom
+delays, it will never come. Passions such as he had deprecated in
+others, and desires such as he had believed impossible to himself, had
+seized upon him with ungovernable power, and in this moment especially
+he felt himself yielding to their sway with no more power of resistance
+than a puppet experiences in the grasp of a whirlwind. Meeting that
+terrible eye of hers, burning with an anxiety for a man he despised,
+and hearing that agonized question from lips whose touch he had never
+known, he experienced a sudden wild and almost demoniac temptation to
+hurl back the implacable "Yes" that he felt certain would strike her
+like a dead woman to the ground. But the horrid impulse passed, and,
+with a quick remembrance of the claims of honor upon one bearing his
+name and owning his history, he controlled himself with a giant
+resolution, and merely dropping his eyes from an anguish he dared no
+longer confront, answered, quietly:
+
+"No; he has hurt himself severely and has disfigured his good looks for
+life, but he will not die; or so the physicians think."
+
+A long, deep, shuddering sigh swept through the room.
+
+"Thank God!" came from her lips, and then all was quiet again.
+
+He looked up in haste; he could not bear the silence.
+
+"Imogene----" he began, but instantly paused in surprise at the change
+which had taken place in her expression. "What do you intend to do?" was
+his quick demand. "You look as I have never seen you look before."
+
+"Do not ask me!" she returned. "I have no words for what I am going to
+do. What _you_ must do is to see that Gouverneur Hildreth is released
+from prison. He is not guilty, mind you; he never committed this crime
+of which he is suspected, and in the shame of which suspicion he has
+this day attempted his life. If he is kept in the restraint which is so
+humiliating to him, and if he dies there, it will be murder--do you
+hear? murder! And he _will_ die there if he is not released; I know his
+feelings only too well."
+
+"But, Imogene----"
+
+"Hush! don't argue. 'Tis a matter of life and death, I tell you. He must
+be released! I know," she went on, hurriedly, "what it is you want to
+say. You think you cannot do this; that the evidence is all against him;
+that he went to prison of his own free will and cannot hope for release
+till his guilt or innocence has been properly inquired into. But I know
+you can effect his enlargement if you will. You are a lawyer, and
+understand all the crooks and turns by which a man can sometimes be made
+to evade the grasp of justice. Use your knowledge. Avail yourself of
+your influence with the authorities, and I----" she paused and gave him
+a long, long look.
+
+He was at her side in an instant.
+
+"You would--what?" he cried, taking her hand in his and pressing it
+impulsively.
+
+"I would grant you whatever you ask," she murmured, in a weariful tone.
+
+"Would you be my wife?" he passionately inquired.
+
+"Yes," was the choked reply; "if I did not die first."
+
+He caught her to his breast in rapture. He knelt at her side and threw
+his arms about her waist.
+
+"You shall not die," he cried. "You shall live and be happy. Only marry
+me to-day."
+
+"Not till Gouverneur Hildreth be released," she interposed, gently.
+
+He started as if touched by a galvanic battery, and slowly rose up and
+coldly looked at her.
+
+"Do you love him so madly you would sell yourself for his sake?" he
+sternly demanded.
+
+With a quick gesture she threw back her head as though the indignant
+"No" that sprang to her lips would flash out whether she would or not.
+But she restrained herself in time.
+
+"I cannot answer," she returned.
+
+But he was master now--master of this dominating spirit that had held
+him in check for so long a time, and he was not to be put off.
+
+"You must answer," he sternly commanded. "I have the right to know the
+extent of your feeling for this man, and I will. Do you _love_ him,
+Imogene Dare? Tell me, or I here swear that I will do nothing for him,
+either now or at a time when he may need my assistance more than you
+know."
+
+This threat, uttered as he uttered it, could have but one effect.
+Turning aside, so that he should not see the shuddering revolt in her
+eyes, she mechanically whispered:
+
+"And what if I did? Would it be so very strange? Youth admires youth,
+Mr. Orcutt, and Mr. Hildreth is very handsome and very unfortunate. Do
+not oblige me to say more."
+
+Mr. Orcutt, across whose face a dozen different emotions had flitted
+during the utterance of these few words, drew back till half the
+distance of the room lay between them.
+
+"Nor do I wish to hear any more," he rejoined, slowly. "You have said
+enough, quite enough. I understand now all the past--all your terrors
+and all your secret doubts and unaccountable behavior. The man you loved
+was in danger, and you did not know how to manage his release. Well,
+well, I am sorry for you, Imogene. I wish I could help you. I love you
+passionately, and would make you my wife in face of your affection for
+this man if I could do for you what you request. But it is impossible.
+Never during the whole course of my career has a blot rested upon my
+integrity as a lawyer. I am known as an honest man, and honest will I
+remain known to the last. Besides, I could do nothing to effect his
+enlargement if I tried. Nothing but the plainest proof that he is
+innocent, or that another man is guilty, would avail now to release him
+from the suspicion which his own admissions have aroused."
+
+"Then there is no hope?" was her slow and despairing reply.
+
+"None at present, Imogene," was his stern, almost as despairing, answer.
+
+As Mr. Orcutt sat over his lonely hearth that evening, a servant brought
+to him the following letter:
+
+          DEAR FRIEND,--It is not fit that I should remain
+          any longer under your roof. I have a duty before
+          me which separates me forever from the friendship
+          and protection of honorable men and women. No home
+          but such as I can provide for myself by the work
+          of my own hands shall henceforth shelter the
+          disgraced head of Imogene Dare. Her fate, whatever
+          it may prove to be, she bears alone, and you, who
+          have been so kind, shall never suffer from any
+          association with one whose name must henceforth
+          become the sport of the crowd, if not the
+          execration of the virtuous. If your generous heart
+          rebels at this, choke it relentlessly down. I
+          shall be already gone when you read these lines,
+          and nothing you could do or say would make me come
+          back. Good-by, and may Heaven grant you
+          forgetfulness of one whose only return to your
+          benefactions has been to make you suffer almost as
+          much as she suffers herself.
+
+As Mr. Orcutt read these last lines, District Attorney Ferris was
+unsealing the anonymous missive which has already been laid before my
+readers.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+HEART'S MARTYRDOM.
+
+          Oh that a man might know
+          The end of this day's business, ere it come;
+          But it sufficeth that the day will end,
+          And then the end is known!--JULIUS CÆSAR.
+
+
+MR. FERRIS' first impulse upon dismissing the detectives had been to
+carry the note he had received to Mr. Orcutt. But a night's careful
+consideration of the subject convinced him that the wisest course would
+be to follow the suggestions conveyed in the letter, and seek a direct
+interview with Imogene Dare.
+
+It was not an agreeable task for him to undertake. Miss Dare was a young
+lady whom he had always held in the highest esteem. He had hoped to see
+her the wife of his friend, and would have given much from his own
+private stock of hope and happiness to have kept her name free from the
+contumely which any association with this dreadful crime must
+necessarily bring upon it. But his position as prosecuting attorney of
+the county would not allow him to consult his feelings any further in a
+case of such serious import. The condition of Mr. Hildreth was, to say
+the least, such as demanded the most impartial action on the part of the
+public officials, and if through any explanation of Miss Dare the one
+missing link in the chain of evidence against another could be
+supplied, it was certainly his duty to do all he could to insure it.
+
+Accordingly at a favorable hour the next day, he made his appearance at
+Mr. Orcutt's house, and learning that Miss Dare had gone to Professor
+Darling's house for a few days, followed her to her new home and
+requested an interview.
+
+She at once responded to his call. Little did he think as she came into
+the parlor where he sat, and with even more than her usual calm
+self-possession glided down the length of that elegant apartment to his
+side, that she had just come from a small room on the top floor, where,
+in the position of a hired seamstress, she had been engaged in cutting
+out the wedding garments of one of the daughters of the house.
+
+Her greeting was that of a person attempting to feign a surprise she did
+not feel.
+
+"Ah," said she, "Mr. Ferris! This is an unexpected pleasure."
+
+But Mr. Ferris had no heart for courtesies.
+
+"Miss Dare," he began, without any of the preliminaries which might be
+expected of him, "I have come upon a disagreeable errand. I have a favor
+to ask. You are in the possession of a piece of information which it is
+highly necessary for me to share."
+
+"I?"
+
+The surprise betrayed in this single word was no more than was to be
+expected from a lady thus addressed, neither did the face she turned so
+steadily toward him alter under his searching gaze.
+
+"If I can tell you any thing that you wish to know," she quietly
+declared, "I am certainly ready to do so, sir."
+
+Deceived by the steadiness of her tone and the straightforward look of
+her eyes, he proceeded, with a sudden releasement from his
+embarrassment, to say:
+
+"I shall have to recall to your mind a most painful incident. You
+remember, on the morning when we met at Mrs. Clemmens' house, claiming
+as your own a diamond ring which was picked up from the floor at your
+feet?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Miss Dare, was this ring really yours, or were you misled by its
+appearance into merely thinking it your property? My excuse for asking
+this is that the ring, if not yours, is likely to become an important
+factor in the case to which the murder of this unfortunate woman has
+led."
+
+"Sir----" The pause which followed the utterance of this one word was
+but momentary, but in it what faint and final hope may have gone down
+into the depths of everlasting darkness God only knows. "Sir, since you
+ask me the question, I will say that in one sense of the term it was
+mine, and in another it was not. The ring was mine, because it had been
+offered to me as a gift the day before. The ring was not mine, because I
+had refused to take it when it was offered."
+
+At these words, spoken with such quietness they seemed like the
+mechanical utterances of a woman in a trance, Mr. Ferris started to his
+feet. He could no longer doubt that evidence of an important nature lay
+before him.
+
+"And may I ask," he inquired, without any idea of the martyrdom he
+caused, "what was the name of the person who offered you this ring, and
+from whom you refused to take it?"
+
+"The name?" She quavered for a moment, and her eyes flashed up toward
+heaven with a look of wild appeal, as if the requirement of this moment
+was more than even she had strength to meet. Then a certain terrible
+calm settled upon her, blotting the last hint of feeling from her face,
+and, rising up in her turn, she met Mr. Ferris' inquiring eye, and
+slowly and distinctly replied:
+
+"It was Craik Mansell, sir. He is a nephew of Mrs. Clemmens."
+
+It was the name Mr. Ferris had come there to hear, yet it gave him a
+slight shock when it fell from her lips--perhaps because his mind was
+still running upon her supposed relations with Mr. Orcutt. But he did
+not show his feelings, however, and calmly asked:
+
+"And was Mr. Mansell in this town the day before the assault upon his
+aunt?"
+
+"He was."
+
+"And you had a conversation with him?"
+
+"I had."
+
+"May I ask where?"
+
+For the first time she flushed; womanly shame had not yet vanished
+entirely from her stricken breast; but she responded as steadily as
+before:
+
+"In the woods, sir, back of Mrs. Clemmens' house. There were
+reasons"--she paused--"there were good reasons, which I do not feel
+obliged to state, why a meeting in such a place was not discreditable to
+us."
+
+Mr. Ferris, who had received from other sources a full version of the
+interview to which she thus alluded, experienced a sudden revulsion of
+feeling against one he could not but consider as a detected coquette;
+and, drawing quickly back, made a gesture such as was not often
+witnessed in those elegant apartments.
+
+"You mean," said he, with a sharp edge to his tone that passed over her
+dreary soul unheeded, "that you were lovers?"
+
+"I mean," said she, like the automaton she surely was at that moment,
+"that he had paid me honorable addresses, and that I had no reason to
+doubt his motives or my own in seeking such a meeting."
+
+"Miss Dare,"--all the District Attorney spoke in the manner of Mr.
+Ferris now,--"if you refused Mr. Mansell his ring, you must have
+returned it to him?"
+
+She looked at him with an anguish that bespoke her full appreciation of
+all this question implied, but unequivocally bowed her head.
+
+"It was in his possession, then," he continued, "when you left him on
+that day and returned to your home?"
+
+"Yes," her lips seemed to say, though no distinct utterance came from
+them.
+
+"And you did not see it again till you found it on the floor of Mrs.
+Clemmens' dining-room the morning of the murder?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Miss Dare," said he, with greater mildness, after a short pause, "you
+have answered my somewhat painful inquiries with a straightforwardness I
+cannot sufficiently commend. If you will now add to my gratitude by
+telling me whether you have informed any one else of the important facts
+you have just given me, I will distress you by no further questions."
+
+"Sir," said she, and her attitude showed that she could endure but
+little more, "I have taken no one else into my confidence. Such
+knowledge as I had to impart was not matter for idle gossip."
+
+And Mr. Ferris, being thus assured that his own surmises and that of
+Hickory were correct, bowed with the respect her pale face and rigid
+attitude seemed to demand, and considerately left the house.
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+CRAIK MANSELL.
+
+          Bring me unto my trial when you will.--HENRY VI.
+
+
+"HE is here."
+
+Mr. Ferris threw aside his cigar, and looked up at Mr. Byrd, who was
+standing before him.
+
+"You had no difficulty, then?"
+
+"No, sir. He acted like a man in hourly expectation of some such
+summons. At the very first intimation of your desire to see him in
+Sibley, he rose from his desk, with what I thought was a meaning look at
+Mr. Goodman, and after a few preparations for departure, signified he
+was ready to take the next train."
+
+"And did he ask no questions?"
+
+"Only one. He wished to know if I were a detective. And when I responded
+'Yes,' observed with an inquiring look: 'I am wanted as a witness, I
+suppose.' A suggestion to which I was careful to make no reply."
+
+Mr. Ferris pushed aside his writing and glanced toward the door. "Show
+him in, Mr. Byrd," said he.
+
+A moment after Mr. Mansell entered the room.
+
+The District Attorney had never seen this man, and was struck at once by
+the force and manliness of his appearance. Half-rising from his seat to
+greet the visitor, he said:
+
+"I have to beg your pardon, Mr. Mansell. Feeling it quite necessary to
+see you, I took the liberty of requesting you to take this journey, my
+own time being fully occupied at present."
+
+Mr. Mansell bowed--a slow, self-possessed bow,--and advancing to the
+table before which the District Attorney sat, laid his hand firmly upon
+it and said:
+
+"No apologies are needed." Then shortly, "What is it you want of me?"
+
+The words were almost the same as those which had been used by Mr.
+Hildreth under similar circumstances, but how different was their
+effect! The one was the utterance of a weak man driven to bay, the other
+of a strong one. Mr. Ferris, who was by no means of an impressible
+organization, flashed a look of somewhat uneasy doubt at Mr. Byrd, and
+hesitated slightly before proceeding.
+
+"We have sent for you in this friendly way," he remarked, at last, "in
+order to give you that opportunity for explaining certain matters
+connected with your aunt's sudden death which your well-known character
+and good position seem to warrant. We think you can do this. At all
+events I have accorded myself the privilege of so supposing; and any
+words you may have to say will meet with all due consideration. As Mrs.
+Clemmens' nephew, you, of course, desire to see her murderer brought to
+justice."
+
+The slightly rising inflection given to the last few words made them to
+all intents and purposes a question, and Mr. Byrd, who stood near by,
+waited anxiously for the decided Yes which seemed the only possible
+reply under the circumstances, but it did not come.
+
+Surprised, and possibly anxious, the District Attorney repeated himself.
+
+"As her nephew," said he, "and the inheritor of the few savings she has
+left behind her, you can have but one wish on this subject, Mr.
+Mansell?"
+
+But this attempt succeeded no better than the first. Beyond a slight
+compression of the lips, Mr. Mansell gave no manifestation of having
+heard this remark, and both Mr. Ferris and the detective found
+themselves forced to wonder at the rigid honesty of a man who, whatever
+death-giving blow he may have dealt, would not allow himself to escape
+the prejudice of his accusers by assenting to a supposition he and they
+knew to be false.
+
+Mr. Ferris did not press the question.
+
+"Mr. Mansell," he remarked instead, "a person by the name of Gouverneur
+Hildreth is, as you must know, under arrest at this time, charged with
+the crime of having given the blow that led to your aunt's death. The
+evidence against him is strong, and the public generally have no doubt
+that his arrest will lead to trial, if not to conviction. But,
+unfortunately for us, however fortunately for him, another person has
+lately been found, against whom an equal show of evidence can be raised,
+and it is for the purpose of satisfying ourselves that it is but a
+show, we have requested your presence here to-day."
+
+A spasm, vivid as it was instantaneous, distorted for a moment the
+powerful features of Craik Mansell at the words, "another person," but
+it was gone before the sentence was completed; and when Mr. Ferris
+ceased, he looked up with the steady calmness which made his bearing so
+remarkable.
+
+"I am waiting to hear the name of this freshly suspected person," he
+observed.
+
+"Cannot you imagine?" asked the District Attorney, coldly, secretly
+disconcerted under a gaze that held his own with such steady
+persistence.
+
+The eyeballs of the other flashed like coals of fire.
+
+"I think it is my right to hear it spoken," he returned.
+
+This display of feeling restored Mr. Ferris to himself.
+
+"In a moment, sir," said he. "Meanwhile, have you any objections to
+answering a few questions I would like to put to you?"
+
+"I will hear them," was the steady reply.
+
+"You know," said the District Attorney, "you are at perfect liberty to
+answer or not, as you see fit. I have no desire to entrap you into any
+acknowledgments you may hereafter regret."
+
+"Speak," was the sole response he received.
+
+"Well, sir," said Mr. Ferris, "are you willing to tell me where you were
+when you first heard of the assault which had been made upon your aunt?"
+
+"I was in my place at the mill."
+
+"And--pardon me if I go too far--were you also there the morning she was
+murdered?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Mr. Mansell, if you could tell us where you were at that time, it would
+be of great benefit to us, and possibly to yourself."
+
+"To myself?"
+
+Having shown his surprise, or, possibly, his alarm, by the repetition of
+the other's words, Craik Mansell paused and looked slowly around the
+room until he encountered Mr. Byrd's eye. There was a steady compassion
+in the look he met there that seemed to strike him with great force, for
+he at once replied that he was away from home, and stopped--his glance
+still fixed upon Mr. Byrd, as if, by the very power of his gaze, he
+would force the secrets of that detective's soul to the surface.
+
+"Mr. Mansell," pursued the District Attorney, "a distinct avowal on your
+part of the place where you were at that time, would be best for us
+both, I am sure."
+
+"Do you not already know?" inquired the other, his eye still upon Horace
+Byrd.
+
+"We have reason to think you were in this town," averred Mr. Ferris,
+with an emphasis calculated to recall the attention of his visitor to
+himself.
+
+"And may I ask," Craik Mansell quietly said, "what reason you can have
+for such a supposition? No one could have seen me here, for, till to-day
+I have not entered the streets of this place since my visit to my aunt
+three months ago."
+
+"It was not necessary to enter the streets of this town to effect a
+visit to Mrs. Clemmens' house, Mr. Mansell."
+
+"No?"
+
+There was the faintest hint of emotion in the intonation he gave to that
+one word, but it vanished before he spoke his next sentence.
+
+"And how," asked he, "can a person pass from Sibley Station to the door
+of my aunt's house without going through the streets?"
+
+Instead of replying, Mr. Ferris inquired:
+
+"Did you get out at Sibley Station, Mr. Mansell?"
+
+But the other, with unmoved self-possession, returned:
+
+"I have not said so."
+
+"Mr. Mansell," the District Attorney now observed, "we have no motive in
+deceiving or even in misleading you. You were in this town on the
+morning of your aunt's murder, and you were even in her house. Evidence
+which you cannot dispute proves this, and the question that now arises,
+and of whose importance we leave you to judge, is whether you were there
+prior to the visit of Mr. Hildreth, or after. Any proof you may have to
+show that it was before will receive its due consideration."
+
+A change, decided as it was involuntary, took place in the hitherto
+undisturbed countenance of Craik Mansell. Leaning forward, he surveyed
+Mr. Ferris with great earnestness.
+
+"I asked that man," said he, pointing with a steady forefinger at the
+somewhat abashed detective, "if I were not wanted here simply as a
+witness, and he did not say No. Now, sir," he continued, turning back
+with a slight gesture of disdain to the District Attorney, "was the man
+right in allowing me to believe such a fact, or was he not? I would like
+an answer to my question before I proceed further, if you please."
+
+"You shall have it, Mr. Mansell. If this man did not answer you, it was
+probably because he did not feel justified in so doing. He knew I had
+summoned you here in the hope of receiving such explanations of your
+late conduct as should satisfy me you had nothing to do with your aunt's
+murder. The claims upon my consideration, which are held by certain
+persons allied to you in this matter"--Mr. Ferris' look was eloquent of
+his real meaning here--"are my sole justification for this somewhat
+unusual method of dealing with a suspected man."
+
+A smile, bitter, oh, how bitter in its irony! traversed the firm-set
+lips of Craik Mansell for a moment, then he bowed with a show of
+deference to the District Attorney, and settling into the attitude of a
+man willing to plead his own cause, responded:
+
+"It would be more just, perhaps, if I first heard the reasons you have
+for suspecting me, before I attempt to advance arguments to prove the
+injustice of your suspicions."
+
+"Well," said Mr. Ferris, "you shall have them. If frankness on my part
+can do aught to avert the terrible scandal which your arrest and its
+consequent developments would cause, I am willing to sacrifice thus much
+to my friendship for Mr. Orcutt. But if I do this, I shall expect an
+equal frankness in return. The matter is too serious for subterfuge."
+
+The other merely waved his hand.
+
+"The reasons," proceeded Mr. Ferris, "for considering you a party as
+much open to suspicion as Mr. Hildreth, are several. First, we have
+evidence to prove your great desire for a sum of money equal to your
+aunt's savings, in order to introduce an invention which you have just
+patented.
+
+"Secondly, we can show that you left your home in Buffalo the day before
+the assault, came to Monteith, the next town to this, alighted at the
+remote station assigned to the use of the quarrymen, crossed the hills
+and threaded the woods till you came to a small hut back of your aunt's
+house, where you put up for the night.
+
+"Thirdly, evidence is not lacking to prove that while there you visited
+your aunt's once, if not twice; the last time on the very morning she
+was killed, entering the house in a surreptitious way by the back door,
+and leaving it in the same suspicious manner.
+
+"And fourthly, we can prove that you escaped from this place as you had
+come, secretly, and through a difficult and roundabout path over the
+hills.
+
+"Mr. Mansell, these facts, taken with your reticence concerning a visit
+so manifestly of importance to the authorities to know, must strike
+even you as offering grounds for a suspicion as grave as that attaching
+to Mr. Hildreth."
+
+With a restraint marked as it was impressive, Mr. Mansell looked at the
+District Attorney for a moment, and then said:
+
+"You speak of proof. Now, what proof have you to give that I put up, as
+you call it, for a night, or even for an hour, in the hut which stands
+in the woods back of my aunt's house?"
+
+"This," was Mr. Ferris' reply. "It is known you were in the woods the
+afternoon previous to the assault upon your aunt, because you were seen
+there in company with a young lady with whom you were holding a tryst.
+Did you speak, sir?"
+
+"No!" was the violent, almost disdainful, rejoinder.
+
+"You did not sleep at your aunt's, for her rooms contained not an
+evidence of having been opened for a guest, while the hut revealed more
+than one trace of having been used as a dormitory. I could even tell you
+where you cut the twigs of hemlock that served you for a pillow, and
+point to the place where you sat when you scribbled over the margin of
+the Buffalo _Courier_ with a blue pencil, such as that I now see
+projecting from your vest pocket."
+
+"It is not necessary," replied the young man, heavily frowning. Then
+with another short glance at Mr. Ferris, he again demanded:
+
+"What is your reason for stating I visited my aunt's house on the
+morning she was murdered? Did any one see me do it? or does the house,
+like the hut, exhibit traces of my presence there at that particular
+time?"
+
+There was irony in his tone, and a disdain almost amounting to scorn in
+his wide-flashing blue eyes; but Mr. Ferris, glancing at the hand
+clutched about the railing of the desk, remarked quietly:
+
+"You do not wear the diamond ring you carried away with you from the
+tryst I mentioned? Can it be that the one which was picked up after the
+assault, on the floor of Mrs. Clemmens' dining-room, could have fallen
+from your finger, Mr. Mansell?"
+
+A start, the first this powerfully repressed man had given, showed that
+his armor of resistance had been pierced at last.
+
+"How do you know," he quickly asked, "that I carried away a diamond ring
+from the tryst you speak of?"
+
+"Circumstances," returned the District Attorney, "prove it beyond a
+doubt. Miss Dare----"
+
+"Miss Dare!"
+
+Oh, the indescribable tone of this exclamation! Mr. Byrd shuddered as he
+heard it, and looked at Mr. Mansell with a new feeling, for which he had
+no name.
+
+"Miss Dare," repeated the District Attorney, without, apparently,
+regarding the interruption, "acknowledges she returned you the ring
+which you endeavored at that interview to bestow upon her."
+
+"Ah!" The word came after a moment's pause. "I see the case has been
+well worked up, and it only remains for me to give you such explanations
+as I choose to make. Sir," declared he, stepping forward, and bringing
+his clenched hand down upon the desk at which Mr. Ferris was sitting, "I
+did not kill my aunt. I admit that I paid her a visit. I admit that I
+stayed in the woods back of her house, and even slept in the hut, as you
+have said; but that was on the day previous to her murder, and not after
+it. I went to see her for the purpose of again urging the claims of my
+invention upon her. I went secretly, and by the roundabout way you
+describe, because I had another purpose in visiting Sibley, which made
+it expedient for me to conceal my presence in the town. I failed in my
+efforts to enlist the sympathies of my aunt in regard to my plans, and I
+failed also in compassing that other desire of my heart of which the
+ring you mention was a token. Both failures unnerved me, and I lay in
+that hut all night. I even lay there most of the next morning; but I did
+not see my aunt again, and I did not lift my hand against her life."
+
+There was indescribable quiet in the tone, but there was indescribable
+power also, and the look he levelled upon the District Attorney was
+unwaveringly solemn and hard.
+
+"You deny, then, that you entered the widow's house on the morning of
+the murder?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"It is, then, a question of veracity between you and Miss Dare?"
+
+Silence.
+
+"She asserts she gave you back the ring you offered her. If this is so,
+and that ring was in your possession after you left her on Monday
+evening, how came it to be in the widow's dining-room the next morning,
+if you did not carry it there?"
+
+"I can only repeat my words," rejoined Mr. Mansell.
+
+The District Attorney replied impatiently. For various reasons he did
+not wish to believe this man guilty.
+
+"You do not seem very anxious to assist me in my endeavors to reach the
+truth," he observed. "Cannot you tell me what you did with the ring
+after you left Miss Dare? Whether you put it on your finger, or thrust
+it into your pocket, or tossed it into the marsh? If you did not carry
+it to the house, some one else must have done so, and you ought to be
+able to help us in determining who."
+
+But Mr. Mansell shortly responded:
+
+"I have nothing to say about the ring. From the moment Miss Dare
+returned it to me, as you say, it was, so far as I am concerned, a thing
+forgotten. I do not know as I should ever have thought of it again, if
+you had not mentioned it to me to-day. How it vanished from my
+possession only to reappear upon the scene of murder, some more clever
+conjurer than myself must explain."
+
+"And this is all you have to say, Mr. Mansell?"
+
+"This is all I have to say."
+
+"Byrd," suggested the District Attorney, after a long pause, during
+which the subject of his suspicions had stood before him as rigid and
+inscrutable as a statue in bronze, "Mr. Mansell would probably like to
+go to the hotel, unless, indeed, he desires to return immediately to
+Buffalo."
+
+Craik Mansell at once started forward.
+
+"Do you intend to allow me to return to Buffalo?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," was the District Attorney's reply.
+
+"You are a good man," broke involuntarily from the other's lips, and he
+impulsively reached out his hand, but as quickly drew it back with a
+flush of pride that greatly became him.
+
+"I do not say," quoth Mr. Ferris, "that I exempt you from surveillance.
+As prosecuting attorney of this district, my duty is to seek out and
+discover the man who murdered Mrs. Clemmens, and your explanations have
+not been as full or as satisfactory as I could wish."
+
+"Your men will always find me at my desk in the mill," said Mr. Mansell,
+coldly. And, with another short bow, he left the attorney's side and
+went quickly out.
+
+"That man is innocent," declared Mr. Ferris, as Horace Byrd leaned above
+him in expectation of instructions to keep watch over the departing
+visitor.
+
+"The way in which he held out his hand to me spoke volumes."
+
+The detective cast a sad glance at Craik Mansell's retreating figure.
+
+"You could not convince Hickory of that fact," said he.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.
+
+MR. ORCUTT.
+
+          What is it she does now?--MACBETH.
+
+          My resolution's plac'd, and I have nothing
+          Of woman in me. Now, from head to foot
+          I am marble--constant.--ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
+
+
+THESE words rang in the ears of Mr. Ferris. For he felt himself
+disturbed by them. Hickory did not believe Mr. Mansell innocent.
+
+At last he sent for that detective.
+
+"Hickory," he asked, "why do you think Mansell, rather than Hildreth,
+committed this crime?"
+
+Now this query, on the part of the District Attorney, put Hickory into a
+quandary. He wished to keep his promise to Horace Byrd, and yet he
+greatly desired to answer his employer's question truthfully. Without
+any special sympathies of his own, he yet had an undeniable leaning
+toward justice, and justice certainly demanded the indictment of
+Mansell. He ended by compromising matters.
+
+"Mr. Ferris," said he, "when you went to see Miss Dare the other day,
+what did you think of her state of mind?"
+
+"That it was a very unhappy one."
+
+"Didn't you think more than that, sir? Didn't you think she believed Mr.
+Mansell guilty of this crime?"
+
+"Yes," admitted the other, with reluctance.
+
+"If Miss Dare is attached to Mr. Mansell, she must feel certain of his
+guilt to _offer_ testimony against him. Her belief should go for
+something, sir; for much, it strikes me, when you consider what a woman
+she is."
+
+This conversation increased Mr. Ferris' uneasiness. Much as he wished to
+spare the feelings of Miss Dare, and, through her, those of his friend,
+Mr. Orcutt, the conviction of Mansell's criminality was slowly gaining
+ground in his mind. He remembered the peculiar manner of the latter
+during the interview they had held together; his quiet acceptance of the
+position of a suspected man, and his marked reticence in regard to the
+ring. Though the delicate nature of the interests involved might be
+sufficient to explain his behavior in the latter regard, his whole
+conduct could not be said to be that of a disinterested man, even if it
+were not necessarily that of a guilty one. In whatever way Mr. Ferris
+looked at it, he could come to but one conclusion, and that was, that
+justice to Hildreth called for such official attention to the evidence
+which had been collected against Mansell as should secure the indictment
+of that man against whom could be brought the more convincing proof of
+guilt.
+
+Not that Mr. Ferris meant, or in anywise considered it good policy, to
+have Mansell arrested at this time. As the friend of Mr. Orcutt, it was
+manifestly advisable for him to present whatever evidence he possessed
+against Mansell directly to the Grand Jury. For in this way he would not
+only save the lawyer from the pain and humiliation of seeing the woman
+he so much loved called up as a witness against the man who had
+successfully rivalled him in her affections, but would run the chance,
+at least, of eventually preserving from open knowledge, the various
+details, if not the actual facts, which had led to this person being
+suspected of crime. For the Grand Jury is a body whose business it is to
+make secret inquisition into criminal offences. Its members are bound by
+oath to the privacy of their deliberations. If, therefore, they should
+find the proofs presented to them by the District Attorney insufficient
+to authorize an indictment against Mansell, nothing of their proceedings
+would transpire. While, on the contrary, if they decided that the
+evidence was such as to oblige them to indict Mansell instead of
+Hildreth, neither Mr. Orcutt nor Miss Dare could hold the District
+Attorney accountable for the exposures that must follow.
+
+The course, therefore, of Mr. Ferris was determined upon. All the
+evidence in his possession against both parties, together with the
+verdict of the coroner's jury, should go at once before the Grand Jury;
+Mansell, in the meantime, being so watched that a bench-warrant issuing
+upon the indictment would have him safely in custody at any moment.
+
+But this plan for saving Mr. Orcutt's feelings did not succeed as fully
+as Mr. Ferris hoped. By some means or other the rumor got abroad that
+another man than Hildreth had fallen under the suspicion of the
+authorities, and one day Mr. Ferris found himself stopped on the street
+by the very person he had for a week been endeavoring to avoid.
+
+"Mr. Orcutt!" he cried, "how do you do? I did not recognize you at
+first."
+
+"No?" was the sharp rejoinder. "I'm not myself nowadays. I have a bad
+cold." With which impatient explanation he seized Mr. Ferris by the arm
+and said: "But what is this I hear? You have your eye on another party
+suspected of being Mrs. Clemmens' murderer?"
+
+The District Attorney bowed uneasily. He had hoped to escape the
+discussion of this subject with Mr. Orcutt.
+
+The lawyer observed the embarrassment his question had caused, and
+instantly turned pale, notwithstanding the hardihood which a long career
+at the bar had given him.
+
+"Ferris," he pursued, in a voice he strove hard to keep steady, "we have
+always been good friends, in spite of the many tilts we have had
+together before the court. Will you be kind enough to inform me if your
+suspicions are founded upon evidence collected by yourself, or at the
+instigation of parties professing to know more about this murder than
+they have hitherto revealed?"
+
+Mr. Ferris could not fail to understand the true nature of this
+question, and out of pure friendship answered quietly:
+
+"I have allowed myself to look with suspicion upon this Mansell--for it
+is Mrs. Clemmens' nephew who is at present occupying our
+attention,--because the facts which have come to light in his regard are
+as criminating in their nature as those which have transpired in
+reference to Mr. Hildreth. The examination into this matter, which my
+duty requires, has been any thing but pleasant to me, Mr. Orcutt. The
+evidence of such witnesses as will have to be summoned before the Grand
+Jury, is of a character to bring open humiliation, if not secret grief,
+upon persons for whom I entertain the highest esteem."
+
+The pointed way in which this was said convinced Mr. Orcutt that his
+worst fears had been realized. Turning partly away, but not losing his
+hold upon the other's arm, he observed with what quietness he could:
+
+"You say that so strangely, I feel forced to put another question to
+you. If what I have to ask strikes you with any surprise, remember that
+my own astonishment and perplexity at being constrained to interrogate
+you in this way, are greater than any sensation you can yourself
+experience. What I desire to know is this. Among the witnesses you have
+collected against this last suspected party, there are some women, are
+there not?"
+
+The District Attorney gravely bowed.
+
+"Ferris, is Miss Dare amongst them?"
+
+"Orcutt, she is."
+
+With a look that expressed his secret mistrust the lawyer gave way to a
+sudden burst of feeling.
+
+"Ferris," he wrathfully acknowledged, "I may be a fool, but I don't see
+what she can have to say on this subject. It is impossible she should
+know any thing about the murder; and, as for this Mansell----" He made a
+violent gesture with his hand, as if the very idea of her having any
+acquaintance with the nephew of Mrs. Clemmens were simply preposterous.
+
+The District Attorney, who saw from this how utterly ignorant the other
+was concerning Miss Dare's relations to the person named, felt his
+embarrassment increase.
+
+"Mr. Orcutt," he replied, "strange as it may appear to you, Miss Dare
+_has_ testimony to give of value to the prosecution, or she would not be
+reckoned among its witnesses. What that testimony is, I must leave to
+her discretion to make known to you, as she doubtless will, if you
+question her with sufficient consideration. I never forestall matters
+myself, nor would you wish me to tell you what would more becomingly
+come from her own lips. But, Mr. Orcutt, this I can say: that if it had
+been given me to choose between the two alternatives of resigning my
+office and of pursuing an inquiry which obliges me to submit to the
+unpleasantness of a judicial investigation a person held in so much
+regard by yourself, I would have given up my office with pleasure, so
+keenly do I feel the embarrassment of my position and the unhappiness of
+yours. But any mere resignation on my part would have availed nothing to
+save Miss Dare from appearing before the Grand Jury. The evidence she
+has to give in this matter makes the case against Mansell as strong as
+that against Hildreth, and it would be the duty of any public prosecutor
+to recognize the fact and act accordingly."
+
+Mr. Orcutt, who had by the greatest effort succeeded in calming himself
+through this harangue, flashed sarcastically at this last remark, and
+surveyed Mr. Ferris with a peculiar look.
+
+"Are you sure," he inquired in a slow, ironical tone, "that she has not
+succeeded in making it stronger?"
+
+The look, the tone, were unexpected, and greatly startled Mr. Ferris.
+Drawing nearer to his friend, he returned his gaze with marked
+earnestness.
+
+"What do you mean?" he asked, with secret anxiety.
+
+But the wary lawyer had already repented this unwise betrayal of his own
+doubts. Meeting his companion's eye with a calmness that amazed himself,
+he remarked, instead of answering:
+
+"It was through Miss Dare, then, that your attention was first drawn to
+Mrs. Clemmens' nephew?"
+
+"No," disclaimed Mr. Ferris, hastily. "The detectives already had their
+eyes upon him. But a hint from her went far toward determining me upon
+pursuing the matter," he allowed, seeing that his friend was determined
+upon hearing the truth.
+
+"So then," observed the other, with a stern dryness that recalled his
+manner at the bar, "she opened a communication with you herself?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+It was enough. Mr. Orcutt dropped the arm of Mr. Ferris, and, with his
+usual hasty bow, turned shortly away. The revelation which he believed
+himself to have received in this otherwise far from satisfactory
+interview, was one that he could not afford to share--that is, not yet;
+not while any hope remained that circumstances would so arrange
+themselves as to make it unnecessary for him to do so. If Imogene Dare,
+out of her insane desire to free Gouverneur Hildreth from the suspicion
+that oppressed him, had resorted to perjury and invented evidence
+tending to show the guilt of another party--and remembering her
+admissions at their last interview and the language she had used in her
+letter of farewell, no other conclusion offered itself,--what
+alternative was left him but to wait till he had seen her before he
+proceeded to an interference that would separate her from himself by a
+gulf still greater than that which already existed between them? To be
+sure, the jealousy which consumed him, the passionate rage that seized
+his whole being when he thought of all she dared do for the man she
+loved, or that he thought she loved, counselled him to nip this attempt
+of hers in the bud, and by means of a word to Mr. Ferris throw such a
+doubt upon her veracity as a witness against this new party as should
+greatly influence the action of the former in the critical business he
+had in hand. But Mr. Orcutt, while a prey to unwonted passions, had not
+yet lost control of his reason, and reason told him that impulse was an
+unsafe guide for him to follow at this time. Thought alone--deep and
+concentrated thought--would help him out of this crisis with honor and
+safety. But thought would not come at call. In all his quick walk home
+but one mad sentence formulated itself in his brain, and that was: "She
+loves him so, she is willing to perjure herself for his sake!" Nor,
+though he entered his door with his usual bustling air and went through
+all the customary observances of the hour with an appearance of no
+greater abstraction and gloom than had characterized him ever since the
+departure of Miss Dare, no other idea obtruded itself upon his mind than
+this: "She loves him so, she is willing to perjure herself for his
+sake!"
+
+Even the sight of his books, his papers, and all that various
+paraphernalia of work and study which gives character to a lawyer's
+library, was insufficient to restore his mind to its usual condition of
+calm thought and accurate judgment. Not till the clock struck eight and
+he found himself almost without his own volition at Professor Darling's
+house, did he realize all the difficulties of his position and the
+almost intolerable nature of the undertaking which had been forced upon
+him by the exigencies of the situation.
+
+Miss Dare, who had refused to see him at first, came into his presence
+with an expression that showed him with what reluctance she had finally
+responded to his peremptory message. But in the few heavy moments he had
+been obliged to wait, he had schooled himself to expect coldness if not
+absolute rebuff. He therefore took no heed of the haughty air of inquiry
+which she turned upon him, but came at once to the point, saying almost
+before she had closed the door:
+
+"What is this you have been doing, Imogene?"
+
+A flush, such as glints across the face of a marble statue, visited for
+a moment the still whiteness of her set features, then she replied:
+
+"Mr. Orcutt, when I left your house I told you I had a wretched and
+unhappy duty to perform, that, when once accomplished, would separate us
+forever. I have done it, and the separation has come; why attempt to
+bridge it?"
+
+There was a sad weariness in her tone, a sad weariness in her face, but
+he seemed to recognize neither. The demon jealousy--that hindrance to
+all unselfish feeling--had gripped him again, and the words that came to
+his lips were at once bitter and masterful.
+
+"Imogene," he cried, with as much wrath in his tone as he had ever
+betrayed in her presence, "you do not answer my question. I ask you what
+you have been doing, and you reply, your duty. Now, what do you mean by
+duty? Tell me at once and distinctly, for I will no longer be put off
+by any roundabout phrases concerning a matter of such vital importance."
+
+"Tell you?" This repetition of his words had a world of secret anguish
+in it which he could not help but notice. She did not succumb to it,
+however, but continued in another moment: "You said to me, in the last
+conversation we held together, that Gouverneur Hildreth could not be
+released from his terrible position without a distinct proof of
+innocence or the advancement of such evidence against another as should
+turn suspicion aside from him into a new and more justifiable quarter. I
+could not, any more than he, give a distinct proof of his innocence; but
+I could furnish the authorities with testimony calculated to arouse
+suspicion in a fresh direction, and I did it. For Gouverneur Hildreth
+had to be saved at any price--_at any price_."
+
+The despairing emphasis she laid upon the last phrase went like hot
+steel to Mr. Orcutt's heart, and made his eyes blaze with almost
+uncontrollable passion.
+
+"_Je ne vois pas la necessité_," said he, in that low, restrained tone
+of bitter sarcasm which made his invective so dreaded by opposing
+counsel. "If Gouverneur Hildreth finds himself in an unfortunate
+position, he has only his own follies and inordinate desire for this
+woman's death to thank for it. Because you love him and compassionate
+him beyond all measure, that is no reason why you should perjure
+yourself, and throw the burden of his shame upon a man as innocent as
+Mr. Mansell."
+
+But this tone, though it had made many a witness quail before it,
+neither awed nor intimidated her.
+
+"You--you do not understand," came from her white lips. "It is Mr.
+Hildreth who is perfectly innocent, and not----" But here she paused.
+"You will excuse me from saying more," she said. "You, as a lawyer,
+ought to know that I should not be compelled to speak on a subject like
+this except under oath."
+
+"Imogene!" A change had passed over Mr. Orcutt. "Imogene, do you mean to
+affirm that you really have charges to make against Craik Mansell; that
+this evidence you propose to give is real, and not manufactured for the
+purpose of leading suspicion aside from Hildreth?"
+
+It was an insinuation against her veracity he never could have made, or
+she have listened to, a few weeks before; but the shield of her pride
+was broken between them, and neither he nor she seemed to give any
+thought to the reproach conveyed in these words.
+
+"What I have to say is the truth," she murmured. "I have not
+manufactured any thing."
+
+With an astonishment he took no pains to conceal, Mr. Orcutt anxiously
+surveyed her. He could not believe this was so, yet how could he convict
+her of falsehood in face of that suffering expression of resolve which
+she wore. His methods as a lawyer came to his relief.
+
+"Imogene," he slowly responded, "if, as you say, you are in possession
+of positive evidence against this Mansell, how comes it that you
+jeopardized the interests of the man you loved by so long withholding
+your testimony?"
+
+But instead of the flush of confusion which he expected, she flashed
+upon him with a sudden revelation of feeling that made him involuntarily
+start.
+
+"Shall I tell you?" she replied. "You will have to know some time, and
+why not now? I kept back the truth," she replied, advancing a step, but
+without raising her eyes to his, "because it is not the aspersed
+Hildreth that I love, but----"
+
+Why did she pause? What was it she found so hard to speak? Mr. Orcutt's
+expression became terrible.
+
+"But the other," she murmured at last.
+
+"The other!"
+
+It was now her turn to start and look at him in surprise, if not in some
+fear.
+
+"What other?" he cried, seizing her by the hand. "Name him. I will have
+no further misunderstanding between us."
+
+"Is it necessary?" she asked, with bitterness. "Will Heaven spare me
+nothing?" Then, as she saw no relenting in the fixed gaze that held her
+own, whispered, in a hollow tone: "You have just spoken the name
+yourself--Craik Mansell."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+Incredulity, anger, perplexity, all the emotions that were seething in
+this man's troubled soul, spoke in that simple exclamation. Then silence
+settled upon the room, during which she gained control over herself,
+and he the semblance of it if no more. She was the first to speak.
+
+"I know," said she, "that this avowal on my part seems almost incredible
+to you; but it is no more so than that which you so readily received
+from me the other day in reference to Gouverneur Hildreth. A woman who
+spends a month away from home makes acquaintances which she does not
+always mention when she comes back. I saw Mr. Mansell in Buffalo,
+and----" turning, she confronted the lawyer with her large gray eyes, in
+which a fire burned such as he had never seen there before--"and grew to
+esteem him," she went on. "For the first time in my life I found myself
+in the presence of a man whose nature commanded mine. His ambition, his
+determination, his unconventional and forcible character woke
+aspirations within me such as I had never known myself capable of
+before. Life, which had stretched out before me with a somewhat
+monotonous outlook, changed to a panorama of varied and wonderful
+experiences, as I listened to his voice and met the glance of his eye;
+and soon, before he knew it, and certainly before I realized it, words
+of love passed between us, and the agony of that struggle began which
+has ended---- Ah, let me not think how, or I shall go mad!"
+
+Mr. Orcutt, who had watched her with a lover's fascination during all
+this attempted explanation, shivered for a moment at this last bitter
+cry of love and despair, but spoke up when he did speak, with a coldness
+that verged on severity.
+
+"So you loved another man when you came back to my home and listened to
+the words of passion which came from _my_ lips, and the hopes of future
+bliss and happiness that welled up from _my_ heart?"
+
+"Yes," she whispered, "and, as you will remember, I tried to suppress
+those hopes and turn a deaf ear to those words, though I had but little
+prospect of marrying a man whose fortunes depended upon the success of
+an invention he could persuade no one to believe in."
+
+"Yet you brought yourself to listen to those hopes on the afternoon of
+the murder," he suggested, ironically.
+
+"Can you blame me for that?" she cried, "remembering how you pleaded,
+and what a revulsion of feeling I was laboring under?"
+
+A smile bitter as the fate which loomed before him, and scornful as the
+feelings that secretly agitated his breast, parted Mr. Orcutt's pale
+lips for an instant, and he seemed about to give utterance to some
+passionate rejoinder, but he subdued himself with a determined effort,
+and quietly waiting till his voice was under full control, remarked with
+lawyer-like brevity at last:
+
+"You have not told me what evidence you have to give against young
+Mansell?"
+
+Her answer came with equal brevity if not equal quietness.
+
+"No; I have told Mr. Ferris; is not that enough?"
+
+But he did not consider it so. "Ferris is a District Attorney," said he,
+"and has demanded your confidence for the purposes of justice, while I
+am your friend. The action you have taken is peculiar, and you may need
+advice. But how can I give it or how can you receive it unless there is
+a complete understanding between us?"
+
+Struck in spite of herself, moved perhaps by a hope she had not allowed
+herself to contemplate before, she looked at him long and earnestly.
+
+"And do you really wish to help me?" she inquired. "Are you so generous
+as to forgive the pain, and possibly the humiliation, I have inflicted
+upon you, and lend me your assistance in case my testimony works its due
+effect, and he be brought to trial instead of Mr. Hildreth?"
+
+It was a searching and a pregnant question, for which Mr. Orcutt was
+possibly not fully prepared, but his newly gained control did not give
+way.
+
+"I must insist upon hearing the facts before I say any thing of my
+intentions," he averred. "Whatever they may be, they cannot be more
+startling in their character than those which have been urged against
+Hildreth."
+
+"But they are," she whispered. Then with a quick look around her, she
+put her mouth close to Mr. Orcutt's ear and breathed:
+
+"Mr. Hildreth is not the only man who, unseen by the neighbors, visited
+Mrs. Clemmens' house on the morning of the murder. Craik Mansell was
+there also."
+
+"Craik Mansell! How do you know that? Ah," he pursued, with the scornful
+intonation of a jealous man, "I forgot that you are lovers."
+
+The sneer, natural as it was, perhaps, seemed to go to her heart and
+wake its fiercest indignation.
+
+"Hush," cried she, towering upon him with an ominous flash of her proud
+eye. "Do not turn the knife in _that_ wound or you will seal my lips
+forever." And she moved hastily away from his side. But in another
+instant she determinedly returned, saying: "This is no time for
+indulging in one's sensibilities. I affirm that Craik Mansell visited
+his aunt on that day, because the ring which was picked up on the floor
+of her dining-room--you remember the ring, Mr. Orcutt?"
+
+Remember it! Did he not? All his many perplexities in its regard crowded
+upon him as he made a hurried bow of acquiescence.
+
+"It belonged to him," she continued. "He had bought it for me, or,
+rather, had had the diamond reset for me--it had been his mother's. Only
+the day before, he had tried to put it on my finger in a meeting we had
+in the woods back of his aunt's house. But I refused to allow him. The
+prospect ahead was too dismal and unrelenting for us to betroth
+ourselves, whatever our hopes or wishes might be."
+
+"You--you had a meeting with this man in the woods the day before his
+aunt was assaulted," echoed Mr. Orcutt, turning upon her with an
+amazement that swallowed up his wrath.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And he afterward visited her house?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And dropped that ring there?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Starting slowly, as if the thoughts roused by this short statement of
+facts were such as demanded instant consideration, Mr. Orcutt walked to
+the other side of the room, where he paced up and down in silence for
+some minutes. When he returned it was the lawyer instead of the lover
+who stood before her.
+
+"Then, it was the simple fact of finding this gentleman's ring on the
+floor of Mrs. Clemmens' dining-room that makes you consider him the
+murderer of his aunt?" he asked, with a tinge of something like irony in
+his tone.
+
+"No," she breathed rather than answered. "That was a proof, of course,
+that he had been there, but I should never have thought of it as an
+evidence of guilt if the woman herself had not uttered, in our hearing
+that tell-tale exclamation of 'Ring and Hand,' and if, in the talk I
+held with Mr. Mansell the day before, he had not betrayed---- Why do you
+stop me?" she whispered.
+
+"I did not stop you," he hastily assured her. "I am too anxious to hear
+what you have to say. Go on, Imogene. What did this Mansell betray? I--I
+ask as a father might," he added, with some dignity and no little
+effort.
+
+But her fears had taken alarm, or her caution been aroused, and she
+merely said:
+
+"The five thousand dollars which his aunt leaves him is just the amount
+he desired to start him in life."
+
+"Did he wish such an amount?" Mr. Orcutt asked.
+
+"Very much."
+
+"And acknowledged it in the conversation he had with you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Imogene," declared the lawyer, "if you do not want to insure Mr.
+Mansell's indictment, I would suggest to you not to lay too great stress
+upon any _talk_ you may have held with him."
+
+But she cried with unmoved sternness, and a relentless crushing down of
+all emotion that was at once amazing and painful to see:
+
+"The innocent is to be saved from the gallows, no matter what the fate
+of the guilty may be."
+
+And a short but agitated silence followed which Mr. Orcutt broke at last
+by saying:
+
+"Are these all the facts you have to give me?"
+
+She started, cast him a quick look, bowed her head, and replied:
+
+"Yes."
+
+There was something in the tone of this assertion that made him repeat
+his question.
+
+"Are these _all_ the facts you have to give me?"
+
+Her answer came ringing and emphatic now.
+
+"Yes," she avowed--"all."
+
+With a look of relief, slowly smoothing out the deep furrows of his
+brow, Mr. Orcutt, for the second time, walked thoughtfully away in
+evident consultation with his own thoughts. This time he was gone so
+long, the suspense became almost intolerable to Imogene. Feeling that
+she could endure it no longer, she followed him at last, and laid her
+hand upon his arm.
+
+"Speak," she impetuously cried. "Tell me what you think; what I have to
+expect."
+
+But he shook his head.
+
+"Wait," he returned; "wait till the Grand Jury has brought in a bill of
+indictment. It will, doubtless, be against one of these two men; but I
+must know which, before I can say or do any thing."
+
+"And do you think there can be any doubt about which of these two it
+will be?" she inquired, with sudden emotion.
+
+"There is always doubt," he rejoined, "about any thing or every thing a
+body of men may do. This is a very remarkable case, Imogene," he
+resumed, with increased sombreness; "the most remarkable one, perhaps,
+that has ever come under my observation. What the Grand Jury will think
+of it; upon which party, Mansell or Hildreth, the weight of their
+suspicion will fall, neither I nor Ferris, nor any other man, can
+prophesy with any assurance. The evidence against both is, in so far as
+we know, entirely circumstantial. That you believe Mr. Mansell to be the
+guilty party----"
+
+"Believe!" she murmured; "I know it."
+
+"That you _believe_ him to be the guilty party," the wary lawyer
+pursued, as if he had not heard her "does not imply that they will
+believe it too. Hildreth comes of a bad stock, and his late attempt at
+suicide tells wonderfully against him; yet, the facts you have to give
+in Mansell's disfavor are strong also, and Heaven only knows what the
+upshot will be. However, a few weeks will determine all that, and
+then----" Pausing, he looked at her, and, as he did so, the austerity
+and self-command of the lawyer vanished out of sight, and the passionate
+gleam of a fierce and overmastering love shone again in his eyes. "And
+then," he cried, "then we will see what Tremont Orcutt can do to bring
+order out of this chaos."
+
+There was so much resolve in his look, such a hint of promise in his
+tone, that she flushed with something almost akin to hope.
+
+"Oh, generous----" she began.
+
+But he stopped her before she could say more.
+
+"Wait," he repeated; "wait till we see what action will be taken by the
+Grand Jury." And taking her hand, he looked earnestly, if not
+passionately, in her face. "Imogene," he commenced, "if I should
+succeed----" But there he himself stopped short with a quick recalling
+of his own words, perhaps. "No," he cried, "I will say no more till we
+see which of these two men is to be brought to trial." And, pressing her
+hand to his lips, he gave her one last look in which was concentrated
+all the secret passions which had been called forth by this hour, and
+hastily left the room.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+A TRUE BILL.
+
+          Come to me, friend or foe,
+          And tell me who is victor, York or Warwick.--HENRY VI.
+
+
+THE town of Sibley was in a state of excitement. About the court-house
+especially the crowd was great and the interest manifested intense. The
+Grand Jury was in session, and the case of the Widow Clemmens was before
+it.
+
+As all the proceedings of this body are private, the suspense of those
+interested in the issue was naturally very great. The name of the man
+lastly suspected of the crime had transpired, and both Hildreth and
+Mansell had their partisans, though the mystery surrounding the latter
+made his friends less forward in asserting his innocence than those of
+the more thoroughly understood Hildreth. Indeed, the ignorance felt on
+all sides as to the express reasons for associating the name of Mrs.
+Clemmens' nephew with his aunt's murder added much to the significance
+of the hour. Conjectures were plenty and the wonder great, but the
+causes why this man, or any other, should lie under a suspicion equal to
+that raised against Hildreth at the inquest was a mystery that none
+could solve.
+
+But what is the curiosity of the rabble to us? Our interest is in a
+little room far removed from this scene of excitement, where the young
+daughter of Professor Darling kneels by the side of Imogene Dare,
+striving by caress and entreaty to win a word from her lips or a glance
+from her heavy eyes.
+
+"Imogene," she pleaded,--"Imogene, what is this terrible grief? Why did
+you have to go to the court-house this morning with papa, and why have
+you been almost dead with terror and misery ever since you got back?
+Tell me, or I shall perish of mere fright. For weeks now, ever since you
+were so good as to help me with my wedding-clothes, I have seen that
+something dreadful was weighing upon your mind, but this which you are
+suffering now is awful; this I cannot bear. Cannot you speak dear? Words
+will do you good."
+
+"Words!"
+
+Oh, the despair, the bitterness of that single exclamation! Miss Darling
+drew back in dismay. As if released, Imogene rose to her feet and
+surveyed the sweet and ingenuous countenance uplifted to her own, with a
+look of faint recognition of the womanly sympathy it conveyed.
+
+"Helen," she resumed, "you are happy. Don't stay here with me, but go
+where there are cheerfulness and hope."
+
+"But I cannot while you suffer so. I love you, Imogene. Would you drive
+me away from your side when you are so unhappy? You don't care for me as
+I do for you or you could not do it."
+
+"Helen!" The deep tone made the sympathetic little bride-elect quiver.
+"Helen, some griefs are best borne alone. Only a few hours now and I
+shall know the worst. Leave me."
+
+But the gentle little creature was not to be driven away. She only clung
+the closer and pleaded the more earnestly:
+
+"Tell me, tell me!"
+
+The reiteration of this request was too much for the pallid woman before
+her. Laying her two hands on the shoulders of this child, she drew back
+and looked her earnestly in the face.
+
+"Helen," she cried, "what do you know of earthly anguish? A petted
+child, the favorite of happy fortune, you have been kept from evil as
+from a blight. None of the annoyances of life have been allowed to enter
+your path, much less its griefs and sins. Terror with you is but a name,
+remorse an unknown sensation. Even your love has no depths in it such as
+suffering gives. Yet, since you do love, and love well, perhaps you can
+understand something of what a human soul can endure who sees its only
+hope and only love tottering above a gulf too horrible for words to
+describe--a gulf, too, which her own hand---- But no, I cannot tell you.
+I overrated my strength. I----"
+
+She sank back, but the next moment started again to her feet: a servant
+had opened the door.
+
+"What is it!" she exclaimed; "speak, tell me."
+
+"Only a gentleman to see you, miss."
+
+"Only a----" But she stopped in that vain repetition of the girl's
+simple words, and looked at her as if she would force from her lips the
+name she had not the courage to demand; but, failing to obtain it,
+turned away to the glass, where she quietly smoothed her hair and
+adjusted the lace at her throat, and then catching sight of the
+tear-stained face of Helen, stooped and gave her a kiss, after which she
+moved mechanically to the door and went down those broad flights, one
+after one, till she came to the parlor, when she went in and
+encountered--Mr. Orcutt.
+
+A glance at his face told her all she wanted to know.
+
+"Ah!" she gasped, "it is then----"
+
+"Mansell!"
+
+It was five minutes later. Imogene leaned against the window where she
+had withdrawn herself at the utterance of that one word. Mr. Orcutt
+stood a couple of paces behind her.
+
+"Imogene," said he, "there is a question I would like to have you
+answer."
+
+The feverish agitation expressed in his tone made her look around.
+
+"Put it," she mechanically replied.
+
+But he did not find it easy to do this, while her eyes rested upon him
+in such despair. He felt, however, that the doubt in his mind must be
+satisfied at all hazards; so choking down an emotion that was almost as
+boundless as her own, he ventured to ask:
+
+"Is it among the possibilities that you could ever again contemplate
+giving yourself in marriage to Craik Mansell, no matter what the issue
+of the coming trial may be?"
+
+A shudder quick and powerful as that which follows the withdrawal of a
+dart from an agonizing wound shook her whole frame for a moment, but she
+answered, steadily:
+
+"No; how can you ask, Mr. Orcutt?"
+
+A gleam of relief shot across his somewhat haggard features.
+
+"Then," said he, "it will be no treason in me to assure you that never
+has my love been greater for you than to-day. That to save you from the
+pain which you are suffering, I would sacrifice every thing, even my
+pride. If, therefore, there is any kindness I can show you, any deed I
+can perform for your sake, I am ready to attempt it, Imogene.
+
+"Would you--" she hesitated, but gathered courage as she met his
+eye--"would you be willing to go to him with a message from me?"
+
+His glance fell and his lips took a line that startled Imogene, but his
+answer, though given with bitterness was encouraging.
+
+"Yes," he returned; "even that."
+
+"Then," she cried, "tell him that to save the innocent, I had to betray
+the guilty, but in doing this I did not spare myself; that whatever his
+doom may be, I shall share it, even though it be that of death."
+
+"Imogene!"
+
+"Will you tell him?" she asked.
+
+But he would not have been a man, much less a lover, if he could answer
+that question now. Seizing her by the arm, he looked her wildly in the
+face.
+
+"Do you mean to kill yourself?" he demanded.
+
+"I feel I shall not live," she gasped, while her hand went involuntarily
+to her heart.
+
+He gazed at her in horror.
+
+"And if he is cleared?" he hoarsely ejaculated.
+
+"I--I shall try to endure my fate."
+
+He gave her another long, long look.
+
+"So this is the alternative you give me?" he bitterly exclaimed. "I must
+either save this man or see you perish. Well," he declared, after a few
+minutes' further contemplation of her face, "I will save this man--that
+is, if he will allow me to do so."
+
+A flash of joy such as he had not perceived on her countenance for weeks
+transformed its marble-like severity into something of its pristine
+beauty.
+
+"And you will take him my message also?" she cried.
+
+But to this he shook his head.
+
+"If I am to approach him as a lawyer willing to undertake his cause,
+don't you see I can give him no such message as that?"
+
+"Ah, yes, yes. But you can tell him Imogene Dare has risked her own life
+and happiness to save the innocent."
+
+"I will tell him whatever I can to show your pity and your misery."
+
+And she had to content herself with this. In the light of the new hope
+that was thus unexpectedly held out to her, it did not seem so
+difficult. Giving Mr. Orcutt her hand, she endeavored to thank him, but
+the reaction from her long suspense was too much, and, for the first
+time in her brave young life, Imogene lost consciousness and fainted
+quite away.
+
+
+
+
+XXV.
+
+AMONG TELESCOPES AND CHARTS.
+
+          Tarry a little--there is something else.--MERCHANT OF VENICE.
+
+
+GOUVERNEUR HILDRETH was discharged and Craik Mansell committed to prison
+to await his trial.
+
+Horace Byrd, who no longer had any motive for remaining in Sibley, had
+completed all his preparations to return to New York. His valise was
+packed, his adieus made, and nothing was left for him to do but to step
+around to the station, when he bethought him of a certain question he
+had not put to Hickory.
+
+Seeking him out, he propounded it.
+
+"Hickory," said he, "have you ever discovered in the course of your
+inquiries where Miss Dare was on the morning of the murder?"
+
+The stalwart detective, who was in a very contented frame of mind,
+answered up with great cheeriness:
+
+"Haven't I, though! It was one of the very first things I made sure of.
+She was at Professor Darling's house on Summer Avenue."
+
+"At Professor Darling's house?" Mr. Byrd felt a sensation of dismay.
+Professor Darling's house was, as you remember, in almost direct
+communication with Mrs. Clemmens' cottage by means of a path through
+the woods. As Mr. Byrd recalled his first experience in threading those
+woods, and remembered with what suddenness he had emerged from them only
+to find himself in full view of the West Side and Professor Darling's
+spacious villa, he stared uneasily at his colleague and said:
+
+"It is train time, Hickory, but I cannot help that. Before I leave this
+town I must know just what she was doing on that morning, and whom she
+was with. Can you find out?"
+
+"_Can I find out?_"
+
+The hardy detective was out of the door before the last word of this
+scornful repetition had left his lips.
+
+He was gone an hour. When he returned he looked very much excited.
+
+"Well!" he ejaculated, breathlessly, "I have had an experience."
+
+Mr. Byrd gave him a look, saw something he did not like in his face, and
+moved uneasily in his chair.
+
+"You have?" he retorted. "What is it? Speak."
+
+"Do you know," the other resumed, "that the hardest thing I ever had to
+do was to keep my head down in the hut the other day, and deny myself a
+look at the woman who could bear herself so bravely in the midst of a
+scene so terrible. Well," he went on, "I have to-day been rewarded for
+my self-control. I have seen Miss Dare."
+
+Horace Byrd could scarcely restrain his impatience.
+
+"Where?" he demanded. "How? Tell a fellow, can't you?"
+
+"I am going to," protested Hickory. "Cannot you wait a minute? _I_ had
+to wait forty. Well," he continued more pleasantly as he saw the other
+frown, "I went to Professor Darling's. There is a girl there I have
+talked to before, and I had no difficulty in seeing her or getting a
+five minutes' chat with her at the back-gate. Odd how such girls will
+talk! She told me in three minutes all I wanted to know. Not that it was
+so much, only----"
+
+"Do get on," interrupted Mr. Byrd. "When did Miss Dare come to the house
+on the morning Mrs. Clemmens was murdered, and what did she do while
+there?"
+
+"She came early; by ten o'clock or so, I believe, and she sat, if she
+did sit, in an observatory they have at the top of the house: a place
+where she often used to go, I am told, to study astronomy with Professor
+Darling's oldest daughter."
+
+"And was Miss Darling with her that morning? Did they study together all
+the time she was in the house?"
+
+"No; that is, the girl said no one went up to the observatory with Miss
+Dare; that Miss Darling did not happen to be at home that day, and Miss
+Dare had to study alone. Hearing this," pursued Hickory, answering the
+look of impatience in the other's face, "I had a curiosity to interview
+the observatory, and being--well, not a clumsy fellow at softsoaping a
+girl--I at last succeeded in prevailing upon her to take me up. Byrd,
+will you believe me when I tell you that we did it without going into
+the house?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"I mean," corrected the other, "without entering the main part of the
+building. The professor's house has a tower, you know, at the upper
+angle toward the woods, and it is in the top of that tower he keeps his
+telescopes and all that kind of thing. The tower has a special staircase
+of its own. It is a spiral one, and opens on a door below that connects
+directly with the garden. We went up these stairs."
+
+"You dared to?"
+
+"Yes; the girl assured me every one was out of the house but the
+servants, and I believed her. We went up the stairs, entered the
+observatory----"
+
+"It is not kept locked, then?"
+
+"It was not locked to-day--saw the room, which is a curious one--glanced
+out over the view, which is well worth seeing, and then----"
+
+"Well, what?"
+
+"I believe I stood still and asked the girl a question or two more. I
+inquired," he went on, deprecating the other's impatience by a wave of
+his nervous hand, "when Miss Dare came down from this place on the
+morning you remember. She answered that she couldn't quite tell; that
+she wouldn't have remembered any thing about it at all, only that Miss
+Tremaine came to the house that morning, and wanting to see Miss Dare,
+ordered her to go up to the observatory and tell that lady to come down,
+and that she went, but to her surprise did not find Miss Dare there,
+though she was sure she had not gone home, or, at least, hadn't taken
+any of the cars that start from the front of the house, for she had
+looked at them every one as they went by the basement window where she
+was at work."
+
+"The girl said this?"
+
+"Yes, standing in the door of this small room, and looking me straight
+in the eye."
+
+"And did you ask her nothing more? Say nothing about the time, Hickory,
+or--or inquire where she supposed Miss Dare to have gone?"
+
+"Yes, I asked her all this. I am not without curiosity any more than you
+are, Mr. Byrd."
+
+"And she replied?"
+
+"Oh, as to the time, that it was somewhere before noon. Her reason for
+being sure of this was that Miss Tremaine declined to wait till another
+effort had been made to find Miss Dare, saying she had an engagement at
+twelve which she did not wish to break."
+
+"And the girl's notions about where Miss Dare had gone?"
+
+"Such as you expect, Byrd. She said she did not know any thing about it,
+but that Miss Dare often went strolling in the garden, or even in the
+woods when she came to Professor Darling's house, and that she supposed
+she had gone off on some such walk at this time, for, at one o'clock or
+thereabouts, she saw her pass in the horse-car on her way back to the
+town."
+
+"Hickory, I wish you had not told me this just as I am going back to the
+city."
+
+"Wish I had not told it, or wish I had not gone to Professor Darling's
+house as you requested?"
+
+"Wish you had not told it. I dare not wish the other. But you spoke of
+seeing Miss Dare; how was that? Where did you run across her?"
+
+"Do you want to hear?"
+
+"Of course, of course."
+
+"But I thought----"
+
+"Oh, never mind, old boy; tell me the whole now, as long as you have
+told me any. Was she in the house?"
+
+"I will tell you. I had asked the girl all these questions, as I have
+said, and was about to leave the observatory and go below when I thought
+I would cast another glance around the curious old place, and in doing
+so caught a glimpse of a huge portfolio of charts, as I supposed,
+standing upright in a rack that stretched across the further portion of
+the room. Somehow my heart misgave me when I saw this rack, and,
+scarcely conscious what it was I feared, I crossed the floor and looked
+behind the portfolio. Byrd, there was a woman crouched there--a woman
+whose pallid cheeks and burning eyes lifted to meet my own, told me only
+too plainly that it was Miss Dare. I have had many experiences,"
+Hickory allowed, after a moment, "and some of them any thing but
+pleasant to myself, but I don't think I ever felt just as I did at that
+instant. I believe I attempted a bow--I don't remember; or, at least,
+tried to murmur some excuse, but the look that came into her face
+paralyzed me, and I stopped before I had gotten very far, and waited to
+hear what she would say. But she did not say much; she merely rose, and,
+turning toward me, exclaimed: 'No apologies; you are a detective, I
+suppose?' And when I nodded, or made some other token that she had
+guessed correctly, she merely remarked, flashing upon me, however, in a
+way I do not yet understand: 'Well, you have got what you desired, and
+now can go.' And I went, Byrd, went; and I felt puzzled, I don't know
+why, and a little bit sore about the heart, too, as if---- Well, I can't
+even tell what I mean by that _if_. The only thing I am sure of is, that
+Mansell's cause hasn't been helped by this day's job, and that if this
+lady is asked on the witness stand where she was during the hour every
+one believed her to be safely shut up with the telescopes and charts, we
+shall hear----"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Well, that she _was_ shut up with them, most likely. Women like her are
+not to be easily disconcerted even on the witness stand."
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.
+
+"HE SHALL HEAR ME!"
+
+          There's some ill planet reigns;
+          I must be patient till the heavens look
+          With an aspect more favorable.--WINTER'S TALE.
+
+
+THE time is midnight, the day the same as that which saw this irruption
+of Hickory into Professor Darling's observatory; the scene that of Miss
+Dare's own room in the northeast tower. She is standing before a table
+with a letter in her hand and a look upon her face that, if seen, would
+have added much to the puzzlement of the detectives.
+
+The letter was from Mr. Orcutt and ran thus:
+
+          I have seen Mr. Mansell, and have engaged myself
+          to undertake his defence. When I tell you that out
+          of the hundreds of cases I have tried in my still
+          short life, I have lost but a small percentage,
+          you will understand what this means.
+
+          In pursuance to your wishes, I mentioned your name
+          to the prisoner with an intimation that I had a
+          message from you to deliver. But he stopped me
+          before I could utter a word. "I receive no
+          communication from Miss Dare!" he declared, and,
+          anxious as I really was to do your bidding, I was
+          compelled to refrain; for his tone was one of
+          hatred and his look that of ineffable scorn.
+
+This was all, but it was enough. Imogene had read these words over three
+times, and now was ready to plunge the letter into the flame of a
+candle to destroy it. As it burned, her grief and indignation took
+words:
+
+"He is alienated, completely alienated," she gasped; "and I do not
+wonder. But," and here the full majesty of her nature broke forth in one
+grand gesture, "he shall hear me yet! As there is a God above, he shall
+hear me yet, even if it has to be in the open court and in the presence
+of judge and jury!"
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+THE SCALES OF JUSTICE.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII.
+
+THE GREAT TRIAL.
+
+          _Othello._--What dost thou think?
+          _Iago._--                  Think, my lord?
+          _Othello._--By heav'n, he echoes me.
+          As if there was some monster in his thought
+          Too hideous to be shown.--OTHELLO.
+
+
+SIBLEY was in a stir. Sibley was the central point of interest for the
+whole country. The great trial was in progress and the curiosity of the
+populace knew no bounds.
+
+In a room of the hotel sat our two detectives. They had just come from
+the court-house. Both seemed inclined to talk, though both showed an
+indisposition to open the conversation. A hesitation lay between them; a
+certain thin vail of embarrassment that either one would have found it
+hard to explain, and yet which sufficed to make their intercourse a
+trifle uncertain in its character, though Hickory's look had lost none
+of its rude good-humor, and Byrd's manner was the same mixture of easy
+nonchalance and quiet self-possession it had always been.
+
+It was Hickory who spoke at last.
+
+"Well, Byrd?" was his suggestive exclamation.
+
+"Well, Hickory?" was the quiet reply.
+
+"What do you think of the case so far?"
+
+"I think"--the words came somewhat slowly--"I think that it looks bad.
+Bad for the prisoner, I mean," he explained the next moment with a quick
+flush.
+
+"Your sympathies are evidently with Mansell," Hickory quietly remarked.
+
+"Yes," was the slow reply. "Not that I think him innocent, or would turn
+a hair's breadth from the truth to serve him."
+
+"He _is_ a manly fellow," Hickory bluntly admitted, after a moment's
+puff at the pipe he was smoking. "Do you remember the peculiar
+straightforwardness of his look when he uttered his plea of 'Not
+guilty,' and the tone he used too, so quiet, yet so emphatic? You could
+have heard a pin drop."
+
+"Yes," returned Mr. Byrd, with a quick contraction of his usually smooth
+brow.
+
+"Have you noticed," the other broke forth, after another puff, "a
+certain curious air of disdain that he wears?"
+
+"Yes," was again the short reply.
+
+"I wonder what it means?" queried Hickory carelessly, knocking the ashes
+out of his pipe.
+
+Mr. Byrd flashed a quick askance look at his colleague from under his
+half-fallen lids, but made no answer.
+
+"It is not pride alone," resumed the rough-and-ready detective,
+half-musingly; "though he's as proud as the best of 'em. Neither is it
+any sort of make-believe, or _I_ wouldn't be caught by it.
+'Tis--'tis--what?" And Hickory rubbed his nose with his thoughtful
+forefinger, and looked inquiringly at Mr. Byrd.
+
+"How should I know?" remarked the other, tossing his stump of a cigar
+into the fire. "Mr. Mansell is too deep a problem for me."
+
+"And Miss Dare too?"
+
+"_And_ Miss Dare."
+
+Silence followed this admission, which Hickory broke at last by
+observing:
+
+"The day that sees _her_ on the witness stand will be interesting, eh?"
+
+"It is not far off," declared Mr. Byrd.
+
+"No?"
+
+"I think she will be called as a witness to-morrow."
+
+"Have you noticed," began Hickory again, after another short interval of
+quiet contemplation, "that it is only when Miss Dare is present that
+Mansell wears the look of scorn I have just mentioned."
+
+"Hickory," said Mr. Byrd, wheeling directly about in his chair and for
+the first time surveying his colleague squarely, "I have noticed _this_.
+That ever since the day she made her first appearance in the court-room,
+she has sat with her eyes fixed earnestly upon the prisoner, and that he
+has never answered her look by so much as a glance in her direction.
+This has but one explanation as I take it. He never forgets that it is
+through her he has been brought to trial for his life."
+
+Mr. Byrd uttered this very distinctly, and with a decided emphasis. But
+the impervious Hickory only settled himself farther back in his chair,
+and stretching his feet out toward the fire, remarked dryly:
+
+"Perhaps I am not much of a judge of human nature, but I should have
+said now that this Mansell was not a man to treat her contemptuously for
+that. Rage he might show or hatred, but this quiet ignoring of her
+presence seems a little too dignified for a criminal facing a person he
+has every reason to believe is convinced of his guilt."
+
+"Ordinary rules don't apply to this man. Neither you nor I can sound his
+nature. If he displays contempt, it is because he is of the sort to feel
+it for the woman who has betrayed him."
+
+"You make him out mean-spirited, then, as well as wicked?"
+
+"I make him out human. More than that," Mr. Byrd resumed, after a
+moment's thought, "I make him out consistent. A man who lets his
+passions sway him to the extent of committing a murder for the purpose
+of satisfying his love or his ambition, is not of the unselfish cast
+that would appreciate such a sacrifice as Miss Dare has made. This under
+the supposition that our reasons for believing him guilty are well
+founded. If our suppositions are false, and the crime was not committed
+by him, his contempt needs no explanation."
+
+"Just so!"
+
+The peculiar tone in which this was uttered caused Mr. Byrd to flash
+another quick look at his colleague. Hickory did not seem to observe it.
+
+"What makes you think Miss Dare will be called to the witness stand
+to-morrow?" he asked.
+
+"Well I will tell you," returned Byrd, with the sudden vivacity of one
+glad to turn the current of conversation into a fresh channel. "If you
+have followed the method of the prosecution as I have done, you will
+have noticed that it has advanced to its point by definite stages.
+First, witnesses were produced to prove the existence of motive on the
+part of the accused. Mr. Goodman was called to the witness stand, and,
+after him, other business men of Buffalo, all of whom united in
+unqualified assertions of the prisoner's frequently-expressed desire for
+a sum of money sufficient to put his invention into practical use. Next,
+the amount considered necessary for this purpose was ascertained and
+found to be just covered by the legacy bequeathed him by his aunt; after
+which, ample evidence was produced to show that he knew the extent of
+her small fortune, and the fact that she had by her will made him her
+heir. Motive for the crime being thus established, they now proceeded to
+prove that he was not without actual opportunity for perpetrating it. He
+was shown to have been in Sibley at the time of the murder. The
+station-master at Monteith was confronted with the prisoner, also old
+Sally Perkins. Then you and I came before the court with our testimony,
+and whatever doubt may have remained as to his having been in a position
+to effect his aunt's death, and afterward escape unnoticed by means of
+the path leading over the hills to Monteith Quarry station, was swept
+away. What remains? To connect him with the murder itself, by some,
+strong link of circumstantial evidence, such as the ring provides. And
+who is it that can give testimony regarding the ring?--Miss Dare."
+
+"Hem! Well, she will do it," was the dry remark of Hickory.
+
+"She will be obliged to do it," was the emphatic response of Byrd.
+
+And again their glances crossed in a furtive way both seemed ready to
+ignore.
+
+"What do you think of Orcutt?" Hickory next inquired.
+
+"He is very quiet."
+
+"Too quiet, eh?"
+
+"Perhaps. Folks that know him well declare they never before saw him
+conduct a case in so temperate a manner. He has scarcely made an effort
+at cross-examination, and, in fact, has thus far won nothing for the
+defence except that astonishing tribute to the prisoner's character
+given by Mr. Goodman."
+
+"Mr. Goodman is Mansell's friend."
+
+"I know it; but his short, decisive statements told upon the jury. Such
+a man as he made Mansell out to be is just the sort to create an
+impression on a body of men like them."
+
+"Orcutt understands a jury."
+
+"Orcutt understands his case. He knows he can make nothing by attempting
+to shake the evidence which has been presented by the prosecution; the
+facts are too clear, and the witnesses which have been called to testify
+are of too reliable a character. Whatever defence he contemplates, it
+will not rest upon a denial of any of the facts brought to light through
+our efforts, or the evidence of such persons as Messrs. Goodman and
+Harrison."
+
+"No."
+
+"The question is, then, in what will it lie? Some strong point, I
+warrant you, or he would not hold himself and his plans so completely in
+reserve. But what strong point? I acknowledge the uncertainty troubles
+me."
+
+"I don't wonder," rejoined Hickory. "So it does me."
+
+And a constraint again fell between them that lasted till Hickory put
+his pipe in his pocket and signified his intention of returning to his
+own apartments.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.
+
+THE CHIEF WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION.
+
+          Oh, while you live tell truth and shame the devil!
+                                             --HENRY IV.
+
+
+MR. BYRD'S countenance after the departure of his companion was any
+thing but cheerful. The fact is, he was secretly uneasy. He dreaded the
+morrow. He dreaded the testimony of Miss Dare. He had not yet escaped so
+fully from under the dominion of her fascinations as to regard with
+equanimity this unhappy woman forcing herself to give testimony
+compromising to the man she loved.
+
+Yet when the morrow came he was among the first to secure a seat in the
+court-room. Though the scene was likely to be harrowing to his feelings,
+he had no wish to lose it, and, indeed, chose such a position as would
+give him the best opportunity for observing the prisoner and surveying
+the witnesses.
+
+He was not the only one on the look-out for the testimony of Miss Dare.
+The increased number of the spectators and the general air of
+expectation visible in more than one of the chief actors in this
+terrible drama gave suspicious proof of the fact; even if the deadly
+pallor of the lady herself had not revealed her own feelings in regard
+to the subject.
+
+The entrance of the prisoner was more marked, too, than usual. His air
+and manner were emphasized, so to speak, and his face, when he turned it
+toward the jury, wore an iron look of resolution that would have made
+him conspicuous had he occupied a less prominent position than that of
+the dock.
+
+Miss Dare, who had flashed her eyes toward him at the moment of his
+first appearance, dropped them again, contrary to her usual custom. Was
+it because she knew the moment was at hand when their glances would be
+obliged to meet?
+
+Mr. Orcutt, whom no movement on the part of Miss Dare ever escaped,
+leaned over and spoke to the prisoner.
+
+"Mr. Mansell," said he, "are you prepared to submit with composure to
+the ordeal of confronting Miss Dare?"
+
+"Yes," was the stern reply.
+
+"I would then advise you to look at her now," proceeded his counsel.
+"She is not turned this way, and you can observe her without
+encountering her glance. A quick look at this moment may save you from
+betraying any undue emotion when you see her upon the stand."
+
+The accused smiled with a bitterness Mr. Orcutt thought perfectly
+natural, and slowly prepared to obey. As he raised his eyes and allowed
+them to traverse the room until they settled upon the countenance of the
+woman he loved, this other man who, out of a still more absorbing
+passion for Imogene, was at that very moment doing all that lay in his
+power for the saving of this his openly acknowledged rival, watched him
+with the closest and most breathless attention. It was another instance
+of that peculiar fascination which a successful rival has for an
+unsuccessful one. It was as if this great lawyer's thoughts reverted to
+his love, and he asked himself: "What is there in this Mansell that she
+should prefer him to me?"
+
+And Orcutt himself, though happily unaware of the fact, was at that same
+instant under a scrutiny as narrow as that he bestowed upon his client.
+Mr. Ferris, who knew his secret, felt a keen interest in watching how he
+would conduct himself at this juncture. Not an expression of the
+lawyer's keen and puzzling eye but was seen by the District Attorney and
+noted, even if it was not understood.
+
+Of the three, Mr. Ferris was the first to turn away, and his thoughts if
+they could have been put into words might have run something like this:
+"That man"--meaning Orcutt--"is doing the noblest work one human being
+can perform for another, and yet there is something in his face I do not
+comprehend. Can it be he hopes to win Miss Dare by his effort to save
+his rival?"
+
+As for the thoughts of the person thus unconsciously subjected to the
+criticism of his dearest friend, let our knowledge of the springs that
+govern his action serve to interpret both the depth and bitterness of
+his curiosity; while the sentiments of Mansell---- But who can read what
+lurks behind the iron of that sternly composed countenance? Not
+Imogene, not Orcutt, not Ferris. His secret, if he owns one, he keeps
+well, and his lids scarcely quiver as he drops them over the eyes that
+but a moment before reflected the grand beauty of the unfortunate woman
+for whom he so lately protested the most fervent love.
+
+The next moment the court was opened and Miss Dare's name was called by
+the District Attorney.
+
+With a last look at the unresponsive prisoner, Imogene rose, took her
+place on the witness stand and faced the jury.
+
+It was a memorable moment. If the curious and impressible crowd of
+spectators about her had been ignorant of her true relations to the
+accused, the deadly stillness and immobility of her bearing would have
+convinced them that emotion of the deepest nature lay behind the still,
+white mask she had thought fit to assume. That she was beautiful and
+confronted them from that common stand as from a throne, did not serve
+to lessen the impression she made.
+
+The officer held the Bible toward her. With a look that Mr. Byrd was
+fain to consider one of natural shrinking only, she laid her white hand
+upon it; but at the intimation from the officer, "The right hand, if you
+please, miss," she started and made the exchange he suggested, while at
+the same moment there rang upon her ear the voice of the clerk as he
+administered the awful adjuration that she should, as she believed and
+hoped in Eternal mercy, tell the truth as between this man and the law
+and keep not one tittle back. The book was then lifted to her lips by
+the officer, and withdrawn.
+
+"Take your seat, Miss Dare," said the District Attorney. And the
+examination began.
+
+"Your name, if you please?"
+
+"Imogene Dare."
+
+"Are you married or single?"
+
+"I am single."
+
+"Where were you born?"
+
+Now this was a painful question to one of her history. Indeed, she
+showed it to be so by the flush which rose to her cheek and by the
+decided trembling of her proud lip. But she did not seek to evade it.
+
+"Sir," she said, "I cannot answer you. I never heard any of the
+particulars of my birth. I was a foundling."
+
+The mingled gentleness and dignity with which she made this
+acknowledgment won for her the instantaneous sympathy of all present.
+Mr. Orcutt saw this, and the flash of indignation that had involuntarily
+passed between him and the prisoner subsided as quickly as it arose.
+
+Mr. Ferris went on.
+
+"Where do you live?"
+
+"In this town?"
+
+"With whom do you live?"
+
+"I am boarding at present with a woman of the name of Kennedy. I support
+myself by my needle," she hurriedly added, as though anxious to
+forestall his next question.
+
+Seeing the prisoner start at this, Imogene lifted her head still higher.
+Evidently this former lover of hers knew little of her movements since
+they parted so many weeks ago.
+
+"And how long is it since you supported yourself in this way?" asked the
+District Attorney.
+
+"For a few weeks only. Formerly," she said, making a slight inclination
+in the direction of the prisoner's counsel, "I lived in the household of
+Mr. Orcutt, where I occupied the position of assistant to the lady who
+looks after his domestic affairs." And her eye met the lawyer's with a
+look of pride that made him inwardly cringe, though not even the jealous
+glance of the prisoner could detect that an eyelash quivered or a
+flicker disturbed the studied serenity of his gaze.
+
+The District Attorney opened his lips as if to pursue this topic, but,
+meeting his opponent's eye, concluded to waive further preliminaries and
+proceed at once to the more serious part of the examination.
+
+"Miss Dare," said he, "will you look at the prisoner and tell us if you
+have any acquaintance with him?"
+
+Slowly she prepared to reply; slowly she turned her head and let her
+glance traverse that vast crowd till it settled upon her former lover.
+The look which passed like lightning across her face as she encountered
+his gaze fixed for the first time steadily upon her own, no one in that
+assemblage ever forgot.
+
+"Yes," she returned, quietly, but in a tone that made Mansell quiver and
+look away, despite his iron self-command; "I know him."
+
+"Will you be kind enough to say how long you have known him and where it
+was you first made his acquaintance?"
+
+"I met him first in Buffalo some four months since," was the steady
+reply. "He was calling at a friend's house where I was staying."
+
+"Did you at that time know of his relation to your townswoman, Mrs.
+Clemmens?"
+
+"No, sir. It was not till I had seen him several times that I learned he
+had any connections in Sibley."
+
+"Miss Dare, you will excuse me, but it is highly desirable for the court
+to know if the prisoner ever paid his addresses to you?"
+
+The deep, almost agonizing blush that colored her white cheek answered
+as truly as the slow "Yes," that struggled painfully to her lips.
+
+"And--excuse me again, Miss Dare--did he propose marriage to you?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"Did you accept him?"
+
+"I did not."
+
+"Did you refuse him?"
+
+"I refused to engage myself to him."
+
+"Miss Dare, will you tell us when you left Buffalo?"
+
+"On the nineteenth day of August last."
+
+"Did the prisoner accompany you?"
+
+"He did not."
+
+"Upon what sort of terms did you part?"
+
+"Good terms, sir."
+
+"Do you mean friendly terms, or such as are held by a man and a woman
+between whom an attachment exists which, under favorable circumstances,
+may culminate in marriage?"
+
+"The latter, sir, I think."
+
+"Did you receive any letters from the prisoner after your return to
+Sibley?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And did you answer them?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Miss Dare, may I now ask what reasons you gave the prisoner for
+declining his offer--that is, if my friend does not object to the
+question?" added the District Attorney, turning with courtesy toward Mr.
+Orcutt.
+
+The latter, who had started to his feet, bowed composedly and prepared
+to resume his seat.
+
+"I desire to put nothing in the way of your eliciting the whole truth
+concerning this matter," was his quiet, if somewhat constrained,
+response.
+
+Mr. Ferris at once turned back to Miss Dare.
+
+"You will, then, answer," he said.
+
+Imogene lifted her head and complied.
+
+"I told him," she declared, with thrilling distinctness, "that he was in
+no condition to marry. I am by nature an ambitious woman, and, not
+having suffered at that time, thought more of my position before the
+world than of what constitutes the worth and dignity of a man."
+
+No one who heard these words could doubt they were addressed to the
+prisoner. Haughtily as she held herself, there was a deprecatory
+humility in her tone that neither judge nor jury could have elicited
+from her. Naturally many eyes turned in the direction of the prisoner.
+They saw two white faces before them, that of the accused and that of
+his counsel, who sat near him. But the pallor of the one was of scorn,
+and that of the other---- Well, no one who knew the relations of Mr.
+Orcutt to the witness could wonder that the renowned lawyer shrank from
+hearing the woman he loved confess her partiality for another man.
+
+Mr. Ferris, who understood the situation as well as any one, but who had
+passed the point where sympathy could interfere with his action, showed
+a disposition to press his advantage.
+
+"Miss Dare," he inquired, "in declining the proposals of the prisoner,
+did you state to him in so many words these objections you have here
+mentioned?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"And what answer did he give you?"
+
+"He replied that he was also ambitious, and hoped and intended to make a
+success in life."
+
+"And did he tell you how he hoped and intended to make a success?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"Miss Dare, were these letters written by you?"
+
+She looked at the packet he held toward her, started as she saw the
+broad black ribbon that encircled it, and bowed her head.
+
+"I have no doubt these are my letters," she rejoined, a little
+tremulously for her. And unbinding the packet, she examined its
+contents. "Yes," she answered, "they are. These letters were all written
+by me."
+
+And she handed them back with such haste that the ribbon which bound
+them remained in her fingers, where consciously or unconsciously she
+held it clutched all through the remaining time of her examination.
+
+"Now," said the District Attorney, "I propose to read two of these
+letters. Does my friend wish to look at them before I offer them in
+evidence?" holding them out to Mr. Orcutt.
+
+Every eye in the court-room was fixed upon the latter's face, as the
+letters addressed to his rival by the woman he wished to make his wife,
+were tendered in this public manner to his inspection. Even the iron
+face of Mansell relaxed into an expression of commiseration as he turned
+and surveyed the man who, in despite of the anomalous position they held
+toward each other, was thus engaged in battling for his life before the
+eyes of the whole world. At that instant there was not a spectator who
+did not feel that Tremont Orcutt was the hero of the moment.
+
+He slowly turned to the prisoner:
+
+"Have you any objection to these letters being read?"
+
+"No," returned the other, in a low tone.
+
+Mr. Orcutt turned firmly to the District Attorney:
+
+"You may read them if you think proper," said he.
+
+Mr. Ferris bowed; the letters were marked as exhibits by the
+stenographic reporter who was taking the minutes of testimony, and
+handed back to Ferris, who proceeded to read the following in a clear
+voice to the jury:
+
+
+                          "SIBLEY, N. Y., September 7, 1882.
+
+          "DEAR FRIEND,--You show signs of impatience, and
+          ask for a word to help you through this period of
+          uncertainty and unrest. What can I say more than I
+          have said? That I believe in you and in your
+          invention, and proudly wait for the hour when you
+          will come to claim me with the fruit of your
+          labors in your hand. I am impatient myself, but I
+          have more trust than you. Some one will see the
+          value of your work before long, or else your aunt
+          will interest herself in your success, and lend
+          you that practical assistance which you need to
+          start you in the way of fortune and fame. I cannot
+          think you are going to fail. I will not allow
+          myself to look forward to any thing less than
+          success for you and happiness for myself. For the
+          one involves the other, as you must know by this
+          time, or else believe me to be the most heartless
+          of coquettes.
+
+          "Wishing to see you, but of the opinion that
+          further meetings between us would be unwise till
+          our future looks more settled, I remain, hopefully
+          yours,
+
+                                            "IMOGENE DARE."
+
+"The other letter I propose to read," continued Mr. Ferris, "is dated
+September 23d, three days before the widow's death.
+
+          "DEAR CRAIK,--Since you insist upon seeing me, and
+          say that you have reasons of your own for not
+          visiting me openly, I will consent to meet you at
+          the trysting spot you mention, though all such
+          underhand dealings are as foreign to my nature as
+          I believe them to be to yours.
+
+          "Trusting that fortune will so favor us as to make
+          it unnecessary for us to meet in this way more
+          than once, I wait in anxiety for your coming.
+
+                                             "IMOGENE DARE."
+
+These letters, unfolding relations that, up to this time, had been
+barely surmised by the persons congregated before her, created a great
+impression. To those especially who knew her and believed her to be
+engaged to Mr. Orcutt the surprise was wellnigh thrilling. The witness
+seemed to feel this, and bestowed a short, quick glance upon the lawyer,
+that may have partially recompensed him for the unpleasantness of the
+general curiosity.
+
+The Prosecuting Attorney went on without pause:
+
+"Miss Dare," said he, "did you meet the prisoner as you promised?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Will you tell me when and where?"
+
+"On the afternoon of Monday, September 27th, in the glade back of Mrs.
+Clemmens' house."
+
+"Miss Dare, we fully realize the pain it must cost you to refer to these
+matters, but I must request you to tell us what passed between you at
+this interview?"
+
+"If you will ask me questions, sir, I will answer them with the truth
+the subject demands."
+
+The sorrowful dignity with which this was said, called forth a bow from
+the Prosecuting Attorney.
+
+"Very well," he rejoined, "did the prisoner have any thing to say about
+his prospects?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"How did he speak of them?"
+
+"Despondingly."
+
+"And what reason did he give for this?"
+
+"He said he had failed to interest any capitalist in his invention."
+
+"Any other reason?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"That he had just come from his aunt whom he had tried to persuade to
+advance him a sum of money to carry out his wishes, but that she had
+refused."
+
+"He told you that?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Did he also tell you what path he had taken to his aunt's house?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Was there any thing said by him to show he did not take the secret path
+through the woods and across the bog to her back door?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Or that he did not return in the same way?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Miss Dare, did the prisoner express to you at this time irritation as
+well as regret at the result of his efforts to elicit money from his
+aunt?"
+
+"Yes," was the evidently forced reply.
+
+"Can you remember any words that he used which would tend to show the
+condition of his mind?"
+
+"I have no memory for words," she began, but flushed as she met the eye
+of the Judge, and perhaps remembered her oath. "I do recollect, however,
+one expression he used. He said: 'My life is worth nothing to me without
+success. If only to win you, I must put this matter through; and I will
+do it yet.'"
+
+She repeated this quietly, giving it no emphasis and scarcely any
+inflection, as if she hoped by her mechanical way of uttering it to rob
+it of any special meaning. But she did not succeed, as was shown by the
+compassionate tone in which Mr. Ferris next addressed her.
+
+"Miss Dare, did you express any anger yourself at the refusal of Mrs.
+Clemmens to assist the prisoner by lending him such moneys as he
+required?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I fear I did. It seemed unreasonable to me then, and I was
+very anxious he should have that opportunity to make fame and fortune
+which I thought his genius merited."
+
+"Miss Dare," inquired the District Attorney, calling to his aid such
+words as he had heard from old Sally in reference to this interview,
+"did you make use of any such expression as this: 'I wish I knew Mrs.
+Clemmens'?"
+
+"I believe I did."
+
+"And did this mean you had no acquaintance with the murdered woman at
+that time?" pursued Mr. Ferris, half-turning to the prisoner's counsel,
+as if he anticipated the objection which that gentleman might very
+properly make to a question concerning the intention of a witness.
+
+And Mr. Orcutt, yielding to professional instinct, did indeed make a
+slight movement as if to rise, but became instantly motionless. Nothing
+could be more painful to him than to wrangle before the crowded
+court-room over these dealings between the woman he loved and the man he
+was now defending.
+
+Mr. Ferris turned back to the witness and awaited her answer. It came
+without hesitation.
+
+"It meant that, sir."
+
+"And what did the prisoner say when you gave utterance to this wish?"
+
+"He asked me why I desired to know her."
+
+"And what did you reply?"
+
+"That if I knew her I might be able to persuade her to listen to his
+request."
+
+"And what answer had he for this?"
+
+"None but a quick shake of his head."
+
+"Miss Dare; up to the time of this interview had you ever received any
+gift from the prisoner--jewelry, for instance--say, a ring!"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Did he offer you such a gift then?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"What was it?"
+
+"A gold ring set with a diamond."
+
+"Did you receive it?"
+
+"No, sir. I felt that in taking a ring from him I would be giving an
+irrevocable promise, and I was not ready to do that."
+
+"Did you allow him to put it on your finger?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"And it remained there?" suggested Mr. Ferris, with a smile.
+
+"A minute, may be."
+
+"Which of you, then, took it off?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"And what did you say when you took it off?"
+
+"I do not remember my words."
+
+Again recalling old Sally's account of this interview, Mr. Ferris asked:
+
+"Were they these: 'I cannot. Wait till to-morrow'?"
+
+"Yes, I believe they were."
+
+"And when he inquired: 'Why to-morrow?' did you reply: 'A night has been
+known to change the whole current of one's affairs'?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Miss Dare, what did you mean by those words?"
+
+"I object!" cried Mr. Orcutt, rising. Unseen by any save himself, the
+prisoner had made him an eloquent gesture, slight, but peremptory.
+
+"I think it is one I have a right to ask," urged the District Attorney.
+
+But Mr. Orcutt, who manifestly had the best of the argument, maintained
+his objection, and the Court instantly ruled in his favor.
+
+Mr. Ferris prepared to modify his question. But before he could speak
+the voice of Miss Dare was heard.
+
+"Gentlemen," said she, "there was no need of all this talk. I intended
+to seek an interview with Mrs. Clemmens and try what the effect would be
+of confiding to her my interest in her nephew."
+
+The dignified simplicity with which she spoke, and the air of quiet
+candor that for that one moment surrounded her, gave to this voluntary
+explanation an unexpected force that carried it quite home to the hearts
+of the jury. Even Mr. Orcutt could not preserve the frown with which he
+had confronted her at the first movement of her lips, but turned toward
+the prisoner with a look almost congratulatory in its character. But Mr.
+Byrd, who for reasons of his own kept his eyes upon that prisoner,
+observed that it met with no other return than that shadow of a bitter
+smile which now and then visited his otherwise unmoved countenance.
+
+Mr. Ferris, who, in his friendship for the witness, was secretly
+rejoiced in an explanation which separated her from the crime of her
+lover, bowed in acknowledgment of the answer she had been pleased to
+give him in face of the ruling of the Court, and calmly proceeded:
+
+"And what reply did the prisoner make you when you uttered this remark
+in reference to the change that a single day sometimes makes in one's
+affairs?"
+
+"Something in the way of assent."
+
+"Cannot you give us his words?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Well, then, can you tell us whether or not he looked thoughtful when
+you said this?"
+
+"He may have done so, sir."
+
+"Did it strike you at the time that he reflected on what you said?"
+
+"I cannot say how it struck me at the time."
+
+"Did he look at you a few minutes before speaking, or in any way conduct
+himself as if he had been set thinking?"
+
+"He did not speak for a few minutes."
+
+"And looked at you?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+The District Attorney paused a moment as if to let the results of his
+examination sink into the minds of the jury; then he went on:
+
+"Miss Dare, you say you returned the ring to the prisoner?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You say positively the ring passed from you to him; that you saw it in
+his hand after it had left yours?"
+
+"No, sir. The ring passed from me to him, but I did not see it in his
+hand, because I did not return it to him that way. I dropped it into his
+pocket."
+
+At this acknowledgment, which made both the prisoner and his counsel
+look up, Mr. Byrd felt himself nudged by Hickory.
+
+"Did you hear that?" he whispered.
+
+"Yes," returned the other.
+
+"And do you believe it?"
+
+"Miss Dare is on oath," was the reply.
+
+"Pooh!" was Hickory's whispered exclamation.
+
+The District Attorney alone showed no surprise.
+
+"You dropped it into his pocket?" he resumed. "How came you to do that?"
+
+"I was weary of the strife which had followed my refusal to accept this
+token. He would not take it from me himself, so I restored it to him in
+the way I have said."
+
+"Miss Dare, will you tell us what pocket this was?"
+
+"The outside pocket on the left side of his coat," she returned, with a
+cold and careful exactness that caused the prisoner to drop his eyes
+from her face, with that faint but scornful twitch of the muscles about
+his mouth, which gave to his countenance now and then the proud look of
+disdain which both the detectives had noted.
+
+"Miss Dare," continued the Prosecuting Attorney, "did you see this ring
+again during the interview?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Did you detect the prisoner making any move to take it out of his
+pocket, or have you any reason to believe that it was taken out of the
+pocket on the left-hand side of his coat while you were with him?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"So that, as far as you know, it was still in his pocket when you
+parted?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Miss Dare, have you ever seen that ring since?"
+
+"I have."
+
+"When and where?"
+
+"I saw it on the morning of the murder. It was lying on the floor of
+Mrs. Clemmens' dining-room. I had gone to the house, in my surprise at
+hearing of the murderous assault which had been made upon her, and,
+while surveying the spot where she was struck, perceived this ring lying
+on the floor before me."
+
+"What made you think it was this ring which you had returned to the
+prisoner the day before?"
+
+"Because of its setting, and the character of the gem, I suppose."
+
+"Could you see all this where it was lying on the floor?"
+
+"It was brought nearer to my eyes, sir. A gentleman who was standing
+near, picked it up and offered it to me, supposing it was mine. As he
+held it out in his open palm I saw it plainly."
+
+"Miss Dare, will you tell us what you did when you first saw this ring
+lying on the floor?"
+
+"I covered it with my foot."
+
+"Was that before you recognized it?"
+
+"I cannot say. I placed my foot upon it instinctively."
+
+"How long did you keep it there?"
+
+"Some few minutes."
+
+"What caused you to move at last?"
+
+"I was surprised."
+
+"What surprised you?"
+
+"A man came to the door."
+
+"What man."
+
+"I don't know. A stranger to me. Some one who had been sent on an errand
+connected with this affair."
+
+"What did he say or do to surprise you?"
+
+"Nothing. It was what you said yourself after the man had gone."
+
+"And what did I say, Miss Dare?"
+
+She cast him a look of the faintest appeal, but answered quietly:
+
+"Something about its not being the tramp who had committed this crime."
+
+"That surprised you?"
+
+"That made me start."
+
+"Miss Dare, were you present in the house when the dying woman spoke the
+one or two exclamations which have been testified to in this trial?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What was the burden of the first speech you heard?"
+
+"The words _Hand_, sir, and _Ring_. She repeated the two half a dozen
+times."
+
+"Miss Dare, what did you say to the gentleman who showed you the ring
+and asked if it were yours?"
+
+"I told him it was mine, and took it and placed it on my finger."
+
+"But the ring was not yours?"
+
+"My acceptance of it made it mine. In all but that regard it had been
+mine ever since Mr. Mansell offered it to me the day before."
+
+Mr. Ferris surveyed the witness for a moment before saying:
+
+"Then you considered it damaging to your lover to have this ring found
+in that apartment?"
+
+Mr. Orcutt instantly rose to object.
+
+"I won't press the question," said the District Attorney, with a wave of
+his hand and a slight look at the jury.
+
+"You ought never to have asked it?" exclaimed Mr. Orcutt, with the first
+appearance of heat he had shown.
+
+"You are right," Mr. Ferris coolly responded. "The jury could see the
+point without any assistance from you or me."
+
+"And the jury," returned Mr. Orcutt, with equal coolness, "is scarcely
+obliged to you for the suggestion."
+
+"Well, we won't quarrel about it," declared Mr. Ferris.
+
+"We won't quarrel about any thing," retorted Mr. Orcutt. "We will try
+the case in a legal manner."
+
+"Have you got through?" inquired Mr. Ferris, nettled.
+
+Mr. Orcutt took his seat with the simple reply:
+
+"Go on with the case."
+
+The District Attorney, after a momentary pause to regain the thread of
+his examination and recover his equanimity, turned to the witness.
+
+"Miss Dare," he asked, "how long did you keep that ring on your finger
+after you left the house?"
+
+"A little while--five or ten minutes, perhaps."
+
+"Where were you when you took it off?"
+
+Her voice sank just a trifle:
+
+"On the bridge at Warren Street."
+
+"What did you do with it then?"
+
+Her eyes which had been upon the Attorney's face, fell slowly.
+
+"I dropped it into the water," she said.
+
+And the character of her thoughts and suspicions at that time stood
+revealed.
+
+The Prosecuting Attorney allowed himself a few more questions.
+
+"When you parted with the prisoner in the woods, was it with any
+arrangement for meeting again before he returned to Buffalo?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Give us the final words of your conversation, if you please."
+
+"We were just parting, and I had turned to go, when he said: 'Is it
+good-by, then, Imogene?' and I answered, 'That to-morrow must decide.'
+'Shall I stay, then?' he inquired; to which I replied, 'Yes.'"
+
+'Twas a short, seemingly literal, repetition of possibly innocent words,
+but the whisper into which her voice sank at the final "Yes" endowed it
+with a thrilling effect for which even she was not prepared. For she
+shuddered as she realized the deathly quiet that followed its utterance,
+and cast a quick look at Mr. Orcutt that was full of question, if not
+doubt.
+
+"I was calculating upon the interview I intended to have with Mrs.
+Clemmens," she explained, turning toward the Judge with indescribable
+dignity.
+
+"We understand that," remarked the Prosecuting Attorney, kindly, and
+then inquired:
+
+"Was this the last you saw of the prisoner until to-day?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"When did you see him again?"
+
+"On the following Wednesday."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In the depôt at Syracuse."
+
+"How came you to be in Syracuse the day after the murder?"
+
+"I had started to go to Buffalo."
+
+"What purpose had you in going to Buffalo?"
+
+"I wished to see Mr. Mansell."
+
+"Did he know you were coming?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Had no communication passed between you from the time you parted in the
+woods till you came upon each other in the depôt you have just
+mentioned?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Had he no reason to expect to meet you there?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"With what words did you accost each other?"
+
+"I don't know. I have no remembrance of saying any thing. I was utterly
+dumbfounded at seeing him in this place, and cannot say into what
+exclamation I may have been betrayed."
+
+"And he? Don't you remember what he said?"
+
+"No, sir. I only know he started back with a look of great surprise.
+Afterward he asked if I were on my way to see him."
+
+"And what did you answer?"
+
+"I don't think I made any answer. I was wondering if he was on his way
+to see me."
+
+"Did you put the question to him?"
+
+"Perhaps. I cannot tell. It is all like a dream to me."
+
+If she had said horrible dream, every one there would have believed her.
+
+"You can tell us, however, if you held any conversation?"
+
+"We did not."
+
+"And you can tell us how the interview terminated?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I turned away and took the train back home, which I saw
+standing on the track without."
+
+"And he?"
+
+"Turned away also. Where he went I cannot say."
+
+"Miss Dare"--the District Attorney's voice was very earnest--"can you
+tell us which of you made the first movement to go?"
+
+"What does he mean by that?" whispered Hickory to Byrd.
+
+"I think----" she commenced and paused. Her eyes in wandering over the
+throng of spectators before her, had settled on these two detectives,
+and noting the breathless way in which they looked at her, she seemed to
+realize that more might lie in this question than at first appeared.
+
+"I do not know," she answered at last. "It was a simultaneous movement,
+I think."
+
+"Are you sure?" persisted Mr. Ferris. "You are on oath, Miss Dare? Is
+there no way in which you can make certain whether he or you took the
+initiatory step in this sudden parting after an event that so materially
+changed your mutual prospects?"
+
+"No, sir. I can only say that in recalling the sensations of that hour,
+I am certain my own movement was not the result of any I saw him take.
+The instinct to leave the place had its birth in my own breast."
+
+"I told you so," commented Hickory, in the ear of Byrd. "She is not
+going to give herself away, whatever happens."
+
+"But can you positively say he did not make the first motion to leave?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+Mr. Ferris bowed, turned toward the opposing counsel and said:
+
+"The witness is yours."
+
+Mr. Ferris sat down perfectly satisfied. He had dexterously brought out
+Imogene's suspicions of the prisoner's guilt, and knew that the jury
+must be influenced in their convictions by those of the woman who, of
+all the world, ought to have believed, if she could, in the innocence of
+her lover. He did not even fear the cross-examination which he expected
+to follow. No amount of skill on the part of Orcutt could extract other
+than the truth, and the truth was that Imogene believed the prisoner to
+be the murderer of his aunt. He, therefore, surveyed the court-room with
+a smile, and awaited the somewhat slow proceedings of his opponent with
+equanimity.
+
+But, to the surprise of every one, Mr. Orcutt, after a short
+consultation with the prisoner, rose and said he had no questions to put
+to the witness.
+
+And Miss Dare was allowed to withdraw from the stand, to the great
+satisfaction of Mr. Ferris, who found himself by this move in a still
+better position than he had anticipated.
+
+"Byrd," whispered Hickory, as Miss Dare returned somewhat tremulously to
+her former seat among the witnesses--"Byrd, you could knock me over with
+a feather. I thought the defence would have no difficulty in riddling
+this woman's testimony, and they have not even made the effort. Can it
+be that Orcutt has such an attachment for her that he is going to let
+his rival hang?"
+
+"No. Orcutt isn't the man to deliberately lose a case for any woman. He
+looks at Miss Dare's testimony from a different standpoint than you do.
+He believes what she says to be true, and you do not."
+
+"Then, all I've got to say, 'So much the worse for Mansell!'" was the
+whispered response. "He was a fool to trust his case to that man."
+
+The judge, the jury, and all the by-standers in court, it must be
+confessed, shared the opinion of Hickory--Mr. Orcutt was standing on
+slippery ground.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.
+
+THE OPENING OF THE DEFENCE.
+
+          Excellent! I smell a device.--TWELFTH NIGHT.
+
+
+LATE that afternoon the prosecution rested. It had made out a case of
+great strength and seeming impregnability. Favorably as every one was
+disposed to regard the prisoner, the evidence against him was such that,
+to quote a man who was pretty free with his opinions in the lobby of the
+court-room: "Orcutt will have to wake up if he is going to clear his man
+in face of facts like these."
+
+The moment, therefore, when this famous lawyer and distinguished
+advocate rose to open the defence, was one of great interest to more
+than the immediate actors in the scene. It was felt that hitherto he had
+rather idled with his case, and curiosity was awake to his future
+course. Indeed, in the minds of many the counsel for the prisoner was on
+trial as well as his client.
+
+He rose with more of self-possession, quiet and reserved strength, than
+could be hoped for, and his look toward the Court and then to the jury
+tended to gain for him the confidence which up to this moment he seemed
+to be losing. Never a handsome man or even an imposing one, he had the
+advantage of always rising to the occasion, and whether pleading with a
+jury or arguing with opposing counsel, flashed with that unmistakable
+glitter of keen and ready intellect which, once observed in a man, marks
+him off from his less gifted fellows and makes him the cynosure of all
+eyes, however insignificant his height, features, or ordinary
+expression.
+
+To-day he was even cooler, more brilliant, and more confident in his
+bearing than usual. Feelings, if feelings he possessed--and we who have
+seen him at his hearth can have no doubt on this subject,--had been set
+aside when he rose to his feet and turned his face upon the expectant
+crowd before him. To save his client seemed the one predominating
+impulse of his soul, and, as he drew himself up to speak, Mr. Byrd, who
+was watching him with the utmost eagerness and anticipation, felt that,
+despite appearances, despite evidence, despite probability itself, this
+man was going to win his case.
+
+"May it please your Honor and Gentlemen of the Jury," he began, and
+those who looked at him could not but notice how the prisoner at his
+side lifted his head at this address, till it seemed as if the words
+issued from his lips instead of from those of his counsel, "I stand
+before you to-day not to argue with my learned opponent in reference to
+the evidence which he has brought out with so much ingenuity. I have a
+simpler duty than that to perform. I have to show you how, in spite of
+this evidence, in face of all this accumulated testimony showing the
+prisoner to have been in possession of both motive and opportunities
+for committing this crime, he is guiltless of it; that a physical
+impossibility stands in the way of his being the assailant of the Widow
+Clemmens, and that to whomever or whatsoever her death may be due, it
+neither was nor could have been the result of any blow struck by the
+prisoner's hand. In other words, we dispute, not the facts which have
+led the Prosecuting Attorney of this district, and perhaps others also,
+to infer guilt on the part of the prisoner,"--here Mr. Orcutt cast a
+significant glance at the bench where the witnesses sat,--"but the
+inference itself. Something besides proof of motive and opportunity must
+be urged against _this_ man in order to convict him of guilt. Nor is it
+sufficient to show he was on the scene of murder some time during the
+fatal morning when Mrs. Clemmens was attacked; you must prove he was
+there at the time the deadly blow was struck; for it is not with him as
+with so many against whom circumstantial evidence of guilt is brought.
+_This_ man, gentlemen, has an answer for those who accuse him of
+crime--an answer, too, before which all the circumstantial evidence in
+the world cannot stand. Do you want to know what it is? Give me but a
+moment's attention and you shall hear."
+
+Expectation, which had been rising through this exordium, now stood at
+fever-point. Byrd and Hickory held their breaths, and even Miss Dare
+showed feeling through the icy restraint which had hitherto governed her
+secret anguish and suspense. Mr. Orcutt went on:
+
+"First, however, as I have already said, the prisoner desires it to be
+understood that he has no intention of disputing the various facts which
+have been presented before you at this trial. He does not deny that he
+was in great need of money at the time of his aunt's death; that he came
+to Sibley to entreat her to advance to him certain sums he deemed
+necessary to the furtherance of his plans; that he came secretly and in
+the roundabout way you describe. Neither does he refuse to allow that
+his errand was also one of love, that he sought and obtained a private
+interview with the woman he wished to make his wife, in the place and at
+the time testified to; that the scraps of conversation which have been
+sworn to as having passed between them at this interview are true in as
+far as they go, and that he did place upon the finger of Miss Dare a
+diamond ring. Also, he admits that she took this ring off immediately
+upon receiving it, saying she could not accept it, at least not then,
+and that she entreated him to take it back, which he declined to do,
+though he cannot say she did not restore it in the manner she declares,
+for he remembers nothing of the ring after the moment he put her hand
+aside as she was offering it back to him. The prisoner also allows that
+he slept in the hut and remained in that especial region of the woods
+until near noon the next day; but, your Honor and Gentlemen of the Jury,
+what the prisoner does not allow and will not admit is that he struck
+the blow which eventually robbed Mrs. Clemmens of her life, and the
+proof which I propose to bring forward in support of this assertion is
+this:
+
+"Mrs. Clemmens received the blow which led to her death at some time
+previously to three minutes past twelve o'clock on Tuesday, September
+26th. This the prosecution has already proved. Now, what I propose to
+show is, that Mrs. Clemmens, however or whenever assailed, was still
+living and unhurt up to ten minutes before twelve on that same day. A
+witness, whom you must believe, saw her at that time and conversed with
+her, proving that the blow by which she came to her death must have
+occurred after that hour, that is, after ten minutes before noon. But,
+your Honor and Gentlemen of the Jury, the prosecution has already shown
+that the prisoner stepped on to the train at Monteith Quarry Station at
+twenty minutes past one of that same day, and has produced witnesses
+whose testimony positively proves that the road he took there from Mrs.
+Clemmens' house was the same he had traversed in his secret approach to
+it the day before--viz., the path through the woods; the only path, I
+may here state, that connects those two points with any thing like
+directness.
+
+"But, Sirs, what the prosecution has not shown you, and what it now
+devolves upon me to show, is that this path which the prisoner is
+allowed to have taken is one which no man could traverse without
+encountering great difficulties and many hindrances to speed. It is not
+only a narrow path filled with various encumbrances in the way of
+brambles and rolling stones, but it is so flanked by an impenetrable
+undergrowth in some places, and by low, swampy ground in others, that no
+deviation from its course is possible, while to keep within it and
+follow its many turns and windings till it finally emerges upon the
+highway that leads to the Quarry Station would require many more minutes
+than those which elapsed between the time of the murder and the hour the
+prisoner made his appearance at the Quarry Station. In other words, I
+propose to introduce before you as witnesses two gentlemen from New
+York, both of whom are experts in all feats of pedestrianism, and who,
+having been over the road themselves, are in position to testify that
+the time necessary for a man to pass by means of this path from Mrs.
+Clemmens' house to the Quarry Station is, by a definite number of
+minutes, greater than that allowed to the prisoner by the evidence laid
+before you. If, therefore, you accept the testimony of the prosecution
+as true, and believe that the prisoner took the train for Buffalo, which
+he has been said to do, it follows, as a physical impossibility, for him
+to have been at Mrs. Clemmens' cottage, or anywhere else except on the
+road to the station, at the moment when the fatal blow was dealt.
+
+"Your Honor, this is our answer to the terrible charge which has been
+made against the prisoner; it is simple, but it is effective, and upon
+it, as upon a rock, we found our defence."
+
+And with a bow, Mr. Orcutt sat down, and, it being late in the day, the
+court adjourned.
+
+
+
+
+XXX.
+
+BYRD USES HIS PENCIL AGAIN.
+
+          Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be
+          so, I shall do that that is reason.--MERRY WIVES
+          OF WINDSOR.
+
+
+"BYRD, you look dazed."
+
+"I am."
+
+Hickory paused till they were well clear of the crowd that was pouring
+from the court-room; then he said:
+
+"Well, what do you think of this as a defence?"
+
+"I am beginning to think it is good," was the slow, almost hesitating,
+reply.
+
+"Beginning to think?"
+
+"Yes. At first it seemed puerile. I had such a steadfast belief in
+Mansell's guilt, I could not give much credit to any argument tending to
+shake me loose from my convictions. But the longer I think of it the
+more vividly I remember the difficulties of the road he had to take in
+his flight. I have travelled it myself, you remember, and I don't see
+how he could have got over the ground in ninety minutes."
+
+Hickory's face assumed a somewhat quizzical expression.
+
+"Byrd," said he, "whom were you looking at during the time Mr. Orcutt
+was making his speech?"
+
+"At the speaker, of course."
+
+"Bah!"
+
+"Whom were _you_ looking at?"
+
+"At the person who would be likely to give me some return for my pains."
+
+"The prisoner?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Whom, then?"
+
+"Miss Dare."
+
+Byrd shifted uneasily to the other side of his companion.
+
+"And what did you discover from her, Hickory?" he asked.
+
+"Two things. First, that she knew no more than the rest of us what the
+defence was going to be. Secondly, that she regarded it as a piece of
+great cleverness on the part of Orcutt, but that she didn't believe in
+it anymore--well, any more than I do."
+
+"Hickory!"
+
+"Yes, _sir_! Miss Dare is a smart woman, and a resolute one, and could
+have baffled the penetration of all concerned if she had only remembered
+to try. But she forgot that others might be more interested in making
+out what was going on in her mind at this critical moment than in
+watching the speaker or noting the effect of his words upon the court.
+In fact, she was too eager herself to hear what he had to say to
+remember her _rôle_, I fancy."
+
+"But, I don't see----" began Byrd.
+
+"Wait," interrupted the other. "You believe Miss Dare loves Craik
+Mansell?"
+
+"Most certainly," was the gloomy response.
+
+"Very well, then. If she had known what the defence was going to be she
+would have been acutely alive to the effect it was going to have upon
+the jury. That would have been her first thought and her only thought
+all the time Mr. Orcutt was speaking, and she would have sat with her
+eyes fixed upon the men upon whose acceptance or non-acceptance of the
+truth of this argument her lover's life ultimately depended. But no; her
+gaze, like yours, remained fixed upon Mr. Orcutt, and she scarcely
+breathed or stirred till he had fully revealed what his argument was
+going to be. Then----"
+
+"Well, then?"
+
+"Instead of flashing with the joy of relief which any devoted woman
+would experience who sees in this argument a proof of her lover's
+innocence, she merely dropped her eyes and resumed her old mask of
+impassiveness."
+
+"From all of which you gather----"
+
+"That her feelings were not those of relief, but doubt. In other words,
+that the knowledge she possesses is of a character which laughs to scorn
+any such subterfuge of defence as Orcutt advances."
+
+"Hickory," ventured Byrd, after a long silence, "it is time we
+understood each other. What is your secret thought in relation to Miss
+Dare?"
+
+"My secret thought? Well," drawled the other, looking away, "I think
+she knows more about this crime than she has yet chosen to reveal."
+
+"More than she evinced to-day in her testimony?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I should like to know why you think so. What special reasons have you
+for drawing any such conclusions?"
+
+"Well, one reason is, that she was no more shaken by the plausible
+argument advanced by Mr. Orcutt. If her knowledge of the crime was
+limited to what she acknowledged in her testimony, and her conclusions
+as to Mansell's guilt were really founded upon such facts as she gave us
+in court to-day, why didn't she grasp at the possibility of her lover's
+innocence which was held out to her by his counsel? No facts that she
+had testified to, not even the fact of his ring having been found on the
+scene of murder, could stand before the proof that he left the region of
+Mrs. Clemmens' house before the moment of assault; yet, while evincing
+interest in the argument, and some confidence in it, too, as one that
+would be likely to satisfy the jury, she gave no tokens of being
+surprised by it into a reconsideration of her own conclusions, as must
+have happened if she told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
+the truth, when she was on the stand to-day."
+
+"I see," remarked Byrd, "that you are presuming to understand Miss Dare
+after all."
+
+Hickory smiled.
+
+"You call this woman a mystery," proceeded Byrd; "hint at great
+possibilities of acting on her part, and yet in a moment, as it were,
+profess yourself the reader of her inmost thoughts, and the interpreter
+of looks and expressions she has manifestly assumed to hide those
+thoughts."
+
+Hickory's smile broadened into a laugh.
+
+"Just so," he cried. "One's imbecility has to stop somewhere." Then, as
+he saw Byrd look grave, added: "I haven't a single fact at my command
+that isn't shared by you. My conclusions are different, that is all."
+
+Horace Byrd did not answer. Perhaps if Hickory could have sounded his
+thoughts he would have discovered that their conclusions were not so far
+apart as he imagined.
+
+"Hickory," Byrd at last demanded, "what do you propose to do with your
+conclusions?"
+
+"I propose to wait and see if Mr. Orcutt proves his case. If he don't, I
+have nothing more to say; but if he does, I think I shall call the
+attention of Mr. Ferris to one question he has omitted to ask Miss
+Dare."
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+"Where she was on the morning of Mrs. Clemmens' murder. You remember you
+took some interest in that question yourself a while ago."
+
+"But----"
+
+"Not that I think any thing will come of it, only my conscience will be
+set at rest."
+
+"Hickory,"--Byrd's face had quite altered now--"where do you think Miss
+Dare was at that time?"
+
+"Where do I think she was?" repeated Hickory.
+
+"Well, I will tell you. I think she was _not_ in Professor Darling's
+observatory."
+
+"Do you think she was in the glade back of Widow Clemmens' house?"
+
+"Now you ask me conundrums."
+
+"Hickory!" Byrd spoke almost violently, "Mr. Orcutt shall not prove his
+case."
+
+"No?"
+
+"I will make the run over the ground supposed to have been taken by
+Mansell in his flight, and show in my own proper person that it can be
+done in the time specified."
+
+Hickory's eye, which had taken a rapid survey of his companion's form
+during the utterance of the above, darkened, then he slowly shook his
+head.
+
+"You couldn't," he rejoined laconically. "Too little staying power;
+you'd give out before you got clear of the woods. Better delegate the
+job to me."
+
+"To you?"
+
+"Yes. I'm of the make to stand long runs; besides I am no novice at
+athletic sports of any kind. More than one race has owed its interest to
+the efforts of your humble servant. 'Tis my pet amusement, you see, as
+off-hand drawing is yours, and is likely to be of as much use to me,
+eh?"
+
+"Hickory, you are chaffing me."
+
+"Think so? Do you see that five-barred gate over there? Well, now keep
+your eye on the top rail and see if I clear it without a graze or not."
+
+"Stop!" exclaimed Mr. Byrd, "don't make a fool of yourself in the public
+street. I'll believe you if you say you understand such things."
+
+"Well, I do, and what is more, I'm an adept at them. If I can't make
+that run in the time requisite to show that Mansell could have committed
+the murder, and yet arrive at the station the moment he did, I don't
+know of a chap who can."
+
+"Hickory, do you mean to say you _will_ make this run?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"With a conscientious effort to prove that Orcutt's scheme of defence is
+false?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"When?"
+
+"To-morrow."
+
+"While we are in court?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Byrd turned square around, gave Hickory a look and offered his hand.
+
+"You are a good fellow," he declared, "May luck go with you."
+
+Hickory suddenly became unusually thoughtful.
+
+"A little while ago," he reflected, "this fellow's sympathies were all
+with Mansell; now he would risk my limbs and neck to have the man proved
+guilty. He does not wish Miss Dare to be questioned again, I see."
+
+"Hickory," resumed Byrd, a few minutes later, "Orcutt has not rested the
+defence upon this one point without being very sure of its being
+unassailable."
+
+"I know that."
+
+"He has had more than one expert make that run during the weeks that
+have elapsed since the murder. It has been tested to the uttermost."
+
+"I know _that_."
+
+"If you succeed then in doing what none of these others have, it must be
+by dint of a better understanding of the route you have to take and the
+difficulties you will have to overcome. Now, do you understand the
+route?"
+
+"I think so."
+
+"You will have to start from the widow's door, you know?"
+
+"Certain."
+
+"Cross the bog, enter the woods, skirt the hut--but I won't go into
+details. The best way to prove you know exactly what you have to do is
+to see if you can describe the route yourself. Come into my room, old
+fellow, and let us see if you can give me a sufficiently exact account
+of the ground you will have to pass over, for me to draw up a chart by
+it. An hour spent with paper and pencil to-night may save you from an
+uncertainty to-morrow that would lose you a good ten minutes."
+
+"Good! that's an idea; let's try it," rejoined Hickory.
+
+And being by this time at the hotel, they went in. In another moment
+they were shut up in Mr. Byrd's room, with a large sheet of foolscap
+before them.
+
+"Now," cried Horace, taking up a pencil, "begin with your description,
+and I will follow with my drawing."
+
+"Very well," replied Hickory, setting himself forward in a way to watch
+his colleague's pencil. "I leave the widow's house by the dining-room
+door--a square for the house, Byrd, well down in the left-hand corner of
+the paper, and a dotted line for the path I take,--run down the yard to
+the fence, leap it, cross the bog, and make straight for the woods."
+
+"Very good," commented Byrd, sketching rapidly as the other spoke.
+
+"Having taken care to enter where the trees are thinnest, I find a path
+along which I rush in a bee-line till I come to the glade--an ellipse
+for the glade, Byrd, with a dot in it for the hut. Merely stopping to
+dash into the hut and out again----"
+
+"Wait!" put in Byrd, pausing with his pencil in mid-air; "what did you
+want to go into the hut for?"
+
+"To get the bag which I propose to leave there to-night."
+
+"Bag?"
+
+[Illustration: (Page 364)]
+
+"Yes; Mansell carried a bag, didn't he? Don't you remember what the
+station-master said about the curious portmanteau the fellow had in
+his hand when he came to the station?"
+
+"Yes, but----"
+
+"Byrd, if I run that fellow to his death it must be fairly. A man with
+an awkward bag in his hand cannot run like a man without one. So I
+handicap myself in the same way he did, do you see?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Very well, then; I rush into the hut, pick up the bag, carry it out,
+and dash immediately into the woods at the opening behind the hut.--What
+are you doing?"
+
+"Just putting in a few landmarks," explained Byrd, who had run his
+pencil off in an opposite direction. "See, that is the path to West Side
+which I followed in my first expedition through the woods--the path,
+too, which Miss Dare took when she came to the hut at the time of the
+fearful thunderstorm. And wait, let me put in Professor Darling's house,
+too, and the ridge from which you can see Mrs. Clemmens' cottage. It
+will help us to understand----"
+
+"What?" cried Hickory, with quick suspiciousness, as the other paused.
+
+But Byrd, impatiently shaking his head, answered:
+
+"The whole situation, of course." Then, pointing hastily back to the
+hut, exclaimed: "So you have entered the woods again at this place? Very
+well; what then?"
+
+"Well, then," resumed Hickory, "I make my way along the path I find
+there--run it at right angles to the one leading up to the glade--till
+I come to a stony ledge covered with blackberry bushes. (A very cleverly
+drawn blackberry patch that, Byrd.) Here I fear I shall have to pause."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, deuce take me if I can remember where the path runs after
+that."
+
+"But I can. A big hemlock-tree stands just at the point where the woods
+open again. Make for that and you will be all right."
+
+"Good enough; but it's mighty rough travelling over that ledge, and I
+shall have to go at a foot's pace. The stones are slippery as glass, and
+a fall would scarcely be conducive to the final success of my scheme."
+
+"I will make the path serpentine."
+
+"That will be highly expressive."
+
+"And now, what next?"
+
+"The Foresters' Road, Byrd, upon which I ought to come about this time.
+Run it due east and west--not that I have surveyed the ground, but it
+looks more natural so--and let the dotted line traverse it toward the
+right, for that is the direction in which I shall go."
+
+"It's done," said Byrd.
+
+"Well, description fails me now. All I know is, I come out on a hillside
+running straight down to the river-bank and that the highway is visible
+beyond, leading directly to the station; but the way to get to it----"
+
+"I will show you," interposed Byrd, mapping out the station and the
+intervening river with a few quick strokes of his dexterous pencil. "You
+see this point where you issue from the woods? Very good; it is, as you
+say, on a hillside overlooking the river. Well, it seems unfortunate,
+but there is no way of crossing that river at this point. The falls
+above and below make it no place for boats, and you will have to go back
+along its banks for some little distance before you come to a bridge.
+But there is no use in hesitating or looking about for a shorter path.
+The woods just here are encumbered with a mass of tangled undergrowth
+which make them simply impassable except as you keep in the road, while
+the river curves so frequently and with so much abruptness--see, I will
+endeavor to give you some notion of it here--that you would only waste
+time in attempting to make any short cuts. But, once over the
+bridge----"
+
+"I have only to foot it," burst in Hickory, taking up the sketch which
+the other had now completed, and glancing at it with a dubious eye. "Do
+you know, Byrd," he remarked in another moment, "that it strikes me
+Mansell did not take this roundabout road to the station?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it _is_ so roundabout, and he is such a clearheaded fellow.
+Couldn't he have got there by some shorter cut?"
+
+"No. Don't you remember how Orcutt cross-examined the station-master
+about the appearance which Mansell presented when he came upon the
+platform, and how that person was forced to acknowledge that, although
+the prisoner looked heated and exhausted, his clothes were neither
+muddied nor torn? Now, I did not think of it at the time, but this was
+done by Orcutt to prove that Mansell did take the road I have jotted
+down here, since any other would have carried him through swamps
+knee-deep with mud, or amongst stones and briers which would have put
+him in a state of disorder totally unfitting him for travel."
+
+"That is so," acquiesced Hickory, after a moment's thought. "Mansell
+must be kept in the path. Well, well, we will see to-morrow if wit and a
+swift foot can make any thing out of this problem."
+
+"Wit? Hickory, it _will_ be wit and not a swift foot. Or luck, maybe I
+should call it, or rather providence. If a wagon should be going along
+the highway, now----"
+
+"Let me alone for availing myself of it," laughed Hickory. "Wagon! I
+would jump on the back of a mule sooner than lose the chance of gaining
+a minute on these experts whose testimony we are to hear to-morrow.
+Don't lose confidence in old Hickory yet. He's the boy for this job if
+he isn't for any other."
+
+And so the matter was settled.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI.
+
+THE CHIEF WITNESS FOR THE DEFENCE.
+
+  Your _If_ is the only peace-maker; much virtue in _If_.--AS YOU
+         LIKE IT.
+
+
+THE crowd that congregated at the court-house the next morning was even
+greater than at any previous time. The opening speech of Mr. Orcutt had
+been telegraphed all over the country, and many who had not been
+specially interested in the case before felt an anxiety to hear how he
+would substantiate the defence he had so boldly and confidently put
+forth.
+
+To the general eye, however, the appearance of the court-room was much
+the same as on the previous day. Only to the close observer was it
+evident that the countenances of the several actors in this exciting
+drama wore a different expression. Mr. Byrd, who by dint of the most
+energetic effort had succeeded in procuring his old seat, was one of
+these, and as he noted the significant change, wished that Hickory had
+been at his side to note it with him.
+
+The first person he observed was, naturally, the Judge.
+
+Judge Evans, who has been but barely introduced to the reader, was a man
+of great moral force and discretion. He had occupied his present
+position for many years, and possessed not only the confidence but the
+affections of those who came within the sphere of his jurisdiction. The
+reason for this undoubtedly lay in his sympathetic nature. While never
+accused of weakness, he so unmistakably retained the feeling heart under
+the official ermine that it was by no means an uncommon thing for him to
+show more emotion in uttering a sentence than the man he condemned did
+in listening to it.
+
+His expression, then, upon this momentous morning was of great
+significance to Mr. Byrd. In its hopefulness and cheer was written the
+extent of the effect made upon the unprejudiced mind by the promised
+defence.
+
+As for Mr. Orcutt himself, no advocate could display a more confident
+air or prepare to introduce his witnesses with more dignity or quiet
+assurance. His self-possession was so marked, indeed, that Mr. Byrd, who
+felt a sympathetic interest in what he knew to be seething in this man's
+breast, was greatly surprised, and surveyed, with a feeling almost akin
+to awe, the lawyer who could so sink all personal considerations in the
+cause he was trying.
+
+Miss Dare, on the contrary, was in a state of nervous agitation. Though
+no movement betrayed this, the very force of the restraint she put upon
+herself showed the extent of her inner excitement.
+
+The prisoner alone remained unchanged. Nothing could shake his steady
+soul from its composure, not the possibility of death or the prospect of
+release. He was absolutely imposing in his quiet presence, and Mr. Byrd
+could not but admire the power of the man even while recoiling from his
+supposed guilt.
+
+The opening of the defence carried the minds of many back to the
+inquest. The nice question of time was gone into, and the moment when
+Mrs. Clemmens was found lying bleeding and insensible at the foot of her
+dining-room clock, fixed at three or four minutes past noon. The next
+point to be ascertained was when she received the deadly blow.
+
+And here the great surprise of the defence occurred. Mr. Orcutt rose,
+and in clear, firm tones said:
+
+"Gouverneur Hildreth, take the stand."
+
+Instantly, and before the witness could comply, Mr. Ferris was on his
+feet.
+
+"Who? what?" he cried.
+
+"Gouverneur Hildreth," repeated Mr. Orcutt.
+
+"Did you know this gentleman has already been in custody upon suspicion
+of having committed the crime for which the prisoner is now being
+tried?"
+
+"I do," returned Mr. Orcutt, with imperturbable _sang froid_.
+
+"And is it your intention to save your client from the gallows by
+putting the halter around the neck of the man you now propose to call as
+a witness?"
+
+"No," retorted Mr. Orcutt; "_I_ do not propose to put the halter about
+any man's neck. That is the proud privilege of my learned and respected
+opponent."
+
+With an impatient frown Mr. Ferris sat down, while Mr. Hildreth, who
+had taken advantage of this short passage of arms between the lawyers to
+retain his place in the remote corner where he was more or less shielded
+from the curiosity of the crowd, rose, and, with a slow and painful
+movement that at once attracted attention to his carefully bandaged
+throat and the general air of debility which surrounded him, came
+hesitatingly forward and took his stand in face of the judge and jury.
+
+Necessarily a low murmur greeted him from the throng of interested
+spectators who saw in this appearance before them of the man who, by no
+more than a hair's-breadth, had escaped occupying the position of the
+prisoner, another of those dramatic incidents with which this trial
+seemed fairly to bristle.
+
+It was hushed by one look from the Judge, but not before it had awakened
+in Mr. Hildreth's weak and sensitive nature those old emotions of shame
+and rage whose token was a flush so deep and profuse it unconsciously
+repelled the gaze of all who beheld it. Immediately Mr. Byrd, who sat
+with bated breath, as it were, so intense was his excitement over the
+unexpected turn of affairs, recognized the full meaning of the
+situation, and awarded to Mr. Orcutt all the admiration which his skill
+in bringing it about undoubtedly deserved. Indeed, as the detective's
+quick glance flashed first at the witness, cringing in his old
+unfortunate way before the gaze of the crowd, and then at the prisoner
+sitting unmoved and quietly disdainful in his dignity and pride, he
+felt that, whether Mr. Orcutt succeeded in getting all he wished from
+his witness, the mere conjunction of these two men before the jury, with
+the opportunity for comparison between them which it inevitably offered,
+was the master-stroke of this eminent lawyer's legal career.
+
+Mr. Ferris seemed to feel the significance of the moment also, for his
+eyes fell and his brow contracted with a sudden doubt that convinced Mr.
+Byrd that, mentally, he was on the point of giving up his case.
+
+The witness was at once sworn.
+
+"Orcutt believes Hildreth to be the murderer, or, at least, is willing
+that others should be impressed with this belief," was the comment of
+Byrd to himself at this juncture.
+
+He had surprised a look which had passed between the lawyer and Miss
+Dare--a look of such piercing sarcasm and scornful inquiry that it might
+well arrest the detective's attention and lead him to question the
+intentions of the man who could allow such an expression of his feelings
+to escape him.
+
+But whether the detective was correct in his inferences, or whether Mr.
+Orcutt's glance at Imogene meant no more than the natural emotion of a
+man who suddenly sees revealed to the woman he loves the face of him for
+whose welfare she has expressed the greatest concern and for whose sake,
+while unknown, she has consented to make the heaviest of sacrifices, the
+wary lawyer was careful to show neither scorn nor prejudice when he
+turned toward the witness and began his interrogations.
+
+On the contrary, his manner was highly respectful, if not considerate,
+and his questions while put with such art as to keep the jury constantly
+alert to the anomalous position which the witness undoubtedly held, were
+of a nature mainly to call forth the one fact for which his testimony
+was presumably desired. This was, his presence in the widow's house on
+the morning of the murder, and the fact that he saw her and conversed
+with her and could swear to her being alive and unhurt up to a few
+minutes before noon. To be sure, the precise minute of his leaving her
+in this condition Mr. Orcutt failed to gather from the witness, but,
+like the coroner at the inquest, he succeeded in eliciting enough to
+show that the visit had been completed prior to the appearance of the
+tramp at the widow's kitchen-door, as it had been begun after the
+disappearance of the Danton children from the front of the widow's
+house.
+
+This fact being established and impressed upon the jury, Mr. Orcutt with
+admirable judgment cut short his own examination of the witness, and
+passed him over to the District Attorney, with a grim smile, suggestive
+of his late taunt, that to this gentleman belonged the special privilege
+of weaving halters for the necks of unhappy criminals.
+
+Mr. Ferris who understood his adversary's tactics only too well, but who
+in his anxiety for the truth could not afford to let such an
+opportunity for reaching it slip by, opened his cross-examination with
+great vigor.
+
+The result could not but be favorable to the defence and damaging to the
+prosecution. The position which Mr. Hildreth must occupy if the prisoner
+was acquitted, was patent to all understandings, making each and every
+admission on his part tending to exculpate the latter, of a manifest
+force and significance.
+
+Mr. Ferris, however, was careful not to exceed his duty or press his
+inquiries beyond due bounds. The man they were trying was not Gouverneur
+Hildreth but Craik Mansell, and to press the witness too close, was to
+urge him into admissions seemingly so damaging to himself as, in the
+present state of affairs, to incur the risk of distracting attention
+entirely from the prisoner.
+
+Mr. Hildreth's examination being at an end, Mr. Orcutt proceeded with
+his case, by furnishing proof calculated to fix the moment at which Mr.
+Hildreth had made his call. This was done in much the same way as it was
+at the inquest. Mrs. Clemmens' next-door neighbor, Mrs. Danton, was
+summoned to the stand, and after her her two children, the testimony of
+the three, taken with Mr. Hildreth's own acknowledgments, making it very
+evident to all who listened that he could not have gone into Mrs.
+Clemmens' house before a quarter to twelve.
+
+The natural inference followed. Allowing the least possible time for his
+interview with Mrs. Clemmens, the moment at which the witness swore to
+having seen her alive and unhurt must have been as late as ten minutes
+before noon.
+
+Taking pains to impress this time upon the jury, Mr. Orcutt next
+proceeded to fix the moment at which the prisoner arrived at Monteith
+Quarry Station. As the fact of his having arrived in time to take the
+afternoon train to Buffalo had been already proved by the prosecution,
+it was manifestly necessary only to determine at what hour the train was
+due, and whether it had come in on time.
+
+The hour was ascertained, by direct consultation with the road's
+time-table, to be just twenty minutes past one, and the station-master
+having been called to the stand, gave it as his best knowledge and
+belief that the train had been on time.
+
+This, however, not being deemed explicit enough for the purposes of the
+defence, there was submitted to the jury a telegram bearing the date of
+that same day, and distinctly stating that the train was on time. This
+was testified to by the conductor of the train as having been sent by
+him to the superintendent of the road who was awaiting the cars at
+Monteith; and was received as evidence and considered as conclusively
+fixing the hour at which the prisoner arrived at the Quarry Station as
+twenty minutes past one.
+
+This settled, witnesses were called to testify as to the nature of the
+path by which he must have travelled from the widow's house to the
+station. A chart similar to that Mr. Byrd had drawn, but more explicit
+and nice in its details, was submitted to the jury by an actual surveyor
+of the ground; after which, and the establishment of other minor details
+not necessary to enumerate here, a man of well-known proficiency in
+running and other athletic sports, was summoned to the stand.
+
+Mr. Byrd, who up to this moment had shared in the interest every where
+displayed in the defence, now felt his attention wandering. The fact is,
+he had heard the whistle of the train on which Hickory had promised to
+return to Sibley, and interesting as was the testimony given by the
+witness, he could not prevent his eyes from continually turning toward
+the door by which he expected Hickory to enter.
+
+Strange to say, Mr. Orcutt seemed to take a like interest in that same
+door, and was more than once detected by Byrd flashing a hurried glance
+in its direction, as if he, too, were on the look-out for some one.
+
+Meantime the expert in running was saying:
+
+"It took me one hundred and twenty minutes to go over the ground the
+first time, and one hundred and fifteen minutes the next. I gained five
+minutes the second time, you see," he explained, "by knowing my ground
+better and by saving my strength where it was of no avail to attempt
+great speed. The last time I made the effort, however, I lost three
+minutes on my former time. The wood road which I had to take for some
+distance was deep with mud, and my feet sank with every step. The
+shortest time, then, which I was able to make in three attempts, was one
+hundred and fifteen minutes."
+
+Now, as the time between the striking of the fatal blow and the hour at
+which the prisoner arrived at the Quarry Station was only ninety
+minutes, a general murmur of satisfaction followed this announcement. It
+was only momentary, however, for Mr. Ferris, rising to cross-examine the
+witness, curiosity prevailed over all lesser emotions, and an immediate
+silence followed without the intervention of the Court.
+
+"Did you make these three runs from Mrs. Clemmens' house to Monteith
+Quarry Station entirely on foot?"
+
+"I did, sir."
+
+"Was that necessary?"
+
+"Yes, sir; as far as the highway, at least. The path through the woods
+is not wide enough for a horse, unless it be for that short distance
+where the Foresters' Road intervenes."
+
+"And you ran there?"
+
+"Yes, sir, twice at full speed; the third time I had the experience I
+have told you of."
+
+"And how long do you think it took you to go over that especial portion
+of ground?"
+
+"Five minutes, maybe."
+
+"And, supposing you had had a horse?"
+
+"Well, sir, _if_ I had had a horse, and _if_ he had been waiting there,
+all ready for me to jump on his back, and _if_ he had been a good
+runner and used to the road, I think I could have gone over it in two
+minutes, if I had not first broken my neck on some of the jagged stones
+that roughen the road."
+
+"In other words, you could have saved three minutes if you had been
+furnished with a horse at that particular spot?"
+
+"Yes, _if_."
+
+Mr. Orcutt, whose eye had been fixed upon the door at this particular
+juncture, now looked back at the witness and hurriedly rose to his feet.
+
+"Has my esteemed friend any testimony on hand to prove that the prisoner
+had a horse at this place? if he has not, I object to these questions."
+
+"What testimony I have to produce will come in at its proper time,"
+retorted Mr. Ferris. "Meanwhile, I think I have a right to put this or
+any other kind of similar question to the witness."
+
+The Judge acquiescing with a nod, Mr. Orcutt sat down.
+
+Mr. Ferris went on.
+
+"Did you meet any one on the road during any of these three runs which
+you made?"
+
+"No, sir. That is, I met no one in the woods. There were one or two
+persons on the highway the last time I ran over it."
+
+"Were they riding or walking?"
+
+"Walking."
+
+Here Mr. Orcutt interposed.
+
+"Did you say that in passing over the highway you ran?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Why did you do this? Had you not been told that the prisoner was seen
+to be walking when he came down the road to the station?"
+
+"Yes, sir. But I was in for time, you see."
+
+"And you did not make it even with that advantage?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+The second expert had the same story to tell, with a few variations. He
+had made one of his runs in five minutes less than the other had done,
+but it was by a great exertion that left him completely exhausted when
+he arrived at the station. It was during his cross-examination that
+Hickory at last came in.
+
+Horace Byrd, who had been growing very impatient during the last few
+minutes, happened to be looking at the door when it opened to admit this
+late comer. So was Mr. Orcutt. But Byrd did not notice this, or Hickory
+either. If they had, perhaps Hickory would have been more careful to
+hide his feelings. As it was, he no sooner met his colleague's eye than
+he gave a quick, despondent shake of the head in intimation that he had
+_failed_.
+
+Mr. Byrd, who had anticipated a different result, was greatly
+disappointed. His countenance fell and he cast a glance of compassion
+at Miss Dare, now flushing with a secret but slowly growing hope. The
+defence, then, was good, and she ran the risk of being interrogated
+again. It was a prospect from which Mr. Byrd recoiled.
+
+As soon as Hickory got the chance, he made his way to the side of Byrd.
+
+"No go," was his low but expressive salutation. "One hundred and five
+minutes is the shortest time in which I can get over the ground, and
+that by a deuced hard scramble of it too."
+
+"But that's five minutes' gain on the experts," Byrd whispered.
+
+"Is it? Hope I could gain something on them, but what's five minutes'
+gain in an affair like this? Fifteen is what's wanted."
+
+"I know it."
+
+"And fifteen I cannot make, nor ten either, unless a pair of wings
+should be given me to carry me over the river."
+
+"Sure?"
+
+"Sure!"
+
+Here there was some commotion in their vicinity, owing to the withdrawal
+of the last witness from the stand. Hickory took advantage of the bustle
+to lean over and whisper in Byrd's ear:
+
+"Do you know I think I have been watched to-day. There was a fellow
+concealed in Mrs. Clemmens' house, who saw me leave it, and who, I have
+no doubt, took express note of the time I started. And there was another
+chap hanging round the station at the quarries, whom I am almost sure
+had no business there unless it was to see at what moment I arrived. He
+came back to Sibley when I did, but he telegraphed first, and it is my
+opinion that Orcutt----"
+
+Here he was greatly startled by hearing his name spoken in a loud and
+commanding tone of voice. Stopping short, he glanced up, encountered the
+eye of Mr. Orcutt fixed upon him from the other side of the court-room,
+and realized he was being summoned to the witness stand.
+
+"The deuce!" he murmured, with a look at Byrd to which none but an
+artist could do justice.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII.
+
+HICKORY.
+
+          Hickory, dickory, dock!
+          The mouse ran up the clock!
+          The clock struck one,
+          And down he run!
+          Hickory, dickory, dock!
+                    --MOTHER GOOSE MELODIES.
+
+
+HICKORY'S face was no new one to the court. He had occupied a
+considerable portion of one day in giving testimony for the prosecution,
+and his rough manner and hardy face, twinkling, however, at times with
+an irrepressible humor that redeemed it and him from all charge of
+ugliness, were well known not only to the jury but to all the _habitués_
+of the trial. Yet, when he stepped upon the stand at the summons of Mr.
+Orcutt, every eye turned toward him with curiosity, so great was the
+surprise with which his name had been hailed, and so vivid the interest
+aroused in what a detective devoted to the cause of the prosecution
+might have to say in the way of supporting the defence.
+
+The first question uttered by Mr. Orcutt served to put them upon the
+right track.
+
+"Will you tell the court where you have been to-day, Mr. Hickory?"
+
+"Well," replied the witness in a slow and ruminating tone of voice, as
+he cast a look at Mr. Ferris, half apologetic and half reassuring, "I
+have been in a good many places----"
+
+"You know what I mean," interrupted Mr. Orcutt. "Tell the court where
+you were between the hours of eleven and a quarter to one," he added,
+with a quick glance at the paper he held in his hand.
+
+"Oh, _then_," cried Hickory, suddenly relaxing into his drollest self.
+"Well, _then_, I was all along the route from Sibley to Monteith Quarry
+Station. I don't think I was stationary at any one minute of the time,
+sir."
+
+"In other words----" suggested Mr. Orcutt, severely.
+
+"I was trying to show myself smarter than my betters;" bowing with a
+great show of respect to the two experts who sat near. "_Or_, in other
+words still, I was trying to make the distance between Mrs. Clemmens'
+house and the station I have mentioned, in time sufficient to upset the
+defence, sir."
+
+And the look he cast at Mr. Ferris was wholly apologetic now.
+
+"Ah, I understand, and at whose suggestion did you undertake to do this,
+Mr. Hickory?"
+
+"At the suggestion of a friend of mine, who is also somewhat of a
+detective."
+
+"And when was this suggestion given?"
+
+"After your speech, sir, yesterday afternoon."
+
+"And where?"
+
+"At the hotel, sir, where I and my friend put up."
+
+"Did not the counsel for the prosecution order you to make this
+attempt?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Did he not know you were going to make it?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Who did know it?"
+
+"My friend."
+
+"No one else?"
+
+"Well, sir, judging from my present position, I should say there seems
+to have been some one else," the witness slyly retorted.
+
+The calmness with which Mr. Orcutt carried on this examination suffered
+a momentary disturbance.
+
+"You know what I mean," he returned. "Did you tell any one but your
+friend that you were going to undertake this run?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Mr. Hickory," the lawyer now pursued, "will you tell us why you
+considered yourself qualified to succeed in an attempt where you had
+already been told regular experts had failed?"
+
+"Well, sir, I don't know unless you find the solution in the slightly
+presumptive character of my disposition."
+
+"Had you ever run before or engaged in athletic sports of any kind?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I have run before."
+
+"And engaged in athletic sports?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Mr. Hickory, have you ever run in a race with men of well-known
+reputation for speed?"
+
+"Well, yes, I have."
+
+"Did you ever win in running such a race?"
+
+"Once."
+
+"No more?"
+
+"Well, then, twice."
+
+The dejection with which this last assent came forth roused the mirth of
+some light-hearted, feather-headed people, but the officers of the court
+soon put a stop to that.
+
+"Mr. Hickory, will you tell us whether on account of having twice beaten
+in a race requiring the qualifications of a professional runner, you
+considered yourself qualified to judge of the feasibility of any other
+man's making the distance from Mrs. Clemmens' house to Monteith Quarry
+Station in ninety minutes by your own ability or non-ability to do so?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I did; but a man's judgment of his own qualifications don't
+go very far, I've been told."
+
+"I did not ask you for any remarks, Mr. Hickory. This is a serious
+matter and demands serious treatment. I asked if in undertaking to make
+this run in ninety minutes you did not presume to judge of the
+feasibility of the prisoner having made it in that time, and you
+answered, 'Yes.' It was enough."
+
+The witness bowed with an air of great innocence.
+
+"Now," resumed the lawyer, "you say you made a run from Mrs. Clemmens'
+house to Monteith Quarry Station to-day. Before telling us in what time
+you did it, will you be kind enough to say what route you took?"
+
+"The one, sir, which has been pointed out by the prosecution as that
+which the prisoner undoubtedly took--the path through the woods and over
+the bridge to the highway. I knew no other."
+
+"Did you know _this_?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"How came you to know it?"
+
+"I had been over it before."
+
+"The whole distance?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Mr. Hickory, were you well enough acquainted with the route not to be
+obliged to stop at any point during your journey to see if you were in
+the right path or taking the most direct road to your destination?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And when you got to the river?"
+
+"I turned straight to the right and made for the bridge."
+
+"Did you not pause long enough to see if you could not cross the stream
+in some way?"
+
+"No, sir. I don't know how to swim in my clothes and keep them dry, and
+as for my wings, I had unfortunately left them at home."
+
+Mr. Orcutt frowned.
+
+"These attempts at humor," said he, "are very _mal à propos_, Mr.
+Hickory." Then, with a return to his usual tone: "Did you cross the
+bridge at a run?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And did you keep up your pace when you got to the highroad?"
+
+"No, I did not."
+
+"You did not?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"And why, may I ask?"
+
+"I was tired."
+
+"Tired?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+There was a droll demureness in the way Hickory said this which made Mr.
+Orcutt pause. But in another minute he went on.
+
+"And what pace do you take when you are tired?"
+
+"A horse's pace when I can get it," was the laughing reply. "A team was
+going by, sir, and I just jumped up with the driver."
+
+"Ah, you rode, then, part of the way? Was it a fast team, Mr. Hickory?"
+
+"Well, it wasn't one of Bonner's."
+
+"Did they go faster than a man could run?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I am obliged to say they did."
+
+"And how long did you ride behind them?"
+
+"Till I got in sight of the station."
+
+"Why did you not go farther?"
+
+"Because I had been told the prisoner was seen to walk up to the
+station, and I meant to be fair to him when I knew how."
+
+"Oh, you did; and do you think it was fair to him to steal a ride on the
+highway?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"Because no one has ever told me he didn't ride down the highway, at
+least till he came within sight of the station."
+
+"Mr. Hickory," inquired the lawyer, severely, "are you in possession of
+any knowledge proving that he did?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+Mr. Byrd, who had been watching the prisoner breathlessly through all
+this, saw or thought he saw the faintest shadow of an odd, disdainful
+smile cross his sternly composed features at this moment. But he could
+not be sure. There was enough in the possibility, however, to make the
+detective thoughtful; but Mr. Orcutt proceeding rapidly with his
+examination, left him no time to formulate his sensations into words.
+
+"So that by taking this wagon you are certain you lost no time?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Rather gained some?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Mr. Hickory, will you now state whether you put forth your full speed
+to-day in going from Mrs. Clemmens' house to the Quarry Station?"
+
+"I did not."
+
+"What?"
+
+"I did not put forth any thing like my full speed, sir," the witness
+repeated, with a twinkle in the direction of Byrd that fell just short
+of being a decided wink.
+
+"And why, may I ask? What restrained you from running as fast as you
+could? Sympathy for the defence?"
+
+The ironical suggestion conveyed in this last question gave Hickory an
+excuse for indulging in his peculiar humor.
+
+"No, sir; sympathy for the prosecution. I feared the loss of one of its
+most humble but valuable assistants. In other words, I was afraid I
+should break my neck."
+
+"And why should you have any special fears of breaking your neck?"
+
+"The path is so uneven, sir. No man could run for much of the way
+without endangering his life or at least his limbs."
+
+"Did you run when you could?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And in those places where you could not run, did you proceed as fast as
+you knew how?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Very well; now I think it is time you told the jury just how many
+minutes it took you to go from Mrs. Clemmens' door to the Monteith
+Quarry Station."
+
+"Well, sir, according to _my_ watch, it took one hundred and five
+minutes."
+
+Mr. Orcutt glanced impressively at the jury.
+
+"One hundred and five minutes," he repeated. He then turned to the
+witness with his concluding questions.
+
+"Mr. Hickory, were you present in the court-room just now when the two
+experts whom I have employed to make the run gave their testimony?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Do you know in what time they made it?"
+
+"I believe I do. I was told by the person whom I informed of my failure
+that I had gained five minutes upon them."
+
+"And what did you reply?"
+
+"That I hoped I could make something on _them_; but that five minutes
+wasn't much when a clean fifteen was wanted," returned Hickory, with
+another droll look at the experts and an askance appeal at Byrd, which
+being translated might read: "How in the deuce could this man have known
+what I was whispering to you on the other side of the court-room? Is he
+a wizard, this Orcutt?"
+
+He forgot that a successful lawyer is always more or less of a wizard.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII.
+
+A LATE DISCOVERY.
+
+          Oh, torture me no more, I will confess.--KING LEAR.
+
+
+WITH the cross-examination of Hickory, the defence rested, and the day
+being far advanced, the court adjourned.
+
+During the bustle occasioned by the departure of the prisoner, Mr. Byrd
+took occasion to glance at the faces of those most immediately concerned
+in the trial.
+
+His first look naturally fell upon Mr. Orcutt. Ah! all was going well
+with the great lawyer. Hope, if not triumph, beamed in his eye and
+breathed in every movement of his alert and nervous form. He was looking
+across the court-room at Imogene Dare, and his features wore a faint
+smile that indelibly impressed itself upon Mr. Byrd's memory. Perhaps
+because there was something really peculiar and remarkable in its
+expression, and perhaps because of the contrast it offered to his own
+feelings of secret doubt and dread.
+
+His next look naturally followed that of Mr. Orcutt and rested upon
+Imogene Dare. Ah! she was under the spell of awakening hope also. It was
+visible in her lightened brow, her calmer and less studied aspect, her
+eager and eloquently speaking gaze yet lingering on the door through
+which the prisoner had departed. As Mr. Byrd marked this look of hers
+and noted all it revealed, he felt his emotions rise till they almost
+confounded him. But strong as they were, they deepened still further
+when, in another moment, he beheld her suddenly drop her eyes from the
+door and turn them slowly, reluctantly but gratefully, upon Mr. Orcutt.
+All the story of her life was in that change of look; all the story of
+her future, too, perhaps, if---- Mr. Byrd dared not trust himself to
+follow the contingency that lurked behind that _if_, and, to divert his
+mind, turned his attention to Mr. Ferris.
+
+But he found small comfort there. For the District Attorney was not
+alone. Hickory stood at his side, and Hickory was whispering in his ear,
+and Mr. Byrd, who knew what was weighing on his colleague's mind, found
+no difficulty in interpreting the mingled expression of perplexity and
+surprise that crossed the dark, aquiline features of the District
+Attorney as he listened with slightly bended head to what the detective
+had to say. That look and the deep, anxious frown which crossed his brow
+as he glanced up and encountered Imogene's eye, remained in Mr. Byrd's
+mind long after the court-room was empty and he had returned to his
+hotel. It mingled with the smile of strange satisfaction which he had
+detected on Mr. Orcutt's face, and awakened such a turmoil of
+contradictory images in his mind that he was glad when Hickory at last
+came in to break the spell.
+
+Their meeting was singular, and revealed, as by a flash, the difference
+between the two men. Byrd contented himself with giving Hickory a look
+and saying nothing, while Hickory bestowed upon Byrd a hearty "Well, old
+fellow!" and broke out into a loud and by no means unenjoyable laugh.
+
+"You didn't expect to see me mounting the rostrum in favor of the
+defence, did you?" he asked, after he had indulged himself as long as he
+saw fit in the display of this somewhat unseasonable mirth. "Well, it
+was a surprise. But I've done it for Orcutt now!"
+
+"You have?"
+
+"Yes, I have."
+
+"But the prosecution has closed its case?"
+
+"Bah! what of that?" was the careless reply. "The District Attorney can
+get it reopened. No Court would refuse that."
+
+Horace surveyed his colleague for a moment in silence.
+
+"So Mr. Ferris was struck with the point you gave him?" he ventured, at
+last.
+
+"Well, sufficiently so to be uneasy," was Hickory's somewhat dry
+response.
+
+The look with which Byrd answered him was eloquent. "And that makes you
+cheerful?" he inquired, with ill-concealed sarcasm.
+
+"Well, it has a slight tendency that way," drawled the other, seemingly
+careless of the other's expression, if, indeed, he had noted it. "You
+see," he went on, with a meaning wink and a smile of utter unconcern,
+"all my energies just now are concentrated on getting myself even with
+that somewhat too wide-awake lawyer." And his smile broadened till it
+merged into a laugh that was rasping enough to Byrd's more delicate and
+generous sensibilities.
+
+"Sufficiently so to be uneasy!" Yes, that was it. From the minute Mr.
+Ferris listened to the suggestion that Miss Dare had not told all she
+knew about the murder, and that a question relative to where she had
+been at the time it was perpetrated would, in all probability, bring
+strange revelations to light, he had been awakened to a most
+uncomfortable sense of his position and the duty that was possibly
+required of him. To be sure, the time for presenting testimony to the
+court was passed, unless it was in the way of rebuttal; but how did he
+know but what Miss Dare had a fact at her command which would help the
+prosecution in overturning the strange, unexpected, yet simple theory of
+the defence? At all events, he felt he ought to know whether, in giving
+her testimony she had exhausted her knowledge on this subject, or
+whether, in her sympathy for the accused, she had kept back certain
+evidence which if presented might bring the crime more directly home to
+the prisoner. Accordingly, somewhere toward eight o'clock in the
+evening, he sought her out with the bold resolution of forcing her to
+satisfy him on this point.
+
+He did not find his task so easy, however, when he came into direct
+contact with her stately and far from encouraging presence, and met the
+look of surprise not unmixed with alarm with which she greeted him. She
+looked very weary, too, and yet unnaturally excited, as if she had not
+slept for many nights, if indeed she had rested at all since the trial
+began. It struck him as cruel to further disturb this woman, and yet the
+longer he surveyed her, the more he studied her pale, haughty,
+inscrutable face, he became the more assured that he would never feel
+satisfied with himself if he did not give her an immediate opportunity
+to disperse at once and forever these freshly awakened doubts.
+
+His attitude or possibly his expression must have betrayed something of
+his anxiety if not of his resolve, for her countenance fell as she
+watched him, and her voice sounded quite unnatural as she strove to ask
+to what she was indebted for this unexpected visit.
+
+He did not keep her in suspense.
+
+"Miss Dare," said he, not without kindness, for he was very sorry for
+this woman, despite the inevitable prejudice which her relations to the
+accused had awakened, "I would have given much not to have been obliged
+to disturb you to-night, but my duty would not allow it. There is a
+question which I have hitherto omitted to ask----"
+
+He paused, shocked; she was swaying from side to side before his eyes,
+and seemed indeed about to fall. But at the outreaching of his hand she
+recovered herself and stood erect, the noblest spectacle of a woman
+triumphing over the weakness of her body by the mere force of her
+indomitable will, that he had ever beheld.
+
+"Sit down," he gently urged, pushing toward her a chair. "You have had a
+hard and dreary week of it; you are in need of rest."
+
+She did not refuse to avail herself of the chair, though, as he could
+not help but notice, she did not thereby relax one iota of the restraint
+she put upon herself.
+
+"I do not understand," she murmured; "what question?"
+
+"Miss Dare, in all you have told the court, in all that you have told
+me, about this fatal and unhappy affair, you have never informed us how
+it was you first came to hear of it. You were----"
+
+"I heard it on the street corner," she interrupted, with what seemed to
+him an almost feverish haste.
+
+"First?"
+
+"Yes, first."
+
+"Miss Dare, had you been in the street long? Were you in it at the time
+the murder happened, do you think?"
+
+"I in the street?"
+
+"Yes," he repeated, conscious from the sudden strange alteration in her
+look that he had touched upon a point which, to her, was vital with some
+undefined interest, possibly that to which the surmises of Hickory had
+supplied a clue. "Were you in the street, or anywhere out-of-doors at
+the time the murder occurred? It strikes me that it would be well for me
+to know."
+
+"Sir," she cried, rising in her sudden indignation, "I thought the time
+for questions had passed. What means this sudden inquiry into a matter
+we have all considered exhausted, certainly as far as I am concerned."
+
+"Shall I show you?" he cried, taking her by the hand and leading her
+toward the mirror near by, under one of those impulses which sometimes
+effect so much. "Look in there at your own face and you will see why I
+press this question upon you."
+
+Astonished, if not awed, she followed with her eyes the direction of his
+pointing finger, and anxiously surveyed her own image in the glass.
+Then, with a quick movement, her hands went up before her face--which
+till that moment had kept its counsel so well--and, tottering back
+against a table, she stood for a moment communing with herself, and
+possibly summoning up her courage for the conflict she evidently saw
+before her.
+
+"What is it you wish to know?" she faintly inquired, after a long period
+of suspense and doubt.
+
+"Where were you when the clock struck twelve on the day Mrs. Clemmens
+was murdered?"
+
+Instantly dropping her hands, she turned toward him with a sudden lift
+of her majestic figure that was as imposing as it was unexpected.
+
+"I was at Professor Darling's house," she declared, with great
+steadiness.
+
+Mr. Ferris had not expected this reply, and looked at her for an instant
+almost as if he felt inclined to repeat his inquiry.
+
+"Do you doubt my word?" she queried. "Is it possible you question my
+truth at a time like this?"
+
+"No, Miss Dare," he gravely assured her. "After the great sacrifice you
+have publicly made in the interests of justice, it would be worse than
+presumptuous in me to doubt your sincerity now."
+
+She drew a deep breath, and straightened herself still more proudly.
+
+"Then am I to understand you are satisfied with the answer you have
+received?"
+
+"Yes, if you will also add that you were in the observatory at Professor
+Darling's house," he responded quickly, convinced there was some mystery
+here, and seeing but one way to reach it.
+
+"Very well, then, I was," she averred, without hesitation.
+
+"You were!" he echoed, advancing upon her with a slight flush on his
+middle-aged cheek, that evinced how difficult it was for him to pursue
+this conversation in face of the haughty and repellant bearing she had
+assumed. "You will, perhaps, tell me, then, why you did not see and
+respond to the girl who came into that room at this very time, with a
+message from a lady who waited below to see you?"
+
+"Ah!" she cried, succumbing with a suppressed moan to the inexorable
+destiny that pursued her in this man, "you have woven a net for me!"
+
+And she sank again into a chair, where she sat like one stunned, looking
+at him with a hollow gaze which filled his heart with compassion, but
+which had no power to shake his purpose as a District Attorney.
+
+"Yes," he acknowledged, after a moment, "I have woven a net for you, but
+only because I am anxious for the truth, and desirous of furthering the
+ends of justice. I am confident you know more about this crime than you
+have ever revealed, Miss Dare; that you are acquainted with some fact
+that makes you certain Mr. Mansell committed this murder,
+notwithstanding the defence advanced in his favor. What is this fact? It
+is my office to inquire. True," he admitted, seeing her draw back with
+denial written on every line of her white face, "you have a right to
+refuse to answer me here, but you will have no right to refuse to answer
+me to-morrow when I put the same question to you in the presence of
+judge and jury."
+
+"And"--her voice was so husky he could but with difficulty distinguish
+her words--"do you intend to recall me to the stand to-morrow?"
+
+"I am obliged to, Miss Dare."
+
+"But I thought the time for examination was over; that the witnesses had
+all testified, and that nothing remained now but for the lawyers to sum
+up."
+
+"When in a case like this the prisoner offers a defence not anticipated
+by the prosecution, the latter, of course, has the right to meet such
+defence with proof in rebuttal."
+
+"Proof in rebuttal? What is that?"
+
+"Evidence to rebut or prove false the matters advanced in support of the
+defence."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"I must do it in this case--if I can, of course."
+
+She did not reply.
+
+"And even if the testimony I desire to put in is not rebuttal in its
+character, no unbiassed judge would deny to counsel the privilege of
+reopening his case when any new or important fact has come to light."
+
+As if overwhelmed by a prospect she had not anticipated, she hurriedly
+arose and pointed down the room to a curtained recess.
+
+"Give me five minutes," she cried; "five minutes by myself where no one
+can look at me, and where I can think undisturbed upon what I had better
+do."
+
+"Very well," he acquiesced; "you shall have them."
+
+She at once crossed to the small retreat.
+
+"Five minutes," she reiterated huskily, as she lifted the curtains
+aside; "when the clock strikes nine I will come out."
+
+"You will?" he repeated, doubtfully.
+
+"I will."
+
+The curtains fell behind her, and for five long minutes Mr. Ferris paced
+the room alone. He was far from easy. All was so quiet behind that
+curtain,--so preternaturally quiet. But he would not disturb her; no, he
+had promised, and she should be left to fight her battle alone. When
+nine o'clock struck, however, he started, and owned to himself some
+secret dread. Would she come forth or would he have to seek her in her
+place of seclusion? It seemed he would have to seek her, for the
+curtains did not stir, and by no sound from within was any token given
+that she had heard the summons. Yet he hesitated, and as he did so, a
+thought struck him. Could it be there was any outlet from the refuge she
+had sought? Had she taken advantage of his consideration to escape him?
+Moved by the fear, he hastily crossed the room. But before he could lay
+his hand upon the curtains, they parted, and disclosed the form of
+Imogene.
+
+"I am coming," she murmured, and stepped forth more like a
+faintly-breathing image than a living woman.
+
+His first glance at her face convinced him she had taken her resolution.
+His second, that in taking it she had drifted into a state of feeling
+different from any he had observed in her before, and of a sort that to
+him was wholly inexplicable. Her words when she spoke only deepened this
+impression.
+
+[Illustration: "The curtains parted and disclosed the form of Imogene.
+'I am coming,' she murmured, and stepped forth."--(Page 402.)]
+
+"Mr. Ferris," said she, coming very near to him in evident dread of
+being overheard, "I have decided to tell you all. I hoped never to be
+obliged to do this. I thought enough had been revealed to answer your
+purpose. I--I believed Heaven would spare me this last trial, let me
+keep this last secret. It was of so strange a nature, so totally out of
+the reach of any man's surmise. But the finger of God is on me. It has
+followed this crime from the beginning, and there is no escape. By some
+strange means, some instinct of penetration, perhaps, you have
+discovered that I know something concerning this murder of which I have
+never told you, and that the hour I spent at Professor Darling's is
+accountable for this knowledge. Sir, I cannot struggle with Providence.
+I will tell you all I have hitherto hidden from the world if you will
+promise to let me know if my words will prove fatal, and if he--he who
+is on trial for his life--will be lost if I give to the court my last
+evidence against him?"
+
+"But, Miss Dare," remonstrated the District Attorney, "no man can
+tell----" He did not finish his sentence. Something in the feverish gaze
+she fixed upon him stopped him. He felt that he could not palter with a
+woman in the grasp of an agony like this. So, starting again, he
+observed: "Let me hear what you have to say, and afterward we will
+consider what the effect of it may be; though a question of expediency
+should not come into your consideration, Miss Dare, in telling such
+truths as the law demands."
+
+"No?" she broke out, giving way for one instant to a low and terrible
+laugh which curdled Mr. Ferris' blood and made him wish his duty had
+led him into the midst of any other scene than this.
+
+But before he could remonstrate with her, this harrowing expression of
+misery had ceased, and she was saying in quiet and suppressed tones:
+
+"The reason I did not see and respond to the girl who came into the
+observatory on the morning of Mrs. Clemmens' murder is, that I was so
+absorbed in the discoveries I was making behind the high rack which
+shuts off one end of the room, that any appeal to me at that time must
+have passed unnoticed. I had come to Professor Darling's house,
+according to my usual custom on Tuesday mornings, to study astronomy
+with his daughter Helen. I had come reluctantly, for my mind was full of
+the secret intention I had formed of visiting Mrs. Clemmens in the
+afternoon, and I had no heart for study. But finding Miss Darling out, I
+felt a drawing toward the seclusion I knew I should find in the
+observatory, and mounting to it, I sat down by myself to think. The rest
+and quiet of the place were soothing to me, and I sat still a long time,
+but suddenly becoming impressed with the idea that it was growing late,
+I went to the window to consult the town-clock. But though its face
+could be plainly seen from the observatory, its hands could not, and I
+was about to withdraw from the window when I remembered the telescope,
+which Miss Darling and I had, in a moment of caprice a few days before,
+so arranged as to command a view of the town. Going to it, I peered
+through it at the clock." Stopping, she surveyed the District Attorney
+with breathless suspense. "It was just five minutes to twelve," she
+impressively whispered.
+
+Mr. Ferris felt a shock.
+
+"A critical moment!" he exclaimed. Then, with a certain intuition of
+what she was going to say next, inquired: "And what then, Miss Dare?"
+
+"I was struck by a desire to see if I could detect Mrs. Clemmens' house
+from where I was, and shifting the telescope slightly, I looked through
+it again, and----"
+
+"What did you see, Miss Dare?"
+
+"I saw her dining-room door standing ajar and a man leaping headlong
+over the fence toward the bog."
+
+The District Attorney started, looked at her with growing interest, and
+inquired:
+
+"Did you recognize this man, Miss Dare?"
+
+She nodded in great agitation.
+
+"Who was he?"
+
+"Craik Mansell."
+
+"Miss Dare," ventured Mr. Ferris, after a moment, "you say this was five
+minutes to twelve?"
+
+"Yes, sir," was the faint reply.
+
+"Five minutes later than the time designated by the defence as a period
+manifestly too late for the prisoner to have left Mrs. Clemmens' house
+and arrived at the Quarry Station at twenty minutes past one?"
+
+"Yes," she repeated, below her breath.
+
+The District Attorney surveyed her earnestly, perceiving she had not
+only spoken the truth, but realized all which that truth implied, and
+drew back a few steps muttering ironically to himself:
+
+"Ah, Orcutt! Orcutt!"
+
+Breathlessly she watched him, breathlessly she followed him step by step
+like some white and haunting spirit.
+
+"You believe, then, this fact will cost him his life?" came from her
+lips at last.
+
+"Don't ask me that, Miss Dare. You and I have no concern with the
+consequences of this evidence."
+
+"No concern?" she repeated, wildly. "You and I no concern? Ah!" she went
+on, with heart-piercing sarcasm, "I forgot that the sentiments of the
+heart have no place in judicial investigation. A criminal is but lawful
+prey, and it is every good citizen's duty to push him to his doom. No
+matter if one is bound to that criminal by the dearest ties which can
+unite two hearts; no matter if the trust he has bestowed upon you has
+been absolute and unquestioning, the law does not busy itself with that.
+The law says if you have a word at your command which can destroy this
+man, give utterance to it; and the law must be obeyed."
+
+"But, Miss Dare----" the District Attorney hastily intervened, startled
+by the feverish gleam of her hitherto calm eye.
+
+But she was not to be stopped, now that her misery had at last found
+words.
+
+"You do not understand my position, perhaps," she continued. "You do not
+see that it has been my hand, and mine only, which, from the first, has
+slowly, remorselessly pushed this man back from the point of safety,
+till now, now, I am called upon to drag from his hand the one poor
+bending twig to which he clings, and upon which he relies to support him
+above the terrible gulf that yawns at his feet. You do not see----"
+
+"Pardon me," interposed Mr. Ferris again, anxious, if possible, to
+restore her to herself. "I see enough to pity you profoundly. But you
+must allow me to remark that your hand is not the only one which has
+been instrumental in hurrying this young man to his doom. The
+detectives----"
+
+"Sir," she interrupted in her turn, "can you, dare you say, that without
+my testimony he would have stood at any time in a really critical
+position?--or that he would stand in jeopardy of his life even now, if
+it were not for this fact I have to tell?"
+
+Mr. Ferris was silent.
+
+"Oh, I knew it, I knew it!" she cried. "There will be no doubt
+concerning whose testimony it was that convicted him, if he is sentenced
+by the court for this crime. Ah, ah, what an enviable position is mine!
+What an honorable deed I am called upon to perform! To tell the truth at
+the expense of the life most dear to you. It is a Roman virtue! I shall
+be held up as a model to my sex. All the world must shower plaudits upon
+the woman who, sooner than rob justice of its due, delivered her own
+lover over to the hangman."
+
+Pausing in her passionate burst, she turned her hot, dry eyes in a sort
+of desperation upon his face.
+
+"Do you know," she gurgled in his ear, "some women would kill themselves
+before they would do this deed."
+
+Struck to his heart in spite of himself, Mr. Ferris looked at her in
+alarm--saw her standing there with her arms hanging down at her sides,
+but with her two hands clinched till they looked as if carved from
+marble--and drew near to her with the simple hurried question of:
+
+"But you?"
+
+"I?" she laughed again--a low, gurgling laugh, that yet had a tone in it
+that went to the other's heart and awoke strange sensations there. "Oh,
+I shall live to respond to your questions. Do not fear that I shall not
+be in the court-room to-morrow."
+
+There was something in her look and manner that was new. It awed him,
+while it woke all his latent concern.
+
+"Miss Dare," he began, "you can believe how painful all this has been to
+me, and how I would have spared you this misery if I could. But the
+responsibilities resting upon me are such----"
+
+He did not go on; why should he? She was not listening. To be sure, she
+stood before him, seemingly attentive, but the eyes with which she met
+his were fixed upon other objects than any which could have been
+apparent to her in his face; and her form, which she had hitherto held
+upright, was shaking with long, uncontrollable shudders, which, to his
+excited imagination, threatened to lay her at his feet.
+
+He at once started toward the door for help. But she was alive to his
+movements if not to his words. Stopping him with a gesture, she cried:
+
+"No--no! do not call for any one; I wish to be alone; I have _my_ duty
+to face, you know; my testimony to prepare." And rousing herself she
+cast a peculiar look about the room, like one suddenly introduced into a
+strange place, and then moving slowly toward the window, threw back the
+curtain and gazed without. "Night!" she murmured, "night!" and after a
+moment added, in a deep, unearthly voice that thrilled irresistibly upon
+Mr. Ferris' ear: "And a heaven full of stars!"
+
+Her face, as she turned it upward, wore so strange a look, Mr. Ferris
+involuntarily left his position and crossed to her side. She was still
+murmuring to herself in seeming unconsciousness of his presence.
+"Stars!" she was repeating; "and above them God!" And the long shudders
+shook her frame again, and she dropped her head and seemed about to fall
+into her old abstraction when her eye encountered that of the District
+Attorney, and she hurriedly aroused herself.
+
+"Pardon me," she exclaimed, with an ill-concealed irony, particularly
+impressive after her tone of the moment before, "have you any thing
+further to exact of me?"
+
+"No," he made haste to reply; "only before I go I would entreat you to
+be calm----"
+
+"And say the word I have to say to-morrow without a balk and without an
+unnecessary display of feeling," she coldly interpolated. "Thanks, Mr.
+Ferris, I understand you. But you need fear nothing from me. There will
+be no scene--at least on my part--when I rise before the court to give
+my testimony to-morrow. Since my hand must strike the fatal blow, it
+shall strike--firmly!" and her clenched fist fell heavily on her own
+breast, as if the blow she meditated must first strike there.
+
+The District Attorney, more moved than he had deemed it possible for him
+to be, made her a low bow and withdrew slowly to the door.
+
+"I leave you, then, till to-morrow," he said.
+
+"Till to-morrow."
+
+Long after he had passed out, the deep meaning which informed those two
+words haunted his memory and disturbed his heart. Till to-morrow! Alas,
+poor girl! and after to-morrow, what then?
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV.
+
+WHAT WAS HID BEHIND IMOGENE'S VEIL.
+
+          Mark now, how a plain tale shall put you down.--HENRY IV.
+
+
+THE few minutes that elapsed before the formal opening of court the next
+morning were marked by great cheerfulness. The crisp frosty air had put
+everybody in a good-humor. Even the prisoner looked less sombre than
+before, and for the first time since the beginning of his trial, deigned
+to turn his eyes toward the bench where Imogene sat, with a look that,
+while it was not exactly kind, had certainly less disdain in it than
+before he saw his way to a possible acquittal on the theory advanced by
+his counsel.
+
+But this look, though his first, did not prove to be his last. Something
+in the attitude of the woman he gazed at--or was it the mystery of the
+heavy black veil that enveloped her features?--woke a strange doubt in
+his mind. Beckoning to Mr. Orcutt, he communicated with him in a low
+tone.
+
+"Can it be possible," asked he, "that any thing new could have
+transpired since last night to give encouragement to the prosecution?"
+
+The lawyer, startled, glanced hastily about him and shook his head.
+
+"No," he cried; "impossible! What could have transpired?"
+
+"Look at Mr. Ferris," whispered the prisoner, "and then at the witness
+who wears a veil."
+
+With an unaccountable feeling of reluctance, Mr. Orcutt hastily
+complied. His first glance at the District Attorney made him thoughtful.
+He recognized the look which his opponent wore; he had seen it many a
+time before this, and knew what it indicated. As for Imogene, who could
+tell what went on in that determined breast? The close black veil
+revealed nothing. Mr. Orcutt impatiently turned back to his client.
+
+"I think you alarm yourself unnecessarily," he whispered. "Ferris means
+to fight, but what of that? He wouldn't be fit for his position if he
+didn't struggle to the last gasp even for a failing cause."
+
+Yet in saying this his lip took its sternest line, and from the glitter
+of his eye and the close contraction of his brow it looked as if he were
+polishing his own weapons for the conflict he thus unexpectedly saw
+before him.
+
+Meantime, across the court-room, another whispered conference was going
+on.
+
+"Hickory, where have you been ever since last night? I have not been
+able to find you anywhere."
+
+"I was on duty; I had a bird to look after."
+
+"A bird?"
+
+"Yes, a wild bird; one who is none too fond of its cage; a desperate one
+who might find means to force aside its bars and fly away."
+
+"What do you mean, Hickory? What nonsense is this?"
+
+"Look at Miss Dare and perhaps you will understand."
+
+"Miss Dare?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Horace's eyes opened in secret alarm.
+
+"Do you mean----"
+
+"I mean that I spent the whole night in tramping up and down in front of
+her window. And a dismal task it was too. Her lamp burned till
+daylight."
+
+Here the court was called to order and Byrd had only opportunity to ask:
+
+"Why does she wear a veil?"
+
+To which the other whisperingly retorted:
+
+"Why did she spend the whole night in packing up her worldly goods and
+writing a letter to the Congregational minister to be sent after the
+adjournment of court to-day?"
+
+"Did she do that?"
+
+"She did."
+
+"Hickory, don't _you_ know--haven't you been told what she is expected
+to say or do here to-day?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You only guess?"
+
+"No, I don't guess."
+
+"You fear, then?"
+
+"Fear! Well, that's a big word to a fellow like me. I don't know as I
+fear any thing; I'm curious, that is all."
+
+Mr. Byrd drew back, looked over at Imogene, and involuntarily shook his
+head. What was in the mind of this mysterious woman? What direful
+purpose or shadow of doom lay behind the veil that separated her from
+the curiosity and perhaps the sympathy of the surrounding crowd? It was
+in vain to question; he could only wait in secret anxiety for the
+revelations which the next few minutes might bring.
+
+The defence having rested the night before, the first action of the
+Judge on the opening of the court was to demand whether the prosecution
+had any rebuttal testimony to offer.
+
+Mr. Ferris instantly rose.
+
+"Miss Dare, will you retake the stand," said he.
+
+Immediately Mr. Orcutt, who up to the last moment had felt his case as
+secure as if it had indeed been founded on a rock, bounded to his feet,
+white as the witness herself.
+
+"I object!" he cried. "The witness thus recalled by the counsel of the
+prosecution has had ample opportunity to lay before the court all the
+evidence in her possession. I submit it to the court whether my learned
+opponent should not have exhausted his witness before he rested his
+case."
+
+"Mr. Ferris," asked the Judge, turning to the District Attorney, "do you
+recall this witness for the purpose of introducing fresh testimony in
+support of your case or merely to disprove the defence?"
+
+"Your honor," was the District Attorney's reply, "I ought to say in
+fairness to my adversary and to the court, that since the case was
+closed a fact has come to my knowledge of so startling and conclusive a
+nature that I feel bound to lay it before the jury. From this witness
+alone can we hope to glean this fact; and as I had no information on
+which to base a question concerning it in her former examination, I beg
+the privilege of reopening my case to that extent."
+
+"Then the evidence you desire to submit is not in rebuttal?" queried the
+Judge.
+
+"I do not like to say that," rejoined the District Attorney, adroitly.
+"I think it may bear directly upon the question whether the prisoner
+could catch the train at Monteith Quarry if he left the widow's house
+after the murder. If the evidence I am about to offer be true, he
+certainly could."
+
+Thoroughly alarmed now and filled with the dismay which a mysterious
+threat is always calculated to produce, Mr. Orcutt darted a wild look of
+inquiry at Imogene, and finding her immovable behind her thick veil,
+turned about and confronted the District Attorney with a most sarcastic
+smile upon his blanched and trembling lips.
+
+"Does my learned friend suppose the court will receive any such
+ambiguous explanation as this? If the testimony sought from this witness
+is by way of rebuttal, let him say so; but if it is not, let him be
+frank enough to admit it, that I may in turn present my objections to
+the introduction of any irrelevant evidence at this time."
+
+"The testimony I propose to present through this witness _is_ in the way
+of rebuttal," returned Mr Ferris, severely. "The argument advanced by
+the defence, that the prisoner could not have left Mrs. Clemmens' house
+at ten minutes before twelve and arrived at Monteith Quarry Station at
+twenty minutes past one, is not a tenable one, and I purpose to prove it
+by this witness."
+
+Mr. Orcutt's look of anxiety changed to one of mingled amazement and
+incredulity.
+
+"By _this_ witness! You have chosen a peculiar one for the purpose," he
+ironically exclaimed, more and more shaken from his self-possession by
+the quiet bearing of his opponent, and the silent air of waiting which
+marked the stately figure of her whom, as he had hitherto believed, he
+thoroughly comprehended. "Your Honor," he continued, "I withdraw my
+objections; I should really like to hear how Miss Dare or any lady can
+give evidence on this point."
+
+And he sank back into his seat with a look at his client in which
+professional bravado strangely struggled with something even deeper than
+alarm.
+
+"This must be an exciting moment to the prisoner," whispered Hickory to
+Byrd.
+
+"So, so. But mark his control, will you? He is less cut up than Orcutt."
+
+"Look at his eyes, though. If any thing could pierce that veil of hers,
+you would think such a glance might."
+
+"Ah, he is trying his influence over her at last."
+
+"But it is too late."
+
+Meantime the District Attorney had signified again to Miss Dare his
+desire that she should take the stand. Slowly, and like a person in a
+dream, she arose, unloosed her veil, dragged it from before her set
+features, and stepped mechanically forward to the place assigned her.
+What was there in the face thus revealed that called down an
+instantaneous silence upon the court, and made the momentary pause that
+ensued memorable in the minds of all present? It was not that she was so
+pale, though her close-fitting black dress, totally unrelieved by any
+suspicion of white, was of a kind to bring out any startling change in
+her complexion; nor was there visible in her bearing any trace of the
+feverish excitement which had characterized it the evening before; yet
+of all the eyes that were fixed upon her--and there were many in that
+crowd whose only look a moment before had been one of heartless
+curiosity--there were none which were not filled with compassion and
+more or less dread.
+
+Meanwhile, she remained like a statue on the spot where she had taken
+her stand, and her eyes, which in her former examination had met the
+court with the unflinching gaze of an automaton, were lowered till the
+lashes swept her cheek.
+
+"Miss Dare," asked the District Attorney, as soon as he could recover
+from his own secret emotions of pity and regret, "will you tell us where
+you were at the hour of noon on the morning Mrs. Clemmens was murdered?"
+
+Before she could answer, before in fact her stiff and icy lips could
+part, Mr. Orcutt had risen impetuously to his feet, like a man bound to
+contend every step of the way with the unknown danger that menaced him.
+
+"I object!" he cried, in the changed voice of a deeply disturbed man,
+while those who had an interest in the prisoner at this juncture, could
+not but notice that he, too, showed signs of suppressed feeling, and for
+the first time since the beginning of the trial, absolutely found his
+self-command insufficient to keep down the rush of color that swept up
+to his swarthy cheek.
+
+"The question," continued Mr. Orcutt, "is not to elicit testimony in
+rebuttal."
+
+"Will my learned friend allow the witness to give her answer, instead of
+assuming what it is to be?"
+
+"I will not," retorted his adversary. "A child could see that such a
+question is not admissible at this stage of the case."
+
+"I am sure my learned friend would not wish me to associate _him_ with
+any such type of inexperience?" suggested Mr. Ferris, grimly.
+
+But the sarcasm, which at one time would have called forth a stinging
+retort from Mr. Orcutt, passed unheeded. The great lawyer was fighting
+for his life, for his heart's life, for the love and hand of Imogene--a
+recompense which at this moment her own unconsidered action, or the
+constraining power of a conscience of whose might he had already
+received such heart-rending manifestation, seemed about to snatch from
+his grasp forever. Turning to the Judge, he said:
+
+"I will not delay the case by bandying words with my esteemed friend,
+but appeal at once to the Court as to whether the whereabouts of Miss
+Dare on that fatal morning can have any thing to do with the defence we
+have proved."
+
+"Your Honor," commenced the District Attorney, calmly following the lead
+of his adversary, "I am ready to stake my reputation on the declaration
+that this witness is in possession of a fact that overturns the whole
+fabric of the defence. If the particular question I have made use of, in
+my endeavor to elicit this fact, is displeasing to my friend, I will
+venture upon another less ambiguous, if more direct and perhaps
+leading." And turning again to the witness, Mr. Ferris calmly inquired:
+
+"Did you or did you not see the prisoner on the morning of the assault,
+at a time distinctly known by you to be after ten minutes to twelve?"
+
+It was out. The line of attack meditated by Mr. Ferris was patent to
+everybody. A murmur of surprise and interest swept through the
+court-room, while Mr. Orcutt, who in spite of his vague fears was any
+thing but prepared for a thrust of this vital nature, started and cast
+short demanding looks from Imogene to Mansell, as if he would ask them
+what fact this was which through ignorance or presumption they had
+conspired to keep from him. The startled look which he surprised on the
+stern face of the prisoner, showed him there was every thing to fear in
+her reply, and bounding again to his feet, he was about to make some
+further attempt to stave off the impending calamity, when the rich voice
+of Imogene was heard saying:
+
+"Gentlemen, if you will allow me to tell my story unhindered, I think I
+shall soonest satisfy both the District Attorney and the counsel for the
+prisoner."
+
+And raising her eyes with a slow and heavy movement from the floor, she
+fixed them in a meaning way upon the latter.
+
+At once convinced that he had been unnecessarily alarmed, Mr. Orcutt
+sank back into his seat, and Imogene slowly proceeded.
+
+She commenced in a forced tone and with a sudden quick shudder that made
+her words come hesitatingly and with strange breaks: "I have been
+asked--two questions by Mr. Ferris--I prefer--to answer the first. He
+asked me--where I was at the hour Mrs. Clemmens was murdered."
+
+She paused so long one had time to count her breaths as they came in
+gasps to her white lips.
+
+"I have no further desire to hide from you the truth. I was with Mrs.
+Clemmens in her own house."
+
+At this acknowledgment so astonishing, and besides so totally different
+from the one he had been led to expect, Mr. Ferris started as if a
+thunder-bolt had fallen at his feet.
+
+"In Mrs. Clemmens' house!" he repeated, amid the excited hum of a
+hundred murmuring voices. "Did you say, in Mrs. Clemmens' house?"
+
+"Yes," she returned, with a wild, ironical smile that at once assured
+Mr. Ferris of his helplessness. "I am on oath _now_, and I assert that
+on the day and at the hour Mrs. Clemmens was murdered, I was in her
+house and in her dining-room. I had come there secretly," she proceeded,
+with a sudden feverish fluency that robbed Mr. Ferris of speech, and in
+fact held all her auditors spell-bound. "I had been spending an hour or
+so at Professor Darling's, whose house in West Side is, as many here
+know, at the very end of Summer Avenue, and close to the woods that run
+along back of Mrs. Clemmens' cottage. I had been sitting alone in the
+observatory, which is at the top of one of the towers, but being
+suddenly seized with a desire to see the widow and make that promised
+attempt at persuading her to reconsider her decision in regard to the
+money her--her--the prisoner wanted, I came down, and unknown to any
+one in the house, stole away to the woods and so to the widow's
+cottage. It was noon when I got there, or very near it, for her company,
+if she had had any, was gone, and she was engaged in setting the clock
+where----"
+
+Why did she pause? The District Attorney, utterly stupefied by his
+surprise, had made no sign; neither had Mr. Orcutt. Indeed, it looked as
+if the latter could not have moved, much less spoken, even if he had
+desired it. Thought, feeling, life itself, seemed to be at a standstill
+within him as he sat with a face like clay, waiting for words whose
+import he perhaps saw foreshadowed in her wild and terrible mien. But
+though his aspect was enough to stop her, it was not upon him she was
+gazing when the words tripped on her lips. It was upon the prisoner, on
+the man who up to this time had borne himself with such iron-like
+composure and reserve, but who now, with every sign of feeling and
+alarm, had started forward and stood surveying her, with his hand
+uplifted in the authoritative manner of a master.
+
+The next instant he sank back, feeling the eye of the Judge upon him;
+but the signal had been made, and many in that court-room looked to see
+Imogene falter or break down. But she, although fascinated, perhaps
+moved, by this hint of feeling from one who had hitherto met all the
+exigencies of the hour with a steady and firm composure, did not
+continue silent at his bidding. On the contrary, her purpose, whatever
+it was, seemed to acquire new force, for turning from him with a
+strange, unearthly glare on her face, she fixed her glances on the jury
+and went steadily on.
+
+"I have said," she began, "that Mrs. Clemmens was winding her clock.
+When I came in she stepped down, and a short and angry colloquy
+commenced between us. She did not like my coming there. She did not
+appreciate my interest in her nephew. She made me furious, frenzied,
+mad. I--I turned away--then I came back. She was standing with her face
+lifted toward her clock, as though she no longer heeded or remembered my
+presence. I--I don't know what came to me; whether it was hatred or love
+that maddened my brain--but----"
+
+She did not finish; she did not need to. The look she gave, the attitude
+she took, the appalling gesture which she made, supplied the place of
+language. In an instant Mr. Ferris, Mr. Orcutt, all the many and
+confused spectators who hung upon her words as if spell-bound, realized
+that instead of giving evidence inculpating the prisoner, she was giving
+evidence _accusing_ herself; that, in other words, Imogene Dare, goaded
+to madness by the fearful alternative of either destroying her lover or
+sacrificing herself, had yielded to the claims of her love or her
+conscience, and in hearing of judge and jury, proclaimed herself to be
+the murderess of Mrs. Clemmens.
+
+The moment that followed was frightful. The prisoner, who was probably
+the only man present who foresaw her intention when she began to speak,
+had sunk back into his seat and covered his face with his hands long
+before she reached the fatal declaration. But the spectacle presented
+by Mr. Orcutt was enough, as with eyes dilated and lips half parted in
+consternation, he stood before them a victim of overwhelming emotion; so
+overcome, indeed, as scarcely to be able to give vent to the one low and
+memorable cry that involuntarily left his lips as the full realization
+of what she had done smote home to his stricken breast.
+
+As for Mr. Ferris, he stood dumb, absolutely robbed of speech by this
+ghastly confession he had unwillingly called from his witness' lips;
+while slowly from end to end of that court-room the wave of horror
+spread, till Imogene, her cause, and that of the wretched prisoner
+himself, seemed swallowed up in one fearful tide of unreality and
+nightmare.
+
+The first gleam of relief came from the Judge.
+
+"Miss Dare," said he, in his slow, kindly way that nothing could impair,
+"do you realize the nature of the evidence you have given to the court?"
+
+Her slowly falling head and white face, from which all the fearful
+excitement was slowly ebbing in a dead despair, gave answer for her.
+
+"I fear that you are not in a condition to realize the effect of your
+words," the Judge went on. "Sympathy for the prisoner or the excitement
+of being recalled to the stand has unnerved or confused you. Take time,
+Miss Dare, the court will wait; reconsider your words, and then tell us
+the truth about this matter."
+
+But Imogene, with white lips and drooped head, answered hurriedly:
+
+"I have nothing to consider. I have told, or attempted to tell, how Mrs.
+Clemmens came to her death. She was struck down by me; Craik Mansell
+there is innocent."
+
+At this repetition in words of what she had before merely intimated by a
+gesture, the Judge ceased his questions, and the horror of the multitude
+found vent in one long, low, but irrepressible murmur. Taking advantage
+of the momentary disturbance, Byrd turned to his colleague with the
+agitated inquiry:
+
+"Hickory, is _this_ what you have had in your mind for the last few
+days?"
+
+"This," repeated the other, with an air of careful consideration,
+assumed, as Byrd thought, to conceal any emotion which he might have
+felt; "no, no, not really. I--I don't know what I thought. Not this
+though." And he fixed his eyes upon Imogene's fallen countenance, with
+an expression of mingled doubt and wonder, as baffling in its nature as
+the tone of voice he had used.
+
+"But," stammered Byrd, with an earnestness that almost partook of the
+nature of pleading, "she is not speaking the truth, of course. What we
+heard her say in the hut----"
+
+"Hush!" interposed the other, with a significant gesture and a sudden
+glance toward the prisoner and his counsel; "watching is better than
+talking just now. Besides, Orcutt is going to speak."
+
+It was so. After a short and violent conflict with the almost
+overwhelming emotions that had crushed upon him with the words and
+actions of Imogene, the great lawyer had summoned up sufficient control
+over himself to reassume the duties of his position and face once more
+the expectant crowd, and the startled, if not thoroughly benumbed, jury.
+
+His first words had the well-known ring, and, like a puff of cool air
+through a heated atmosphere, at once restored the court-room to its
+usual condition of formality and restraint.
+
+"This is not evidence, but the raving of frenzy," he said, in
+impassioned tones. "The witness has been tortured by the demands of the
+prosecution, till she is no longer responsible for her words." And
+turning toward the District Attorney, who, at the first sound of his
+adversary's voice, had roused himself from the stupor into which he had
+been thrown by the fearful and unexpected turn which Imogene's
+confession had taken, he continued: "If my learned friend is not lost to
+all feelings of humanity, he will withdraw from the stand a witness
+laboring under a mental aberration of so serious a nature."
+
+Mr. Ferris was an irritable man, but he was touched with sympathy for
+his friend, reeling under so heavy a blow. He therefore forbore to
+notice this taunt save by a low bow, but turned at once to the Judge.
+
+"Your Honor," said he, "I desire to be understood by the Court, that
+the statement which has just been made in your hearing by this witness,
+is as much of a surprise to me as to any one in this court-room. The
+fact which I proposed to elicit from her testimony was of an entirely
+different nature. In the conversation which we held last night----"
+
+But Mr. Orcutt, vacillating between his powerful concern for Imogene,
+and his duty to his client, would not allow the other to proceed.
+
+"I object," said he, "to any attempt at influencing the jury by the
+statement of any conversation which may have passed between the District
+Attorney and the witness. From its effects we may judge something of its
+nature, but with its details we have nothing to do."
+
+And raising his voice till it filled the room like a clarion, Mr. Orcutt
+said:
+
+"The moment is too serious for wrangling. A spectacle, the most terrible
+that can be presented to the eyes of man, is before you. A young,
+beautiful, and hitherto honored woman, caught in the jaws of a cruel
+fate and urged on by the emotions of her sex, which turn ever toward
+self-sacrifice, has, in a moment of mistaken zeal or frantic terror,
+allowed herself to utter words which sound like a criminal confession.
+May it please your Honor and Gentlemen of the Jury, this is an act to
+awaken compassion in the breast of every true man. Neither my client nor
+myself can regard it in any other light. Though his case were ten times
+more critical than it is, and condemnation awaited him at your hands
+instead of a triumphant acquittal, he is not the man I believe him, if
+he would consent to accept a deliverance founded upon utterances so
+manifestly frenzied and devoid of truth. I therefore repeat the
+objection I have before urged. I ask your Honor now to strike out all
+this testimony as irrelevant in rebuttal, and I beg our learned friend
+to close an examination as unprofitable to his own cause as to mine."
+
+"I agree with my friend," returned Mr. Ferris, "that the moment is one
+unfit for controversy. If it please the Court, therefore, I will
+withdraw the witness, though by so doing I am forced to yield all hope
+of eliciting the important fact I had relied upon to rebut the defence."
+
+And obedient to the bow of acquiescence he received from the Judge, the
+District Attorney turned to Miss Dare and considerately requested her to
+leave the stand.
+
+But she, roused by the sound of her name perhaps, looked up, and meeting
+the eye of the Judge, said:
+
+"Pardon me, your Honor, but I do not desire to leave the stand till I
+have made clear to all who hear me that it is I, not the prisoner, who
+am responsible for Mrs. Clemmens' death. The agony which I have been
+forced to undergo in giving testimony against him, has earned me the
+right to say the words that prove his innocence and my own guilt."
+
+"But," said the Judge, "we do not consider you in any condition to give
+testimony in court to-day, even against yourself. If what you say is
+true, you shall have ample opportunities hereafter to confirm and
+establish your statements, for you must know, Miss Dare, that no
+confession of this nature will be considered sufficient without
+testimony corroborative of its truth."
+
+"But, your Honor," she returned, with a dreadful calmness, "I have
+corroborative testimony." And amid the startled looks of all present,
+she raised her hand and pointed with steady forefinger at the astounded
+and by-no-means gratified Hickory. "Let that man be recalled," she
+cried, "and asked to repeat the conversation he had with a young
+servant-girl called Roxana, in Professor Darling's observatory some ten
+weeks ago."
+
+The suddenness of her action, the calm assurance with which it was made,
+together with the intention it evinced of summoning actual evidence to
+substantiate her confession, almost took away the breath of the
+assembled multitude. Even Mr. Orcutt seemed shaken by it, and stood
+looking from the outstretched hand of this woman he so adored, to the
+abashed countenance of the rough detective, with a wonder that for the
+first time betrayed the presence of alarm. Indeed, to him as to others,
+the moment was fuller of horror than when she made her first
+self-accusation, for what at that time partook of the vagueness of a
+dream, seemed to be acquiring the substance of an awful reality.
+
+Imogene alone remained unmoved. Still with her eyes fixed on Hickory,
+she continued:
+
+"He has not told you all he knows about this matter, any more than I. If
+my word needs corroboration, look to him."
+
+And taking advantage of the sensation which this last appeal occasioned,
+she waited where she was for the Judge to speak, with all the calmness
+of one who has nothing more to fear or hope for in this world.
+
+But the Judge sat aghast at this spectacle of youth and beauty insisting
+upon its own guilt, and neither Mr. Ferris nor Mr. Orcutt having words
+for this emergency, a silence, deep as the feeling which had been
+aroused, gradually settled over the whole court. It was fast becoming
+oppressive, when suddenly a voice, low but firm, and endowed with a
+strange power to awake and hold the attention, was heard speaking in
+that quarter of the room whence Mr. Orcutt's commanding tones had so
+often issued. It was an unknown voice, and for a minute a doubt seemed
+to rest upon the assembled crowd as to whom it belonged.
+
+But the change that had come into Imogene's face, as well as the
+character of the words that were uttered, soon convinced them it was the
+prisoner himself. With a start, every one turned in the direction of the
+dock. The sight that met their eyes seemed a fit culmination of the
+scene through which they had just passed. Erect, noble, as commanding in
+appearance and address as the woman who still held her place on the
+witness stand, Craik Mansell faced the judge and jury with a quiet,
+resolute, but courteous assurance, that seemed at once to rob him of
+the character of a criminal, and set him on a par with the able and
+honorable men by whom he was surrounded. Yet his words were not those of
+a belied man, nor was his plea one of innocence.
+
+"I ask pardon," he was saying, "for addressing the court directly; first
+of all, the pardon of my counsel, whose ability has never been so
+conspicuous as in this case, and whose just resentment, if he were less
+magnanimous and noble, I feel I am now about to incur."
+
+Mr. Orcutt turned to him a look of surprise and severity, but the
+prisoner saw nothing but the face of the Judge, and continued:
+
+"I would have remained silent if the disposition which your Honor and
+the District Attorney proposed to make of this last testimony were not
+in danger of reconsideration from the appeal which the witness has just
+made. I believe, with you, that her testimony should be disregarded. I
+intend, if I have the power, that it shall be disregarded."
+
+The Judge held up his hand, as if to warn the prisoner and was about to
+speak.
+
+"I entreat that I may be heard," said Mansell, with the utmost calmness.
+"I beg the Court not to imagine that I am about to imitate the witness
+in any sudden or ill-considered attempt at a confession. All I intend is
+that her self-accusation shall not derive strength or importance from
+any doubts of my guilt which may spring from the defence which has been
+interposed in my behalf."
+
+Mr. Orcutt, who, from the moment the prisoner began to speak, had given
+evidences of a great indecision as to whether he should allow his client
+to continue or not, started at these words, so unmistakably pointing
+toward a demolishment of his whole case, and hurriedly rose. But a
+glance at Imogene seemed to awaken a new train of thought, and he as
+hurriedly reseated himself.
+
+The prisoner, seeing he had nothing to fear from his counsel's
+interference, and meeting with no rebuke from the Judge, went calmly on:
+
+"Yesterday I felt differently in regard to this matter. If I could be
+saved from my fate by a defence seemingly so impregnable, I was willing
+to be so saved, but to-day I would be a coward and a disgrace to my sex
+if, in face of the generous action of this woman, I allowed a falsehood
+of whatever description to place her in peril, or to stand between me
+and the doom that probably awaits me. Sir," he continued, turning for
+the first time to Mr. Orcutt, with a gesture of profound respect, "you
+had been told that the path from Mrs. Clemmens' house to the bridge, and
+so on to Monteith Quarry Station, could not be traversed in ninety
+minutes, and you believed it. You were not wrong. It cannot be gone over
+in that time. But I now say to your Honor and to the jury, that the
+distance from my aunt's house to the Quarry Station can be made in that
+number of minutes if a way can be found to cross the river without
+going around by the bridge. I know," he proceeded, as a torrent of
+muttered exclamations rose on his ear, foremost among which was that of
+the much-discomfited Hickory, "that to many of you, to all of you,
+perhaps, all means for doing this seem to be lacking to the chance
+wayfarer, but if there were a lumberman here, he would tell you that the
+logs which are frequently floated down this stream to the station afford
+an easy means of passage to one accustomed to ride them, as I have been
+when a lad, during the year I spent in the Maine woods. At all events,
+it was upon a log that happened to be lodged against the banks, and
+which I pushed out into the stream by means of the 'pivy' or long spiked
+pole which I found lying in the grass at its side, that I crossed the
+river on that fatal day; and if the detective, who has already made such
+an effort to controvert the defence, will risk an attempt at this
+expedient for cutting short his route, I have no doubt he will be able
+to show you that a man can pass from Mrs. Clemmens' house to the station
+at Monteith Quarry, not only in ninety minutes, but in less, if the
+exigencies of the case seem to demand it. I did it."
+
+And without a glance at Imogene, but with an air almost lofty in its
+pride and manly assertion, the prisoner sank back into his seat, and
+resumed once more his quiet and unshaken demeanor.
+
+This last change in the kaleidoscope of events, that had been shifting
+before their eyes for the last half hour, was too much for the continued
+equanimity of a crowd already worked up into a state of feverish
+excitement. It had become apparent that by stripping away his defence,
+Mansell left himself naked to the law. In this excitement of the jury,
+consequent upon the self-accusation of Imogene, the prisoner's admission
+might prove directly fatal to him. He was on trial for this crime;
+public justice demanded blood for blood, and public excitement clamored
+for a victim. It was dangerous to toy with a feeling but one degree
+removed from the sentiment of a mob. The jury might not stop to
+sympathize with the self-abnegation of these two persons willing to die
+for each other. They might say: "The way is clear as to the prisoner at
+least; he has confessed his defence is false; the guilty interpose false
+defences; we are acquit before God and men if we convict him out of his
+own mouth."
+
+The crowd in the court-room was saying all this and more, each man to
+his neighbor. A clamor of voices next to impossible to suppress rose
+over the whole room, and not even the efforts of the officers of the
+court, exerted to their full power in the maintenance of order, could
+have hushed the storm, had not the spectators become mute with
+expectation at seeing Mr. Ferris and Mr. Orcutt, summoned by a sign from
+the Judge, advance to the front of the bench and engage in an earnest
+conference with the Court. A few minutes afterward the Judge turned to
+the jury and announced that the disclosures of the morning demanded a
+careful consideration by the prosecution, that an adjournment was
+undoubtedly indispensable, and that the jury should refrain from any
+discussion of the case, even among themselves, until it was finally
+given them under the charge of the Court. The jury expressed their
+concurrence by an almost unanimous gesture of assent, and the crier
+proclaimed an adjournment until the next day at ten o'clock.
+
+Imogene, still sitting in the witness chair, saw the prisoner led forth
+by the jailer without being able to gather, in the whirl of the moment,
+any indication that her dreadful sacrifice--for she had made wreck of
+her life in the eyes of the world whether her confession were true or
+false--had accomplished any thing save to drive the man she loved to the
+verge of that doom from which she had sought to deliver him.
+
+
+
+
+XXXV.
+
+PRO AND CON.
+
+  _Hamlet._--Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
+  _Polonius._--By the mass, and 'tis like a camel indeed.
+  _Hamlet._--Methinks it is like a weasel.
+  _Polonius._--It is back'd like a weasel.      --HAMLET.
+
+
+SHORTLY after the adjournment of court, Mr. Ferris summoned the two
+detectives to his office.
+
+"We have a serious question before us to decide," said he. "Are we to go
+on with the prosecution or are we to stop? I should like to hear your
+views on the subject."
+
+Hickory was, as usual, the first to speak.
+
+"I should say, stop," he cried. "This fresh applicant for the honor of
+having slain the Widow Clemmens deserves a hearing at least."
+
+"But," hurriedly interposed Byrd, "you don't give any credit to her
+story now, even if you did before the prisoner spoke? You know she did
+not commit the crime herself, whatever she may choose to declare in her
+anxiety to shield the prisoner. I hope, sir," he proceeded, glancing at
+the District Attorney, "that _you_ have no doubts as to Miss Dare's
+innocence?"
+
+But Mr. Ferris, instead of answering, turned to Hickory and said:
+
+"Miss Dare, in summoning you to confirm her statement, relied, I
+suppose, upon the fact of your having been told by Professor Darling's
+servant-maid that she--that is, Miss Dare--was gone from the observatory
+when the girl came for her on the morning of the murder?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"A strong corroborative fact, if true?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"But is it true? In the explanation which Miss Dare gave me last night
+of this affair, she uttered statements essentially different from those
+she made in court to-day. She then told me she _was_ in the observatory
+when the girl came for her; that she was looking through a telescope
+which was behind a high rack filled with charts; and that---- Why do you
+start?"
+
+"I didn't start," protested Hickory.
+
+"I beg your pardon," returned Mr. Ferris.
+
+"Well, then, if I did make such a fool of myself, it was because so far
+her story is plausible enough. She was in that very position when _I_
+visited the observatory, you remember, and she was so effectually
+concealed I didn't see her or know she was there, till I looked behind
+the rack."
+
+"Very good!" interjected Mr. Ferris. "And that," he resumed, "she did
+not answer the girl or make known her presence, because at the moment
+the girl came in she was deeply interested in watching something that
+was going on in the town."
+
+"In the town!" repeated Byrd.
+
+"Yes; the telescope was lowered so as to command a view of the town, and
+she had taken advantage of its position (as she assured me last night)
+to consult the church clock."
+
+"The church clock!" echoed Byrd once more. "And what time did she say it
+was?" breathlessly cried both detectives.
+
+"Five minutes to twelve."
+
+"A critical moment," ejaculated Byrd. "And what was it she saw going on
+in the town at that especial time?"
+
+"I will tell you," returned the District Attorney, impressively. "She
+said--and I believed her last night and so recalled her to the stand
+this morning--that she saw Craik Mansell fleeing toward the swamp from
+Mrs. Clemmens' dining-room door."
+
+Both men looked up astonished.
+
+"That was what she told me last night. To-day she comes into court with
+this contradictory story of herself being the assailant and sole cause
+of Mrs. Clemmens' death."
+
+"But all that is frenzy," protested Byrd. "She probably saw from your
+manner that the prisoner was lost if she gave this fact to the court,
+and her mind became disordered. She evidently loves this Mansell, and as
+for me, I pity her."
+
+"So do I," assented the District Attorney; "still----"
+
+"Is it possible," Byrd interrupted, with feeling, as Mr. Ferris
+hesitated, "that you do doubt her innocence? After the acknowledgments
+made by the prisoner too?"
+
+Rising from his seat, Mr. Ferris began slowly to pace the floor.
+
+"I should like each of you," said he, without answering the appeal of
+Byrd, "to tell me why I should credit what she told me in conversation
+last night rather than what she uttered upon oath in the court-room
+to-day?"
+
+"Let me speak first," rejoined Byrd, glancing at Hickory. And, rising
+also, he took his stand against the mantel-shelf where he could
+partially hide his face from those he addressed. "Sir," he proceeded,
+after a moment, "both Hickory and myself know Miss Dare to be innocent
+of this murder. A circumstance which we have hitherto kept secret, but
+which in justice to Miss Dare I think we are now bound to make known,
+has revealed to us the true criminal. Hickory, tell Mr. Ferris of the
+deception you practised upon Miss Dare in the hut."
+
+The surprised, but secretly gratified, detective at once complied. _He_
+saw no reason for keeping quiet about that day's work. He told how, by
+means of a letter purporting to come from Mansell, he had decoyed
+Imogene to an interview in the hut, where, under the supposition she was
+addressing her lover, she had betrayed her conviction of his guilt, and
+advised him to confess it.
+
+Mr. Ferris listened with surprise and great interest.
+
+"That seems to settle the question," he said.
+
+But it was now Hickory's turn to shake his head.
+
+"I don't know," he remonstrated. "I have sometimes thought she saw
+through the trick and turned it to her own advantage."
+
+"How to her own advantage?"
+
+"To talk in such a way as to make us think Mansell was guilty."
+
+"Stuff!" said Byrd; "that woman?"
+
+"More unaccountable things have happened," was the weak reply of
+Hickory, his habitual state of suspicion leading him more than once into
+similar freaks of folly.
+
+"Sir," said Mr. Byrd, confidingly, to the District Attorney, "let us run
+over this matter from the beginning. Starting with the supposition that
+the explanation she gave you last night was the true one, let us see if
+the whole affair does not hang together in a way to satisfy us all as to
+where the real guilt lies. To begin, then, with the meeting in the
+woods----"
+
+"Wait," interrupted Hickory; "there is going to be an argument here; so
+suppose you give your summary of events from the lady's standpoint, as
+that seems to be the one which interests you most."
+
+"I was about to do so," Horace assured him, heedless of the rough
+fellow's good-natured taunt. "To make my point, it is absolutely
+necessary for us to transfer ourselves into her position and view
+matters as they gradually unfolded themselves before her eyes. First,
+then, as I have before suggested, let us consider the interview held by
+this man and woman in the woods. Miss Dare, as we must remember, was not
+engaged to Mr. Mansell; she only loved him. Their engagement, to say
+nothing of their marriage, depended upon his success in life--a success
+which to them seemed to hang solely upon the decision of Mrs. Clemmens
+concerning the small capital he desired her to advance him. But in the
+interview which Mansell had held with his aunt previous to the meeting
+between the lovers, Mrs. Clemmens had refused to loan him this money,
+and Miss Dare, whose feelings we are endeavoring to follow, found
+herself beset by the entreaties of a man who, having failed in his plans
+for future fortune, feared the loss of her love as well. What was the
+natural consequence? Rebellion against the widow's decision, of
+course,--a rebellion which she showed by the violent gesture which she
+made;--and then a determination to struggle for her happiness, as she
+evinced when, with most unhappy ambiguity of expression, she begged him
+to wait till the next day before pressing his ring upon her acceptance,
+because, as she said:
+
+"'A night has been known to change the whole current of a person's
+affairs.'
+
+"To her, engrossed with the one idea of making a personal effort to
+alter Mrs. Clemmens' mind on the money question, these words seemed
+innocent enough. But the look with which he received them, and the pause
+that followed, undoubtedly impressed her, and prepared the way for the
+interest she manifested when, upon looking through the telescope the
+next day, she saw him flying in that extraordinary way from his aunt's
+cottage toward the woods. Not that she then thought of his having
+committed a crime. As I trace her mental experience, she did not come to
+that conclusion till it was forced upon her. I do not know, and so
+cannot say, how she first heard of the murder----"
+
+"She was told of it on the street-corner," interpolated Mr. Ferris.
+
+"Ah, well, then, fresh from this vision of her lover hasting from his
+aunt's door to hide himself in the woods beyond, she came into town and
+was greeted by the announcement that Mrs. Clemmens had just been
+assaulted by a tramp in her own house. I know this was the way in which
+the news was told her, from the expression of her face as she entered
+the house. I was standing at the gate, you remember, when she came up,
+and her look had in it determination and horror, but no special fear. In
+fact, the words she dropped show the character of her thoughts at that
+time. She distinctly murmured in my hearing: 'No good can come of it,
+none.' As if her mind were dwelling upon the advantages which might
+accrue to her lover from his aunt's death, and weighing them against the
+foul means by which that person's end had been hastened. Yet I will not
+say but she may have been influenced in the course which she took by
+some doubt or apprehension of her own. The fact that she came to the
+house at all, and, having come, insisted upon knowing all the details
+of the assault, seem to prove she was not without a desire to satisfy
+herself that suspicion rightfully attached itself to the tramp. But not
+until she saw her lover's ring on the floor (the ring which she had with
+her own hand dropped into the pocket of his coat the day before) and
+heard that the tramp had justified himself and was no longer considered
+the assailant, did her true fear and horror come. Then, indeed, all the
+past rose up before her, and, believing her lover guilty of this crime,
+she laid claim to the jewel as the first and only alternative that
+offered by which she might stand between him and the consequences of his
+guilt. Her subsequent agitation when the dying woman made use of the
+exclamation that indissolubly connected the crime with a ring, speaks
+for itself. Nor was her departure from the house any too hurried or
+involuntary, when you consider that the vengeance invoked by the widow,
+was, in Miss Dare's opinion, called down upon one to whom she had nearly
+plighted her troth. What is the next act in the drama? The scene in the
+Syracuse depot. Let me see if I cannot explain it. A woman who has once
+allowed herself to suspect the man she loves of a murderous deed, cannot
+rest till she has either convinced herself that her suspicions are
+false, or until she has gained such knowledge of the truth as makes her
+feel justified in her seeming treason. A woman of Miss Dare's generous
+nature especially. What does she do, then? With the courage that
+characterizes all her movements, she determines upon seeing him, and
+from his own lips, perhaps, win a confession of guilt or innocence.
+Conceiving that his flight was directed toward the Quarry Station, and
+thence to Buffalo, she embraced the first opportunity to follow him to
+the latter place. As I have told you, her ticket was bought for Buffalo,
+and to Buffalo she evidently intended going. But chancing to leave the
+cars at Syracuse, she was startled by encountering in the depot the very
+man with whom she had been associating thoughts of guilt. Shocked and
+thrown off her guard by the unexpectedness of the occurrence, she
+betrays her shrinking and her horror. 'Were you coming to see me?' she
+asks, and recoils, while he, conscious at the first glimpse of her face
+that his guilt has cost him her love, starts back also, uttering, in his
+shame and despair, words that were similar to hers, 'Were you coming to
+see me?'"
+
+"Convinced without further speech, that her worst fears had foundation
+in fact, she turns back toward her home. The man she loved had committed
+a crime. That it was partly for her sake only increased her horror
+sevenfold. She felt as if she were guilty also, and, with sudden
+remorse, remembered how, instead of curbing his wrath the day before she
+had inflamed it by her words, if not given direction to it by her
+violent gestures. That fact, and the self-blame it produced, probably is
+the cause why her love did not vanish with her hopes. Though he was
+stained by guilt, she felt that it was the guilt of a strong nature
+driven from its bearings by the conjunction of two violent
+passions,--ambition and love; and she being passionate and ambitious
+herself, remained attached to the man while she recoiled from his crime.
+
+"This being so, she could not, as a woman, wish him to suffer the
+penalty of his wickedness. Though lost to her, he must not be lost to
+the world. So, with the heroism natural to such a nature, she shut the
+secret up in her own breast, and faced her friends with courage,
+wishing, if not hoping, that the matter would remain the mystery it
+promised to be when she stood with us in the presence of the dying
+woman.
+
+"But this was not to be, for suddenly, in the midst of her complacency,
+fell the startling announcement that another man--an innocent man--one,
+too, of her lover's own standing, if not hopes, had by a curious
+conjunction of events so laid himself open to the suspicion of the
+authorities as to be actually under arrest for this crime. 'Twas a
+danger she had not foreseen, a result for which she was not prepared.
+
+"Startled and confounded she let a few days go by in struggle and
+indecision, possibly hoping, with the blind trust of her sex, that Mr.
+Hildreth would be released without her interference. But Mr. Hildreth
+was not released, and her anxiety was fast becoming unendurable, when
+that decoy letter sent by Hickory reached her, awakening in her breast
+for the first time, perhaps, the hope that Mansell would show himself to
+be a true man in this extremity, and by a public confession of guilt
+release her from the task of herself supplying the information which
+would lead to his commitment.
+
+"And, perhaps, if it had really fallen to the lot of Mansell to confront
+her in the hut and listen to her words of adjuration and appeal, he
+might have been induced to consent to her wishes. But a detective sat
+there instead of her lover, and the poor woman lived to see the days go
+by without any movement being made to save Mr. Hildreth. At last--was it
+the result of the attempt made by this man upon his life?--she put an
+end to the struggle by acting for herself. Moved by a sense of duty,
+despite her love, she sent the letter which drew attention to her lover,
+and paved the way for that trial which has occupied our attention for so
+many days. But--mark this, for I think it is the only explanation of her
+whole conduct--the sense of justice that upheld her in this duty was
+mingled with the hope that her lover would escape conviction if he did
+not trial. The one fact which told the most against him--I allude to his
+flight from his aunt's door on the morning of the murder, as observed by
+her through the telescope--was as yet a secret in her own breast, and
+there she meant it to remain unless it was drawn forth by actual
+question. But it was not a fact likely to be made the subject of
+question, and drawing hope from that consideration, she prepared herself
+for the ordeal before her, determined, as I actually believe, to answer
+with truth all the inquiries that were put to her.
+
+"But in an unexpected hour she learned that the detectives were anxious
+to know where she was during the time of the murder. She heard Hickory
+question Professor Darling's servant-girl, as to whether she was still
+in the observatory, and at once feared that her secret was discovered.
+Feared, I say--I conjecture this,--but what I do not conjecture is that
+with the fear, or doubt, or whatever emotion it was she cherished, a
+revelation came of the story she might tell if worst came to worst, and
+she found herself forced to declare what she saw when the clock stood at
+five minutes to twelve on that fatal day. Think of your conversation
+with the girl Roxana," he went on to Hickory, "and then think of that
+woman crouching behind the rack, listening to your words, and see if you
+can draw any other conclusion from the expression of her face than that
+of triumph at seeing a way to deliver her lover at the sacrifice of
+herself."
+
+As Byrd waited for a reply, Hickory reluctantly acknowledged:
+
+"Her look was a puzzler, that I will allow. She seemed glad----"
+
+"There," cried Byrd, "you say she seemed glad; that is enough. Had she
+had the weight of this crime upon her conscience, she would have
+betrayed a different emotion from that. I pray you to consider the
+situation," he proceeded, turning to the District Attorney, "for on it
+hangs your conviction of her innocence. First, imagine her guilty. What
+would her feelings be, as, hiding unseen in that secret corner, she
+hears a detective's voice inquiring where she was when the fatal blow
+was struck, and hears the answer given that she was not where she was
+supposed to be, but in the woods--the woods which she and every one know
+lead so directly to Mrs. Clemmens' house, she could without the least
+difficulty hasten there and back in the hour she was observed to be
+missing? Would she show gladness or triumph even of a wild or delirious
+order? No, even Hickory cannot say she would. Now, on the contrary, see
+her as I do, crouched there in the very place before the telescope which
+she occupied when the girl came to the observatory before, but unseen
+now as she was unseen then, and watch the change that takes place in her
+countenance as she hears question and answer and realizes what
+confirmation she would receive from this girl if she ever thought fit to
+declare that she was not in the observatory when the girl sought her
+there on the day of the murder. That by this act she would bring
+execration if not death upon herself, she does not stop to consider. Her
+mind is full of what she can do for her lover, and she does not think of
+herself.
+
+"But an enthusiasm like this is too frenzied to last. As time passes by
+and Craik Mansell is brought to trial, she begins to hope she may be
+spared this sacrifice. She therefore responds with perfect truth when
+summoned to the stand to give evidence, and does not waver, though
+question after question is asked her, whose answers cannot fail to show
+the state of her mind in regard to the prisoner's guilt. Life and honor
+are sweet even to one in her condition; and if her lover could be saved
+without falsehood it was her natural instinct to avoid it.
+
+"And it looked as if he would be saved. A defence both skilful and
+ingenious had been advanced for him by his counsel--a defence which only
+the one fact so securely locked in her bosom could controvert. You can
+imagine, then, the horror and alarm which must have seized her when, in
+the very hour of hope, you approached her with the demand which proved
+that her confidence in her power to keep silence had been premature, and
+that the alternative was yet to be submitted to her of destroying her
+lover or sacrificing herself. Yet, because a great nature does not
+succumb without a struggle, she tried even now the effect of the truth
+upon you, and told you the one fact she considered so detrimental to the
+safety of her lover.
+
+"The result was fatal. Though I cannot presume to say what passed
+between you, I can imagine how the change in your countenance warned her
+of the doom she would bring upon Mansell if she went into court with the
+same story she told you. Nor do I find it difficult to imagine how, in
+one of her history and temperament, a night of continuous brooding over
+this one topic should have culminated in the act which startled us so
+profoundly in the court-room this morning. Love, misery, devotion are
+not mere names to her, and the greatness which sustained her through the
+ordeal of denouncing her lover in order that an innocent man might be
+relieved from suspicion, was the same that made it possible for her to
+denounce herself that she might redeem the life she had thus
+deliberately jeopardized.
+
+"That she did this with a certain calmness and dignity proves it to have
+been the result of design. A murderess forced by conscience into
+confession would not have gone into the details of her crime, but
+blurted out her guilt, and left the details to be drawn from her by
+question. Only the woman anxious to tell her story with the plausibility
+necessary to insure its belief would have planned and carried on her
+confession as she did.
+
+"The action of the prisoner, in face of this proof of devotion, though
+it might have been foreseen by a man, was evidently not foreseen by her.
+To me, who watched her closely at the time, her face wore a strange look
+of mingled satisfaction and despair,--satisfaction in having awakened
+his manhood, despair at having failed in saving him. But it is not
+necessary for me to dilate on this point. If I have been successful in
+presenting before you the true condition of her mind during this
+struggle, you will see for yourself what her feelings must be now that
+her lover has himself confessed to a fact, to hide which she made the
+greatest sacrifice of which mortal is capable."
+
+Mr. Ferris, who, during this lengthy and exhaustive harangue, had sat
+with brooding countenance and an anxious mien, roused himself as the
+other ceased, and glanced with a smile at Hickory.
+
+"Well," said he, "that's good reasoning; now let us hear how you will go
+to work to demolish it."
+
+The cleared brow, the playful tone of the District Attorney showed the
+relieved state of his mind. Byrd's arguments had evidently convinced him
+of the innocence of Imogene Dare.
+
+Hickory, seeing it, shook his head with a gloomy air.
+
+"Sir," said he, "I can't demolish it. If I could tell why Mansell fled
+from Widow Clemmens' house at five minutes to twelve I might be able to
+do so, but that fact stumps me. It is an act consistent with guilt. It
+may be consistent with innocence, but, as we don't know all the facts,
+we can't say so. But this I do know, that my convictions with regard to
+that man have undergone a change. I now as firmly believe in his
+innocence as I once did in his guilt."
+
+"What has produced the change?" asked Mr. Ferris.
+
+"Well," said Hickory, "it all lies in this. From the day I heard Miss
+Dare accuse him so confidently in the hut, I believed him guilty; from
+the moment he withdrew his defence, I believed him innocent."
+
+Mr. Ferris and Mr. Byrd looked at him astonished. He at once brought
+down his fist in vigorous assertion on the table.
+
+"I tell you," said he, "that Craik Mansell is innocent. The truth is, he
+believes Miss Dare guilty, and so stands his trial, hoping to save her."
+
+"And be hung for her crime?" asked Mr. Ferris.
+
+"No; he thinks his innocence will save him, in spite of the evidence on
+which we got him indicted."
+
+But the District Attorney protested at this.
+
+"That can't be," said he; "Mansell has withdrawn the only defence he
+had."
+
+"On the contrary," asserted Hickory, "that very thing only proves my
+theory true. He is still determined to save Miss Dare by every thing
+short of a confession of his own guilt. He won't lie. That man is
+innocent."
+
+"And Miss Dare is guilty?" said Byrd.
+
+"Shall I make it clear to you in the way it has become clear to Mr.
+Mansell?"
+
+As Byrd only answered by a toss of his head, Hickory put his elbows on
+the table, and checking off every sentence with the forefinger of his
+right hand, which he pointed at Mr. Ferris' shirt-stud, as if to instil
+from its point conviction into that gentleman's bosom, he proceeded with
+the utmost composure as follows:
+
+"To commence, then, with the scene in the woods. He meets her. She is as
+angry at his aunt as he is. What does she do? She strikes the tree with
+her hand, and tells him to wait till to-morrow, since a night has been
+known to change the whole current of a person's affairs. Now tell me
+what does that mean? Murder? If so, she was the one to originate it. He
+can't forget that. It has stamped itself upon Mansell's memory, and
+when, after the assassination of Mrs. Clemmens, he recalls those words,
+he is convinced that she has slain Mrs. Clemmens to help him."
+
+"But, Mr. Hickory," objected Mr. Ferris, "this assumes that Mr. Mansell
+is innocent, whereas we have exceedingly cogent proof that he is the
+guilty party. There is the circumstance of his leaving Widow Clemmens'
+house at five minutes to twelve."
+
+To which Hickory, with a twinkle in his eye, replied:
+
+"I won't discuss that; it hasn't been proved, you know. Miss Dare told
+you she saw him do this, but she wouldn't swear to it. Nothing is to be
+taken for granted against my man."
+
+"Then you think Miss Dare spoke falsely?"
+
+"I don't say that. I believe that whatever he did could be explained if
+we knew as much about it as he does. But I'm not called upon to explain
+any thing which has not appeared in the evidence against him."
+
+"Well, then, we'll take the evidence. There is his ring, found on the
+scene of murder."
+
+"Exactly," rejoined Hickory. "Dropped there, as he must suppose, by Miss
+Dare, because he didn't know she had secretly restored it to his
+pocket."
+
+Mr. Ferris smiled.
+
+"You don't see the force of the evidence," said he. "As she _had_
+restored it to his pocket, he must have been the one to drop it there."
+
+"I am willing to admit he dropped it there, not that he killed Mrs.
+Clemmens. I am now speaking of his suspicions as to the assassin. When
+the betrothal ring was found there, he suspects Miss Dare of the crime,
+and nothing has occurred to change his suspicions."
+
+"But," said the District Attorney, "how does your client, Mr. Mansell,
+get over this difficulty; that Miss Dare, who has committed a murder to
+put five thousand dollars into his pocket, immediately afterward turns
+round and accuses him of the crime--nay more, furnishes evidence against
+him!"
+
+"You can't expect the same consistency from a woman as from a man. They
+can nerve themselves up one moment to any deed of desperation, and take
+every pains the next to conceal it by a lie."
+
+"Men will do the same; then why not Mansell?"
+
+"I am showing you why I know that Mansell believes Miss Dare guilty of a
+murder. To continue, then. What does he do when he hears that his aunt
+has been murdered? He scratches out the face of Miss Dare in a
+photograph; he ties up her letters with a black ribbon as if she were
+dead and gone to him. Then the scene in the Syracuse depot! The rule of
+three works both ways, Mr. Byrd, and if she left her home to solve _her_
+doubts, what shall be said of him? The recoil, too--was it less on his
+part than hers? And, if she had cause to gather guilt from his manner,
+had he not as much cause to gather it from hers? If his mind was full of
+suspicion when he met her, it became conviction before he left; and,
+bearing that fact in your mind, watch how he henceforth conducted
+himself. He does not come to Sibley; the woman he fears to encounter is
+there. He hears of Mr. Hildreth's arrest, reads of the discoveries which
+led to it, and keeps silent. So would any other man have done in his
+place, at least till he saw whether this arrest was likely to end in
+trial. But he cannot forget he had been in Sibley on the fatal day, or
+that there may be some one who saw his interview with Miss Dare. When
+Byrd comes to him, therefore, and tells him he is wanted in Sibley, his
+first question is, 'Am I wanted as a witness?' and, even you have
+acknowledged, Mr. Ferris, that he seemed surprised to find himself
+accused of the crime. But, accused, he takes his course and keeps to it.
+Brought to trial, he remembers the curious way in which he crossed the
+river, and thus cut short the road to the station; and, seeing in it
+great opportunities for a successful defence, chooses Mr. Orcutt for his
+counsel, and trusts the secret to him. The trial goes on; acquittal
+seems certain, when suddenly she is recalled to the stand, and he hears
+words which make him think she is going to betray him by some falsehood,
+when, instead of following the lead of the prosecution, she launches
+into a personal confession. What does he do? Why, rise and hold up his
+hand in a command for her to stop. But she does not heed, and the rest
+follows as a matter of course. The life she throws away he will not
+accept. He is innocent, but his defence is false! He says so, and leaves
+the jury to decide on the verdict. There can be no doubt," Hickory
+finally concluded, "that some of these circumstances are consistent
+only with his belief that Miss Dare is a murderess: such, for instance,
+as his scratching out her face in the picture. Others favor the theory
+in a less degree, but this is what I want to impress upon both your
+minds," he declared, turning first to Mr. Ferris and then to Mr. Byrd:
+"_If any fact, no matter how slight, leads us to the conviction that
+Craik Mansell, at any time after the murder, entertained the belief that
+Miss Dare committed it, his innocence follows as a matter of course. For
+the guilty could never entertain a belief in the guilt of any other
+person._"
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Ferris, "I admit that, but we have got to see into Mr.
+Mansell's mind before we can tell what his belief really was."
+
+"No," was Hickory's reply; "let us look at his actions. I say that that
+defaced picture is conclusive. One day he loves that woman and wants her
+to marry him; the next, he defaces her picture. Why? She had not
+offended him. Not a word, not a line, passes between them to cause him
+to commit this act. But he does hear of his aunt's murder, and he does
+recall her sinister promise: 'Wait; there is no telling what a day will
+bring forth.' I say that no other cause for his act is shown except his
+conviction that she is a murderess."
+
+"But," persisted Mr. Ferris, "his leaving the house, as he acknowledges
+he did, by this unfrequented and circuitous road?"
+
+"I have said before that I cannot explain his presence there, or his
+flight. All I am now called upon to show is, some fact inconsistent with
+any thing except a belief in this young woman's guilt. I claim I have
+shown it, and, as you admit, Mr. Ferris, if I show _that_, he is
+innocent."
+
+"Yes," said Byrd, speaking for the first time; "but we have heard of
+people manufacturing evidence in their own behalf."
+
+"Come, Byrd," replied Hickory, "you don't seriously mean to attack my
+position with that suggestion. How could a man dream of manufacturing
+evidence of such a character? A murderer manufactures evidence to throw
+suspicion on other people. No fool could suppose that scratching out the
+face of a girl in a photograph and locking it up in his own desk, would
+tend to bring her to the scaffold, or save him from it."
+
+"And, yet," rejoined Byrd, "that very act acquits him in your eyes. All
+that is necessary is to give him credit for being smart enough to
+foresee that it would have such a tendency in the eyes of any person who
+discovered the picture."
+
+"Then," said Hickory, "he would also have to foresee that she would
+accuse herself of murder when he was on trial for it, and that he would
+thereupon withdraw his defence. Byrd, you are foreseeing too much. My
+friend Mansell possesses no such power of looking into the future as
+that."
+
+"Your friend Mansell!" repeated Mr. Ferris, with a smile. "If you were
+on his jury, I suppose your bias in his favor would lead you to acquit
+him of this crime?"
+
+"I should declare him 'Not guilty,' and stick to it, if I had to be
+locked up for a year."
+
+Mr. Ferris sank into an attitude of profound thought. Horace Byrd,
+impressed by this, looked at him anxiously.
+
+"Have your convictions been shaken by Hickory's ingenious theory?" he
+ventured to inquire at last.
+
+Mr. Ferris abstractedly replied:
+
+"This is no time for me to state my convictions. It is enough that you
+comprehend my perplexity." And, relapsing into his former condition, he
+remained for a moment wrapped in silence, then he said: "Byrd, how comes
+it that the humpback who excited so much attention on the day of the
+murder was never found?"
+
+Byrd, astonished, surveyed the District Attorney with a doubtful look
+that gradually changed into one of quiet satisfaction as he realized the
+significance of this recurrence to old theories and suspicions. His
+answer, however, was slightly embarrassed in tone, though frank enough
+to remind one of Hickory's blunt-spoken admissions.
+
+"Well," said he, "I suppose the main reason is that I made no attempt to
+find him."
+
+"Do you think that you were wise in that, Mr. Byrd?" inquired Mr.
+Ferris, with some severity.
+
+Horace laughed.
+
+"I can find him for you to-day, if you want him," he declared.
+
+"You can? You know him, then?"
+
+"Very well. Mr. Ferris," he courteously remarked, "I perhaps should have
+explained to you at the time, that I recognized this person and knew him
+to be an honest man; but the habits of secrecy in our profession are so
+fostered by the lives we lead, that we sometimes hold our tongue when it
+would be better for us to speak. The humpback who talked with us on the
+court-house steps the morning Mrs. Clemmens was murdered, was not what
+he seemed, sir. He was a detective; a detective in disguise; a man with
+whom I never presume to meddle--in other words, our famous Mr. Gryce."
+
+"Gryce!--that man!" exclaimed Mr. Ferris, astounded.
+
+"Yes, sir. He was in disguise, probably for some purpose of his own, but
+I knew his eye. Gryce's eye isn't to be mistaken by any one who has much
+to do with him."
+
+"And that famous detective was actually on the spot at the time this
+murder was discovered, and you let him go without warning me of his
+presence?"
+
+"Sir," returned Mr. Byrd, "neither you nor I nor any one at that time
+could foresee what a serious and complicated case this was going to be.
+Besides, he did not linger in this vicinity, but took the cars only a
+few minutes after he parted from us. I did not think he wanted to be
+dragged into this affair unless it was necessary. He had important
+matters of his own to look after. However, if suspicion had continued to
+follow him, I should have notified him of the fact, and let him speak
+for himself. But it vanished so quickly in the light of other
+developments, I just let the matter drop."
+
+The impatient frown with which Mr. Ferris received this acknowledgment
+showed he was not pleased.
+
+"I think you made a mistake," said he. Then, after a minute's thought,
+added: "You have seen Gryce since?"
+
+"Yes, sir; several times."
+
+"And he acknowledged himself to have been the humpback?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You must have had some conversation with him, then, about this murder?
+He was too nearly concerned in it not to take some interest in the
+affair?"
+
+"Yes, sir; Gryce takes an interest in all murder cases."
+
+"Well, then, what did he have to say about this one? He gave an opinion,
+I suppose?"
+
+"No, sir. Gryce never gives an opinion without study, and we detectives
+have no time to study up an affair not our own. If you want to know what
+Gryce thinks about a crime, you have got to put the case into his
+hands."
+
+Mr. Ferris paused and seemed to ruminate. Seeing this, Mr. Byrd flushed
+and cast a side glance at Hickory, who returned him an expressive shrug.
+
+"Mr. Ferris," ventured the former, "if you wish to consult with Mr.
+Gryce on this matter, do not hesitate because of us. Both Hickory and
+myself acknowledge we are more or less baffled by this case, and Gryce's
+judgment is a good thing to have in a perplexity."
+
+"You think so?" queried the District Attorney.
+
+"I do," said Byrd.
+
+Mr. Ferris glanced at Hickory.
+
+"Oh, have the old man here if you want him," was that detective's blunt
+reply. "I have nothing to say against your getting all the light you can
+on this affair."
+
+"Very good," returned Mr. Ferris. "You may give me his address before
+you go."
+
+"His address for to-night is Utica," observed Byrd. "He could be here
+before morning, if you wanted him."
+
+"I am in no such hurry as that," returned Mr. Ferris, and he sank again
+into thought.
+
+The detectives took advantage of his abstraction to utter a few private
+condolences in each other's ears.
+
+"So it seems we are to be laid on the shelf," whispered Hickory.
+
+"Yes, for which let us be thankful," answered Byrd.
+
+"Why? Are you getting tired of the affair?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+A humorous twinkle shone for a minute in Hickory's eye.
+
+"Pooh!" said he, "it's just getting interesting."
+
+"Opinions differ," quoth Byrd.
+
+"Not much," retorted Hickory.
+
+Something in the way he said this made Byrd look at him more intently.
+He instantly changed his tone.
+
+"Old fellow," said he, "you don't believe Miss Dare committed this crime
+any more than I do."
+
+A sly twinkle answered him from the detective's half-shut eye.
+
+"All that talk of having seen through your disguise in the hut is just
+nonsense on your part to cover up your real notion about it. What is
+that notion, Hickory? Come, out with it; let us understand each other
+thoroughly at last."
+
+"Do I understand you?"
+
+"You shall, when you tell me just what your convictions are in this
+matter."
+
+"Well, then," replied Hickory, with a short glance at Mr. Ferris, "I
+believe (it's hard as pulling teeth to own it) that neither of them did
+it: that she thought him guilty and he thought her so, but that in
+reality the crime lies at the door of some third party totally
+disconnected with either of them."
+
+"Such as Gouverneur Hildreth?" whispered Byrd.
+
+"Such--as--Gouverneur Hildreth," drawled Hickory.
+
+The two detectives eyed each other, smiled, and turned with relieved
+countenances toward the District Attorney. He was looking at them with
+great earnestness.
+
+"That is your joint opinion?" he remarked.
+
+"It is mine," cried Hickory, bringing his fist down on the table with a
+vim that made every individual article on it jump.
+
+"It is and it is not mine," acquiesced Byrd, as the eye of Mr. Ferris
+turned in his direction. "Mr. Mansell may be innocent--indeed, after
+hearing Hickory's explanation of his conduct, I am ready to believe he
+is--but to say that Gouverneur Hildreth is guilty comes hard to me after
+the long struggle I have maintained in favor of his innocence. Yet, what
+other conclusion remains after an impartial view of the subject? None.
+Then why should I shrink from acknowledging I was at fault, or hesitate
+to admit a defeat where so many causes combined to mislead me?"
+
+"Which means you agree with Hickory?" ventured the District Attorney.
+
+Mr. Byrd slowly bowed.
+
+Mr. Ferris continued for a moment looking alternately from one to the
+other; then he observed:
+
+"When two such men unite in an opinion, it is at least worthy of
+consideration." And, rising, he took on an aspect of sudden
+determination. "Whatever may be the truth in regard to this matter,"
+said he, "one duty is clear. Miss Dare, as you inform me, has been--with
+but little idea of the consequences, I am sure--allowed to remain under
+the impression that the interview which she held in the hut was with her
+lover. As her belief in the prisoner's guilt doubtless rests upon the
+admissions which were at that time made in her hearing, it is palpable
+that a grave injustice has been done both to her and to him by leaving
+this mistake of hers uncorrected. I therefore consider it due to Miss
+Dare, as well as to the prisoner, to undeceive her on this score before
+another hour has passed over our heads. I must therefore request you,
+Mr. Byrd, to bring the lady here. You will find her still in the
+court-house, I think, as she requested leave to remain in the room below
+till the crowd had left the streets."
+
+Mr. Byrd, who, in the new light which had been thrown on the affair by
+his own and Hickory's suppositions, could not but see the justice of
+this, rose with alacrity to obey.
+
+"I will bring her if she is in the building," he declared, hurriedly
+leaving the room.
+
+"And if she is not," Mr. Ferris remarked, with a glance at the
+consciously rebuked Hickory, "we shall have to follow her to her home,
+that is all. I am determined to see this woman's mind cleared of all
+misapprehensions before I take another step in the way of my duty."
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI.
+
+A MISTAKE RECTIFIED.
+
+          If circumstances lead me, I will find
+          Where truth is hid, though it were hid, indeed,
+          Within the centre.               --HAMLET.
+
+
+IF Mr. Ferris, in seeking this interview with Miss Dare, had been
+influenced by any hope of finding her in an unsettled and hesitating
+state of mind, he was effectually undeceived, when, after a few minutes'
+absence, Mr. Byrd returned with her to his presence. Though her physical
+strength was nearly exhausted, and she looked quite pale and worn, there
+was a steady gleam in her eye, which spoke of an unshaken purpose.
+
+Seeing it, and noting the forced humility with which she awaited his
+bidding at the threshold, the District Attorney, for the first time
+perhaps, realized the power of this great, if perverted, nature, and
+advancing with real kindness to the door, he greeted her with as much
+deference as he ever showed to ladies, and gravely pushed toward her a
+chair.
+
+She did not take it. On the contrary, she drew back a step, and looked
+at him in some doubt, but a sudden glimpse of Hickory's sturdy figure in
+the corner seemed to reassure her, and merely stopping to acknowledge
+Mr. Ferris' courtesy by a bow, she glided forward and took her stand by
+the chair he had provided.
+
+A short and, on his part, somewhat embarrassing pause followed. It was
+broken by her.
+
+"You sent for me," she suggested. "You perhaps want some explanation of
+my conduct, or some assurance that the confession I made before the
+court to-day was true?"
+
+If Mr. Ferris had needed any further proof than he had already received
+that Imogene Dare, in presenting herself before the world as a criminal,
+had been actuated by a spirit of devotion to the prisoner, he would have
+found it in the fervor and unconscious dignity with which she uttered
+these few words. But he needed no such proof. Giving her, therefore, a
+look full of grave significance, he replied:
+
+"No, Miss Dare. After my experience of the ease with which you can
+contradict yourself in matters of the most serious import, you will
+pardon me if I say that the truth or falsehood of your words must be
+arrived at by some other means than any you yourself can offer. My
+business with you at this time is of an entirely different nature.
+Instead of listening to further confessions from you, it has become my
+duty to offer one myself. Not on my own behalf," he made haste to
+explain, as she looked up, startled, "but on account of these men, who,
+in their anxiety to find out who murdered Mrs. Clemmens, made use of
+means and resorted to deceptions which, if their superiors had been
+consulted, would not have been countenanced for a moment."
+
+"I do not understand," she murmured, looking at the two detectives with
+a wonder that suddenly merged into alarm as she noticed the
+embarrassment of the one and the decided discomfiture of the other.
+
+Mr. Ferris at once resumed:
+
+"In the weeks that have elapsed since the commission of this crime, it
+has been my lot to subject you to much mental misery, Miss Dare.
+Provided by yourself with a possible clue to the murder, I have probed
+the matter with an unsparing hand. Heedless of the pain I was
+inflicting, or the desperation to which I was driving you, I asked you
+questions and pressed you for facts as long as there seemed questions to
+ask or facts to be gained. My duty and the claims of my position
+demanded this, and for it I can make no excuse, notwithstanding the
+unhappy results that have ensued. But, Miss Dare, whatever anxiety I may
+have shown in procuring the conviction of a man I believed to be a
+criminal, I have never wished to win my case at the expense of justice
+and right; and had I been told before you came to the stand that you had
+been made the victim of a deception calculated to influence your
+judgment, I should have hastened to set you right with the same anxiety
+as I do now."
+
+"Sir--sir----" she began.
+
+But Mr. Ferris would not listen.
+
+"Miss Dare," he proceeded with all the gravity of conviction, "you have
+uttered a deliberate perjury in the court-room to-day. You said that you
+alone were responsible for the murder of Mrs. Clemmens, whereas you not
+only did not commit the crime yourself but were not even an accessory to
+it. Wait!" he commanded, as she flashed upon him a look full of denial,
+"I would rather you did not speak. The motive for this calumny you
+uttered upon yourself lies in a fact which may be modified by what I
+have to reveal. Hear me, then, before you stain yourself still further
+by a falsehood you will not only be unable to maintain, but which you
+may no longer see reason for insisting upon. Hickory, turn around so
+Miss Dare can see your face. Miss Dare, when you saw fit to call upon
+this man to upbear you in the extraordinary statements you made to-day,
+did you realize that in doing this you appealed to the one person best
+qualified to prove the falsehood of what you had said? I see you did
+not; yet it is so. He if no other can testify that a few weeks ago, no
+idea of taking this crime upon your own shoulders had ever crossed your
+mind; that, on the contrary, your whole heart was filled with sorrow for
+the supposed guilt of another, and plans for inducing that other to make
+a confession of his guilt before the world."
+
+"This man!" was her startled exclamation. "It is not possible; I do not
+know him; he does not know me. I never talked with him but once in my
+life, and that was to say words I am not only willing but anxious for
+him to repeat."
+
+"Miss Dare," the District Attorney pursued, "when you say this you show
+how completely you have been deceived. The conversation to which you
+allude is not the only one which has passed between you two. Though you
+did not know it, you held a talk with this man at a time in which you so
+completely discovered the secrets of your heart, you can never hope to
+deceive us or the world by any story of personal guilt which you may see
+fit to manufacture."
+
+"I reveal my heart to this man!" she repeated, in a maze of doubt and
+terror that left her almost unable to stand. "You are playing with my
+misery, Mr. Ferris."
+
+The District Attorney took a different tone.
+
+"Miss Dare," he asked, "do you remember a certain interview you held
+with a gentleman in the hut back of Mrs. Clemmens' house, a short time
+after the murder?"
+
+"Did this man overhear my words that day?" she murmured, reaching out
+her hand to steady herself by the back of the chair near which she was
+standing.
+
+"Your words that day were addressed to this man."
+
+"To him!" she repeated, staggering back.
+
+"Yes, to him, disguised as Craik Mansell. With an unjustifiable zeal to
+know the truth, he had taken this plan for surprising your secret
+thoughts, and he succeeded, Miss Dare, remember that, even if he did you
+and your lover the cruel wrong of leaving you undisturbed in the
+impression that Mr. Mansell had admitted his guilt in your presence."
+
+But Imogene, throwing out her hands, cried impetuously:
+
+"It is not so; you are mocking me. This man never could deceive me like
+that!"
+
+But even as she spoke she recoiled, for Hickory, with ready art, had
+thrown his arms and head forward on the table before which he sat, in
+the attitude and with much the same appearance he had preserved on the
+day she had come upon him in the hut. Though he had no assistance from
+disguise and all the accessories were lacking which had helped forward
+the illusion on the former occasion, there was still a sufficient
+resemblance between this bowed figure and the one that had so impressed
+itself upon her memory as that of her wretched and remorseful lover,
+that she stood rooted to the ground in her surprise and dismay.
+
+"You see how it was done, do you not?" inquired Mr. Ferris. Then, as he
+saw she did not heed, added: "I hope you remember what passed between
+you two on that day?"
+
+As if struck by a thought which altered the whole atmosphere of her
+hopes and feelings, she took a step forward with a power and vigor that
+recalled to mind the Imogene of old.
+
+"Sir," she exclaimed, "let that man turn around and face me!"
+
+Hickory at once rose.
+
+"Tell me," she demanded, surveying him with a look it took all his
+well-known hardihood to sustain unmoved, "was it all false--all a trick
+from the beginning to the end? I received a letter--was that written by
+your hand too? Are you capable of forgery as well as of other
+deceptions?"
+
+The detective, who knew no other way to escape from his embarrassment,
+uttered a short laugh. But finding a reply was expected of him, answered
+with well-simulated indifference:
+
+"No, only the address on the envelope was mine; the letter was one which
+Mr. Mansell had written but never sent. I found it in his waste-paper
+basket in Buffalo."
+
+"Ah! and you could make use of that?"
+
+"I know it was a mean trick," he acknowledged, dropping his eyes from
+her face. "But things do look different when you are in the thick of 'em
+than when you take a stand and observe them from the outside. I--I was
+ashamed of it long ago, Miss Dare"--this was a lie; Hickory never was
+really ashamed of it--"and would have told you about it, but I thought
+'mum' was the word after a scene like that."
+
+She did not seem to hear him.
+
+"Then Mr. Mansell did not send me the letter inviting me to meet him in
+the hut on a certain day, some few weeks after Mrs. Clemmens was
+murdered?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor know that such a letter had been sent?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor come, as I supposed he did, to Sibley? nor admit what I supposed he
+admitted in my hearing? nor listen, as I supposed he did, to the
+insinuations I made use of in the hut?"
+
+"No."
+
+Imbued with sudden purpose and energy, she turned upon the District
+Attorney.
+
+"Oh, what a revelation to come to me now!" she murmured.
+
+Mr. Ferris bowed.
+
+"You are right," he assented; "it should have come to you before. But I
+can only repeat what I have previously said, that if I had known of this
+deception myself, you would have been notified of it previous to going
+upon the stand. For your belief in the prisoner's guilt has necessarily
+had its effect upon the jury, and I cannot but see how much that belief
+must have been strengthened, if it was not actually induced, by the
+interview which we have just been considering."
+
+Her eyes took on fresh light; she looked at Mr. Ferris as if she would
+read his soul.
+
+"Can it be possible----" she breathed, but stopped as suddenly as she
+began. The District Attorney was not the man from whom she could hope to
+obtain any opinion in reference to the prisoner's innocence.
+
+Mr. Ferris, noting her hesitation and understanding it too, perhaps,
+moved toward her with a certain kindly dignity, saying:
+
+"I should be glad to utter words that would give you some comfort, Miss
+Dare, but in the present state of affairs I do not feel as if I could go
+farther than bid you trust in the justice and wisdom of those who have
+this matter in charge. As for your own wretched and uncalled-for action
+in court to-day, it was a madness which I hope will be speedily
+forgotten, or, if not forgotten, laid to a despair almost too heavy for
+mortal strength to endure."
+
+"Thank you," she murmured; but her look, the poise of her head, the
+color that quivered through the pallor of her cheek, showed she was not
+thinking of herself. Doubt, the first which had visited her since she
+became convinced that Craik Mansell was the destroyer of his aunt's
+life, had cast a momentary gleam over her thoughts, and she was
+conscious of but one wish, and that was to understand the feelings of
+the men before her.
+
+But she soon saw the hopelessness of this, and, sinking back again into
+her old distress as she realized how much reason she still had for
+believing Craik Mansell guilty, she threw a hurried look toward the door
+as if anxious to escape from the eyes and ears of men interested, as she
+knew, in gleaning her every thought and sounding her every impulse.
+
+Mr. Ferris at once comprehended her intention, and courteously advanced.
+
+"Do you wish to return home?" he asked.
+
+"If a carriage can be obtained."
+
+"There can be no difficulty about that," he answered; and he gave
+Hickory a look, and whispered a word to Mr. Byrd, that sent them both
+speedily from the room.
+
+When he was left alone with her, he said:
+
+"Before you leave my presence, Miss Dare, I wish to urge upon you the
+necessity of patience. Any sudden or violent act on your part now would
+result in no good, and lead to much evil. Let me, then, pray you to
+remain quiet in your home, confident that Mr. Orcutt and myself will do
+all in our power to insure justice and make the truth evident."
+
+She bowed, but did not speak; while her impatient eye, resting
+feverishly on the door, told of her anxiety to depart.
+
+"She will need watching," commented Mr. Ferris to himself, and he, too,
+waited impatiently for the detectives' return. When they came in he gave
+Imogene to their charge, but the look he cast Byrd contained a hint
+which led that gentleman to take his hat when he went below to put Miss
+Dare into her carriage.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII.
+
+UNDER THE GREAT TREE.
+
+                                We but teach
+          Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
+          To plague the inventor. This even-handed justice
+          Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice
+          To our own lips.             --MACBETH.
+
+
+IMOGENE went to her home. Confused, disordered, the prey of a thousand
+hopes and a thousand fears, she sought for solitude and found it within
+the four walls of the small room which was now her only refuge.
+
+The two detectives who had followed her to the house--the one in the
+carriage, the other on foot--met, as the street-door closed upon her
+retreating form, and consulted together as to their future course.
+
+"Mr. Ferris thinks we ought to keep watch over the house, to make sure
+she does not leave it again," announced Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Does he? Well, then, I am the man for that job," quoth Hickory. "I was
+on this very same beat last night."
+
+"Good reason why you should rest and give me a turn at the business,"
+declared the other.
+
+"Do you want it?"
+
+"I am willing to take it," said Byrd.
+
+"Well, then, after nine o'clock you shall."
+
+"Why after nine?"
+
+"Because if she's bent on skylarking, she'll leave the house before
+then," laughed the other.
+
+"And you want to be here if she goes out?"
+
+"Well, yes, _rather_!"
+
+They compromised matters by both remaining, Byrd within view of the
+house and Hickory on a corner within hail. Neither expected much from
+this effort at surveillance, there seeming to be no good reason why she
+should venture forth into the streets again that night. But the
+watchfulness of the true detective mind is unceasing.
+
+Several hours passed. The peace of evening had come at last to the
+troubled town. In the streets, especially, its gentle influence was
+felt, and regions which had seethed all day with a restless and
+impatient throng were fast settling into their usual quiet and solitary
+condition. A new moon hung in the west, and to Mr. Byrd, pacing the walk
+in front of Imogene's door, it seemed as if he had never seen the town
+look more lovely or less like the abode of violence and crime. All was
+so quiet, especially in the house opposite him, he was fast becoming
+convinced that further precautions were needless, and that Imogene had
+no intention of stirring abroad again, when the window where her light
+burned suddenly became dark, and he perceived the street door cautiously
+open, and her tall, vailed figure emerge and pass rapidly up the street.
+Merely stopping to give the signal to Hickory, he hastened after her
+with rapid but cautious steps.
+
+She went like one bound on no uncertain errand. Though many of the walks
+were heavily shaded, and the light of the lamps was not brilliant, she
+speeded on from corner to corner, threading the business streets with
+rapidity, and emerging upon the large and handsome avenue that led up
+toward the eastern district of the town before Hickory could overtake
+Byrd, and find sufficient breath to ask:
+
+"Where is she bound for? Who lives up this way?"
+
+"I don't know," answered Byrd, lowering his voice in the fear of
+startling her into a knowledge of their presence. "It may be she is
+going to Miss Tremaine's; the High School is somewhere in this
+direction."
+
+But even as they spoke, the gliding figure before them turned into
+another street, and before they knew it, they were on the car-track
+leading out to Somerset Park.
+
+"Ha! I know now," whispered Hickory. "It is Orcutt she is after." And
+pressing the arm of Byrd in his enthusiasm, he speeded after her with
+renewed zeal.
+
+Byrd, seeing no reason to dispute a fact that was every moment becoming
+more evident, hurried forward also, and after a long and breathless
+walk--for she seemed to be urged onward by flying feet--they found
+themselves within sight of the grand old trees that guarded the entrance
+to the lawyer's somewhat spacious grounds.
+
+"What are we going to do now?" asked Byrd, stopping, as they heard the
+gate click behind her.
+
+"Wait and watch," said Hickory. "She has not led us this wild-goose
+chase for nothing." And leaping the hedge, he began creeping up toward
+the house, leaving his companion to follow or not, as he saw fit.
+
+Meantime Imogene had passed up the walk and paused before the front
+door. But a single look at it seemed to satisfy her, for, moving
+hurriedly away, she flitted around the corner of the house and stopped
+just before the long windows whose brightly illumined sashes proclaimed
+that the master of the house was still in his library.
+
+She seemed to feel relieved at this sight. Pausing, she leaned against
+the frame of a trellis-work near by to gather up her courage or regain
+her breath before proceeding to make her presence known to the lawyer.
+As she thus leaned, the peal of the church clock was heard, striking the
+hour of nine. She started, possibly at finding it so late, and bending
+forward, looked at the windows before her with an anxious eye that soon
+caught sight of a small opening left by the curtains having been drawn
+together by a too hasty or a too careless hand, and recognizing the
+opportunity it afforded for a glimpse into the room before her, stepped
+with a light tread upon the piazza and quietly peered within.
+
+The sight she saw never left her memory.
+
+Seated before a deadened fire, she beheld Mr. Orcutt. He was neither
+writing nor reading, nor, in the true sense of the word, thinking. The
+papers he had evidently taken from his desk, lay at his side
+undisturbed, and from one end of the room to the other, solitude,
+suffering, and despair seemed to fill the atmosphere and weigh upon its
+dreary occupant, till the single lamp which shone beside him burned
+dimmer and dimmer, like a life going out or a purpose vanishing in the
+gloom of a stealthily approaching destiny.
+
+Imogene, who had come to this place thus secretly and at this late hour
+of the day with the sole intent of procuring the advice of this man
+concerning the deception which had been practised upon her before the
+trial, felt her heart die within her as she surveyed this rigid figure
+and realized all it implied. Though his position was such she could not
+see his face, there was that in his attitude which bespoke hopelessness
+and an utter weariness of life, and as ash after ash fell from the
+grate, she imagined how the gloom deepened on the brow which till this
+hour had confronted the world with such undeviating courage and
+confidence.
+
+It was therefore a powerful shock to her when, in another moment, he
+looked up, and, without moving his body, turned his head slowly around
+in such a way as to afford her a glimpse of his face. For, in all her
+memory of it--and she had seen it distorted by many and various emotions
+during the last few weeks--she had never beheld it wear such a look as
+now. It gave her a new idea of the man; it filled her with dismay, and
+sent the life-blood from her cheeks. It fascinated her, as the glimpse
+of any evil thing fascinates, and held her spell-bound long after he
+had turned back again to his silent contemplation of the fire and its
+ever-drifting ashes. It was as if a vail had been rent before her eyes,
+disclosing to her a living soul writhing in secret struggle with its own
+worst passions; and horrified at the revelation, more than horrified at
+the remembrance that it was her own action of the morning which had
+occasioned this change in one she had long reverenced, if not loved, she
+sank helplessly upon her knees and pressed her face to the window in a
+prayer for courage to sustain this new woe and latest, if not heaviest,
+disappointment.
+
+It came while she was kneeling--came in the breath of the cold night
+wind, perhaps; for, rising up, she turned her forehead gratefully to the
+breeze, and drew in long draughts of it before she lifted her hand and
+knocked upon the window.
+
+The sharp, shrill sound made by her fingers on the pane reassured her as
+much as it startled him. Gathering up her long cloak, which had fallen
+apart in her last hurried movement, she waited with growing
+self-possession for his appearance at the window.
+
+He came almost immediately--came with his usual hasty step and with much
+of his usual expression on his well-disciplined features. Flinging aside
+the curtains, he cried impatiently: "Who is there?" But at sight of the
+tall figure of Imogene standing upright and firm on the piazza without,
+he drew back with a gesture of dismay, which was almost forbidding in
+its character.
+
+She saw it, but did not pause. Pushing up the window, she stepped into
+the room; then, as he did not offer to help her, turned and shut the
+window behind her and carefully arranged the curtains. He meantime stood
+watching her with eyes in whose fierce light burned equal love and equal
+anger.
+
+When all was completed, she faced him. Instantly a cry broke from his
+lips:
+
+"You here!" he exclaimed, as if her presence were more than he could
+meet or stand. But in another moment the forlornness of her position
+seemed to strike him, and he advanced toward her, saying in a voice
+husky with passion: "Wretched woman, what have you done? Was it not
+enough that for weeks, months now, you have played with my love and
+misery as with toys, that you should rise up at the last minute and
+crush me before the whole world with a story, mad as it is false, of
+yourself being a criminal and the destroyer of the woman for whose death
+your miserable lover is being tried? Had you no consideration, no pity,
+if not for yourself, ruined by this day's work, for me, who have
+sacrificed every thing, done every thing the most devoted man or lawyer
+could do to save this fellow and win you for my wife?"
+
+"Sir," said she, meeting the burning anger of his look with the coldness
+of a set despair, as if in the doubt awakened by his changed demeanor
+she sought to probe his mind for its hidden secret, "I did what any
+other woman would have done in my place. When we are pushed to the wall
+we tell the truth."
+
+"The truth!" Was that his laugh that rang startlingly through the room?
+"The truth! You told the truth! Imogene, Imogene, is any such farce
+necessary with me?"
+
+Her lips, which had opened, closed again, and she did not answer for a
+moment; then she asked:
+
+"How do you know that what I said was not the truth?"
+
+"How do I know?" He paused as if to get his breath. "How do I know?" he
+repeated, calling up all his self-control to sustain her gaze unmoved.
+"Do you think I have lost my reason, Imogene, that you put me such a
+question as that? How do I know you are innocent? Recall your own words
+and acts since the day we met at Mrs. Clemmens' house, and tell me how
+it would be possible for me to think any thing else of you?"
+
+But her purpose did not relax, neither did she falter as she returned:
+
+"Mr. Orcutt, will you tell me what has ever been said by me or what you
+have ever known me to do that would make it certain I did not commit
+this crime myself?"
+
+His indignation was too much for his courtesy.
+
+"Imogene," he commanded, "be silent! I will not listen to any further
+arguments of this sort. Isn't it enough that you have destroyed my
+happiness, that you should seek to sport with my good-sense? I say you
+are innocent as a babe unborn, not only of the crime itself but of any
+complicity in it. Every word you have spoken, every action you have
+taken, since the day of Mrs. Clemmens' death, proves you to be the
+victim of a fixed conviction totally at war with the statement you were
+pleased to make to-day. Only your belief in the guilt of another and
+your--your----"
+
+He stopped, choked. The thought of his rival maddened him.
+
+She immediately seized the opportunity to say:
+
+"Mr. Orcutt, I cannot argue about what I have done. It is over and
+cannot be remedied. It is true I have destroyed myself, but this is no
+time to think of that. All I can think of or mourn over now is that, by
+destroying myself, I have not succeeded in saving Craik Mansell."
+
+If her purpose was to probe the lawyer's soul for the deadly wound that
+had turned all his sympathies to gall, she was successful at last.
+Turning upon her with a look in which despair and anger were strangely
+mingled, he cried:
+
+"And me, Imogene--have you no thought for me?"
+
+"Sir," said she, "any thought from one disgraced as I am now, would be
+an insult to one of your character and position."
+
+It was true. In the eyes of the world Tremont Orcutt and Imogene Dare
+henceforth stood as far apart as the poles. Realizing it only too well,
+he uttered a half-inarticulate exclamation, and trod restlessly to the
+other end of the room. When he came back, it was with more of the
+lawyer's aspect and less of the baffled lover's.
+
+"Imogene," he said, "what could have induced you to resort to an
+expedient so dreadful? Had you lost confidence in me? Had I not told you
+I would save this man from his threatened fate?"
+
+"You cannot do every thing," she replied. "There are limits even to a
+power like yours. I knew that Craik was lost if I gave to the court the
+testimony which Mr. Ferris expected from me."
+
+"Ah, then," he cried, seizing with his usual quickness at the admission
+which had thus unconsciously, perhaps, slipped from her, "you
+acknowledge you uttered a perjury to save yourself from making
+declarations you believed to be hurtful to the prisoner?"
+
+A faint smile crossed her lips, and her whole aspect suddenly changed.
+
+"Yes," she said; "I have no motive for hiding it from you now. I
+perjured myself to escape destroying Craik Mansell. I was scarcely the
+mistress of my own actions. I had suffered so much I was ready to do any
+thing to save the man I had so relentlessly pushed to his doom. I forgot
+that God does not prosper a lie."
+
+The jealous gleam which answered her from the lawyer's eyes was a
+revelation.
+
+"You regret, then," he said, "that you tossed my happiness away with a
+breath of your perjured lips?"
+
+"I regret I did not tell the truth and trust God."
+
+At this answer, uttered with the simplicity of a penitent spirit, Mr.
+Orcutt unconsciously drew back.
+
+"And, may I ask, what has caused this sudden regret?" he inquired, in a
+tone not far removed from mockery; "the generous action of the prisoner
+in relieving you from your self-imposed burden of guilt by an
+acknowledgment that struck at the foundation of the defence I had so
+carefully prepared?"
+
+"No," was her short reply; "that could but afford me joy. Of whatever
+sin he may be guilty, he is at least free from the reproach of accepting
+deliverance at the expense of a woman. I am sorry I said what I did
+to-day, because a revelation has since been made to me, which proves I
+could never have sustained myself in the position I took, and that it
+was mere suicidal folly in me to attempt to save Craik Mansell by such
+means."
+
+"A revelation?"
+
+"Yes." And, forgetting all else in the purpose which had actuated her in
+seeking this interview, Imogene drew nearer to the lawyer and earnestly
+said: "There have been some persons--I have perceived it--who have
+wondered at my deep conviction of Craik Mansell's guilt. But the reasons
+I had justified it. They were great, greater than any one knew, greater
+even than _you_ knew. His mother--were she living--must have thought as
+I did, had she been placed beside me and seen what I have seen, and
+heard what I have heard from the time of Mrs. Clemmens' death. Not only
+were all the facts brought against him in the trial known to me, but I
+saw him--saw him with my own eyes, running from Mrs. Clemmens'
+dining-room door at the very time we suppose the murder to have been
+committed; that is, at five minutes before noon on the fatal day."
+
+"Impossible!" exclaimed Mr. Orcutt, in his astonishment. "You are
+playing with my credulity, Imogene."
+
+But she went on, letting her voice fall in awe of the lawyer's startled
+look.
+
+"No," she persisted; "I was in Professor Darling's observatory. I was
+looking through a telescope, which had been pointed toward the town.
+Mrs. Clemmens was much in my mind at the time, and I took the notion to
+glance at her house, when I saw what I have described to you. I could
+not help remembering the time," she added, "for I had looked at the
+clock but a moment before."
+
+"And it was five minutes before noon?" broke again from the lawyer's
+lips, in what was almost an awe-struck tone.
+
+Troubled at an astonishment which seemed to partake of the nature of
+alarm, she silently bowed her head.
+
+"And you were looking at him--actually looking at him--that very moment
+through a telescope perched a mile or so away?"
+
+"Yes," she bowed again.
+
+Turning his face aside, Mr. Orcutt walked to the hearth and began
+kicking the burnt-out logs with his restless foot. As he did so, Imogene
+heard him mutter between his set teeth:
+
+"It is almost enough to make one believe in a God!"
+
+Struck, horrified, she glided anxiously to his side.
+
+"Do not you believe in a God?" she asked.
+
+He was silent.
+
+Amazed, almost frightened, for she had never heard him breathe a word of
+scepticism before,--though, to be sure, he had never mentioned the name
+of the Deity in her presence,--she stood looking at him like one who had
+received a blow; then she said:
+
+"I believe in God. It is my punishment that I do. It is He who wills
+blood for blood; who dooms the guilty to a merited death. Oh, if He only
+would accept the sacrifice I so willingly offer!--take the life I so
+little value, and give me in return----"
+
+"Mansell's?" completed the lawyer, turning upon her in a burst of fury
+he no longer had power to suppress. "Is that your cry--always and
+forever your cry? You drive me too far, Imogene. This mad and senseless
+passion for a man who no longer loves you----"
+
+"Spare me!" rose from her trembling lips. "Let me forget that."
+
+But the great lawyer only laughed.
+
+"You make it worth my while to save you the bitterness of such a
+remembrance," he cried. Then, as she remained silent, he changed his
+tone to one of careless inquiry, and asked:
+
+"Was it to tell this story of the prisoner having fled from his aunt's
+house that you came here to-night?"
+
+Recalled to the purpose of the hour, she answered, hurriedly:
+
+"Not entirely; that story was what Mr. Ferris expected me to testify to
+in court this morning. You see for yourself in what a position it would
+have put the prisoner."
+
+"And the revelation you have received?" the lawyer coldly urged.
+
+"Was of a deception that has been practised upon me--a base deception by
+which I was led to think long ago that Craik Mansell had admitted his
+guilt and only trusted to the excellence of his defence to escape
+punishment."
+
+"I do not understand," said Mr. Orcutt. "Who could have practised such
+deception upon you?"
+
+"The detectives," she murmured; "that rough, heartless fellow they call
+Hickory." And, in a burst of indignation, she told how she had been
+practised upon, and what the results had been upon her belief, if not
+upon the testimony which grew out of that belief.
+
+The lawyer listened with a strange apathy. What would once have aroused
+his fiercest indignation and fired him to an exertion of his keenest
+powers, fell on him now like the tedious repetition of an old and
+worn-out tale. He scarcely looked up when she was done; and despair--the
+first, perhaps, she had ever really felt--began to close in around her
+as she saw how deep a gulf she had dug between this man and herself by
+the inconsiderate act which had robbed him of all hope of ever making
+her his wife. Moved by this feeling, she suddenly asked:
+
+"Have you lost all interest in your client, Mr. Orcutt? Have you no wish
+or hope remaining of seeing him acquitted of this crime?"
+
+"My client," responded the lawyer, with bitter emphasis, "has taken his
+case into his own hands. It would be presumptuous in me to attempt any
+thing further in his favor."
+
+"Mr. Orcutt!"
+
+"Ah!" he scornfully laughed, with a quick yielding to his passion as
+startling as it was unexpected, "you thought you could play with me as
+you would; use my skill and ignore the love that prompted it. You are a
+clever woman, Imogene, but you went too far when you considered my
+forbearance unlimited."
+
+"And you forsake Craik Mansell, in the hour of his extremity?"
+
+"Craik Mansell has forsaken me."
+
+This was true; for her sake her lover had thrown his defence to the
+winds and rendered the assistance of his counsel unavailable. Seeing her
+droop her head abashed, Mr. Orcutt dryly proceeded.
+
+"I do not know what may take place in court to-morrow," said he. "It is
+difficult to determine what will be the outcome of so complicated a
+case. The District Attorney, in consideration of the deception which has
+been practised upon you, may refuse to prosecute any further; or, if the
+case goes on and the jury is called upon for a verdict, they may or may
+not be moved by its peculiar aspects to acquit a man of such generous
+dispositions. If they are, I shall do nothing to hinder an acquittal;
+but ask for no more active measures on my part. I cannot plead for the
+lover of the woman who has disgraced me."
+
+This decision, from one she had trusted so implicitly, seemed to crush
+her.
+
+"Ah," she murmured, "if you did not believe him guilty you would not
+leave him thus to his fate."
+
+He gave her a short, side-long glance, half-mocking, half-pitiful.
+
+"If," she pursued, "you had felt even a passing gleam of doubt, such as
+came to me when I discovered that he had never really admitted his
+guilt, you would let no mere mistake on the part of a woman turn you
+from your duty as counsellor for a man on trial for his life."
+
+His glance lost its pity and became wholly mocking.
+
+"And do _you_ cherish but passing gleams?" he sarcastically asked.
+
+She started back.
+
+"I laugh at the inconsistency of women," he cried. "You have sacrificed
+every thing, even risked your life for a man you really believe guilty
+of crime; yet if another man similarly stained asked you for your
+compassion only, you would fly from him as from a pestilence."
+
+But no words he could utter of this sort were able to raise any emotion
+in her now.
+
+"Mr. Orcutt," she demanded, "do _you_ believe Craik Mansell innocent?"
+
+His old mocking smile came back.
+
+"Have I conducted his case as if I believed him guilty?" he asked.
+
+"No, no; but you are his lawyer; you are bound not to let your real
+thoughts appear. But in your secret heart you did not, could not,
+believe he was free from a crime to which he is linked by so many
+criminating circumstances?"
+
+But his strange smile remaining unchanged, she seemed to waken to a
+sudden doubt, and leaping impetuously to his side, laid her hand on his
+arm and exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, sir, if you have ever cherished one hope of his innocence, no
+matter how faint or small, tell me of it, even if this last disclosure
+has convinced you of its folly!"
+
+Giving her an icy look, he drew his arm slowly from her grasp and
+replied:
+
+"Mr. Mansell has never been considered guilty by me."
+
+"Never?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Not even now?"
+
+"Not even now."
+
+It seemed as if she could not believe his words.
+
+"And yet you know all there is against him; all that I do now!"
+
+"I know he visited his aunt's house at or after the time she was
+murdered, but that is no proof he killed her, Miss Dare."
+
+"No," she admitted with slow conviction, "no. But why did he fly in that
+wild way when he left it? Why did he go straight to Buffalo and not wait
+to give me the interview he promised?"
+
+"Shall I tell you?" Mr. Orcutt inquired, with a dangerous sneer on his
+lips. "Do you wish to know why this man--the man you have so loved--the
+man for whom you would die this moment, has conducted himself with such
+marked discretion?"
+
+"Yes," came like a breath from between Imogene's parted lips.
+
+"Well," said the lawyer, dropping his words with cruel clearness, "Mr.
+Mansell has a great faith in women. He has such faith in you, Imogene
+Dare, he thinks you are all you declare yourself to be; that in the hour
+you stood up before the court and called yourself a murderer, you spoke
+but the truth; that----" He stopped; even his scornful _aplomb_ would
+not allow him to go on in the face of the look she wore.
+
+"Say--say those words again!" she gasped. "Let me hear them once more.
+He thinks what?"
+
+"That you are what you proclaimed yourself to be this day, the actual
+assailant and murderer of Mrs. Clemmens. He has thought so all along,
+Miss Dare, why, I do not know. Whether he saw any thing or heard any
+thing in that house from which you saw him fly so abruptly, or whether
+he relied solely upon the testimony of the ring, which you must remember
+he never acknowledged having received back from you, I only know that
+from the minute he heard of his aunt's death, his suspicions flew to
+you, and that, in despite of such suggestions as I felt it judicious to
+make, they have never suffered shock or been turned from their course
+from that day to this. _Such_ honor," concluded Mr. Orcutt, with dry
+sarcasm, "does the man you love show to the woman who has sacrificed for
+his sake all that the world holds dear."
+
+"I--I cannot believe it. You are mocking me," came inarticulately from
+her lips, while she drew back, step by step, till half the room lay
+between them.
+
+"Mocking you? Miss Dare, he has shown his feelings so palpably, I have
+often trembled lest the whole court should see and understand them."
+
+"You have trembled"--she could scarcely speak, the rush of her emotion
+was so great--"_you_ have trembled lest the whole court should see he
+suspected me of this crime?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then," she cried, "you must have been convinced,--Ah!" she hurriedly
+interposed, with a sudden look of distrust, "you are not amusing
+yourself with me, are you, Mr. Orcutt? So many traps have been laid for
+me from time to time, I dare not trust the truth of my best friend.
+Swear you believe Craik Mansell to have thought this of me! Swear you
+have seen this dark thing lying in his soul, or I----"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Will confront him myself with the question, if I have to tear down the
+walls of the prison to reach him. His mind I must and will know."
+
+"Very well, then, you do. I have told you," declared Mr. Orcutt.
+"Swearing would not make it any more true."
+
+Lifting her face to heaven, she suddenly fell on her knees.
+
+"O God!" she murmured, "help me to bear this great joy!"
+
+"_Joy!_"
+
+The icy tone, the fierce surprise it expressed, started her at once to
+her feet.
+
+"Yes," she murmured, "joy! Don't you see that if he thinks me guilty, he
+_must_ be innocent? I am willing to perish and fall from the ranks of
+good men and honorable women to be sure of a fact like this!"
+
+"Imogene, Imogene, would you drive me mad?"
+
+She did not seem to hear.
+
+"Craik, are you guiltless, then?" she was saying. "Is the past all a
+dream! Are we two nothing but victims of dread and awful circumstances?
+Oh, we will see; life is not ended yet!" And with a burst of hope that
+seemed to transfigure her into another woman, she turned toward the
+lawyer with the cry: "If he is innocent, he can be saved. Nothing that
+has been done by him or me can hurt him if this be so. God who watches
+over this crime has His eye on the guilty one. Though his sin be hidden
+under a mountain of deceit, it will yet come forth. Guilt like his
+cannot remain hidden."
+
+"You did not think this when you faced the court this morning with
+perjury on your lips," came in slow, ironical tones from her companion.
+
+"Heaven sometimes accepts a sacrifice," she returned. "But who will
+sacrifice himself for a man who could let the trial of one he knew to be
+innocent go on unhindered?"
+
+"Who, indeed!" came in almost stifled tones from the lawyer's lips.
+
+"If a stranger and not Craik Mansell slew Mrs. Clemmens," she went on,
+"and nothing but an incomprehensible train of coincidences unites him
+and me to this act of violence, then may God remember the words of the
+widow, and in His almighty power call down such a doom----"
+
+She ended with a gasp. Mr. Orcutt, with a sudden movement, had laid his
+hand upon her lips.
+
+"Hush!" he said, "let no curses issue from _your_ mouth. The guilty can
+perish without that."
+
+Releasing herself from him in alarm, she drew back, her eyes slowly
+dilating as she noted the dead whiteness that had settled over his face,
+and taken even the hue of life from his nervously trembling lip.
+
+"Mr. Orcutt," she whispered, with a solemnity which made them heedless
+that the lamp which had been burning lower and lower in its socket was
+giving out its last fitful rays, "if Craik Mansell did not kill the
+Widow Clemmens who then did?"
+
+Her question--or was it her look and tone?--seemed to transfix Mr.
+Orcutt. But it was only for a moment. Turning with a slight gesture to
+the table at his side, he fumbled with his papers, still oblivious of
+the flaring lamp, saying slowly:
+
+"I have always supposed Gouverneur Hildreth to be the true author of
+this crime."
+
+"Gouverneur Hildreth?"
+
+Mr. Orcutt bowed.
+
+"I do not agree with you," she returned, moving slowly toward the
+window. "I am no reader of human hearts, as all my past history shows,
+but something--is it the voice of God in my breast?--tells me that
+Gouverneur Hildreth is as innocent as Craik Mansell, and that the true
+murderer of Mrs. Clemmens----" Her words ended in a shriek. The light,
+which for so long a time had been flickering to its end, had given one
+startling flare in which the face of the man before her had flashed on
+her view in a ghastly flame that seemed to separate it from all
+surrounding objects, then as suddenly gone out, leaving the room in
+total darkness.
+
+In the silence that followed, a quick sound as of rushing feet was
+heard, then the window was pushed up and the night air came moaning in.
+Imogene had fled.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Horace Byrd had not followed Hickory in his rush toward the house. He
+had preferred to await results under the great tree which, standing just
+inside the gate, cast its mysterious and far-reaching shadow widely over
+the wintry lawn. He was, therefore, alone during most of the interview
+which Miss Dare held with Mr. Orcutt in the library, and, being alone,
+felt himself a prey to his sensations and the weirdness of the situation
+in which he found himself.
+
+Though no longer a victim to the passion with which Miss Dare had at
+first inspired him, he was by no means without feeling for this grand if
+somewhat misguided woman, and his emotions, as he stood there awaiting
+the issue of her last desperate attempt to aid the prisoner, were strong
+enough to make any solitude welcome, though this solitude for some
+reason held an influence which was any thing but enlivening, if it was
+not actually depressing, to one of his ready sensibilities.
+
+The tree under which he had taken his stand was, as I have intimated, an
+old one. It had stood there from time immemorial, and was, as I have
+heard it since said, at once the pride of Mr. Orcutt's heart and the
+chief ornament of his grounds. Though devoid of foliage at the time,
+its vast and symmetrical canopy of interlacing branches had caught Mr.
+Byrd's attention from the first moment of his entrance beneath it, and,
+preoccupied as he was, he could not prevent his thoughts from reverting
+now and then with a curious sensation of awe to the immensity of those
+great limbs which branched above him. His imagination was so powerfully
+affected at last, he had a notion of leaving the spot and seeking a
+nearer look-out in the belt of evergreens that hid the crouching form of
+Hickory; but a spell seemed to emanate from the huge trunk against which
+he leaned that restrained him when he sought to go, and noticing almost
+at the same moment that the path which Miss Dare would have to take in
+her departure ran directly under this tree, he yielded to the apathy of
+the moment and remained where he was.
+
+Soon after he was visited by Hickory.
+
+"I can see nothing and hear nothing," was that individual's hurried
+salutation. "She and Mr. Orcutt are evidently still in the library, but
+I cannot get a clue to what is going on. I shall keep up my watch,
+however, for I want to catch a glimpse of her face as she steps from the
+window." And he was off again before Byrd could reply.
+
+But the next instant he was back, panting and breathless.
+
+"The light is out in the library," he cried; "we shall see her no more
+to-night."
+
+But scarcely had the words left his lips when a faint sound was heard
+from the region of the piazza, and looking eagerly up the path, they saw
+the form of Miss Dare coming hurriedly toward them.
+
+To slip around into the deepest shadow cast by the tree was but the work
+of a moment. Meantime, the moon shone brightly on the walk down which
+she was speeding, and as, in the agitation of her departure, she had
+forgotten to draw down her veil, they succeeded in obtaining a view of
+her face. It was pale, and wore an expression of fear, while her feet
+hasted as though she were only filled with thoughts of escape.
+
+Seeing this, the two detectives held their breaths, preparing to follow
+her as soon as she had passed the tree. But she did not pass the tree.
+Just as she got within reach of its shadow, a commanding voice was heard
+calling upon her to stop, and Mr. Orcutt came hurrying, in his turn,
+down the path.
+
+"I cannot let you go thus," he cried, pausing beside her on the walk
+directly under the tree. "If you command me to save Craik Mansell I must
+do it. What you wish must be done, Imogene."
+
+"My wishes should not be needed to lead you to do your duty by the man
+you believe to be innocent of the charge for which he is being tried,"
+was her earnest and strangely cold reply.
+
+"Perhaps not," he muttered, bitterly; "but--ah, Imogene," he suddenly
+broke forth, in a way to startle these two detectives, who, however
+suspicious they had been of his passion, had never before had the
+opportunity of seeing him under its control, "what have you made of me
+with your bewildering graces and indomitable soul? Before I knew you,
+life was a round of honorable duties and serene pleasures. I lived in my
+profession, and found my greatest delight in its exercise. But now----"
+
+"What now?" she asked.
+
+"I seem"--he said, and the hard, cold selfishness that underlay all his
+actions, however generous they may have been in appearance, was apparent
+in his words and tones,--"I seem to forget every thing, even my standing
+and fame as a lawyer, in the one fear that, although lost to me, you
+will yet live to give yourself to another."
+
+"If you fear that I shall ever be so weak as to give myself to Craik
+Mansell," was her steady reply, "you have only to recall the promise I
+made you when you undertook his case."
+
+"Yes," said he, "but that was when you yourself believed him guilty."
+
+"I know," she returned; "but if he were not good enough for me then, I
+am not good enough for him now. Do you forget that I am blotted with a
+stain that can never be effaced? When I stood up in court to-day and
+denounced myself as guilty of crime, I signed away all my chances of
+future happiness."
+
+There was a pause; Mr. Orcutt seemed to be thinking. From the position
+occupied by the two detectives his shadow could be seen oscillating to
+and fro on the lawn, then, amid the hush of night--a deathly
+hush--undisturbed, as Mr. Byrd afterward remarked, by so much as the
+cracking of a twig, his voice rose quiet, yet vaguely sinister, in the
+words:
+
+"You have conquered. If any man suffers for this crime it shall not be
+Craik Mansell, but----"
+
+The sentence was never finished. Before the words could leave his mouth
+a sudden strange and splitting sound was heard above their heads, then a
+terrifying rush took place, and a great limb lay upon the walk where but
+a moment before the beautiful form of Imogene Dare lifted itself by the
+side of the eminent lawyer.
+
+When a full sense of the terrible nature of the calamity which had just
+occurred swept across the minds of the benumbed detectives, Mr. Byrd,
+recalling the words and attitude of Imogene in face of a similar, if
+less fatal, catastrophe at the hut, exclaimed under his breath:
+
+"It is the vengeance of Heaven! Imogene Dare must have been more guilty
+than we believed."
+
+But when, after a superhuman exertion of strength, and the assistance of
+many hands, the limb was at length raised, it was found that, although
+both had been prostrated by its weight, only one remained stretched and
+senseless upon the ground, and that was not Imogene Dare, but the great
+lawyer, Mr. Orcutt.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVIII.
+
+UNEXPECTED WORDS.
+
+          It will have blood: they say, blood will have blood.
+          Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;
+          Augurs and understood relations have,
+          By magot-pies and choughs and rooks, brought forth
+          The secret'st man of blood.
+
+                 *       *       *       *       *
+
+          Foul whisperings are abroad; unnatural deeds
+          Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds
+          To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.    --MACBETH.
+
+
+"MR. ORCUTT dead?"
+
+"Dying, sir."
+
+"How, when, where?"
+
+"In his own house, sir. He has been struck down by a falling limb."
+
+The District Attorney, who had been roused from his bed to hear these
+evil tidings, looked at the perturbed face of the messenger before
+him--who was none other than Mr. Byrd--and with difficulty restrained
+his emotion.
+
+"I sympathize with your horror and surprise," exclaimed the detective,
+respectfully. Then, with a strange mixture of embarrassment and
+agitation, added: "It is considered absolutely necessary that you come
+to the house. He may yet speak--and--and--you will find Miss Dare
+there," he concluded, with a peculiarly hesitating glance and a rapid
+movement toward the door.
+
+Mr. Ferris, who, as we know, cherished a strong feeling of friendship
+for Mr. Orcutt, stared uneasily at the departing form of the detective.
+
+"What do you say?" he repeated. "Miss Dare there, in Mr. Orcutt's
+house?"
+
+The short "Yes," and the celerity with which Mr. Byrd vanished, gave him
+the appearance of one anxious to escape further inquiries.
+
+Astonished, as well as greatly distressed, the District Attorney made
+speedy preparations for following him, and soon was in the street. He
+found it all alive with eager citizens, who, notwithstanding the
+lateness of the hour, were rushing hither and thither in search of
+particulars concerning this sudden calamity; and upon reaching the house
+itself, found it wellnigh surrounded by an agitated throng of neighbors
+and friends.
+
+Simply pausing at the gate to cast one glance at the tree and its fallen
+limb, he made his way to the front door. It was immediately opened. Dr.
+Tredwell, whose face it was a shock to encounter in this place, stood
+before him, and farther back a group of such favored friends as had been
+allowed to enter the house. Something in the look of the coroner, as he
+silently reached forth his hand in salutation, added to the mysterious
+impression which had been made upon Mr. Ferris by the manner, if not
+words, of Mr. Byrd. Feeling that he was losing his self-command, the
+District Attorney grasped the hand that was held out to him, and huskily
+inquired if Mr. Orcutt was still alive.
+
+The coroner, who had been standing before him with a troubled brow and
+lowered eyes, gravely bowed, and quietly leading the way, ushered him
+forward to Mr. Orcutt's bedroom door. There he paused and looked as if
+he would like to speak, but hastily changing his mind, opened the door
+and motioned the District Attorney in. As he did so, he cast a meaning
+and solemn look toward the bed, then drew back, watching with evident
+anxiety what the effect of the scene before him would have upon this new
+witness.
+
+A stupefying one it seemed, for Mr. Ferris, pausing in his approach,
+looked at the cluster of persons about the bed, and then drew his hand
+across his eyes like a man in a maze. Suddenly he turned upon Dr.
+Tredwell with the same strange look he had himself seen in the eyes of
+Byrd, and said, almost as if the words were forced from his lips:
+
+"This is no new sight to us, doctor; we have been spectators of a scene
+like this before."
+
+That was it. As nearly as the alteration in circumstances and
+surroundings would allow, the spectacle before him was the same as that
+which he had encountered months before in a small cottage at the other
+end of the town. On the bed a pallid, senseless, but slowly breathing
+form, whose features, stamped with the approach of death, stared at
+them with marble-like rigidity from beneath the heavy bandages which
+proclaimed the injury to be one to the head. At his side the doctor--the
+same one who had been called in to attend Mrs. Clemmens--wearing, as he
+did then, a look of sombre anticipation which Mr. Ferris expected every
+instant to see culminate in the solemn gesture which he had used at the
+widow's bedside before she spoke. Even the group of women who clustered
+about the foot of the couch wore much the same expression as those who
+waited for movement on the part of Mrs. Clemmens; and had it not been
+for the sight of Imogene Dare sitting immovable and watchful on the
+farther side of the bed, he might almost have imagined he was
+transported back to the old scene, and that all this new horror under
+which he was laboring was a dream from which he would speedily be
+awakened.
+
+But Imogene's face, her look, her air of patient waiting, were not to be
+mistaken. Attention once really attracted to her, it was not possible
+for it to wander elsewhere. Even the face of the dying man and the
+countenance of the watchful physician paled in interest before that
+fixed look which, never wavering, never altering, studied the marble
+visage before her, for the first faint signs of reawakening
+consciousness. Even his sister, who, if weak of mind, was most certainly
+of a loving disposition, seemed to feel the force of the tie that bound
+Imogene to that pillow; and, though she hovered nearer and nearer the
+beloved form as the weariful moments sped by, did not presume to
+interpose her grief or her assistance between the burning eye of Imogene
+and the immovable form of her stricken brother.
+
+The hush that lay upon the room was unbroken save by the agitated
+breaths of all present.
+
+"Is there no hope?" whispered Mr. Ferris to Dr. Tredwell, as, seeing no
+immediate prospect of change, they sought for seats at the other side of
+the room.
+
+"No; the wound is strangely like that which Mrs. Clemmens received. He
+will rouse, probably, but he will not live. Our only comfort is that in
+this case it is not a murder."
+
+The District Attorney made a gesture in the direction of Imogene.
+
+"How came she to be here?" he asked.
+
+Dr. Tredwell rose and drew him from the room.
+
+"It needs some explanation," he said; and began to relate to him how Mr.
+Orcutt was escorting Miss Dare to the gate when the bough fell which
+seemed likely to rob him of his life.
+
+Mr. Ferris, through whose mind those old words of the widow were running
+in a way that could only be accounted for by the memories which the
+scene within had awakened--"May the vengeance of Heaven light upon the
+head of him who has brought me to this pass! May the fate that has come
+upon me be visited upon him, measure for measure, blow for blow, death
+for death!"--turned with impressive gravity and asked if Miss Dare had
+not been hurt.
+
+But Dr. Tredwell shook his head.
+
+"She is not even bruised," said he.
+
+"And yet was on his arm?"
+
+"Possibly, though I very much doubt it."
+
+"She was standing at his side," uttered the quiet voice of Mr. Byrd in
+their ear; "and disappeared when he did, under the falling branch. She
+must have been bruised, though she says not. I do not think she is in a
+condition to feel her injuries."
+
+"You were present, then," observed Mr. Ferris, with a meaning glance at
+the detective.
+
+"I was present," he returned, with a look the District Attorney did not
+find it difficult to understand.
+
+"Is there any thing you ought to tell me?" Mr. Ferris inquired, when a
+moment or so later the coroner had been drawn away by a friend.
+
+"I do not know," said Byrd. "Of the conversation that passed between
+Miss Dare and Mr. Orcutt, but a short portion came to our ears. It is
+her manner, her actions, that have astonished us, and made us anxious to
+have you upon the spot." And he told with what an expression of fear she
+had fled from her interview with Mr. Orcutt in the library, and then
+gave, as nearly as he could, an account of what had passed between them
+before the falling of the fatal limb. Finally he said: "Hickory and I
+expected to find her lying crushed and bleeding beneath, but instead of
+that, no sooner was the bough lifted than she sprang to her knees, and
+seeing Mr. Orcutt lying before her insensible, bent over him with that
+same expression of breathless awe and expectation which you see in her
+now. It looks as if she were waiting for him to rouse and finish the
+sentence that was cut short by this catastrophe."
+
+"And what was that sentence?"
+
+"As near as I can recollect, it was this: 'If any man suffers for this
+crime it shall not be Craik Mansell, but----' He did not have time to
+say whom."
+
+"My poor friend!" ejaculated Mr. Ferris, "cut down in the exercise of
+his duties! It is a mysterious providence--a very mysterious
+providence!" And crossing again to the sick-room, he went sadly in.
+
+He found the aspect unchanged. On the pillow the same white, immovable
+face; at the bedside the same constant and expectant watchers. Imogene
+especially seemed scarcely to have made a move in all the time of his
+absence. Like a marble image watching over a form of clay she sat
+silent, breathless, intent--a sight to draw all eyes and satisfy none;
+for her look was not one of grief, nor of awe, nor of hope, yet it had
+that within it which made her presence there seem a matter of right even
+to those who did not know the exact character of the bond which united
+her to the unhappy sufferer.
+
+Mr. Ferris, who had been only too ready to accept Mr. Byrd's explanation
+of her conduct, allowed himself to gaze at her unhindered.
+
+Overwhelmed, as he was, by the calamity which promised to rob the Bar
+of one of its most distinguished advocates, and himself of a long-tried
+friend, he could not but feel the throb of those deep interests which,
+in the estimation of this woman at least, hung upon a word which those
+dying lips might utter. And swayed by this feeling, he unconsciously
+became a third watcher, though for what, and in hope of what, he could
+scarcely have told, so much was he benumbed by the suddenness of this
+great catastrophe, and the extraordinary circumstances by which it was
+surrounded.
+
+And so one o'clock came and passed.
+
+It was not the last time the clock struck before a change came. The hour
+of two went by, then that of three, and still, to the casual eye, all
+remained the same. But ere the stroke of four was heard, Mr. Ferris, who
+had relaxed his survey of Imogene to bestow a fuller attention upon his
+friend, felt an indefinable sensation of dismay assail him, and rising
+to his feet, drew a step or so nearer the bed, and looked at its silent
+occupant with the air of a man who would fain shut his eyes to the
+meaning of what he sees before him. At the same moment Mr. Byrd, who had
+just come in, found himself attracted by the subtle difference he
+observed in the expression of Miss Dare. The expectancy in her look was
+gone, and its entire expression was that of awe. Advancing to the side
+of Mr. Ferris, he glanced down at the dying lawyer. He at once saw what
+it was that had so attracted and moved the District Attorney. A change
+had come over Mr. Orcutt's face. Though rigid still, and unrelieved by
+any signs of returning consciousness, it was no longer that of the man
+they knew, but a strange face, owning the same features, but
+distinguished now by a look sinister as it was unaccustomed, filling the
+breasts of those who saw it with dismay, and making any contemplation of
+his countenance more than painful to those who loved him. Nor did it
+decrease as they watched him. Like that charmed writing which appears on
+a blank paper when it is subjected to the heat, the subtle, unmistakable
+lines came out, moment by moment, on the mask of his unconscious face,
+till even Imogene trembled, and turned an appealing glance upon Mr.
+Ferris, as if to bid him note this involuntary evidence of nature
+against the purity and good intentions of the man who had always stood
+so high in the world's regard. Then, satisfied, perhaps, with the
+expression she encountered on the face of the District Attorney, she
+looked back; and the heavy minutes went on, only more drearily, and
+perhaps more fearfully, than before.
+
+Suddenly--was it at a gesture of the physician, or a look from
+Imogene?--a thrill of expectation passed through the room, and Dr.
+Tredwell, Mr. Ferris, and a certain other gentleman who had but just
+entered at a remote corner of the apartment, came hurriedly forward and
+stood at the foot of the bed. At the same instant Imogene rose, and
+motioning them a trifle aside, with an air of mingled entreaty and
+command, bent slowly down toward the injured man. A look of recognition
+answered her from the face upon the pillow, but she did not wait to meet
+it, nor pause for the word that evidently trembled on his momentarily
+conscious lip. Shutting out with her form the group of anxious watchers
+behind her, she threw all her soul into the regard with which she held
+him enchained; then slowly, solemnly, but with unyielding determination,
+uttered these words, which no one there could know were but a repetition
+of a question made a few eventful hours ago: "If Craik Mansell is not
+the man who killed Mrs. Clemmens, do you, Mr. Orcutt, tell us who is!"
+and, pausing, remained with her gaze fixed demandingly on that of the
+lawyer, undeterred by the smothered exclamations of those who witnessed
+this scene and missed its clue or found it only in the supposition that
+this last great shock had unsettled her mind.
+
+The panting sufferer just trembling on the verge of life thrilled all
+down his once alert and nervous frame, then searching her face for one
+sign of relenting, unclosed his rigid lips and said, with emphasis:
+
+"Has not Fate spoken?"
+
+Instantly Imogene sprang erect, and, amid the stifled shrieks of the
+women and the muttered exclamations of the men, pointed at the recumbent
+figure before them, saying:
+
+"You hear! Tremont Orcutt declares upon his death-bed that it is the
+voice of Heaven which has spoken in this dreadful calamity. You who were
+present when Mrs. Clemmens breathed her imprecations on the head of her
+murderer, must know what that means."
+
+Mr. Ferris, who of all present, perhaps, possessed the greatest regard
+for the lawyer, gave an ejaculation of dismay at this, and bounding
+forward, lifted her away from the bedside he believed her to have basely
+desecrated.
+
+"Madwoman," he cried, "where will your ravings end? He will tell no such
+tale to me."
+
+But when he bent above the lawyer with the question forced from him by
+Miss Dare's words, he found him already lapsed into that strange
+insensibility which was every moment showing itself more and more to be
+the precursor of death.
+
+The sight seemed to rob Mr. Ferris of his last grain of self-command.
+Rising, he confronted the dazed faces of those about him with a severe
+look.
+
+"This charge," said he, "is akin to that which Miss Dare made against
+herself in the court yesterday morning. When a woman has become crazed
+she no longer knows what she says."
+
+But Imogene, strong in the belief that the hand of Heaven had pointed
+out the culprit for whom they had so long been searching, shook her head
+in quiet denial, and simply saying, "None of you know this man as I do,"
+moved quietly aside to a dim corner, where she sat down in calm
+expectation of another awakening on the part of the dying lawyer.
+
+It came soon--came before Mr. Ferris had recovered himself, or Dr.
+Tredwell had had a chance to give any utterance to the emotions which
+this scene was calculated to awaken.
+
+Rousing as the widow had done, but seeming to see no one, not even the
+physician who bent close at his side, Mr. Orcutt lifted his voice again,
+this time in the old stentorian tones which he used in court, and
+clearly, firmly exclaimed:
+
+"Blood will have blood!" Then in lower and more familiar accents, cried:
+"Ah, Imogene, Imogene, it was all for you!" And with her name on his
+lips, the great lawyer closed his eyes again, and sank for the last time
+into a state of insensibility.
+
+Imogene at once rose.
+
+"I must go," she murmured; "my duty in this place is done." And she
+attempted to cross the floor.
+
+But the purpose which had sustained her being at an end, she felt the
+full weight of her misery, and looking in the faces about her, and
+seeing nothing there but reprobation, she tottered and would have fallen
+had not a certain portly gentleman who stood near by put forth his arm
+to sustain her. Accepting the support with gratitude, but scarcely
+pausing to note from what source it came, she turned for an instant to
+Mr. Ferris.
+
+"I realize," said she, "with what surprise you must have heard the
+revelation which has just come from Mr. Orcutt's lips. So unexpected is
+it that you cannot yet believe it, but the time will come when, of all
+the words I have spoken, these alone will be found worthy your full
+credit: that not Craik Mansell, not Gouverneur Hildreth, not even
+unhappy Imogene Dare herself, could tell you so much of the real cause
+and manner of Mrs. Clemmens' death as this man who lies stricken here a
+victim of Divine justice."
+
+And merely stopping to cast one final look in the direction of the bed,
+she stumbled from the room. A few minutes later and she reached the
+front door; but only to fall against the lintel with the moan:
+
+"My words are true, but who will ever believe them?"
+
+"Pardon me," exclaimed a bland and fatherly voice over her shoulder, "I
+am a man who can believe in any thing. Put your confidence in me, Miss
+Dare, and we will see--we will see."
+
+Startled by her surprise into new life, she gave one glance at the
+gentleman who had followed her to the door. It was the same who had
+offered her his arm, and whom she supposed to have remained behind her
+in Mr. Orcutt's room. She saw before her a large comfortable-looking
+personage of middle age, of no great pretensions to elegance or culture,
+but bearing that within his face which oddly enough baffled her
+understanding while it encouraged her trust. This was the more peculiar
+in that he was not looking at her, but stood with his eyes fixed on the
+fading light of the hall-lamp, which he surveyed with an expression of
+concern that almost amounted to pity.
+
+"Sir, who are you?" she tremblingly asked.
+
+Dropping his eyes from the lamp, he riveted them upon the veil she held
+tightly clasped in her right hand.
+
+"If you will allow me the liberty of whispering in your ear, I will soon
+tell you," said he.
+
+She bent her weary head downward; he at once leaned toward her and
+murmured a half-dozen words that made her instantly start erect with new
+light in her eyes.
+
+"And you will help me?" she cried.
+
+"What else am I here for?" he answered.
+
+And turning toward a quiet figure which she now saw for the first time
+standing on the threshold of a small room near by, he said with the
+calmness of a master:
+
+"Hickory, see that no one enters or leaves the sick-room till I return."
+And offering Imogene his arm, he conducted her into the library, the
+door of which he shut to behind them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+MR. GRYCE.
+
+          What you have spoke, it may be so, perchance.
+          This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,
+          Was once thought honest.                 --MACBETH.
+
+
+AN hour later, as Mr. Ferris was leaving the house in company with Dr.
+Tredwell, he felt himself stopped by a slight touch on his arm. Turning
+about he saw Hickory.
+
+"Beg pardon, sirs," said the detective, with a short bow, "but there's a
+gentleman, in the library who would like to see you before you go."
+
+They at once turned to the room indicated. But at sight of its
+well-known features--its huge cases of books, its large centre-table
+profusely littered with papers, the burnt-out grate, the empty
+arm-chair--they paused, and it was with difficulty they could recover
+themselves sufficiently to enter. When they did, their first glance was
+toward the gentleman they saw standing in a distant window, apparently
+perusing a book.
+
+"Who is it?" inquired Mr. Ferris of his companion.
+
+"I cannot imagine," returned the other.
+
+Hearing voices, the gentleman advanced.
+
+"Ah," said he, "allow me to introduce myself. I am Mr. Gryce, of the New
+York Detective Service."
+
+"Mr. Gryce!" repeated the District Attorney, in astonishment.
+
+The famous detective bowed. "I have come," said he, "upon a summons
+received by me in Utica not six hours ago. It was sent by a subordinate
+of mine interested in the trial now going on before the court. Horace
+Byrd is his name. I hope he is well liked here and has your confidence."
+
+"Mr. Byrd is well enough liked," rejoined Mr. Ferris, "but I gave him no
+orders to send for you. At what hour was the telegram dated?"
+
+"At half-past eleven; immediately after the accident to Mr. Orcutt."
+
+"I see."
+
+"He probably felt himself inadequate to meet this new emergency. He is a
+young man, and the affair is certainly a complicated one."
+
+The District Attorney, who had been studying the countenance of the able
+detective before him, bowed courteously.
+
+"I am not displeased to see you," said he. "If you have been in the room
+above----"
+
+The other gravely bowed.
+
+"You know probably of the outrageous accusation which has just been made
+against our best lawyer and most-esteemed citizen. It is but one of many
+which this same woman has made; and while it is to be regarded as the
+ravings of lunacy, still your character and ability may weigh much in
+lifting the opprobrium which any such accusation, however unfounded, is
+calculated to throw around the memory of my dying friend."
+
+"Sir," returned Mr. Gryce, shifting his gaze uneasily from one small
+object to another in that dismal room, till all and every article it
+contained seemed to partake of his mysterious confidence, "this is a
+world of disappointment and deceit. Intellects we admired, hearts in
+which we trusted, turn out frequently to be the abodes of falsehood and
+violence. It is dreadful, but it is true."
+
+Mr. Ferris, struck aghast, looked at the detective with severe
+disapprobation.
+
+"Is it possible," he asked, "that you have allowed yourself to give any
+credence to the delirious utterances of a man suffering from a wound on
+the head, or to the frantic words of a woman who has already abused the
+ears of the court by a deliberate perjury?" While Dr. Tredwell, equally
+indignant and even more impatient, rapped with his knuckles on the table
+by which he stood, and cried:
+
+"Pooh, pooh, the man cannot be such a fool!"
+
+A solemn smile crossed the features of the detective.
+
+"Many persons have listened to the aspersion you denounce. Active
+measures will be needed to prevent its going farther."
+
+"I have commanded silence," said Dr. Tredwell. "Respect for Mr. Orcutt
+will cause my wishes to be obeyed."
+
+"Does Mr. Orcutt enjoy the universal respect of the town?"
+
+"He does," was the stern reply.
+
+"It behooves us, then," said Mr. Gryce, "to clear his memory from every
+doubt by a strict inquiry into his relations with the murdered woman."
+
+"They are known," returned Mr. Ferris, with grim reserve. "They were
+such as any man might hold with the woman at whose house he finds it
+convenient to take his daily dinner. She was to him the provider of a
+good meal."
+
+Mr. Gryce's eye travelled slowly toward Mr. Ferris' shirt stud.
+
+"Gentlemen," said he, "do you forget that Mr. Orcutt was on the scene of
+murder some minutes before the rest of you arrived? Let the attention of
+people once be directed toward him as a suspicious party, and they will
+be likely to remember this fact."
+
+Astounded, both men drew back.
+
+"What do you mean by that remark?" they asked.
+
+"I mean," said Mr. Gryce, "that Mr. Orcutt's visit to Mrs. Clemmens'
+house on the morning of the murder will be apt to be recalled by persons
+of a suspicious tendency as having given him an opportunity to commit
+the crime."
+
+"People are not such fools," cried Dr. Tredwell; while Mr. Ferris, in a
+tone of mingled incredulity and anger, exclaimed:
+
+"And do you, a reputable detective, and, as I have been told, a man of
+excellent judgment, presume to say that there could be found any one in
+this town, or even in this country, who could let his suspicions carry
+him so far as to hint that Mr. Orcutt struck this woman with his own
+hand in the minute or two that elapsed between his going into her house
+and his coming out again with tidings of her death?"
+
+"Those who remember that he had been a participator in the lengthy
+discussion which had just taken place on the court-house steps as to how
+a man might commit a crime without laying himself open to the risk of
+detection, might--yes, sir."
+
+Mr. Ferris and the coroner, who, whatever their doubts or fears, had
+never for an instant seriously believed the dying words of Mr. Orcutt to
+be those of confession, gazed in consternation at the detective, and
+finally inquired:
+
+"Do you realize what you are saying?"
+
+Mr. Gryce drew a deep breath, and shifted his gaze to the next stud in
+Mr. Ferris' shirt-front.
+
+"I have never been accused of speaking lightly," he remarked. Then, with
+quiet insistence, asked: "Where was Mrs. Clemmens believed to get the
+money she lived on?"
+
+"It is not known," rejoined the District Attorney.
+
+"Yet she left a nice little sum behind her?"
+
+"Five thousand dollars," declared the coroner.
+
+"Strange that, in a town like this, no one should know where it came
+from?" suggested the detective.
+
+The two gentlemen were silent.
+
+"It was a good deal to come from Mr. Orcutt in payment of a single meal
+a day!" continued Mr. Gryce.
+
+"No one has ever supposed it did come from Mr. Orcutt," remarked Mr.
+Ferris, with some severity.
+
+"But does any one know it did not?" ventured the detective.
+
+Dr. Tredwell and the District Attorney looked at each other, but did not
+reply.
+
+"Gentlemen," pursued Mr. Gryce, after a moment of quiet waiting, "this
+is without exception the most serious moment of my life. Never in the
+course of my experience--and that includes much--have I been placed in a
+more trying position than now. To allow one's self to doubt, much less
+to question, the integrity of so eminent a man, seems to me only less
+dreadful than it does to you; yet, for all that, were I his friend, as I
+certainly am his admirer, I would say: 'Sift this matter to the bottom;
+let us know if this great lawyer has any more in favor of his innocence
+than the other gentlemen who have been publicly accused of this crime.'"
+
+"But," protested Dr. Tredwell, seeing that the District Attorney was too
+much moved to speak, "you forget the evidences which underlay the
+accusation of these _other_ gentlemen; also that of all the persons who,
+from the day the widow was struck till now, have been in any way
+associated with suspicion, Mr. Orcutt is the only one who could have had
+no earthly motive for injuring this humble woman, even if he were all
+he would have to be to first perform such a brutal deed and then carry
+out his hypocrisy to the point of using his skill as a criminal lawyer
+to defend another man falsely accused of the crime."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," said the detective, "but I forget nothing. I
+only bring to the consideration of this subject a totally unprejudiced
+mind and an experience which has taught me never to omit testing the
+truth of a charge because it seems at first blush false, preposterous,
+and without visible foundation. If you will recall the conversation to
+which I have just alluded as having been held on the court-house steps
+on the morning Mrs. Clemmens was murdered, you will remember that it was
+the intellectual crime that was discussed--the crime of an intelligent
+man, safe in the knowledge that his motive for doing such a deed was a
+secret to the world."
+
+"My God!" exclaimed Mr. Ferris, under his breath, "the man seems to be
+in earnest!"
+
+"Gentlemen," pursued Mr. Gryce, with more dignity than he had hitherto
+seen fit to assume, "it is not my usual practice to express myself as
+openly as I have done here to-day. In all ordinary cases I consider it
+expedient to reserve intact my suspicions and my doubts till I have
+completed my discoveries and arranged my arguments so as to bear out
+with some show of reason whatever statement I may feel obliged to make.
+But the extraordinary features of this affair, and the fact that so
+many were present at the scene we have just left, have caused me to
+change my usual tactics. Though far from ready to say that Mr. Orcutt's
+words were those of confession, I still see much reason to doubt his
+innocence, and, feeling thus, am quite willing you should know it in
+time to prepare for the worst."
+
+"Then you propose making what has occurred here public?" asked Mr.
+Ferris, with emotion.
+
+"Not so," was the detective's ready reply. "On the contrary, I was about
+to suggest that you did something more than lay a command of silence
+upon those who were present."
+
+The District Attorney, who, as he afterward said, felt as if he were
+laboring under some oppressive nightmare, turned to the coroner and
+said:
+
+"Dr. Tredwell, what do you advise me to do? Terrible as this shock has
+been, and serious as is the duty it possibly involves, I have never
+allowed myself to shrink from doing what was right simply because it
+afforded suffering to myself or indignity to my friends. Do you think I
+am called upon to pursue this matter?"
+
+The coroner, troubled, anxious, and nearly as much overwhelmed as the
+District Attorney, did not immediately reply. Indeed, the situation was
+one to upset any man of whatever calibre. Finally he turned to Mr.
+Gryce.
+
+"Mr. Gryce," said he, "we are, as you have observed, friends of the
+dying man, and, being so, may miss our duty in our sympathy. What do you
+think ought to be done, in justice to him, the prisoner, and the
+positions which we both occupy?"
+
+"Well, sirs," rejoined Mr. Gryce, "it is not usual, perhaps, for a man
+in my position to offer actual advice to gentlemen in yours; but if you
+wish to know what course I should pursue if I were in your places, I
+should say: First, require the witnesses still lingering around the
+dying man to promise that they will not divulge what was there said till
+a week has fully elapsed; next, adjourn the case now before the court
+for the same decent length of time; and, lastly, trust me and the two
+men you have hitherto employed, to find out if there is any thing in Mr.
+Orcutt's past history of a nature to make you tremble if the world hears
+of the words which escaped him on his death-bed. We shall probably need
+but a week."
+
+"And Miss Dare?"
+
+"Has already promised secrecy."
+
+There was nothing in all this to alarm their fears; every thing, on the
+contrary, to allay them.
+
+The coroner gave a nod of approval to Mr. Ferris, and both signified
+their acquiescence in the measures proposed.
+
+Mr. Gryce at once assumed his usual genial air.
+
+"You may trust me," said he, "to exercise all the discretion you would
+yourselves show under the circumstances. I have no wish to see the name
+of such a man blasted by an ineffaceable stain." And he bowed as if
+about to leave the room.
+
+But Mr. Ferris, who had observed this movement with an air of some
+uneasiness, suddenly stepped forward and stopped him.
+
+"I wish to ask," said he, "whether superstition has had any thing to do
+with this readiness on your part to impute the worst meaning to the
+chance phrases which have fallen from the lips of our severely injured
+friend. Because his end seems in some regards to mirror that of the
+widow, have you allowed a remembrance of the words she made use of in
+the face of death to influence your good judgment as to the identity of
+Mr. Orcutt with her assassin?"
+
+The face of Mr. Gryce assumed its grimmest aspect.
+
+"Do you think this catastrophe was necessary to draw my attention to Mr.
+Orcutt? To a man acquainted with the extraordinary coincidence that
+marked the discovery of Mrs. Clemmens' murder, the mystery must be that
+Mr. Orcutt has gone unsuspected for so long." And assuming an
+argumentative air, he asked:
+
+"Were either of you two gentlemen present at the conversation I have
+mentioned as taking place on the court-house steps the morning Mrs.
+Clemmens was murdered?"
+
+"I was," said the District Attorney.
+
+"You remember, then, the hunchback who was so free with his views?"
+
+"Most certainly."
+
+"And know, perhaps, who that hunchback was?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You will not be surprised, then, if I recall to you the special
+incidents of that hour. A group of lawyers, among them Mr. Orcutt, are
+amusing themselves with an off-hand chat concerning criminals and the
+clumsy way in which, as a rule, they plan and execute their crimes. All
+seem to agree that a murder is usually followed by detection, when
+suddenly a stranger speaks and tells them that the true way to make a
+success of the crime is to choose a thoroughfare for the scene of
+tragedy, and employ a weapon that has been picked up on the spot. What
+happens? Within five minutes after this piece of gratuitous information,
+or as soon as Mr. Orcutt can cross the street, Mrs. Clemmens is found
+lying in her blood, struck down by a stick of wood picked up from her
+own hearth-stone. Is this chance? If so, 'tis a very curious one."
+
+"I don't deny it," said Doctor Tredwell.
+
+"I believe you never did deny it," quickly retorted the detective. "Am I
+not right in saying that it struck you so forcibly at the time as to
+lead you into supposing some collusion between the hunchback and the
+murderer?"
+
+"It certainly did," admitted the coroner.
+
+"Very well," proceeded Mr. Gryce. "Now as there could have been no
+collusion between these parties, the hunchback being no other person
+than myself, what are we to think of this murder? That it was a
+coincidence, or an actual result of the hunchback's words?"
+
+Dr. Tredwell and Mr. Ferris were both silent.
+
+"Sirs," continued Mr. Gryce, feeling, perhaps, that perfect openness was
+necessary in order to win entire confidence, "I am not given to boasting
+or to a too-free expression of my opinion, but if I had been ignorant of
+this affair, and one of my men had come to me and said: 'A mysterious
+murder has just taken place, marked by this extraordinary feature, that
+it is a precise reproduction of a supposable case of crime which has
+just been discussed by a group of indifferent persons in the public
+street,' and then had asked me where to look for the assassin, I should
+have said: 'Search for that man who heard the discussion through, was
+among the first to leave the group, and was the first to show himself
+upon the scene of murder.' To be sure, when Byrd did come to me with
+this story, I was silent, for the man who fulfilled these conditions was
+Mr. Orcutt."
+
+"Then," said Mr. Ferris, "you mean to say that you would have suspected
+Mr. Orcutt of this crime long ago if he had not been a man of such
+position and eminence?"
+
+"Undoubtedly," was Mr. Gryce's reply.
+
+If the expression was unequivocal, his air was still more so. Shocked
+and disturbed, both gentlemen fell back. The detective at once advanced
+and opened the door.
+
+It was time. Mr. Byrd had been tapping upon it for some minutes, and now
+hastily came in. His face told the nature of his errand before he
+spoke.
+
+"I am sorry to be obliged to inform you----" he began.
+
+"Mr. Orcutt is dead?" quickly interposed Mr. Ferris.
+
+The young detective solemnly bowed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+IN THE PRISON.
+
+          The jury passing on the prisoner's life,
+          May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two
+          Guiltier than him they try.
+                    --MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
+
+          Such welcome and unwelcome things at once
+          'Tis hard to reconcile.          --MACBETH.
+
+
+MR. MANSELL sat in his cell, the prey of gloomy and perturbed thought.
+He knew Mr. Orcutt was dead; he had been told of it early in the morning
+by his jailer, but of the circumstances which attended that death he
+knew nothing, save that the lawyer had been struck by a limb falling
+from a tree in his own garden.
+
+The few moments during which the court had met for the purpose of
+re-adjournment had added but little to his enlightenment. A marked
+reserve had characterized the whole proceedings; and though an
+indefinable instinct had told him that in some mysterious way his cause
+had been helped rather than injured by this calamity to his counsel, he
+found no one ready to volunteer those explanations which his great
+interest in the matter certainly demanded. The hour, therefore, which he
+spent in solitude upon his return to prison was one of great anxiety,
+and it was quite a welcome relief when the cell door opened and the
+keeper ushered in a strange gentleman. Supposing it to be the new
+counsel he had chosen at haphazard from a list of names that had been
+offered him, Mr. Mansell rose. But a second glance assured him he had
+made a mistake in supposing this person to be a lawyer, and stepping
+back he awaited his approach with mingled curiosity and reserve.
+
+The stranger, who seemed to be perfectly at home in the narrow quarters
+in which he found himself, advanced with a frank air.
+
+"My name is Gryce," said he, "and I am a detective. The District
+Attorney, who, as you know, has been placed in a very embarrassing
+situation by the events of the last two days, has accepted my services
+in connection with those of the two men already employed by him, in the
+hope that my greater experience may assist him in determining which, of
+all the persons who have been accused, or who have accused themselves,
+of murdering Mrs. Clemmens, is the actual perpetrator of that deed. Do
+you require any further assurance of my being in the confidence of Mr.
+Ferris than the fact that I am here, and in full liberty to talk with
+you?"
+
+"No," returned the other, after a short but close study of his visitor.
+
+"Very well, then," continued the detective, with a comfortable air of
+ease, "I will speak to the point; and the first thing I will say is,
+that upon looking at the evidence against you, and hearing what I have
+heard from various sources since I came to town, I know you are not the
+man who killed Mrs. Clemmens. To be sure, you have declined to explain
+certain points, but I think you can explain them, and if you will only
+inform me----"
+
+"Pardon me," interrupted Mr. Mansell, gravely; "but you say you are a
+detective. Now, I have no information to give a detective."
+
+"Are you sure?" was the imperturbable query.
+
+"Quite," was the quick reply.
+
+"You are then determined upon going to the scaffold, whether or no?"
+remarked Mr. Gryce, somewhat grimly.
+
+"Yes, if to escape it I must confide in a detective."
+
+"Then you do wrong," declared the other; "as I will immediately proceed
+to show you. Mr. Mansell, you are, of course, aware of the manner of Mr.
+Orcutt's death?"
+
+"I know he was struck by a falling limb."
+
+"Do you know what he was doing when this occurred?"
+
+"No."
+
+"He was escorting Miss Dare down to the gate."
+
+The prisoner, whose countenance had brightened at the mention of his
+lawyer, turned a deadly white at this.
+
+"And--and was Miss Dare hurt?" he asked.
+
+The detective shook his head.
+
+"Then why do you tell me this?"
+
+"Because it has much to do with the occasion of my coming here, Mr.
+Mansell," proceeded Mr. Gryce, in that tone of completely understanding
+himself which he knew so well how to assume with men of the prisoner's
+stamp. "I am going to speak to you without circumlocution or disguise. I
+am going to put your position before you just as it is. You are on trial
+for a murder of which not only yourself, but another man, was suspected.
+Why are you on trial instead of him? Because you were reticent in regard
+to certain matters which common-sense would say you ought to be able to
+explain. Why were you reticent? There can be but one answer. Because you
+feared to implicate another person, for whose happiness and honor you
+had more regard than for your own. Who was that other person? The woman
+who stood up in court yesterday and declared she had herself committed
+this crime. What is the conclusion? You believe, and have always
+believed, Miss Dare to be the assassin of Mrs. Clemmens."
+
+The prisoner, whose pallor had increased with every word the detective
+uttered, leaped to his feet at this last sentence.
+
+"You have no right to say that!" he vehemently asseverated. "What do you
+know of my thoughts or my beliefs? Do I carry my convictions on my
+sleeve? I am not the man to betray my ideas or feelings to the world."
+
+Mr. Gryce smiled. To be sure, this expression of silent complacency was
+directed to the grating of the window overhead, but it was none the less
+effectual on that account. Mr. Mansell, despite his self-command, began
+to look uneasy.
+
+"Prove your words!" he cried. "Show that these have been my
+convictions!"
+
+"Very well," returned Mr. Gryce. "Why were you so long silent about the
+ring? Because you did not wish to compromise Miss Dare by declaring she
+did not return it to you, as she had said. Why did you try to stop her
+in the midst of her testimony yesterday? Because you saw it was going to
+end in confession. Finally, why did you throw aside your defence, and
+instead of proclaiming yourself guilty, simply tell how you were able to
+reach Monteith Quarry Station in ninety minutes? Because you feared her
+guilt would be confirmed if her statements were investigated, and were
+willing to sacrifice every thing but the truth in order to save her."
+
+"You give me credit for a great deal of generosity," coldly replied the
+prisoner. "After the evidence brought against me by the prosecution, I
+should think my guilt would be accepted as proved the moment I showed
+that I had not left Mrs. Clemmens' house at the time she was believed to
+be murdered."
+
+"And so it would," responded Mr. Gryce, "if the prosecution had not seen
+reason to believe that the moment of Mrs. Clemmens' death has been put
+too early. We now think she was not struck till some time after twelve,
+instead of five minutes before."
+
+"Indeed?" said Mr. Mansell, with stern self-control.
+
+Mr. Gryce, whose carelessly roving eye told little of the close study
+with which he was honoring the man before him, nodded with grave
+decision.
+
+"You could add very much to our convictions on this point," he observed,
+"by telling what it was you saw or heard in Mrs. Clemmens' house at the
+moment you fled from it so abruptly."
+
+"How do you know I fled from it abruptly?"
+
+"You were seen. The fact has not appeared in court, but a witness we
+might name perceived you flying from your aunt's door to the swamp as if
+your life depended upon the speed you made."
+
+"And with that fact added to all the rest you have against me, you say
+you believe me innocent?" exclaimed Mr. Mansell.
+
+"Yes; for I have also said I believe Mrs. Clemmens not to have been
+assaulted till after the hour of noon. You fled from the door at
+precisely five minutes before it."
+
+The uneasiness of Mr. Mansell's face increased, till it amounted to
+agitation.
+
+"And may I ask," said he, "what has happened to make you believe she was
+not struck at the moment hitherto supposed?"
+
+"Ah, now," replied the detective, "we come down to facts." And leaning
+with a confidential air toward the prisoner, he quietly said: "Your
+counsel has died, for one thing."
+
+Astonished as much by the tone as the tenor of these words, Mr. Mansell
+drew back from his visitor in some distrust. Seeing it, Mr. Gryce edged
+still farther forward, and calmly continued:
+
+"If no one has told you the particulars of Mr. Orcutt's death, you
+probably do not know why Miss Dare was at his house last evening?"
+
+The look of the prisoner was sufficient reply.
+
+"She went there," resumed Mr. Gryce, with composure, "to tell him that
+her whole evidence against you had been given under the belief that you
+were guilty of the crime with which you had been charged; that by a
+trick of my fellow-detectives, Hickory and Byrd, she had been deceived
+into thinking you had actually admitted your guilt to her; and that she
+had only been undeceived after she had uttered the perjury with which
+she sought to save you yesterday morning."
+
+"Perjury?" escaped involuntarily from Craik Mansell's lips.
+
+"Yes," repeated the detective, "perjury. Miss Dare lied when she said
+she had been to Mrs. Clemmens' cottage on the morning of the murder. She
+was not there, nor did she lift her hand against the widow's life. That
+tale she told to escape telling another which she thought would insure
+your doom."
+
+"You have been talking to Miss Dare?" suggested the prisoner, with
+subdued sarcasm.
+
+"I have been talking to my two men," was the unmoved retort, "to Hickory
+and to Byrd, and they not only confirm this statement of hers in regard
+to the deception they played upon her, but say enough to show she could
+not have been guilty of the crime, because at that time she honestly
+believed you to be so."
+
+"I do not understand you," cried the prisoner, in a voice that, despite
+his marked self-control, showed the presence of genuine emotion.
+
+Mr. Gryce at once went into particulars. He was anxious to have Craik
+Mansell's mind disabused of the notion that Imogene had committed this
+crime, since upon that notion he believed his unfortunate reticence to
+rest. He therefore gave him a full relation of the scene in the hut,
+together with all its consequences.
+
+Mr. Mansell listened like a man in a dream. Some fact in the past
+evidently made this story incredible to him.
+
+Seeing it, Mr. Gryce did not wait to hear his comments, but upon
+finishing his account, exclaimed, with a confident air:
+
+"Such testimony is conclusive. It is impossible to consider Miss Dare
+guilty, after an insight of this kind into the real state of her mind.
+Even she has seen the uselessness of persisting in her self-accusation,
+and, as I have already told you, went to Mr. Orcutt's house in order to
+explain to him her past conduct, and ask his advice for the future. She
+learned something else before her interview with Mr. Orcutt ended,"
+continued the detective, impressively. "She learned that she had not
+only been mistaken in supposing you had admitted your guilt, but that
+you could not have been guilty, because you had always believed her to
+be so. It has been a mutual case of suspicion, you see, and argues
+innocence on the part of you both. Or so it seems to the prosecution.
+How does it seem to you?"
+
+"Would it help my cause to say?"
+
+"It would help your cause to tell what sent you so abruptly from Mrs.
+Clemmens' house the morning she was murdered."
+
+"I do not see how," returned the prisoner.
+
+The glance of Mr. Gryce settled confidentially on his right hand where
+it lay outspread upon his ample knee.
+
+"Mr. Mansell," he inquired, "have you no curiosity to know any details
+of the accident by which you have unexpectedly been deprived of a
+counsel?"
+
+Evidently surprised at this sudden change of subject, Craik replied:
+
+"If I had not hoped you would understand my anxiety and presently
+relieve it, I could not have shown you as much patience as I have."
+
+"Very well," rejoined Mr. Gryce, altering his manner with a suddenness
+that evidently alarmed his listener. "Mr. Orcutt did not die immediately
+after he was struck down. He lived some hours; lived to say some words
+that have materially changed the suspicions of persons interested in the
+case he was defending."
+
+"Mr. Orcutt?"
+
+The tone was one of surprise. Mr. Gryce's little finger seemed to take
+note of it, for it tapped the leg beneath it in quite an emphatic manner
+as he continued: "It was in answer to a question put to him by Miss
+Dare. To the surprise of every one, she had not left him from the moment
+they were mutually relieved from the weight of the fallen limb, but had
+stood over him for hours, watching for him to rouse from his
+insensibility. When he did, she appealed to him in a way that showed she
+expected a reply, to tell her who it was that killed the Widow
+Clemmens."
+
+"And did Mr. Orcutt know?" was Mansell's half-agitated, half-incredulous
+query.
+
+"His answer seemed to show that he did. Mr. Mansell, have you ever had
+any doubts of Mr. Orcutt?"
+
+"Doubts?"
+
+"Doubts as to his integrity, good-heartedness, or desire to serve you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You will, then, be greatly surprised," Mr. Gryce went on, with
+increased gravity, "when I tell you that Mr. Orcutt's reply to Miss
+Dare's question was such as to draw attention to himself as the assassin
+of Widow Clemmens, and that his words and the circumstances under which
+they were uttered have so impressed Mr. Ferris, that the question now
+agitating his mind is not, 'Is Craik Mansell innocent, but was his
+counsel, Tremont Orcutt, guilty?'"
+
+The excited look which had appeared on the face of Mansell at the
+beginning of this speech, changed to one of strong disgust.
+
+"This is too much!" he cried. "I am not a fool to be caught by any such
+make-believe as this! Mr. Orcutt thought to be an assassin? You might as
+well say that people accuse Judge Evans of killing the Widow Clemmens."
+
+Mr. Gryce, who had perhaps stretched a point when he so unequivocally
+declared his complete confidence in the innocence of the man before him,
+tapped his leg quite affectionately at this burst of natural
+indignation, and counted off another point in favor of the prisoner. His
+words, however, were dry as sarcasm could make them.
+
+"No," said he, "for people know that Judge Evans was without the
+opportunity for committing this murder, while every one remembers how
+Mr. Orcutt went to the widow's house and came out again with tidings of
+her death."
+
+The prisoner's lip curled disdainfully.
+
+"And do you expect me to believe you regard this as a groundwork for
+suspicion? I should have given you credit for more penetration, sir."
+
+"Then you do not think Mr. Orcutt knew what he was saying when, in
+answer to Miss Dare's appeal for him to tell who the murderer was, he
+answered: 'Blood will have blood!' and drew attention to his own violent
+end?"
+
+"Did Mr. Orcutt say that?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"Very well, a man whose whole mind has for some time been engrossed with
+defending another man accused of murder, might say any thing while in a
+state of delirium."
+
+Mr. Gryce uttered his favorite "Humph!" and gave his leg another pat,
+but added, gravely enough: "Miss Dare believes his words to be those of
+confession."
+
+"You say Miss Dare once believed me to have confessed."
+
+"But," persisted the detective, "Miss Dare is not alone in her opinion.
+Men in whose judgment you must rely, find it difficult to explain the
+words of Mr. Orcutt by means of any other theory than that he is himself
+the perpetrator of that crime for which you are yourself being tried."
+
+"I find it difficult to believe that possible," quietly returned the
+prisoner. "What!" he suddenly exclaimed; "suspect a man of Mr. Orcutt's
+abilities and standing of a hideous crime--the very crime, too, with
+which his client is charged, and in defence of whom he has brought all
+his skill to bear! The idea is preposterous, unheard of!"
+
+"I acknowledge that," dryly assented Mr. Gryce; "but it has been my
+experience to find that it is the preposterous things which happen."
+
+For a minute the prisoner stared at the speaker incredulously; then he
+cried:
+
+"You really appear to be in earnest."
+
+"I was never more so in my life," was Mr. Gryce's rejoinder.
+
+Drawing back, Craik Mansell looked at the detective with an emotion that
+had almost the character of hope. Presently he said:
+
+"If you do distrust Mr. Orcutt, you must have weightier reasons for it
+than any you have given me. What are they? You must be willing I should
+know, or you would not have gone as far with me as you have."
+
+"You are right," Gryce assured him. "A case so complicated as this calls
+for unusual measures. Mr. Ferris, feeling the gravity of his position,
+allows me to take you into our confidence, in the hope that you will be
+able to help us out of our difficulty."
+
+"I help you! You'd better release me first."
+
+"That will come in time."
+
+"_If_ I help you?"
+
+"Whether you help or not, if we can satisfy ourselves and the world that
+Mr. Orcutt's words were a confession. You may hasten that conviction."
+
+"How?"
+
+"By clearing up the mystery of your flight from Mrs. Clemmens' house."
+
+The keen eyes of the prisoner fell; all his old distrust seemed on the
+point of returning.
+
+"That would not help you at all," said he.
+
+"_I_ should like to be the judge," said Mr. Gryce.
+
+The prisoner shook his head.
+
+"My word must go for it," said he.
+
+The detective had been the hero of too many such scenes to be easily
+discouraged. Bowing as if accepting this conclusion from the prisoner,
+he quietly proceeded with the recital he had planned. With a frankness
+certainly unusual to him, he gave the prisoner a full account of Mr.
+Orcutt's last hours, and the interview which had followed between
+himself and Miss Dare. To this he added his own reasons for doubting the
+lawyer, and, while admitting he saw no motive for the deed, gave it as
+his serious opinion, that the motive would be found if once he could get
+at the secret of Mr. Orcutt's real connection with the deceased. He was
+so eloquent, and so manifestly in earnest, Mr. Mansell's eye brightened
+in spite of himself, and when the detective ceased he looked up with an
+expression which convinced Mr. Gryce that half the battle was won. He
+accordingly said, in a tone of great confidence:
+
+"A knowledge of what went on in Mrs. Clemmens' house before he went to
+it would be of great help to us. With that for a start, all may be
+learned. I therefore put it to you for the last time whether it would
+not be best for you to explain yourself on this point. I am sure you
+will not regret it."
+
+"Sir," said Mansell, with undisturbed composure, "if your purpose is to
+fix this crime on Mr. Orcutt, I must insist upon your taking my word
+that I have no information to give you that can in any way affect him."
+
+"You could give us information, then, that would affect Miss Dare?" was
+the quick retort. "Now, I say," the astute detective declared, as the
+prisoner gave an almost imperceptible start, "that whatever your
+information is, Miss Dare is not guilty."
+
+"You say it!" exclaimed the prisoner. "What does your opinion amount to
+if you haven't heard the evidence against her?"
+
+"There is no evidence against her but what is purely circumstantial."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"Because she is innocent. Circumstantial evidence may exist alike
+against the innocent and the guilty; real evidence only against the
+guilty. I mean to say that as I am firmly convinced Miss Dare once
+regarded you as guilty of this crime, I must be equally convinced she
+didn't commit it herself. This is unanswerable."
+
+"You have stated that before."
+
+"I know it; but I want you to see the force of it; because, once
+convinced with me that Miss Dare is innocent, you will be willing to
+tell all you know, even what apparently implicates her."
+
+Silence answered this remark.
+
+"You didn't _see_ her strike the blow?"
+
+Mansell roused indignantly.
+
+"No, of course not!" he cried.
+
+"You did not see her with your aunt that moment you fled from the house
+immediately before the murder!"
+
+"I didn't _see_ her."
+
+That emphasis, unconscious, perhaps, was fatal. Gryce, who never lost
+any thing, darted on this small gleam of advantage as a hungry pike
+darts upon an innocent minnow.
+
+"But you thought you heard her," he cried; "her voice, or her laugh, or
+perhaps merely the rustle of her dress in another room?"
+
+"No," said Mansell, "I didn't _hear_ her."
+
+"Of course not," was the instantaneous reply. "But something said or
+done by somebody--a something which amounts to nothing as
+evidence--gives you to understand she was there, and so you hold your
+tongue for fear of compromising her."
+
+"Amounts to nothing as evidence?" echoed Mansell. "How do you know
+that?"
+
+"Because Miss Dare was not in the house with your aunt at that time.
+Miss Dare was in Professor Darling's observatory, a mile or so away."
+
+"Does she say that?"
+
+"We will _prove_ that."
+
+Aroused, excited, the prisoner turned his flashing blue eyes on the
+detective.
+
+"I should be glad to have you," he said.
+
+"But you must first tell me in what room you were when you received this
+intimation of Miss Dare's presence?"
+
+"I was in no room; I was on the stone step outside of the dining-room
+door. I did not go into the house at all that morning, as I believe I
+have already told Mr. Ferris."
+
+"_Very_ good! It will all be simpler than I thought. You came up to the
+house and went away again without coming in; ran away, I may say, taking
+the direction of the swamp."
+
+The prisoner did not deny it.
+
+"You remember all the incidents of that short flight?"
+
+The prisoner's lip curled.
+
+"Remember leaping the fence and stumbling a trifle when you came down?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Very well; now tell me how could Miss Dare see you do that from Mrs.
+Clemmens' house?"
+
+"Did Miss Dare tell you she saw me trip after I jumped the fence?"
+
+"She did."
+
+"And yet was in Professor Darling's observatory, a mile or so away?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+A satirical laugh broke from the prisoner.
+
+"I think," said he, "that instead of my telling you how she could have
+seen this from Mrs. Clemmens' house, you should tell me how she could
+have seen it from Professor Darling's observatory."
+
+"That is easy enough. She was looking through a telescope."
+
+"What?"
+
+"At the moment you were turning from Mrs. Clemmens' door, Miss Dare,
+perched in the top of Professor Darling's house, was looking in that
+very direction through a telescope."
+
+"I--I would like to believe that story," said the prisoner, with
+suppressed emotion. "It would----"
+
+"What?" urged the detective, calmly.
+
+"Make a new man of me," finished Mansell, with a momentary burst of
+feeling.
+
+"Well, then, call up your memories of the way your aunt's house is
+situated. Recall the hour, and acknowledge that, if Miss Dare was with
+her, she must have been in the dining-room."
+
+"There is no doubt about that."
+
+"Now, how many windows has the dining-room?"
+
+"One."
+
+"How situated?"
+
+"It is on the same side as the door."
+
+"There is none, then, which looks down to that place where you leaped
+the fence?"
+
+"No."
+
+"How account for her seeing that little incident, then, of your
+stumbling?"
+
+"She might have come to the door, stepped out, and so seen me."
+
+"Humph! I see you have an answer for every thing."
+
+Craik Mansell was silent.
+
+A look of admiration slowly spread itself over the detective's face.
+
+"We must probe the matter a little deeper," said he. "I see I have a
+hard head to deal with." And, bringing his glance a little nearer to the
+prisoner, he remarked:
+
+"If she had been standing there you could not have turned round without
+seeing her?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Now, did you see her standing there?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Yet you turned round?"
+
+"I did?"
+
+"Miss Dare says so."
+
+The prisoner struck his forehead with his hand.
+
+"And it _is_ so," he cried. "I remember now that some vague desire to
+know the time made me turn to look at the church clock. Go on. Tell me
+more that Miss Dare saw."
+
+His manner was so changed--his eye burned so brightly--the detective
+gave himself a tap of decided self-gratulation.
+
+"She saw you hurry over the bog, stop at the entrance of the wood, take
+a look at your watch, and plunge with renewed speed into the forest."
+
+"It is so. It is so. And, to have seen that, she must have had the aid
+of a telescope."
+
+"Then she describes your appearance. She says you had your pants turned
+up at the ankles, and carried your coat on your left arm."
+
+"_Left_ arm?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I think I had it on my right."
+
+"It was on the arm toward her, she declares. If she was in the
+observatory, it was your left side that she saw."
+
+"Yes, yes; but the coat was over the other arm. I remember using my left
+hand in vaulting over the fence when I came up to the house."
+
+"It is a vital point," said Mr. Gryce, with a quietness that concealed
+his real anxiety and chagrin. "If the coat was on the arm _toward_ her,
+the fact of its being on the right----"
+
+"Wait!" exclaimed Mr. Mansell, with an air of sudden relief. "I
+recollect now that I changed it from one arm to the other after I
+vaulted the fence. It was just at the moment I turned to come back to
+the side door, and, as she does not pretend to have seen me till after I
+left the door, of course the coat was, as she says, on my left arm."
+
+"I thought you could explain it," returned Mr. Gryce, with an air of
+easy confidence. "But what do you mean when you say that you changed it
+at the moment you turned to come back to the side door? Didn't you go at
+once to the dining-room door from the swamp?"
+
+"No. I had gone to the front door on my former visit, and was going to
+it this time; but when I got to the corner of the house I saw the tramp
+coming into the gate, and not wishing to encounter any one, turned round
+and came back to the dining-room door."
+
+"I see. And it was then you heard----"
+
+"What I heard," completed the prisoner, grimly.
+
+"Mr. Mansell," said the other, "are you not sufficiently convinced by
+this time that Miss Dare was not with Mrs. Clemmens, but in the
+observatory of Professor Darling's house, to tell me what that was?"
+
+"Answer me a question and I will reply. Can the entrance of the woods be
+seen from the position which she declares herself to have occupied?"
+
+"It can. Not two hours ago I tried the experiment myself, using the same
+telescope and kneeling in the same place where she did. I found I could
+not only trace the spot where you paused, but could detect quite readily
+every movement of my man Hickory, whom I had previously placed there to
+go through the motions. I should not have come here if I had not made
+myself certain on that point."
+
+Yet the prisoner hesitated.
+
+"I not only made myself sure of that," resumed Mr. Gryce, "but I also
+tried if I could see as much with my naked eye from Mrs. Clemmens' side
+door. I found I could not, and my sight is very good."
+
+"Enough," said Mansell; "hard as it is to explain, I must believe Miss
+Dare was not where I thought her."
+
+"Then you will tell me what you heard?"
+
+"Yes; for in it may lie the key to this mystery, though how, I cannot
+see, and doubt if you can. I am all the more ready to do it," he
+pursued, "because I can now understand how she came to think me guilty,
+and, thinking so, conducted herself as she has done from the beginning
+of my trial. All but the fact of her denouncing herself yesterday; that
+I cannot comprehend."
+
+"A woman in love can do any thing," quoth Mr. Gryce. Then admonished by
+the flush of the prisoner's cheek that he was treading on dangerous
+ground, he quickly added: "But she will explain all that herself some
+day. Let us hear what you have to tell me."
+
+Craik Mansell drooped his head and his brow became gloomy.
+
+"Sir," said he, "it is unnecessary for me to state that your surmise in
+regard to my past convictions is true. If Miss Dare was not with my aunt
+just before the murder, I certainly had reasons for thinking she was. To
+be sure, I did not see her or hear her voice, but I heard my aunt
+address her distinctly and by name."
+
+"You did?" Mr. Gryce's interest in the tattoo he was playing on his knee
+became intense.
+
+"Yes. It was just as I pushed the door ajar. The words were these: 'You
+think you are going to marry him, Imogene Dare; but I tell you you
+_never shall_, not while _I_ live.'"
+
+"Humph!" broke involuntarily from the detective's lips, and, though his
+face betrayed nothing of the shock this communication occasioned him,
+his fingers stopped an instant in their restless play.
+
+Mr. Mansell saw it and cast him an anxious look. The detective instantly
+smiled with great unconcern. "Go on," said he, "what else did you hear?"
+
+"Nothing else. In the mood in which I was this very plain intimation
+that Miss Dare had sought my aunt, had pleaded with her for me and
+failed, struck me as sufficient. I did not wait to hear more, but
+hurried away in a state of passion that was little short of frenzy. To
+leave the place and return to my work was now my one wish. When I found,
+then, that by running I might catch the train at Monteith, I ran, and so
+unconsciously laid myself open to suspicion."
+
+"I see," murmured the detective; "I see."
+
+"Not that I suspected any evil then," pursued Mr. Mansell, earnestly. "I
+was only conscious of disappointment and a desire to escape from my own
+thoughts. It was not till next day----"
+
+"Yes--yes," interrupted Mr. Gryce, abstractedly, "but your aunt's words!
+She said: 'You think you are going to marry him, Imogene Dare; but you
+never shall, not while I live.' Yet Imogene Dare was not there. Let us
+solve that problem."
+
+"You think you can?"
+
+"I think I must."
+
+"How? how?"
+
+The detective did not answer. He was buried in profound thought.
+Suddenly he exclaimed:
+
+"It is, as you say, the key-note to the tragedy. It must be solved." But
+the glance he dived deep into space seemed to echo that "How? how?" of
+the prisoner, with a gloomy persistence that promised little for an
+immediate answer to the enigma before them. It occurred to Mansell to
+offer a suggestion.
+
+"There is but one way _I_ can explain it," said he. "My aunt was
+speaking to herself. She was deaf and lived alone. Such people often
+indulge in soliloquizing."
+
+The slap which Mr. Gryce gave his thigh must have made it tingle for a
+good half-hour.
+
+"There," he cried, "who says extraordinary measures are not useful at
+times? You've hit the very explanation. Of course she was speaking to
+herself. She was just the woman to do it. Imogene Dare was in her
+thoughts, so she addressed Imogene Dare. If you had opened the door you
+would have seen her standing there alone, venting her thoughts into
+empty space."
+
+"I wish I had," said the prisoner.
+
+Mr. Gryce became exceedingly animated. "Well, that's settled," said he.
+"Imogene Dare was not there, save in Mrs. Clemmens' imagination. And now
+for the conclusion. She said: 'You think you are going to marry him,
+Imogene Dare; but you never shall, not while I live.' That shows her
+mind was running on you."
+
+"It shows more than that. It shows that, if Miss Dare was not with her
+then, she must have been there earlier in the day. For, when I left my
+aunt the day before, she was in entire ignorance of my attachment to
+Miss Dare, and the hopes it had led to."
+
+"Say that again," cried Gryce.
+
+Mr. Mansell repeated himself, adding: "That would account for the ring
+being found on my aunt's dining-room floor----"
+
+But Mr. Gryce waved that question aside.
+
+"What I want to make sure of is that your aunt had not been informed of
+your wishes as concerned Miss Dare."
+
+"Unless Miss Dare was there in the early morning and told her herself."
+
+"There were no neighbors to betray you?"
+
+"There wasn't a neighbor who knew any thing about the matter."
+
+The detective's eye brightened till it vied in brilliancy with the stray
+gleam of sunshine which had found its way to the cell through the narrow
+grating over their heads.
+
+"A clue!" he murmured; "I have received a clue," and rose as if to
+leave.
+
+The prisoner, startled, rose also.
+
+"A clue to what?" he cried.
+
+But Mr. Gryce was not the man to answer such a question.
+
+"You shall hear soon. Enough that you have given me an idea that may
+eventually lead to the clearing up of this mystery, if not to your own
+acquittal from a false charge of murder."
+
+"And Miss Dare?"
+
+"Is under no charge, and never will be."
+
+"And Mr. Orcutt?"
+
+"Wait," said Mr. Gryce--"wait."
+
+
+
+
+XLI.
+
+A LINK SUPPLIED.
+
+          Upon his bloody finger he doth wear
+          A precious ring.
+                            --TITUS ANDRONICUS.
+
+          Make me to see it; or at the least so prove it,
+          That the probation bear no hinge nor loop
+          To hang a doubt on.
+                                     --OTHELLO.
+
+
+MR. GRYCE did not believe that Imogene Dare had visited Mrs. Clemmens
+before the assault, or, indeed, had held any communication with her.
+Therefore, when Mansell declared that he had never told his aunt of the
+attachment between himself and this young lady, the astute detective at
+once drew the conclusion that the widow had never known of that
+attachment, and consequently that the words which the prisoner had
+overheard must have referred, not to himself, as he supposed, but to
+some other man, and, if to some other man--why to the only one with whom
+Miss Dare's name was at that time associated; in other words, to Mr.
+Orcutt!
+
+Now it was not easy to measure the importance of a conclusion like this.
+For whilst there would have been nothing peculiar in this solitary
+woman, with the few thousands in the bank, boasting of her power to
+separate her nephew from the lady of his choice, there was every thing
+that was significant in her using the same language in regard to Miss
+Dare and Mr. Orcutt. Nothing but the existence of some unsuspected bond
+between herself and the great lawyer could have accounted, first, for
+her feeling on the subject of his marriage; and, secondly, for the
+threat of interference contained in her very emphatic words,--a bond
+which, while evidently not that of love, was still of a nature to give
+her control over his destiny, and make her, in spite of her lonely
+condition, the selfish and determined arbitrator of his fate.
+
+What was that bond? A secret shared between them? The knowledge on her
+part of some fact in Mr. Orcutt's past life, which, if revealed, might
+serve as an impediment to his marriage? In consideration that the great
+mystery to be solved was what motive Mr. Orcutt could have had for
+killing this woman, an answer to this question was manifestly of the
+first importance.
+
+But before proceeding to take any measures to insure one, Mr. Gryce sat
+down and seriously asked himself whether there was any known fact,
+circumstantial or otherwise, which refused to fit into the theory that
+Mr. Orcutt actually committed this crime with his own hand, and at the
+time he was seen to cross the street and enter Mrs. Clemmens' house.
+For, whereas the most complete chain of circumstantial evidence does not
+necessarily prove the suspected party to be guilty of a crime, the
+least break in it is fatal to his conviction. And Mr. Gryce wished to be
+as fair to the memory of Mr. Orcutt as he would have been to the living
+man.
+
+Beginning, therefore, with the earliest incidents of the fatal day, he
+called up, first, the letter which the widow had commenced but never
+lived to finish. It was a suggestive epistle. It was addressed to her
+most intimate friend, and showed in the few lines written a certain
+foreboding or apprehension of death remarkable under the circumstances.
+Mr. Gryce recalled one of its expressions. "There are so many," wrote
+she, "to whom my death would be more than welcome." So many! Many is a
+strong word; many means more than one, more than two; many means _three_
+at least. Now where were the three? Hildreth, of course, was one,
+Mansell might very properly be another, but who was the third? To Mr.
+Gryce, but one name suggested itself in reply. So far, then, his theory
+stood firm. Now what was the next fact known? The milkman stopped with
+his milk; that was at half-past eleven. He had to wait a few minutes,
+from which it was concluded she was up-stairs when he rapped. Was it at
+this time she was interrupted in her letter-writing? If so, she probably
+did not go back to it, for when Mr. Hildreth called, some fifteen
+minutes later, she was on the spot to open the door. Their interview was
+short; it was also stormy. Medicine was the last thing she stood in need
+of; besides, her mind was evidently preoccupied. Showing him the door,
+she goes back to her work, and, being deaf, does not notice that he does
+not leave the house as she expected. Consequently her thoughts go on
+unhindered, and, her condition being one of anger, she mutters aloud and
+bitterly to herself as she flits from dining-room to kitchen in her
+labor of serving up her dinner. The words she made use of have been
+overheard, and here another point appears. For, whereas her temper must
+have been disturbed by the demand which had been made upon her the day
+before by her favorite relative and heir, her expressions of wrath at
+this moment were not levelled against him, but against a young lady who
+is said to have been a stranger to her, her language being: "You think
+you are going to marry him, Imogene Dare; but I tell you you never
+shall, not while I live." Her chief grievance, then, and the one thing
+uppermost in her thoughts, even at a time when she felt that there were
+many who desired her death, lay in this fact that a young and beautiful
+woman had manifested, as she supposed, a wish to marry Mr. Orcutt, the
+word _him_ which she had used, necessarily referring to the lawyer, as
+she knew nothing of Imogene's passion for her nephew.
+
+But this is not the only point into which it is necessary to inquire.
+For to believe Mr. Orcutt guilty of this crime one must also believe
+that all the other persons who had been accused of it were truthful in
+the explanations which they gave of the events which had seemingly
+connected them with it. Now, were they? Take the occurrences of that
+critical moment when the clock stood at five minutes to twelve. If Mr.
+Hildreth is to be believed, he was at that instant in the widow's front
+hall musing on his disappointment and arranging his plans for the
+future; the tramp, if those who profess to have watched him are to be
+believed, was on the kitchen portico; Craik Mansell on the dining-room
+door-step; Imogene Dare before her telescope in Professor Darling's
+observatory. Mr. Hildreth, with two doors closed between him and the
+back of the house, knew nothing of what was said or done there, but the
+tramp heard loud talking, and Craik Mansell the actual voice of the
+widow raised in words which were calculated to mislead him into thinking
+she was engaged in angry altercation with the woman he loved. What do
+all three do, then? Mr. Hildreth remains where he is; the tramp skulks
+away through the front gate; Craik Mansell rushes back to the woods. And
+Imogene Dare? She has turned her telescope toward Mrs. Clemmens'
+cottage, and, being on the side of the dining-room door, sees the flying
+form of Craik Mansell, and marks it till it disappears from her sight.
+Is there any thing contradictory in these various statements? No. Every
+thing, on the contrary, that is reconcilable.
+
+Let us proceed then. What happens a few minutes later? Mr. Hildreth,
+tired of seclusion and anxious to catch the train, opens the front door
+and steps out. The tramp, skulking round some other back door, does not
+see him; Imogene, with her eye on Craik Mansell, now vanishing into the
+woods, does not see him; nobody sees him. He goes, and the widow for a
+short interval is as much alone as she believed herself to be a minute
+or two before when three men stood, unseen by each other, at each of the
+three doors of her house. What does she do now?
+
+Why, she finishes preparing her dinner, and then, observing that the
+clock is slow, proceeds to set it right. Fatal task! Before she has had
+an opportunity to finish it, the front door has opened again, Mr. Orcutt
+has come in, and, tempted perhaps by her defenceless position, catches
+up a stick of wood from the fireplace and, with one blow, strikes her
+down at his feet, and rushes forth again with tidings of her death.
+
+Now, is there any thing in all _this_ that is contradictory? No; there
+is only something left out. In the whole of this description of what
+went on in the widow's house, there has been no mention made of the
+ring--the ring which it is conceded was either in Craik Mansell's or
+Imogene Dare's possession the evening before the murder, and which was
+found on the dining-room floor within ten minutes after the assault took
+place. If Mrs. Clemmens' exclamations are to be taken as an attempt to
+describe her murderer, then this ring must have been on the hand which
+was raised against her, and how could that have been if the hand was
+that of Mr. Orcutt? Unimportant as it seemed, the discovery of this
+ring on the floor, taken with the exclamations of the widow, make a
+break in the chain that is fatal to Mr. Gryce's theory. Yet does it? The
+consternation displayed by Mr. Orcutt when Imogene claimed the ring and
+put it on her finger may have had a deeper significance than was thought
+at the time. Was there any way in which he could have come into
+possession of it before she did? and could it have been that he had had
+it on his hand when he struck the blow? Mr. Gryce bent all his energies
+to inquire.
+
+First, where was the ring when the lovers parted in the wood the day
+before the murder? Evidently in Mr. Mansell's coat-pocket. Imogene had
+put it there, and Imogene had left it there. But Mansell did not know it
+was there, so took no pains to look after its safety. It accordingly
+slipped out; but when? Not while he slept, or it would have been found
+in the hut. Not while he took the path to his aunt's house, or it would
+have been found in the lane, or, at best, on the dining-room door-step.
+When, then? Mr. Gryce could think of but one instant, and that was when
+the young man threw his coat from one arm to the other at the corner of
+the house toward the street. If it rolled out then it would have been
+under an impetus, and, as the coat was flung from the right arm to the
+left, the ring would have flown in the direction of the gate and fallen,
+perhaps, directly on the walk in front of the house. If it had, its
+presence in the dining-room seemed to show it had been carried there by
+Mr. Orcutt, since he was the next person who went into the house.
+
+But did it fall there? Mr. Gryce took the only available means to find
+out.
+
+Sending for Horace Byrd, he said to him:
+
+"You were on the court-house steps when Mr. Orcutt left and crossed over
+to the widow's house?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Were you watching him? Could you describe his manner as he entered the
+house; how he opened the gate; or whether he stopped to look about him
+before going in?"
+
+"No, sir," returned Byrd; "my eyes may have been on him, but I don't
+remember any thing especial that he did."
+
+Somewhat disappointed, Mr. Gryce went to the District Attorney and put
+to him the same question. The answer he received from him was different.
+With a gloomy contraction of his brow, Mr. Ferris said:
+
+"Yes, I remember his look and appearance very well. He stepped briskly,
+as he always did, and carried his head---- Wait!" he suddenly exclaimed,
+giving the detective a look in which excitement and decision were
+strangely blended. "You think Mr. Orcutt committed this crime; that he
+left us standing on the court-house steps and crossed the street to Mrs.
+Clemmens' house with the deliberate intention of killing her, and
+leaving the burden of his guilt to be shouldered by the tramp. Now, you
+have called up a memory to me that convinces me this could not have
+been. Had he had any such infernal design in his breast he would not
+have been likely to have stopped as he did to pick up something which he
+saw lying on the walk in front of Mrs. Clemmens' house."
+
+"And did Mr. Orcutt do that?" inquired Mr. Gryce, with admirable
+self-control.
+
+"Yes, I remember it now distinctly. It was just as he entered the gate.
+A man meditating a murder of this sort would not be likely to notice a
+pin lying in his path, much less pause to pick it up."
+
+"How if it were a diamond ring?"
+
+"A diamond ring?"
+
+"Mr. Ferris," said the detective, gravely, "you have just supplied a
+very important link in the chain of evidence against Mr. Orcutt. The
+question is, how could the diamond ring which Miss Dare is believed to
+have dropped into Mr. Mansell's coat-pocket have been carried into Mrs.
+Clemmens' house without the agency of either herself or Mr. Mansell? I
+think you have just shown." And the able detective, in a few brief
+sentences, explained the situation to Mr. Ferris, together with the
+circumstances of Mansell's flight, as gleaned by him in his conversation
+with the prisoner.
+
+The District Attorney was sincerely dismayed. The guilt of the renowned
+lawyer was certainly assuming positive proportions. Yet, true to his
+friendship for Mr. Orcutt, he made one final effort to controvert the
+arguments of the detective, and quietly said:
+
+"You profess to explain how the ring might have been carried into Mrs.
+Clemmens' house, but how do you account for the widow having used an
+exclamation which seems to signify it was _on_ the hand which she saw
+lifted against her life?"
+
+"By the fact that it was on that hand."
+
+"Do you think that probable if the hand was Mr. Orcutt's?"
+
+"Perfectly so. Where else would he be likely to put it in the
+preoccupied state of mind in which he was? In his pocket? The tramp
+might have done that, but not the gentleman."
+
+Mr. Ferris looked at the detective with almost an expression of fear.
+
+"And how came it to be on the floor if Mr. Orcutt put it on his finger?"
+
+"By the most natural process in the world. The ring made for Miss Dare's
+third finger was too large for Mr. Orcutt's little finger, and so
+slipped off when he dropped the stick of wood from his hand."
+
+"And he left it lying where it fell?"
+
+"He probably did not notice its loss. If, as I suppose, he had picked it
+up and placed it on his finger, mechanically, its absence at such a
+moment would not be observed. Besides, what clue could he suppose a
+diamond ring he had never seen before, and which he had had on his
+finger but an instant, would offer in a case like this?"
+
+"You reason close," said the District Attorney; "too close," he added,
+as he recalled, with painful distinctness, the look and attitude of Mr.
+Orcutt at the time this ring was first brought into public notice, and
+realized that so might a man comport himself who, conscious of this
+ring's association with the crime he had just secretly perpetrated, sees
+it claimed and put on the finger of the woman he loves.
+
+Mr. Gryce, with his usual intuition, seemed to follow the thoughts of
+the District Attorney.
+
+"If our surmises are correct," he remarked, "it was a grim moment for
+the lawyer when, secure in his immunity from suspicion, he saw Miss Dare
+come upon the scene with eager inquiries concerning this murder. To you,
+who had not the clue, it looked as if he feared she was not as innocent
+as she should be; but, if you will recall the situation now, I think you
+will see that his agitation can only be explained by his apprehension of
+her intuitions and an alarm lest her interest sprang from some
+mysterious doubt of himself."
+
+Mr. Ferris shook his head with a gloomy air, but did not respond.
+
+"Miss Dare tells me," the detective resumed, "that his first act upon
+their meeting again at his house was to offer himself to her in
+marriage. Now you, or any one else, would say this was to show he did
+not mistrust her, but I say it was to find out if she mistrusted him."
+
+Still Mr. Ferris remained silent.
+
+"The same reasoning will apply to what followed," continued Mr. Gryce.
+"You cannot reconcile the thought of his guilt with his taking the case
+of Mansell and doing all he could to secure his acquittal. But you will
+find it easier to do so when I tell you that, without taking into
+consideration any spark of sympathy which he might feel for the man
+falsely accused of his crime, he knew from Imogene's lips that she would
+not survive the condemnation of her lover, and that, besides this, his
+only hope of winning her for his wife lay in the gratitude he might
+awaken in her if he succeeded in saving his rival."
+
+"You are making him out a great villain," murmured Mr. Ferris, bitterly.
+
+"And was not that the language of his own countenance as he lay dying?"
+inquired the detective.
+
+Mr. Ferris could not say No. He had himself been too deeply impressed by
+the sinister look he had observed on the face of his dying friend. He
+therefore confined himself to remarking, not without sarcasm:
+
+"And now for the motive of this hideous crime--for I suppose your
+ingenuity has discovered one before this."
+
+"It will be found in his love for Miss Dare," returned the detective;
+"but just how I am not prepared to-day to say."
+
+"His love for Miss Dare? What had this plain and homespun Mrs. Clemmens
+to do with his love for Miss Dare?"
+
+"She was an interference."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Ah, that, sir, is the question."
+
+"So then you do not know?"
+
+Mr. Gryce was obliged to shake his head.
+
+The District Attorney drew himself up. "Mr. Gryce," said he, "the charge
+which has been made against this eminent man demands the very strongest
+proof in order to substantiate it. The motive, especially, must be shown
+to have been such as to offer a complete excuse for suspecting him. No
+trivial or imaginary reason for his wishing this woman out of the world
+will answer in his case. You must prove that her death was absolutely
+necessary to the success of his dearest hopes, or your reasoning will
+only awaken distrust in the minds of all who hear it. The fame of a man
+like Mr. Orcutt is not to be destroyed by a passing word of delirium, or
+a specious display of circumstantial evidence such as you evolve from
+the presence of the ring on the scene of murder."
+
+"I know it," allowed Mr. Gryce, "and that is why I have asked for a
+week."
+
+"Then you still believe you can find such a motive?"
+
+The smile which Mr. Gryce bestowed upon the favored object then honored
+by his gaze haunted the District Attorney for the rest of the week.
+
+
+
+
+XLII.
+
+CONSULTATIONS.
+
+          That he should die is worthy policy;
+          But yet we want a color for his death;
+          'Tis meet he be condemned by course of law.
+                                        --HENRY VI.
+
+
+MR. GRYCE was perfectly aware that the task before him was a difficult
+one. To be himself convinced that Mr. Orcutt had been in possession of a
+motive sufficient to account for, if not excuse, this horrible crime was
+one thing; to find out that motive and make it apparent to the world was
+another. But he was not discouraged. Summoning his two subordinates, he
+laid the matter before them.
+
+"I am convinced," said he, "that Mrs. Clemmens was a more important
+person to Mr. Orcutt than her plain appearance and humble manner of life
+would suggest. Do either of you know whether Mr. Orcutt's name has ever
+been associated with any private scandal, the knowledge of which might
+have given her power over him?"
+
+"I do not think he was that kind of a man," said Byrd. "Since morning I
+have put myself in the way of such persons as I saw disposed to converse
+about him, and though I have been astonished to find how many there are
+who say they never quite liked or altogether trusted this famous
+lawyer, I have heard nothing said in any way derogatory to his private
+character. Indeed, I believe, as far as the ladies were concerned, he
+was particularly reserved. Though a bachelor, he showed no disposition
+to marry, and until Miss Dare appeared on the scene was not known to be
+even attentive to one of her sex."
+
+"Some one, however, I forget who, told me that for a short time he was
+sweet on a certain Miss Pratt," remarked Hickory.
+
+"Pratt? Where have I heard that name?" murmured Byrd to himself.
+
+"But nothing came of it," Hickory continued. "She was not over and above
+smart they say, and though pretty enough, did not hold his fancy. Some
+folks declare she was so disappointed she left town."
+
+"Pratt, Pratt!" repeated Byrd to himself. "Ah! I know now," he suddenly
+exclaimed. "While I stood around amongst the crowd, the morning Mrs.
+Clemmens was murdered, I remember overhearing some one say how hard she
+was on the Pratt girl."
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated Mr. Gryce. "The widow was hard on any one Mr. Orcutt
+chose to admire."
+
+"I don't understand it," said Byrd.
+
+"Nor I," rejoined Mr. Gryce; "but I intend to before the week is out."
+Then abruptly: "When did Mrs. Clemmens come to this town?"
+
+"Fifteen years ago," replied Byrd.
+
+"And Orcutt--when did he first put in an appearance here?"
+
+"At very much the same time, I believe."
+
+"Humph! And did they seem to be friends at that time?"
+
+"Some say Yes, some say No."
+
+"Where did he come from--have you learned?"
+
+"From some place in Nebraska, I believe."
+
+"And she?"
+
+"Why, she came from some place in Nebraska too!"
+
+"The _same_ place?"
+
+"That we must find out."
+
+Mr. Gryce mused for a minute; then he observed:
+
+"Mr. Orcutt was renowned in his profession. Do you know any thing about
+his career--whether he brought a reputation for ability with him, or
+whether his fame was entirely made in this place?"
+
+"I think it was made here. Indeed, I have heard that it was in this
+court he pleaded his first case. Don't you know more about it, Hickory?"
+
+"Yes; Mr. Ferris told me this morning that Orcutt had not opened a
+law-book when he came to this town. That he was a country schoolmaster
+in some uncivilized district out West, and would never have been any
+thing more, perhaps, if the son of old Stephen Orcutt had not died, and
+thus made a vacancy in the law-office here which he was immediately sent
+for to fill."
+
+"Stephen Orcutt? He was the uncle of this man, wasn't he?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And quite a lawyer too?"
+
+"Yes, but nothing like Tremont B. _He_ was successful from the start.
+Had a natural aptitude, I suppose--must have had, to pick up the
+profession in the way he did."
+
+"Boys," cried Mr. Gryce, after another short ruminative pause, "the
+secret we want to know is of long standing; indeed, I should not be
+surprised if it were connected with his life out West. I will tell you
+why I think so. For ten years Mrs. Clemmens has been known to put money
+in the bank regularly every week. Now, where did she get that money?
+From Mr. Orcutt, of course. What for? In payment for the dinner he
+usually took with her? No, in payment of her silence concerning a past
+he desired kept secret."
+
+"But they have been here fifteen years and she has only received money
+for ten."
+
+"She has only put money in the bank for ten; she may have been paid
+before that and may not. I do not suppose he was in a condition to be
+very lavish at the outset of his career."
+
+"You advise us, then, to see what we can make out of his early life out
+West?"
+
+"Yes; and I will see what I can make out of hers. The link which
+connects the two will be found. Mr. Orcutt did not say: 'It was all for
+you, Imogene,' for nothing."
+
+And, dismissing the two young men, Mr. Gryce proceeded to the house of
+Mr. Orcutt, where he entered upon an examination of such papers and
+documents as were open to his inspection, in the hope of discovering
+some allusion to the deceased lawyer's early history. But he was not
+successful. Neither did a like inspection of the widow's letters bring
+any new facts to light. The only result which seemed to follow these
+efforts was an increased certainty on his part that some dangerous
+secret lurked in a past that was so determinedly hidden from the world,
+and resorting to the only expedient now left to him, he resolved to
+consult Miss Firman, as being the only person who professed to have had
+any acquaintance with Mrs. Clemmens before she came to Sibley. To be
+sure, she had already been questioned by the coroner, but Mr. Gryce was
+a man who had always found that the dryest well could be made to yield a
+drop or two more of water if the bucket was dropped by a dexterous hand.
+He accordingly prepared himself for a trip to Utica.
+
+
+
+
+XLIII.
+
+MRS. FIRMAN.
+
+          Hark! she speaks. I will set down what comes from her....
+          Heaven knows what she has known.--MACBETH.
+
+
+"MISS FIRMAN, I believe?" The staid, pleasant-faced lady whom we know,
+but who is looking older and considerably more careworn than when we saw
+her at the coroner's inquest, rose from her chair in her own cozy
+sitting-room, and surveyed her visitor curiously. "I am Mr. Gryce," the
+genial voice went on. "Perhaps the name is not familiar?"
+
+"I never heard it before," was the short but not ungracious reply.
+
+"Well, then, let me explain," said he. "You are a relative of the Mrs.
+Clemmens who was so foully murdered in Sibley, are you not? Pardon me,
+but I see you are; your expression speaks for itself." How he could have
+seen her expression was a mystery to Miss Firman, for his eyes, if not
+attention, were seemingly fixed upon some object in quite a different
+portion of the room. "You must, therefore," he pursued, "be in a state
+of great anxiety to know who her murderer was. Now, I am in that same
+state, madam; we are, therefore, in sympathy, you see."
+
+The respectful smile and peculiar intonation with which these last words
+were uttered, robbed them of their familiarity and allowed Miss Firman
+to perceive his true character.
+
+"You are a detective," said she, and as he did not deny it, she went on:
+"You say I must be anxious to know who my cousin's murderer was. Has
+Craik Mansell, then, been acquitted?"
+
+"A verdict has not been given," said the other. "His trial has been
+adjourned in order to give him an opportunity to choose a new counsel."
+
+Miss Firman motioned her visitor to be seated, and at once took a chair
+herself.
+
+"What do you want with me?" she asked, with characteristic bluntness.
+
+The detective was silent. It was but for a moment, but in that moment he
+seemed to read to the bottom of this woman's mind.
+
+"Well," said he, "I will tell you. You believe Craik Mansell to be
+innocent?"
+
+"I do," she returned.
+
+"Very well; so do I."
+
+"Let me shake hands with you," was her abrupt remark. And without a
+smile she reached forth her hand, which he took with equal gravity.
+
+This ceremony over, he remarked, with a cheerful mien:
+
+"We are fortunately not in a court of law, and so can talk freely
+together. Why do you think Mansell innocent? I am sure the evidence has
+not been much in his favor."
+
+"Why do _you_ think him innocent?" was the brisk retort.
+
+"I have talked with him."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"I have talked with Miss Dare."
+
+A different "Ah!" this time.
+
+"And I was present when Mr. Orcutt breathed his last."
+
+The look she gave was like cold water on Mr. Gryce's secretly growing
+hopes.
+
+"What has that to do with it?" she wonderingly exclaimed.
+
+The detective took another tone.
+
+"You did not know Mr. Orcutt then?" he inquired.
+
+"I had not that honor," was the formal reply.
+
+"You have never, then, visited your cousin in Sibley?"
+
+"Yes, I was there once; but that did not give me an acquaintance with
+Mr. Orcutt."
+
+"Yet he went almost every day to her house."
+
+"And he came while I was there, but _that_ did not give me an
+acquaintance with him."
+
+"He was reserved, then, in his manners, uncommunicative, possibly
+morose?"
+
+"He was just what I would expect such a gentleman to be at the table
+with women like my cousin and myself."
+
+"Not morose, then; only reserved."
+
+"Exactly," the short, quick bow of the amiable spinster seemed to
+assert.
+
+Mr. Gryce drew a deep breath. This well seemed to be destitute of even a
+drop of moisture.
+
+"Why do you ask me about Mr. Orcutt? Has his death in any way affected
+young Mansell's prospects?"
+
+"That is what I want to find out," declared Mr. Gryce. Then, without
+giving her time for another question, said: "Where did Mrs. Clemmens
+first make the acquaintance of Mr. Orcutt? Wasn't it in some town out
+West?"
+
+"Out West? Not to my knowledge, sir. I always supposed she saw him first
+in Sibley."
+
+This well was certainly very dry.
+
+"Yet you are not positive that this is so, are you?" pursued the patient
+detective. "She came from Nebraska, and so did he; now, why may they not
+have known each other there?"
+
+"I did not know that he came from Nebraska."
+
+"She has never talked about him then?"
+
+"Never."
+
+Mr. Gryce drew another deep breath and let down his bucket again.
+
+"I thought your cousin spent her childhood in Toledo?"
+
+"She did, sir."
+
+"How came she to go to Nebraska then?"
+
+"Well, she was left an orphan and had to look out for herself. A
+situation in some way opened to her in Nebraska, and she went there to
+take it."
+
+"A situation at what?"
+
+"As waitress in some hotel."
+
+"Humph! And was she still a waitress when she married?"
+
+"Yes, I think so, but I am not sure about it or any thing else in
+connection with her at that time. The subject was so painful we never
+discussed it."
+
+"Why painful?"
+
+"She lost her husband so soon."
+
+"But you can tell me the name of the town in which this hotel was, can
+you not?"
+
+"It was called Swanson then, but that was fifteen years ago. Its name
+may have been changed since."
+
+Swanson! This was something to learn, but not much. Mr. Gryce returned
+to his first question. "You have not told me," said he, "why _you_
+believe Craik Mansell to be innocent?"
+
+"Well," replied she, "_I_ believe Craik Mansell to be innocent because
+he is the son of his mother. I think I know _him_ pretty well, but I am
+certain I knew _her_. She was a woman who would go through fire and
+water to attain a purpose she thought right, but who would stop in the
+midst of any project the moment she felt the least doubt of its being
+just or wise. Craik has his mother's forehead and eyes, and no one will
+ever make me believe he has not her principles also."
+
+"I coincide with you, madam," remarked the attentive detective.
+
+"I hope the jury will," was her energetic response.
+
+He bowed and was about to attempt another question, when an interruption
+occurred. Miss Firman was called from the room, and Mr. Gryce found
+himself left for a few moments alone. His thoughts, as he awaited her
+return, were far from cheerful, for he saw a long and tedious line of
+inquiry opening before him in the West, which, if it did not end in
+failure, promised to exhaust not only a week, but possibly many months,
+before certainty of any kind could be obtained. With Miss Dare on the
+verge of a fever, and Mansell in a position calling for the utmost nerve
+and self-control, this prospect looked any thing but attractive to the
+benevolent detective; and, carried away by his impatience, he was about
+to give utterance to an angry ejaculation against the man he believed to
+be the author of all this mischief, when he suddenly heard a voice
+raised from some unknown quarter near by, saying in strange tones he was
+positive did not proceed from Miss Firman:
+
+"Was it Clemmens or was it Orcutt? Clemmens or Orcutt? I cannot
+remember."
+
+Naturally excited and aroused, Mr. Gryce rose and looked about him. A
+door stood ajar at his back. Hastening toward it, he was about to lay
+his hand on the knob when Miss Firman returned.
+
+"Oh, I beg you," she entreated. "That is my mother's room, and she is
+not at all well."
+
+"I was going to her assistance," asserted the detective, with grave
+composure. "She has just uttered a cry."
+
+"Oh, you don't say so!" exclaimed the unsuspicious spinster, and
+hurrying forward, she threw open the door herself. Mr. Gryce
+benevolently followed. "Why, she is asleep," protested Miss Firman,
+turning on the detective with a suspicious look.
+
+Mr. Gryce, with a glance toward the bed he saw before him, bowed with
+seeming perplexity.
+
+"She certainly appears to be," said he, "and yet I am positive she spoke
+but an instant ago; I can even tell you the words she used."
+
+"What were they?" asked the spinster, with something like a look of
+concern.
+
+"She said: 'Was it Clemmens or was it Orcutt? Clemmens or Orcutt? I
+cannot remember.'"
+
+"You don't say so! Poor ma! She was dreaming. Come into the other room
+and I will explain."
+
+And leading the way back to the apartment they had left, she motioned
+him again toward a chair, and then said:
+
+"Ma has always been a very hale and active woman for her years; but this
+murder seems to have shaken her. To speak the truth, sir, she has not
+been quite right in her mind since the day I told her of it; and I often
+detect her murmuring words similar to those you have just heard."
+
+"Humph! And does she often use his name?"
+
+"Whose name?"
+
+"Mr. Orcutt's."
+
+"Why, yes; but not with any understanding of whom she is speaking."
+
+"Are you _sure_?" inquired Mr. Gryce, with that peculiar impressiveness
+he used on great occasions.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean," returned the detective, dryly, "that I believe your mother
+does know what she is talking about when she links the name of Mr.
+Orcutt with that of your cousin who was murdered. They belong together;
+Mr. Orcutt was her murderer."
+
+"_Mr. Orcutt?_"
+
+"Hush!" cried Mr. Gryce, "you will wake up your mother."
+
+And, adapting himself to this emergency as to all others, he talked with
+the astounded and incredulous woman before him till she was in a
+condition not only to listen to his explanations, but to discuss the
+problem of a crime so seemingly without motive. He then said, with easy
+assurance:
+
+"Your mother does not know that Mr. Orcutt is dead?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"She does not even know he was counsel for Craik Mansell in the trial
+now going on."
+
+"How do you know that?" inquired Miss Firman, grimly.
+
+"Because I do not believe you have even told her that Craik Mansell was
+on trial."
+
+"Sir, you are a magician."
+
+"Have you, madam?"
+
+"No, sir, I have not."
+
+"Very good; what _does_ she know about Mr. Orcutt, then; and why should
+she connect his name with Mrs. Clemmens?"
+
+"She knows he was her boarder, and that he was the first one to discover
+she had been murdered."
+
+"That is not enough to account for her frequent repetition of his name."
+
+"You think not?"
+
+"I am sure not. Cannot your mother have some memories connected with his
+name of which you are ignorant?"
+
+"No, sir; we have lived together in this house for twenty-five years,
+and have never had a thought we have not shared together. Ma could not
+have known any thing about him or Mary Ann which I did not. The words
+she has just spoken sprang from mental confusion. She is almost like a
+child sometimes."
+
+Mr. Gryce smiled. If the cream-jug he happened to be gazing at on a tray
+near by had been full of cream, I am far from certain it would not have
+turned sour on the spot.
+
+"I grant the mental confusion," said he; "but why should she confuse
+those two names in preference to all others?" And, with quiet
+persistence, he remarked again: "She may be recalling some old fact of
+years ago. Was there never a time, even while you lived here together,
+when she could have received some confidence from Mrs. Clemmens----"
+
+"Mary Ann, Mary Ann!" came in querulous accents from the other room, "I
+wish you had not told me; Emily would be a better one to know your
+secret."
+
+It was a startling interruption to come just at that moment The two
+surprised listeners glanced toward each other, and Miss Firman colored.
+
+"That sounds as if your surmise was true," she dryly observed.
+
+"Let us make an experiment," said he, and motioned her to re-enter her
+mother's room, which she did with a precipitation that showed her
+composure had been sorely shaken by these unexpected occurrences.
+
+He followed her without ceremony.
+
+The old lady lay as before in a condition between sleeping and waking,
+and did not move as they came in. Mr. Gryce at once withdrew out of
+sight, and, with finger on his lip, put himself in the attitude of
+waiting. Miss Firman, surprised, and possibly curious, took her stand
+at the foot of the bed.
+
+A few minutes passed thus, during which a strange dreariness seemed to
+settle upon the room; then the old lady spoke again, this time repeating
+the words he had first heard, but in a tone which betrayed an increased
+perplexity.
+
+"_Was_ it Clemmens or _was_ it Orcutt? I wish somebody would tell me."
+
+Instantly Mr. Gryce, with his soft tread, drew near to the old lady's
+side, and, leaning over her, murmured gently:
+
+"I think it was Orcutt."
+
+Instantly the old lady breathed a deep sigh and moved.
+
+"Then her name was Mrs. Orcutt," said she, "and I thought you always
+called her Clemmens."
+
+Miss Firman, recoiling, stared at Mr. Gryce, on whose cheek a faint spot
+of red had appeared--a most unusual token of emotion with him.
+
+"Did she say it was Mrs. Orcutt," he pursued, in the even tones he had
+before used.
+
+"She said----" But here the old lady opened her eyes, and, seeing her
+daughter standing at the foot of her bed, turned away with a peevish
+air, and restlessly pushed her hand under the pillow.
+
+Mr. Gryce at once bent nearer.
+
+"She said----" he suggested, with careful gentleness.
+
+But the old lady made no answer. Her hand seemed to have touched some
+object for which she was seeking, and she was evidently oblivious to all
+else. Miss Firman came around and touched Mr. Gryce on the shoulder.
+
+"It is useless," said she; "she is awake now, and you won't hear any
+thing more; come!"
+
+And she drew the reluctant detective back again into the other room.
+
+"What does it all mean?" she asked, sinking into a chair.
+
+Mr. Gryce did not answer. He had a question of his own to put.
+
+"Why did your mother put her hand under her pillow?" he asked.
+
+"I don't know, unless it was to see if her big envelope was there."
+
+"Her big envelope?"
+
+"Yes; for weeks now, ever since she took to her bed, she has kept a
+paper in a big envelope under her pillow. What is in it I don't know,
+for she never seems to hear me when I inquire."
+
+"And have you no curiosity to find out?"
+
+"No, sir. Why should I? It might easily be my father's old letters
+sealed up, or, for that matter, be nothing more than a piece of blank
+paper. My mother is not herself, as I have said before."
+
+"I should like a peep at the contents of that envelope," he declared.
+
+"You?"
+
+"Is there any name written on the outside?"
+
+"No."
+
+"It would not be violating any one's rights, then, if you opened it."
+
+"Only my mother's, sir."
+
+"You say she is not in her right mind?"
+
+"All the more reason why I should respect her whims and caprices."
+
+"Wouldn't you open it if she were dead?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Will it be very different then from what it is now? A father's letters!
+a blank piece of paper! What harm would there be in looking at them?"
+
+"My mother would know it if I took them away. It might excite and injure
+her."
+
+"Put another envelope in the place of this one, with a piece of paper
+folded up in it."
+
+"It would be a trick."
+
+"I know it; but if Craik Mansell can be saved even by a trick, I should
+think you would be willing to venture on one."
+
+"Craik Mansell? What has he got to do with the papers under my mother's
+pillow?"
+
+"I cannot say that he has any thing to do with them; but if he has--if,
+for instance, that envelope should contain, not a piece of blank paper,
+or even the letters of your father, but such a document, say, as a
+certificate of marriage----"
+
+"A certificate of marriage?"
+
+"Yes, between Mrs. Clemmens and Mr. Orcutt, it would not take much
+perspicacity to prophesy an acquittal for Craik Mansell."
+
+"Mary Ann the wife of Mr. Orcutt! Oh, that is impossible!" exclaimed the
+agitated spinster. But even while making this determined statement, she
+turned a look full of curiosity and excitement toward the door which
+separated them from her mother's apartment.
+
+Mr. Gryce smiled in his wise way.
+
+"Less improbable things than that have been found to be true in this
+topsy-turvy world," said he. "Mrs. Clemmens might very well have been
+Mrs. Orcutt."
+
+"Do you really think so?" she asked; and yielding with sudden
+impetuosity to the curiosity of the moment, she at once dashed from his
+side and disappeared in her mother's room. Mr. Gryce's smile took on an
+aspect of triumph.
+
+It was some few moments before she returned, but when she did, her
+countenance was flushed with emotion.
+
+"I have it," she murmured, taking out a packet from under her apron and
+tearing it open with trembling fingers.
+
+A number of closely written sheets fell out.
+
+
+
+
+XLIV.
+
+THE WIDOW CLEMMENS.
+
+                      Discovered
+          The secret that so long had hovered
+          Upon the misty verge of Truth.--LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+"WELL, and what have you to say?" It was Mr. Ferris who spoke. The week
+which Mr. Gryce had demanded for his inquiries had fully elapsed, and
+the three detectives stood before him ready with their report.
+
+It was Mr. Gryce who replied.
+
+"Sir," said he, "our opinions have not been changed by the discoveries
+which we have made. It was Mr. Orcutt who killed Mrs. Clemmens, and for
+the reason already stated that she stood in the way of his marrying Miss
+Dare. Mrs. Clemmens was his wife."
+
+"His _wife_?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and, what is more, she has been so for years; before either
+of them came to Sibley, in fact."
+
+The District Attorney looked stunned.
+
+"It was while they lived West," said Byrd. "He was a poor school-master,
+and she a waitress in some hotel. She was pretty then, and he thought he
+loved her. At all events, he induced her to marry him, and then kept it
+secret because he was afraid she would lose her place at the hotel,
+where she was getting very good wages. You see, he had the makings in
+him of a villain even then."
+
+"And was it a real marriage?"
+
+"There is a record of it," said Hickory.
+
+"And did he never acknowledge it?"
+
+"Not openly," answered Byrd. "The commonness of the woman seemed to
+revolt him after he was married to her, and when in a month or so he
+received the summons East, which opened up before him the career of a
+lawyer, he determined to drop her and start afresh. He accordingly left
+town without notifying her, and actually succeeded in reaching the
+railway depot twenty miles away before he was stopped. But here, a delay
+occurring in the departure of the train, she was enabled to overtake
+him, and a stormy scene ensued. What its exact nature was, we, of
+course, cannot say, but from the results it is evident that he told her
+his prospects had changed, and with them his tastes and requirements;
+that she was not the woman he thought her, and that he could not and
+would not take her East with him as his wife: while she, on her side,
+displayed full as much spirit as he, and replied that if he could desert
+her like this he wasn't the kind of a man she could live with, and that
+he could go if he wished; only that he must acknowledge her claims upon
+him by giving her a yearly stipend, according to his income and success.
+At all events, some such compromise was effected, for he came East and
+she went back to Swanson. She did not stay there long, however; for the
+next we know she was in Sibley, where she set up her own little
+house-keeping arrangements under his very eye. More than that, she
+prevailed upon him to visit her daily, and even to take a meal at her
+house, her sense of justice seeming to be satisfied if he showed her
+this little attention and gave to no other woman the place he denied
+her. It was the weakness shown in this last requirement that doubtless
+led to her death. She would stand any thing but a rival. He knew this,
+and preferred crime to the loss of the woman he loved."
+
+"You speak very knowingly," said Mr. Ferris. "May I ask where you
+received your information?"
+
+It was Mr. Gryce who answered.
+
+"From letters. Mrs. Clemmens was one of those women who delight in
+putting their feelings on paper. Fortunately for us, such women are not
+rare. See here!" And he pulled out before the District Attorney a pile
+of old letters in the widow's well-known handwriting.
+
+"Where did you find these?" asked Mr. Ferris.
+
+"Well," said Mr. Gryce, "I found them in rather a curious place. They
+were in the keeping of old Mrs. Firman, Miss Firman's mother. Mrs.
+Clemmens, or, rather, Mrs. Orcutt, got frightened some two years ago at
+the disappearance of her marriage certificate from the place where she
+had always kept it hidden, and, thinking that Mr. Orcutt was planning to
+throw her off, she resolved to provide herself with a confidante capable
+of standing by her in case she wished to assert her rights. She chose
+old Mrs. Firman. Why, when her daughter would have been so much more
+suitable for the purpose, it is hard to tell; possibly the widow's pride
+revolted from telling a woman of her own years the indignities she had
+suffered. However that may be, it was to the old lady she told her story
+and gave these letters--letters which, as you will see, are not written
+to any special person, but are rather the separate leaves of a journal
+which she kept to show the state of her feelings from time to time."
+
+"And this?" inquired Mr. Ferris, taking up a sheet of paper written in a
+different handwriting from the rest.
+
+"This is an attempt on the part of the old lady to put on paper the
+story which had been told her. She evidently thought herself too old to
+be entrusted with a secret so important, and, fearing loss of memory, or
+perhaps sudden death, took this means of explaining how she came into
+possession of her cousin's letters. 'T was a wise precaution. Without it
+we would have missed the clue to the widow's journal. For the old lady's
+brain gave way when she heard of the widow's death, and had it not been
+for a special stroke of good-luck on my part, we might have remained
+some time longer in ignorance of what very valuable papers she secretly
+held in her possession."
+
+"I will read the letters," said Mr. Ferris.
+
+Seeing from his look that he only waited their departure to do so, Mr.
+Gryce and his subordinates arose.
+
+"I think you will find them satisfactory," drawled Hickory.
+
+"If you do not," said Mr. Gryce, "then give a look at this telegram. It
+is from Swanson, and notifies us that a record of a marriage between
+Benjamin Orcutt--Mr. Orcutt's middle name was Benjamin--and Mary Mansell
+can be found in the old town books."
+
+Mr. Ferris took the telegram, the shade of sorrow settling heavier and
+heavier on his brow.
+
+"I see," said he, "I have got to accept your conclusions. Well, there
+are those among the living who will be greatly relieved by these
+discoveries. I will try and think of that."
+
+Yet, after the detectives were gone, and he sat down in solitude before
+these evidences of his friend's perfidy, it was many long and dreary
+moments before he could summon up courage to peruse them. But when he
+did, he found in them all that Mr. Gryce had promised. As my readers may
+feel some interest to know how the seeming widow bore the daily trial of
+her life, I will give a few extracts from these letters. The first bears
+date of fourteen years back, and was written after she came to Sibley:
+
+          "NOVEMBER 8, 1867.--In the same town! Within a
+          stone's throw of the court-house, where, they tell
+          me, his business will soon take him almost every
+          day! Isn't it a triumph? and am I not to be
+          congratulated upon my bravery in coming here? He
+          hasn't seen me yet, but I have seen _him_. I crept
+          out of the house at nightfall on purpose. He was
+          sauntering down the street and he looked--it makes
+          my blood boil to think of it--he looked _happy_."
+
+          "NOVEMBER 10, 1867.--Clemmens, Clemmens--that is
+          my name, and I have taken the title of widow. What
+          a fate for a woman with a husband in the next
+          street! He saw _me_ to-day. I met him in the open
+          square, and I looked him right in the face. How he
+          did quail! It just does me good to think of it!
+          Perk and haughty as he is, he grew as white as a
+          sheet when he saw me, and though he tried to put
+          on airs and carry it off with a high hand, he
+          failed, just as I knew he would when he came to
+          meet me on even ground. Oh, I'll have my way now,
+          and if I choose to stay in this place where I can
+          keep my eye on him, he won't dare to say No. The
+          only thing I fear is that he will do me a secret
+          mischief some day. His look was just murderous
+          when he left me."
+
+          "FEBRUARY 24, 1868.--Can I stand it? I ask myself
+          that question every morning when I get up. Can I
+          stand it? To sit all alone in my little narrow
+          room and know that he is going about as gay as you
+          please with people who wouldn't look at me twice.
+          It's awful hard; but it would be worse still to be
+          where I couldn't see what he was up to. Then I
+          should imagine all sorts of things. No, I will
+          just grit my teeth and bear it. I'll get used to
+          it after a while."
+
+          "OCTOBER 7, 1868.--If he says he never loved me he
+          lies. He did, or why did he marry me? I never
+          asked him to. He teased me into it, saying my
+          saucy ways had bewitched him. A month after, it
+          was common ways, rude ways, such ways as he
+          wouldn't have in a wife. That's the kind of man he
+          is."
+
+          "MAY 11, 1869.--One thing I will say of him. He
+          don't pay no heed to women. He's too busy, I
+          guess. He don't seem to think of any thing but to
+          get along, and he does get along remarkable. I'm
+          awful proud of him. He's taken to defending
+          criminals lately. They almost all get off."
+
+          "OCTOBER 5, 1870.--He pays me but a pittance. How
+          can I look like any thing, or hold my head up with
+          the ladies here if I cannot get enough together to
+          buy me a new fall hat. I _will_ not go to church
+          looking like a farmer's wife, if I haven't any
+          education or any manners. I'm as good as anybody
+          here if they but knew it, and deserve to dress as
+          well. He _must_ give me more money."
+
+          "NOVEMBER 2, 1870.--No, he sha'n't give me a cent
+          more. If I can't go to church I will stay at home.
+          He sha'n't say I stood in his way of becoming a
+          great man. He _is_ too good for me. I saw it
+          to-day when he got up in the court to speak. I was
+          there with a thick veil over my face, for I was
+          determined to know whether he was as smart as
+          folks say or not. And he just is! Oh, how
+          beautiful he did look, and how everybody held
+          their breaths while he was speaking! I felt like
+          jumping up and saying: 'This is my husband; we
+          were married three years ago.' Wouldn't I have
+          raised a rumpus if I had! I guess the poor man he
+          was pleading for would not have been remembered
+          very long after that. My husband! the thought
+          makes me laugh. No other woman can call him that,
+          anyhow. He is mine, _mine_, _mine_, and I mean he
+          shall stay so."
+
+          "JANUARY 9, 1871.--I feel awful blue to-night. I
+          have been thinking about those Hildreths. How they
+          would like to have me dead! And so would Tremont,
+          though he don't say nothing. I like to call him
+          Tremont; it makes me feel as if he belonged to me.
+          What if that wicked Gouverneur Hildreth should
+          know I lived so much alone? I don't believe he
+          would stop at killing me! And my husband! He is
+          equal to telling him I have no protector. Oh, what
+          a dreadful wickedness it is in me to put that down
+          on paper! It isn't so--it isn't so; my husband
+          wouldn't do me any harm if he could. If ever I'm
+          found dead in my bed, it will be the work of that
+          Toledo man and of nobody else."
+
+          "MARCH 2, 1872.--I hope I am going to have some
+          comfort now. Tremont has begun to pay me more
+          money. He _had_ to. He isn't a poor man any more,
+          and when he moves into his big house, I am going
+          to move into a certain little cottage I have
+          found, just around the corner. If I can't have no
+          other pleasures, I will at least have a kitchen I
+          can call my own, and a parlor too. What if there
+          don't no company come to it; they would if they
+          _knew_. I've just heard from Adelaide; she says
+          Craik is getting to be a big boy, and is so
+          smart."
+
+          "JUNE 10, 1872.--What's the use of having a home?
+          I declare I feel just like breaking down and
+          crying. I don't want company: if women folks,
+          they're always talking about their husbands and
+          children; and if men, they're always saying: 'My
+          wife's this, and my wife's that.' But I do want
+          _him_. It's my right; what if I couldn't say three
+          words to him that was agreeable, I could look at
+          him and think: 'This splendid gentleman is my
+          husband, I ain't so much alone in the world as
+          folks think.' I'll put on my bonnet and run down
+          the street. Perhaps I'll see him sitting in the
+          club-house window!"
+
+          "EVENING.--I hate him. He has a hard, cruel,
+          wicked heart. When I got to the club-house window
+          he was sitting there, so I just went walking by,
+          and he saw me and came out and hustled me away
+          with terrible words, saying he wouldn't have me
+          hanging round where he was; that I had promised
+          not to bother him, and that I must keep my word,
+          or he would see me--he didn't say where, but it's
+          easy enough to guess. So--so! he thinks he'll put
+          an end to my coming to see him, does he? Well,
+          perhaps he can; but if he does, he shall pay for
+          it by coming to see me. I'll not sit day in and
+          day out alone without the glimpse of a face I
+          love, not while I have a husband in the same town
+          with me. He shall come, if it is only for a moment
+          each day, or I'll dare every thing and tell the
+          world I am his wife."
+
+          "JUNE 16, 1872.--He had to consent! Meek as I have
+          been, he knows it won't do to rouse me too much.
+          So to-day he came in to dinner, and he had to
+          acknowledge it was a good one. Oh, how I did feel
+          when I saw his face on the other side of the
+          table! I didn't know whether I hated him or loved
+          him. But I am sure now I hated him, for he
+          scarcely spoke to me all the time he was eating,
+          and when he was through, he went away just as a
+          stranger would have done. He means to act like a
+          boarder, and, goodness me, he's welcome to if he
+          isn't going to act like a husband! The hard,
+          selfish---- Oh, oh, I love him!"
+
+          "AUGUST 5, 1872.--It is no use; I'll never be a
+          happy woman. Tremont has been in so regularly to
+          dinner lately, and shown me such a kind face, I
+          thought I would venture upon a little familiarity.
+          It was only to lay my hand upon his arm, but it
+          made him very angry, and I thought he would strike
+          me. Am I then actually hateful to him? or is he so
+          proud he cannot bear the thought of my having the
+          right to touch him? I looked in the glass when he
+          went out. I _am_ plain and homespun, that's a
+          fact. Even my red cheeks are gone, and the dimples
+          which once took his fancy. I shall never lay the
+          tip of a finger on him again."
+
+          "FEBRUARY 13, 1873.--What shall I cook for him
+          to-day? Some thing that he likes. It is my only
+          pleasure, to see how he does enjoy my meals. I
+          should think they would choke him; they do me
+          sometimes. But men are made of iron--ambitious
+          men, anyhow. Little they care what suffering they
+          cause, so long as they have a good time and get
+          all the praises they want. _He_ gets them more and
+          more every day. He will soon be as far above me as
+          if I had married the President himself. Oh,
+          sometimes when I think of it and remember he is my
+          own husband, I just feel as if some awful fate was
+          preparing for him or me!"
+
+          "JUNE 7, 1873.--Would he send for me if he was
+          dying? No. He hates me; he hates me."
+
+          "SEPTEMBER 8, 1874.--Craik was here to-day; he is
+          just going North to earn a few dollars in the
+          logging business. What a keen eye he has for a boy
+          of his years! I shouldn't wonder if he made a
+          powerful smart man some day. If he's only good,
+          too, and kind to his women-folks, I sha'n't mind.
+          But a smart man who is all for himself is an awful
+          trial to those who love him. Don't I know? Haven't
+          I suffered? Craik must never be like him."
+
+          "DECEMBER 21, 1875.--One thousand dollars. That's
+          a nice little sum to have put away in the bank. So
+          much I get out of my husband's fame, anyhow. I
+          think I will make my will, for I want Craik to
+          have what I leave. He's a fine lad."
+
+          "FEBRUARY 19, 1876.--I was thinking the other day,
+          suppose I did die suddenly. It would be dreadful
+          to have the name of Clemmens put on my tombstone!
+          But it would be. Tremont would never let the truth
+          be known, if he had to rifle my dead body for my
+          marriage certificate. What shall I do, then? Tell
+          anybody who I am? It seems just as if I couldn't.
+          Either the whole world must know it, or just
+          himself and me alone. Oh, I wish I had never been
+          born!"
+
+          "JUNE 17, 1876.--Why wasn't I made handsome and
+          fine and nice? Think where I would be if I was!
+          I'd be in that big house of his, curtesying to all
+          the grand folks as go there. I went to see it last
+          night. It was dark as pitch in the streets, and I
+          went into the gate and all around the house. I
+          walked upon the piazza too, and rubbed my hand
+          along the window-ledges and up and down the doors.
+          It's mighty nice, all of it, and there sha'n't lie
+          a square inch on that whole ground that my foot
+          sha'n't go over. I wish I could get inside the
+          house once."
+
+          "JULY 1, 1876.--I have done it. I went to see Mr.
+          Orcutt's sister. I had a right. Isn't he away, and
+          isn't he my boarder, and didn't I want to know
+          when he was coming home? She's a soft,
+          good-natured piece, and let me peek into the
+          library without saying a word. What a room it is!
+          I just felt like I'd been struck when I saw it and
+          spied his chair setting there and all those books
+          heaped around and the fine things on the
+          mantel-shelf and the pictures on the walls. What
+          would I do in such a place as that? I could keep
+          it clean, but so could any gal he might hire. Oh,
+          me! Oh, me! I wish he'd given me a chance. Perhaps
+          if he had loved me I might have learned to be
+          quiet and nice like that silly sister of his."
+
+          "JANUARY 12, 1877.--Some women would take a heap
+          of delight in having folks know they were the wife
+          of a great man, but I find lots of pleasure in
+          being so without folks knowing it. If I lived in
+          his big house and was called Mrs. Orcutt, why, he
+          would have nothing to be afraid of and might do as
+          he pleased; but now he has to do what _I_ please.
+          Sometimes, when I sit down of an evening in my
+          little sitting-room to sew, I think how this
+          famous man whom everybody is afraid of has to come
+          and go just as humble me wants him to; and it
+          makes me hug myself with pride. It's as if I had a
+          string tied round his little finger, which I can
+          pull now and then. I don't pull it much; but I do
+          sometimes."
+
+          "MARCH 30, 1877.--Gouverneur Hildreth is dead. I
+          shall never be his victim, at any rate. Shall I
+          ever be the victim of anybody? I don't feel as if
+          I cared now. For one kiss I would sell my life and
+          die happy.
+
+          "There is a young Gouverneur, but it will be years
+          before he will be old enough to make me afraid of
+          him."
+
+          "NOVEMBER 16, 1878.--I should think that Tremont
+          would be lonely in that big house of his. If he
+          had a heart he would. They say he reads all the
+          time. How can folks pore so over books? I can't.
+          I'd rather sit in my chair and think. What story
+          in all the books is equal to mine?"
+
+          "APRIL 23, 1879.--I am growing very settled in my
+          ways. Now that Tremont comes in almost every day,
+          I'm satisfied not to see any other company. My
+          house affairs keep me busy too. I like to have it
+          all nice for him. I believe I could almost be
+          happy if he'd only smile once in a while when he
+          meets my eye. But he never does. Oh, well, we all
+          have our crosses, and he's a very great man."
+
+          "JANUARY 18, 1880.--He went to a ball last night.
+          What does it mean? He never seemed to care for
+          things like that. Is there any girl he is after?"
+
+          "FEBRUARY 6, 1880.--Oh, he has been riding with a
+          lady, has he? It was in the next town, and he
+          thought I wouldn't hear. But there's little he
+          does that I don't know about; let him make himself
+          sure of that. I even know her name; it is Selina
+          Pratt. If he goes with her again, look out for a
+          disturbance. I'll not stand his making love to
+          another woman."
+
+          "MAY 26, 1880.--My marriage certificate is
+          missing. Can it be that Tremont has taken it? I
+          have looked all through the desk where I have kept
+          it for so many years, but I cannot find it. He was
+          left alone in the house a few minutes the other
+          day. Could he have taken the chance to rob me of
+          the only proof I have that we are man and wife? If
+          he has he is a villain at heart, and is capable of
+          doing any thing, even of marrying this Pratt girl
+          who he _has_ taken riding again. The worst is that
+          I dare not accuse him of having my certificate;
+          for if he didn't take it and should find out it is
+          gone, he'd throw me off just as quick as if he
+          had. What shall I do then? Something. He shall
+          _never_ marry another woman while I live."
+
+          "MAY 30, 1880.--The Pratt girl is gone. If he
+          cared for her it was only for a week, like an old
+          love I could mention. I think I feel safe again,
+          only I am convinced some one ought to know my
+          secret besides myself. Shall it be Emily? No. I'd
+          rather tell her mother."
+
+          "JUNE 9TH, 1880.--I am going to Utica. I shall
+          take these letters with me. Perhaps I shall leave
+          them. For the last time, then, let me say 'I am
+          the lawful wife of Tremont Benjamin Orcutt, the
+          lawyer, who lives in Sibley, New York.' We were
+          married in Swanson, Nevada, on the 3d of July,
+          1867, by a travelling minister, named George
+          Sinclair.
+
+                           "MARY ANN ORCUTT, Sibley, N. Y."
+
+
+
+
+XLV.
+
+MR. GRYCE SAYS GOOD-BYE.
+
+          There still are many rainbows in your sky.--BYRON.
+
+
+"HELEN?"
+
+"Yes, Imogene."
+
+"What noise is that? The people seem to be shouting down the street.
+What does it mean?"
+
+Helen Richmond--whom we better know as Helen Darling--looked at the
+worn, fever-flushed countenance of her friend, and for a moment was
+silent; then she whispered:
+
+"I have not dared to tell you before, you seemed so ill; but I can tell
+you now, because joyful news never hurts. The people shout because the
+long and tedious trial of an innocent man has come to an end. Craik
+Mansell was acquitted from the charge of murder this morning."
+
+"Acquitted! O Helen!"
+
+"Yes, dear. Since you have been ill, very strange and solemn revelations
+have come to light. Mr. Orcutt----"
+
+"Ah!" cried Imogene, rising up in the great arm-chair in which she was
+half-sitting and half-reclining. "I know what you are going to say. I
+was with Mr. Orcutt when he died. I heard him myself declare that fate
+had spoken in his death. I believe Mr. Orcutt to have been the murderer
+of Mrs. Clemmens, Helen."
+
+"Yes, there can be no doubt about that," was the reply.
+
+"It has been proved then?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Moved to the depths of her being, Imogene covered her face with her
+hands. Presently she murmured:
+
+"I do not understand it. Why should such a great man as he have desired
+the death of a woman like her? He said it was all for my sake. What did
+he mean, Helen?"
+
+"Don't you know?" questioned the other, anxiously.
+
+"How should I? It is the mystery of mysteries to me."
+
+"Ah, then you did not suspect that she was his wife?"
+
+"His wife!" Imogene rose in horror.
+
+"Yes," repeated the little bride with decision. "She was his lawfully
+wedded wife. They were married as long ago as when we were little
+children."
+
+"Married! And he dared to approach me with words of love! Dared to offer
+himself to me as a husband while his hands were still wet with the
+life-blood of his wife! O the horror of it! The amazing wickedness and
+presumption of it!"
+
+"He is dead," whispered the gentle little lady at her side.
+
+With a sigh of suppressed feeling, Imogene sank back.
+
+"I must not think of him," she cried. "I am not strong enough. I must
+think only of Craik. He has been acquitted, you say--acquitted."
+
+"Yes, and the whole town is rejoicing."
+
+A smile, exquisite as it was rare, swept like a sunbeam over Imogene's
+lips.
+
+"And I rejoice with the rest," she cried. Then, as if she felt all
+speech to be a mockery, she remained for a long time silent, gazing with
+ever-deepening expression into the space before her, till Helen did not
+know whether the awe she felt creeping over her sprang from admiration
+of her companion's suddenly awakened beauty or from a recognition of the
+depths of that companion's emotions. At last Imogene spoke:
+
+"How came Mr. Mansell to be _acquitted_? Mr. Gryce did not tell me to
+look for any such reinstatement as that. The most he bade me expect was
+that Mr. Ferris would decline to prosecute Mr. Mansell any further, in
+which event he would be discharged."
+
+"I know," said Helen, "but Mr. Mansell was not satisfied with that. He
+demanded a verdict from the jury. So Mr. Ferris, with great generosity,
+asked the Judge to recommend the jury to bring in a verdict of
+acquittal, and when the Judge hesitated to do this, the foreman of the
+jury himself rose, and intimated that he thought the jury were ready
+with their verdict. The Judge took advantage of this, and the result was
+a triumphant acquittal."
+
+"O Helen, Helen!"
+
+"That was just an hour ago," cried the little lady, brightly, "but the
+people are not through shouting yet. There has been a great excitement
+in town these last few days."
+
+"And I knew nothing of it!" exclaimed Imogene. Suddenly she looked at
+Helen. "How did you hear about what took place in the court-room
+to-day?" she asked.
+
+"Mr. Byrd told me."
+
+"Ah, Mr. Byrd?"
+
+"He came to leave a good-bye for you. He goes home this afternoon."
+
+"I should like to have seen Mr. Byrd," said Imogene.
+
+"Would you?" queried the little lady, quietly shaking her head. "I don't
+know; I think it is just as well you did not see him," said she.
+
+But she made no such demur when a little while later Mr. Gryce was
+announced. The fatherly old gentleman had evidently been in that house
+before, and Mrs. Richmond was not the woman to withstand a man like him.
+
+He came immediately into the room where Imogene was sitting. Evidently
+he thought as Helen did, that good news never hurts.
+
+"Well!" he cried, taking her trembling hand in his, with his most
+expressive smile. "What did I tell you? Didn't I say that if you would
+only trust me all would come right? And it has, don't you see? Right as
+a trivet."
+
+"Yes," she returned; "and I never can find words with which to express
+my gratitude. You have saved two lives, Mr. Gryce: his--and mine."
+
+"Pooh! pooh!" cried the detective, good-humoredly. "You mustn't think
+too much of any thing I have done. It was the falling limb that did the
+business. If Mr. Orcutt's conscience had not been awakened by the stroke
+of death, I don't know where we should have been to-day. Affairs were
+beginning to look pretty dark for Mansell."
+
+Imogene shuddered.
+
+"But I haven't come here to call up unpleasant memories," he continued.
+"I have come to wish you joy and a happy convalescence." And leaning
+toward her, he said, with a complete change of voice: "You know, I
+suppose, why Mr. Mansell presumed to think _you_ guilty of this crime?"
+
+"No," she murmured, wearily; "unless it was because the ring he believed
+me to have retained was found on the scene of murder."
+
+"Bah!" cried Mr. Gryce, "he had a much better reason than that."
+
+And with the air of one who wishes to clear up all misunderstandings, he
+told her the words which her lover had overheard Mrs. Clemmens say when
+he came up to her dining-room door.
+
+The effect on Imogene was very great. Hoping to hide it, she turned away
+her face, showing in this struggle with herself something of the
+strength of her old days. Mr. Gryce watched her with interest.
+
+"It is very strange," was her first remark. "I had such reasons for
+thinking him guilty; he such good cause for thinking me so. What wonder
+we doubted each other. And yet I can never forgive myself for doubting
+him; I can sooner forgive him for doubting me. If you see him----"
+
+"If _I_ see him?" interrupted the detective, with a smile.
+
+"Yes," said she. "If you see him tell him that Imogene Dare thanks him
+for his noble conduct toward one he believed to be stained by so
+despicable a crime, and assure him that I think he was much more
+justified in his suspicions than I was in mine, for there were
+weaknesses in my character which he had ample opportunities for
+observing, while all that I knew of him was to his credit."
+
+"Miss Dare," suggested the detective, "couldn't you tell him this much
+better yourself?"
+
+"I shall not have the opportunity," she said.
+
+"And why?" he inquired.
+
+"Mr. Mansell and I have met for the last time. A woman who has stained
+herself by such declarations as I made use of in court the last time I
+was called to the stand has created a barrier between herself and all
+earthly friendship. Even he for whom I perjured myself so basely cannot
+overleap the gulf I dug between us two that day."
+
+"But that is hard," said Mr. Gryce.
+
+"My life _is_ hard," she answered.
+
+The wise old man, who had seen so much of life and who knew the human
+heart so well, smiled, but did not reply. He turned instead to another
+subject.
+
+"Well," he declared, "the great case is over! Sibley, satisfied with
+having made its mark in the world, will now rest in peace. I quit the
+place with some reluctance myself. 'Tis a mighty pretty spot to do
+business in."
+
+"You are going?" she asked.
+
+"Immediately," was the reply. "We detectives don't have much time to
+rest." Then, as he saw how deep a shadow lay upon her brow, added,
+confidentially: "Miss Dare, we all have occasions for great regret. Look
+at me now. Honest as I hold myself to be, I cannot blind myself to the
+fact that I am the possible instigator of this crime. If I had not shown
+Mr. Orcutt how a man like himself might perpetrate a murder without
+rousing suspicion, he might never have summoned up courage to attempt
+it. For a detective with a conscience, that is a hard thought to bear."
+
+"But you were ignorant of what you were doing," she protested. "You had
+no idea there was any one present who was meditating crime."
+
+"True; but a detective shouldn't be ignorant. He ought to know men; he
+has opportunity enough to learn them. But I won't be caught again. Never
+in any company, not if it is composed of the highest dignitaries in the
+land, will I ever tell again how a crime of any kind can be perpetrated
+without risk. One always runs the chance of encountering an Orcutt."
+
+Imogene turned pale. "Do not speak of him," she cried. "I want to forget
+that such a man ever lived."
+
+Mr. Gryce smiled again.
+
+"It is the best thing you can do," said he. "Begin a new life, my child;
+begin a new life."
+
+And with this fatherly advice, he said good-bye, and she saw his wise,
+kind face no more.
+
+The hour that followed was a dreary one for Imogene. Her joy at knowing
+Craik Mansell was released could not blind her to the realization of her
+own ruined life. Indeed she seemed to feel it now as never before; and
+as the slow minutes passed, and she saw in fancy the strong figure of
+Mansell surrounded by congratulating admirers and friends, the full
+loneliness of her position swept over her, and she knew not whether to
+be thankful or not to the fever for having spared her blighted and
+dishonored life.
+
+Mrs. Richmond, seeing her so absorbed, made no attempt at consolation.
+She only listened, and when a step was heard, arose and went out,
+leaving the door open behind her.
+
+And Imogene mused on, sinking deeper and deeper into melancholy, till
+the tears, which for so long a time had been dried at their source,
+welled up to her eyes and fell slowly down her cheeks. Their touch
+seemed to rouse her. Starting erect, she looked quickly around as if to
+see if anybody was observing her. But the room seems quite empty, and
+she is about to sink back again with a sigh when her eyes fall on the
+door-way and she becomes transfixed. A sturdy form is standing there! A
+manly, eager form in whose beaming eyes and tender smile shine a love
+and a purpose which open out before her quite a different future from
+that which her fancy had been so ruthlessly picturing.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.
+
+
+  =THE LEAVENWORTH CASE.= A Lawyer's Story. By ANNA
+      KATHERINE GREEN. 16mo, paper, 60 cents; cloth, $1.00.
+
+          "In one respect at least, 'The Leavenworth Case'
+          is the peer of Gaboriau's best efforts--the
+          wonderful skill with which the author draws the
+          reader, now this way, now that, in the search for
+          the perpetrator of the mysterious crime with which
+          the story begins, and deludes him until he reaches
+          almost the last page."--_New Haven Palladium._
+
+          "Wilkie Collins, in his best period, never
+          invented a more ingeniously constructed plot, nor
+          held the reader in such suspense until the final
+          denouement. The most blasé novel-reader will be
+          unable to put aside 'The Leavenworth Case' until
+          he has read the last sentence and mastered the
+          mystery which has baffled him from the
+          beginning."--_N. Y. Express._
+
+          "She has proved herself as well able to write an
+          interesting story of mysterious crime as any man
+          living."--_The Academy, (London.)_
+
+          "She has worked up a _cause celèbre_ with a
+          fertility of device and ingenuity of treatment
+          hardly second to Wilkie Collins or Edgar Allen
+          Poe."--_Christian Union._
+
+          "We have read no story for a long time which has
+          had so much of the Wilkie Collins, and Edgar Allen
+          Poe flavor of reality in the
+          telling."--_Congregationalist._
+
+          "We do not propose to give the plot of the work,
+          however, but merely to say that it is one of the
+          most ingenious of the kind we have ever
+          read."--_Buffalo Express._
+
+          "This is the sort of book to be eagerly read and
+          thoroughly enjoyed."--_St. Paul Pioneer._
+
+          "A new novel by a new writer, which enchains our
+          attention from the very first sentence of the
+          first page, is a pleasant surprise. * * * Told
+          with a force and power that indicate great
+          dramatic talent in the writer."--_St. Louis Post._
+
+          "Its interest is undoubted and it is thoroughly
+          well sustained."--_N. Y. Evening Post._
+
+          "The story is developed with great skill and shows
+          ingenuity of the highest order."--_Troy Times._
+
+          "A story of mystery and crime and is here narrated
+          with an artistic skill which inevitably holds the
+          interest of the reader, even to the point of the
+          highest tension, to the close of the last chapter.
+          * * * A real marvel of fiction."--_Davenport
+          Gazette._
+
+
+  =A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE.= By ANNA KATHARINE GREEN.
+      16mo, paper, 50 cents, cloth, $1.00.
+
+          "The plot is marked with striking originality, and
+          the story is narrated with a vigor and power
+          rarely met in modern novels. It is deeply
+          interesting from beginning to end, and holds the
+          reader entranced from the moment the first page is
+          read until the last sentence is reached. It is, in
+          fact, a revelation in American romance-writing,
+          and we heartily commend it to the
+          public."--_Baltimore Gazette._
+
+          "Catches the fancy and chains the interest of the
+          reader to such a degree that he is unwilling to
+          lay it down until every page is
+          devoured."--_Toledo Journal._
+
+          "The author has chosen a department of fiction
+          where only the best writers succeed, but she has
+          shown herself capable of sustaining her role with
+          wonderful vigor."--_Boston Evening Traveller._
+
+          "It is an ingenious plot, admirably worked up, and
+          told so straightforward as to be wholly
+          pleasing."--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._
+
+          "One of the best police detective stories written
+          in America."--_Hartford Courant._
+
+          "Wilkie Collins would not be ashamed of the
+          construction of this story. * * * It keeps
+          the reader's close attention from first to
+          last."--_N. Y. Evening Post._
+
+          "A most ingenious and absorbingly interesting
+          story. The readers are held spell-bound till the
+          last page."--_Cincinnati Commercial._
+
+          "Ingenious in construction, powerful in dramatic
+          interest, and artistic in development."--_Boston
+          Gazette._
+
+          "A most intensely interesting work of fiction. The
+          story is developed with skill, and the work
+          written in a strong, powerful style."--_Augusta
+          (Me.) Farmer._
+
+          "The plot is new and sparkling, and the story is
+          carried to its denouement with an ingenuity and
+          brightness of manner that makes it impossible to
+          lay the volume down until completed. * * * It is a
+          marvel of fiction."--_Columbus Sunday Capital._
+
+          "The plot is very ingenious. * * * The interest in
+          the tale is remarkably well sustained until its
+          conclusion, and the mystery which envelopes the
+          principal character is concealed with a great deal
+          of artistic skill. * * * Shows a spirit of patient
+          research that speaks well for the industry of the
+          writer, and an analytical faculty rarely seen in a
+          woman."--_Boston Courier._
+
+
+  =X. Y. Z.= A Detective Story. By ANNA KATHARINE GREEN. 16mo,
+      paper, 25 cents.
+
+          "Well written and extremely exciting and
+          captivating. * * * She is a perfect genius in the
+          construction of a plot."--_N. Y. Commercial
+          Advertiser._
+
+          "Will keep the sleepiest reader wide-awake from
+          title to finis."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+          "An extremely interesting story, * * * the
+          development of the plot is kept well in hand, and
+          the denouement is as dramatic as any that could be
+          desired."--_Albany Argus._
+
+
+  =THE DEFENCE OF THE BRIDE=, and Other Poems. By ANNA
+      KATHARINE GREEN. Sq. 16mo, flex. cloth, $1.00.
+
+          "Written with a spirit and force that are
+          impressive."--_Congregationalist._
+
+
+
+
+PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.
+
+
+BAYARD TAYLOR'S NOVELS.
+
+  I. =Hannah Thurston.= A STORY OF AMERICAN LIFE
+      12mo. Household edition,                         $1.50
+
+          "If Bayard Taylor has not placed himself, as we
+          are half inclined to suspect, in the front rank of
+          novelists, he has produced a very remarkable
+          book--a really original story, admirably told,
+          crowded with life-like characters full of delicate
+          and subtle sympathies, with ideas the most
+          opposite to his own, and lighted up throughout
+          with that playful humor which suggests always
+          wisdom rather than mere fun."--_London Spectator._
+
+  II. =John Godfrey's Fortunes.= RELATED BY HIMSELF
+      12mo. Household edition,                         $1.50
+
+          "'John Godfrey's Fortunes,' without being
+          melodramatic or morbid, is one of the most
+          fascinating novels which we have ever read. Its
+          portraiture of American social life, though not
+          flattering, is eminently truthful; its delineation
+          of character is delicate and natural; its English,
+          though sometimes careless, is singularly grateful
+          and pleasant."--_Cleveland Leader._
+
+  III. =The Story of Kennett.= 12mo. Household
+      edition,                                         $1.50
+
+          "Mr. Bayard Taylor's book is _delightful and
+          refreshing reading_, and great rest after the
+          crowded artistic effects and the conventional
+          interests of even the better kind of English
+          novels."--_London Spectator._
+
+          "As a picture of rural life, we think this novel
+          of Mr. Taylor's excels any of his previous
+          productions."--_N. Y. Evening Post._
+
+          "A tale of absorbing interest."--_Syracuse
+          Standard._
+
+
+  IV. =Joseph and his Friend.= A STORY OF PENNSYLVANIA
+          12mo. Household edition,                     $1.50
+
+          "In Bayard Taylor's happiest vein."--_Buffalo
+          Express._
+
+          "By far the best novel of the season."--_Cleveland
+          Leader._
+
+  V. =Beauty and the Beast= and =Tales of Home=. 12mo
+                    Household edition,                 $1.50
+
+
+Bayard Taylor's Complete Works.
+
+  =The Complete Works of Bayard Taylor.= In sixteen
+      volumes. Household edition,                     $24.00
+
+  =The Travels=, separate, eleven volumes. Household
+      edition,                                        $16.50
+
+  The Novels, separate, five volumes, boards.
+      Cedarcroft edition,                              $6.25
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+The original text had page v before pages iii and iv. This was
+rearranged in this edition. The List of Illustrations now follows the
+Table of Contents.
+
+The text uses both "vail" and "veil," "depot" and "depôt."
+
+Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.
+
+Page 17, "have'nt" changed to "haven't" (that haven't much)
+
+Page 29, "vengance" changed to "vengeance" (May the vengeance of Heaven)
+
+Page 138, "yon" changed to "you" (you would be likely)
+
+Page 140, "notwithstandingt he" changed to "notwithstanding the"
+(notwithstanding the humiliating)
+
+Page 221, "infinitesmal" changed to "infinitesimal" (an infinitesimal
+chip from)
+
+Page 227, "obstancy" changed to "obstinacy" (selfishness and obstinacy)
+
+Page 235, "Ferrris" changed to "Ferris" (cried Mr. Ferris, looking)
+
+Page 267, "where" changed to "were" (you were when you)
+
+Page 288, "desparing" changed to "despairing" (The despairing influence)
+
+Page 326, "a" changed to "at" (I am boarding at present)
+
+Page 402, "band" changed to "hand" (lay his hand upon)
+
+Page 410, "unneccessary" changed to "unnecessary" (an unnecessary
+display)
+
+Page 417, "his" changed to "is" (he is trying his influence)
+
+Page 431, "disegarded" changed to "disregarded" (it shall be
+disregarded)
+
+Page 462, "Sueh" changed to "Such" (Such--as--Gouvernour)
+
+Page 526, "thumselves" changed to "themselves" (are amusing themselves)
+
+Page 552, "sor" changed to "for" (promised little for an)
+
+Page 558, "most" changed to "must" (one must also believe)
+
+Page 565, "Gyrce" changed to "Gryce" (Mr. Gryce, with his usual)
+
+Page 591, "surbordinates" changed to "subordinates" (his subordinates
+arose)
+
+
+
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Hand and Ring, by Anna Katharine Green</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Hand and Ring</p>
+<p>Author: Anna Katharine Green</p>
+<p>Release Date: March 17, 2010  [eBook #31681]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAND AND RING***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Emmy,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/c/">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by<br />
+    Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/toronto">http://www.archive.org/details/toronto</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See
+      <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/handring00greeuoft">
+      http://www.archive.org/details/handring00greeuoft</a>
+	</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class='tnote'>
+<b>Transcriber's Note:</b> Clicking on the second diagram (<a href="#Page_364">Page 364</a>) will show the reader a
+larger, and somewhat more readable, version of the same.
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 378px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="378" height="600" alt="Cover" title="" />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+<h3><br /><br /><br />BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Leavenworth Case.</b> <span class="smcap">A Lawyer's Story</span>. 16mo, cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cents; 4to, paper</td><td align='right'>20</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>A Strange Disappearance.</b> 16mo, cloth, $1.00; paper</td><td align='right'>50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Sword of Damocles.</b> 16mo, cloth, $1.00; paper</td><td align='right'>50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>X. Y. Z.</b> <span class="smcap">A Detective Story.</span> 16mo, paper</td><td align='right'>25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Defence of the Bride, and other Poems.</b> Square 8vo., flexible cloth</td><td align='right'>1 00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, PUBLISHERS,<br />
+<small>NEW YORK AND LONDON.</small><br /><br /><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/ill01.jpg" width="600" height="445" alt="&quot;&#39;Look out,&#39; cried the detective, &#39;or you will get yourself into trouble,&#39; and he tightened his grip on the old creature&#39;s arm.&quot;&mdash;(Page 43.) (Frontispiece.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;&#39;Look out,&#39; cried the detective, &#39;or you will get yourself into trouble,&#39; and he tightened his grip on the old creature&#39;s arm.&quot;&mdash;(<a href="#Page_43">Page 43.</a>) <span style="margin-left: 12em;">(Frontispiece.)</span></span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1>HAND AND RING</h1>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>ANNA KATHARINE GREEN</h2>
+
+<div class='copyright'>
+AUTHOR OF "THE LEAVENWORTH CASE", "THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES", "THE<br />
+DEFENSE OF THE BRIDE" ETC., ETC.<br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='blockquot2'><br /><br /><br /><br />
+<p>"For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak with most miraculous
+organ."</p><br /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'><br />
+<br />
+<big>G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS</big><br />
+NEW YORK: 27 &amp; 29 WEST 23D STREET<br />
+LONDON: 25 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN<br />
+1883<br /></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<div class='copyright'>
+<span class="smcap">Copyright by</span><br />
+ANNA KATHARINE GREEN<br />
+1883<br />
+<br /><br /><br />
+
+
+<i>Press of<br />
+G. P. Putnam's Sons<br />
+New York</i><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='3'><i>BOOK I.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='3'>THE GENTLEMAN FROM TOLEDO.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left' colspan='2'><span class="smcap">chapter</span>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">page</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>I.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>A Startling Coincidence</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>An Appeal to Heaven</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>The Unfinished Letter</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Imogene</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Horace Byrd</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>The Skill of an Artist</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Miss Firman</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>The Thick-set Man</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Close Calculations</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_128">128</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>X.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>The Final Test</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Decision</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='3'><br /><i>BOOK II.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='3'>THE WEAVING OF A WEB.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>The Spider</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_168">168</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>The Fly</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>A Last Attempt</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>The End of a Tortuous Path</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_199">199</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Storm</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_205">205</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>A Surprise</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>A Brace of Detectives</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_214">214</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIX.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Mr. Ferris</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_233">233</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XX.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>A Crisis</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_245">245</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>A Heart's Martyrdom</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Craik Mansell</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_264">264</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Mr. Orcutt</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_278">278</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>A True Bill</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_299">299</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Among Telescopes and Charts</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_306">306</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span>XXVI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>"He Shall Hear Me!"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_313">313</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='3'><br /><i>BOOK III.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center' colspan='3'>THE SCALES OF JUSTICE.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXVII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>The Great Trial</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_315">315</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXVIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>The Chief Witness for the Prosecution</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_322">322</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIX.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>The Opening of the Defence</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_350">350</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXX.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Byrd Uses his Pencil Again</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_356">356</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>The Chief Witness for the Defence</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_369">369</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Hickory</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_383">383</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>A Late Discovery</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_392">392</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXIV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>What Was Hid Behind Imogene's Veil</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_411">411</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Pro and Con</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_436">436</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXVI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>A Mistake Rectified</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_465">465</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXVII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Under the Great Tree</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_475">475</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXVIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Unexpected Words</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_502">502</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXIX.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Mr. Gryce</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_516">516</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XL.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>In the Prison</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_529">529</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XLI.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>A Link Supplied</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_555">555</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XLII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Consultations</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_568">568</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XLIII.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Mrs. Firman</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_573">573</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XLIV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>The Widow Clemmens</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_587">587</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XLV.&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>Mr. Gryce Says Good-bye</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_600">600</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="List of Illustrations">
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">PAGE</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>"'Look out,' cried the detective, 'or you will get yourself into trouble,' and he tightened his grip on the old creature's arm."</div></td><td align='right'><i><a href="#Page_i">Frontispiece</a></i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>"Taking her hand in his, he looked at her long and searchingly. 'Imogene,' he exclaimed, 'there is something weighing on your heart.'"</div></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>"He paused, sick and horror-stricken. Her face had risen upon him from the back of the chair, and was staring at him like that of a Medusa."</div></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_252">252</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>Diagram</div></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_364">364</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>"The curtains parted and disclosed the form of Imogene. 'I am coming,' she murmured, and stepped forth."</div></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_402">402</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Note</span>.&mdash;A portion of these illustrations originally appeared in <i>Frank Leslie's Illustrated
+Newspaper</i>, and have been used in this volume through the courtesy of Mrs. Leslie.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+<h2>HAND AND RING.</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>BOOK I.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE GENTLEMAN FROM TOLEDO.</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>I.</h2>
+
+<h3>A STARTLING COINCIDENCE.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+By the pricking of my thumbs,<br />
+Something wicked this way comes.<br />
+<div class='sig'>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Macbeth.</span></div><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THE town clock of Sibley had just struck twelve.
+Court had adjourned, and Judge Evans, with
+one or two of the leading lawyers of the county, stood
+in the door-way of the court-house discussing in a
+friendly way the eccentricities of criminals as developed
+in the case then before the court. Mr. Lord had just
+ventured the assertion that crime as a fine art was
+happily confined to France; to which District Attorney
+Ferris had replied:</div>
+
+<p>"And why? Because atheism has not yet acquired
+such a hold upon our upper classes that gentlemen
+think it possible to meddle with such matters. It is
+only when a student, a doctor, a lawyer, determines
+to put aside from his path the secret stumbling-block<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>
+to his desires or his ambition that the true intellectual
+crime is developed. That brute whom you see slouching
+along over the way is the type of the average
+criminal of the day."</p>
+
+<p>And he indicated with a nod a sturdy, ill-favored man,
+who, with pack on his back, was just emerging from
+a grassy lane that opened out from the street directly
+opposite the court-house.</p>
+
+<p>"Such men are often seen in the dock," remarked
+Mr. Orcutt, of more than local reputation as a criminal
+lawyer. "And often escape the penalty of their crimes,"
+he added, watching, with a curious glance, the lowering
+brow and furtive look of the man who, upon perceiving
+the attention he had attracted, increased his pace till he
+almost broke into a run.</p>
+
+<p>"Looks as if he had been up to mischief," observed
+Judge Evans.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather as if he had heard the sentence which was
+passed upon the last tramp who paid his respects to
+this town," corrected Mr. Lord.</p>
+
+<p>"Revenons &agrave; nos moutons," resumed the District Attorney.
+"Crime, as an investment, does not pay in this
+country. The regular burglar leads a dog's life of it;
+and when you come to the murderer, how few escape
+suspicion if they do the gallows. I do not know of a case
+where a murder for money has been really successful in
+this region."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must have some pretty cute detective work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
+going on here," remarked a young man who had not before
+spoken.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no&mdash;nothing to brag of. But the brutes are so
+clumsy&mdash;that is the word, clumsy. They don't know how
+to cover up their tracks."</p>
+
+<p>"The smart ones don't make tracks," interposed a
+rough voice near them, and a large, red-haired, slightly
+hump-backed man, who, from the looks of those about,
+was evidently a stranger in the place, shuffled forward
+from the pillar against which he had been leaning, and
+took up the thread of conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you," he continued, in a gruff tone somewhat
+out of keeping with the studied abstraction of his keen,
+gray eye, "that half the criminals are caught because they
+do make tracks and then resort to such extraordinary
+means to cover them up. The true secret of success in
+this line lies in striking your blow with a weapon picked
+up on the spot, and in choosing for the scene of your tragedy
+a thoroughfare where, in the natural course of events,
+other men will come and go and unconsciously tread out
+your traces, provided you have made any. This dissipates
+suspicion, or starts it in so many directions that
+justice is at once confused, if not ultimately baffled.
+Look at that house yonder," the stranger pursued, pointing
+to a plain dwelling on the opposite corner. "While
+we have been standing here, several persons of one kind
+or another, and among them a pretty rough-looking tramp,
+have gone into the side gate and so around to the kitchen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+door and back. I don't know who lives there, but say it
+is a solitary old woman above keeping help, and that an
+hour from now some one, not finding her in the house,
+searches through the garden and comes upon her lying
+dead behind the wood-pile, struck down by her own axe.
+On whom are you going to lay your hand in suspicion?
+On the stranger, of course&mdash;the rough-looking tramp
+that everybody thinks is ready for bloodshed at the
+least provocation. But suspicion is not conviction, and I
+would dare wager that no court, in face of a persistent
+denial on his part that he even saw the old woman when
+he went to her door, would bring in a verdict of murder
+against him, even though silver from her private drawer
+were found concealed upon his person. The chance that he
+spoke the truth, and that she was not in the house when he
+entered, and that his crime had been merely one of burglary
+or theft, would be enough to save him from the
+hangman."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true," assented Mr. Lord, "unless all the
+other persons who had been seen to go into the yard were
+not only reputable men, but were willing to testify to having
+seen the woman alive up to the time he invaded her
+premises."</p>
+
+<p>But the hump-backed stranger had already lounged
+away.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think about this, Mr. Byrd?" inquired
+the District Attorney, turning to the young man before alluded
+to. "You are an expert in these matters, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+ought to be. What would you give for the tramp's
+chances if the detectives took him in hand?"</p>
+
+<p>"I, sir?" was the response. "I am so comparatively
+young and inexperienced in such affairs, that I scarcely
+dare presume to express an opinion. But I have heard
+it said by Mr. Gryce, who you know stands foremost
+among the detectives of New York, that the only case of
+murder in which he utterly failed to get any clue to work
+upon, was that of a Jew who was knocked down in his
+own shop in broad daylight. But this will not appear so
+strange when you learn the full particulars. The store
+was situated between two alley-ways in Harlem. It had
+an entrance back and an entrance front. Both were in
+constant use. The man was found behind his counter,
+having evidently been hit on the head by a slung-shot
+while reaching for a box of hosiery. But though a succession
+of people were constantly passing by both doors,
+there was for that very reason no one to tell which of all
+the men who were observed to enter the shop, came out
+again with blood upon his conscience. Nor were the circumstances
+of the Jew's life such as to assist justice. The
+most careful investigation failed to disclose the existence
+of any enemy, nor was he found to possess in this country,
+at least, any relative who could have hoped to be
+benefited by the few dollars he had saved from a late
+bankruptcy. The only conclusion to be drawn is that the
+man was secretly in the way of some one and was as
+secretly put out of it, but for what purpose or by whose
+hand, time has never disclosed."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"There is one, however, who knows both," affirmed
+Judge Evans, impressively.</p>
+
+<p>"The man himself?"</p>
+
+<p>"God!"</p>
+
+<p>The solemnity with which this was uttered caused a
+silence, during which Mr. Orcutt looked at his watch.</p>
+
+<p>"I must go to dinner," he announced, withdrawing,
+with a slight nod, across the street.</p>
+
+<p>The rest stood for a few minutes abstractedly contemplating
+his retreating figure, as with an energetic pace all
+his own he passed down the little street that opened opposite
+to where they stood, and entered the unpretending
+cottage of a widow lady, with whom he was in the habit
+of taking his mid-day meal whenever he had a case before
+the court.</p>
+
+<p>A lull was over the whole village, and the few remaining
+persons on the court-house steps were about to separate,
+when Mr. Lord uttered an exclamation and pointed
+to the cottage into which they had just seen Mr. Orcutt
+disappear. Immediately all eyes looked that way and
+saw the lawyer standing on the stoop, having evidently
+issued with the utmost precipitation from the house.</p>
+
+<p>"He is making signs," cried Mr. Lord to Mr. Ferris;
+and scarcely knowing what they feared, both gentlemen
+crossed the way and hurried down the street toward
+their friend, who, with unusual tokens of disturbance in
+his manner, ran forward to meet them.</p>
+
+<p>"A murder!" he excitedly exclaimed, as soon as he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+came within speaking distance. "A strange and startling
+coincidence. Mrs. Clemmens has been struck on the
+head, and is lying covered with blood at the foot of her
+dining-room table."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lord and the District Attorney stared at each
+other in a maze of surprise and horror easily to be comprehended,
+and then they rushed forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment," the latter suddenly cried, stopping
+short and looking back. "Where is the fellow who talked
+so learnedly about murder and the best way of making a
+success of it. He must be found at once. I don't believe
+in coincidences." And he beckoned to the person
+they had called Byrd, who with very pardonable curiosity
+was hurrying their way. "Go find Hunt, the constable,"
+he cried; "tell him to stop and retain the humpback.
+A woman here has been found murdered, and that fellow
+must have known something about it."</p>
+
+<p>The young man stared, flushed with sudden intelligence,
+and darted off. Mr. Ferris turned, found Mr.
+Orcutt still at his side, and drew him forward to rejoin
+Mr. Lord, who by this time was at the door of the
+cottage.</p>
+
+<p>They all went in together, Mr. Ferris, who was of an
+adventurous disposition, leading the way. The room
+into which they first stepped was empty. It was evidently
+the widow's sitting-room, and was in perfect order, with
+the exception of Mr. Orcutt's hat, which lay on the centre-table
+where he had laid it on entering. Neat, without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+being prim, the entire aspect of the place was one of
+comfort, ease, and modest luxury. For, though the
+Widow Clemmens lived alone and without help, she was
+by no means an indigent person, as a single glance at her
+house would show. The door leading into the farther
+room was open, and toward this they hastened, led by
+the glitter of the fine old china service which loaded the
+dining-table.</p>
+
+<p>"She is there," said Mr. Orcutt, pointing to the other
+side of the room.</p>
+
+<p>They immediately passed behind the table, and there,
+sure enough, lay the prostrate figure of the widow, her
+head bleeding, her arms extended, one hand grasping her
+watch, which she had loosened from her belt, the other
+stretched toward a stick of firewood, that, from the mark
+of blood upon its side, had evidently been used to fell
+her to the floor. She was motionless as stone, and was,
+to all appearance, dead.</p>
+
+<p>"Sickening, sickening!&mdash;horrible!" exclaimed Mr.
+Lord, recoiling upon the District Attorney with a gesture,
+as if he would put the frightful object out of his sight.
+"What motive could any one have for killing such an inoffensive
+woman? The deviltry of man is beyond
+belief!"</p>
+
+<p>"And after what we have heard, inexplicable," asserted
+Mr. Ferris. "To be told of a supposable case of murder
+one minute, and then to see it exemplified in this dreadful
+way the next, is an experience of no common order.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+I own I am overcome by it." And he flung open a door
+that communicated with the lane and let the outside air
+sweep in.</p>
+
+<p>"That door was unlocked," remarked Mr. Lord,
+glancing at Mr. Orcutt, who stood with severe, set face,
+looking down at the outstretched form which, for several
+years now, had so often sat opposite to him at his noonday
+meal.</p>
+
+<p>With a start the latter looked up. "What did you say?
+The door unlocked? There is nothing strange in that.
+She never locked her doors, though she was so very deaf
+I often advised her to." And he allowed his eyes to run
+over the wide stretch of low, uncultivated ground before
+him, that, in the opinion of many persons, was such a decided
+blot upon the town. "There is no one in sight," he
+reluctantly admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"No," responded the other. "The ground is unfavorable
+for escape. It is marshy and covered with snake
+grass. A man could make his way, however, between
+the hillocks into those woods yonder, if he were driven by
+fear or understood the path well. What is the matter,
+Orcutt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," affirmed the latter,&mdash;"nothing, I thought I
+heard a groan."</p>
+
+<p>"You heard me make an exclamation," spoke up Mr.
+Ferris, who by this time had sufficiently overcome his
+emotion to lift the head of the prostrate woman and look
+in her face. "This woman is not dead."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What!" they both cried, bounding forward.</p>
+
+<p>"See, she breathes," continued the former, pointing to
+her slowly laboring chest. "The villain, whoever he was,
+did not do his work well; she may be able to tell us something
+yet."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think so," murmured Mr. Orcutt. "Such a
+blow as that must have destroyed her faculties, if not her
+life. It was of cruel force."</p>
+
+<p>"However that may be, she ought to be taken care
+of now," cried Mr. Ferris. "I wish Dr. Tredwell was
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"I will go for him," signified the other.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not necessary. Scarcely had the lawyer
+turned to execute this mission, when a sudden murmur
+was heard at the door, and a dozen or so citizens burst
+into the house, among them the very person named.
+Being coroner as well as physician, he at once assumed
+authority. The widow was carried into her room, which
+was on the same floor, and a brother practitioner sent for,
+who took his place at her head and waited for any sign of
+returning consciousness. The crowd, remanded to the
+yard, spent their time alternately in furtive questionings
+of each other's countenances, and in eager look-out for
+the expected return of the strange young man who had
+been sent after the incomprehensible humpback of
+whom all had heard. The coroner, closeted with the
+District Attorney in the dining-room, busied himself in
+noting certain evident facts.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am, perhaps, forestalling my duties in interfering
+before the woman is dead," intimated the former. "But
+it is only a matter of a few hours, and any facts we can
+glean in the interim must be of value to a proper conduct
+of the inquiry I shall be called upon to hold. I
+shall therefore make the same note of the position of affairs
+as I would do if she were dead; and to begin with,
+I wish you to observe that she was hit while setting the
+clock." And he pointed to the open door of the huge
+old-fashioned timepiece which occupied that corner of
+the room in which she had been found. "She had not
+even finished her task," he next remarked, "for the
+clock is still ten minutes slow, while her watch is just
+right, as you will see by comparing it with your own.
+She was attacked from behind, and to all appearances unexpectedly.
+Had she turned, her forehead would have
+been struck, while, as all can see, it is the back of her head
+that has suffered, and that from a right-hand blow.
+Her deafness was undoubtedly the cause of her immobility
+under the approach of such an assailant. She
+did not hear his step, and, being so busily engaged, saw
+nothing of the cruel hand uplifted to destroy her. I
+doubt if she even knew what happened. The mystery is
+that any one could have sufficiently desired her death to
+engage in such a cold-blooded butchery. If plunder
+were wanted, why was not her watch taken from her?
+And see, here is a pile of small change lying beside her
+plate on the table,&mdash;a thing a tramp would make for at
+once."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It was not a thief that struck her."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, we don't know. I have my own theory,"
+admitted the coroner; "but, of course, it will not do for
+me to mention it here. The stick was taken from that
+pile laid ready on the hearth," he went on. "Odd, significantly
+odd, that in all its essential details this affair
+should tally so completely with the supposable case of
+crime given a moment before by the deformed wretch
+you tell me about."</p>
+
+<p>"Not if that man was a madman and the assailant,"
+suggested the District Attorney.</p>
+
+<p>"True, but I do not think he was mad&mdash;not from what
+you have told me. But let us see what the commotion is.
+Some one has evidently arrived."</p>
+
+<p>It was Mr. Byrd, who had entered by the front door,
+and deaf to the low murmur of the impatient crowd
+without, stood waiting in silent patience for an opportunity
+to report to the District Attorney the results of his
+efforts.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris at once welcomed him.</p>
+
+<p>"What have you done? Did you find the constable
+or succeed in laying hands on that scamp of a humpback?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd, who, to explain at once, was a young and
+intelligent detective, who had been brought from New
+York for purposes connected with the case then before
+the court, glanced carefully in the direction of the coroner
+and quietly replied:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The hump-backed scamp, as you call him, has disappeared.
+Whether he will be found or not I cannot
+say. Hunt is on his track, and will report to you
+in an hour. The tramp whom you saw slinking out
+of this street while we stood on the court-house steps
+is doubtless the man whom you most want, and him
+we have captured."</p>
+
+<p>"You have?" repeated Mr. Ferris, eying, with good-natured
+irony, the young man's gentlemanly but rather
+indifferent face. "And what makes you think it is the
+tramp who is the guilty one in this case? Because that
+ingenious stranger saw fit to make him such a prominent
+figure in his suppositions?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," replied the detective, flushing with a momentary
+embarrassment he however speedily overcame;
+"I do not found my opinions upon any man's remarks.
+I only&mdash;&mdash; Excuse me," said he, with a quiet air of self-control
+that was not without its effect upon the sensible
+man he was addressing. "If you will tell me how, where,
+and under what circumstances this poor murdered woman
+was found, perhaps I shall be better able to explain my
+reasons for believing in the tramp as the guilty party;
+though the belief, even of a detective, goes for but little
+in matters of this kind, as you and these other gentlemen
+very well know."</p>
+
+<p>"Step here, then," signified Mr. Ferris, who, accompanied
+by the coroner, had already passed around the
+table. "Do you see that clock? She was winding it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+when she was struck, and fell almost at its foot. The
+weapon which did the execution lies over there; it is a
+stick of firewood, as you see, and was caught up from
+that pile on the hearth. Now recall what that humpback
+said about choosing a thoroughfare for a murder (and
+this house is a thoroughfare), and the peculiar stress
+which he laid upon the choice of a weapon, and tell me
+why you think he is innocent of this immediate and most
+remarkable exemplification of his revolting theory?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me first ask," ventured the other, with a remaining
+tinge of embarrassment coloring his cheek, "if you
+have reason to think this woman had been lying long
+where she was found, or was she struck soon before the
+discovery?"</p>
+
+<p>"Soon. The dinner was still smoking in the kitchen,
+where it had been dished up ready for serving."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," declared the detective with sudden confidence,
+"a single word will satisfy you that the humpback
+was not the man who delivered this stroke. To lay that
+woman low at the foot of this clock would require the
+presence of the assailant in the room. Now, the humpback
+was not here this morning, but in the court-room. I
+know this, for I saw him there."</p>
+
+<p>"You did? You are sure of that?" cried, in a breath,
+both his hearers, somewhat taken aback by this revelation.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. He sat down by the door. I noticed him particularly."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! that is odd," quoth Mr. Ferris, with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+testiness of an irritable man who sees himself contradicted
+in a publicly expressed theory.</p>
+
+<p>"Very odd," repeated the coroner; "so odd, I am
+inclined to think he did not sit there every moment of
+the time. It is but a step from the court-house here; he
+might well have taken the trip and returned while you
+wiped your eye-glasses or was otherwise engaged."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd did not see fit to answer this.</p>
+
+<p>"The tramp is an ugly-looking customer," he remarked,
+in what was almost a careless tone of voice.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris covered with his hand the pile of loose
+change that was yet lying on the table, and shortly observed:</p>
+
+<p>"A tramp to commit such a crime must be actuated
+either by rage or cupidity; that you will acknowledge.
+Now the fellow who struck this woman could not have
+been excited by any sudden anger, for the whole position
+of her body when found proves that she had not even
+turned to face the intruder, much less engaged in an
+altercation with him. Yet how could it have been money
+he was after, when a tempting bit like this remained undisturbed
+upon the table?"</p>
+
+<p>And Mr. Ferris, with a sudden gesture, disclosed to
+view the pile of silver coin he had been concealing.</p>
+
+<p>The young detective shook his head but lost none of
+his seeming indifference. "That is one of the little
+anomalies of criminal experience that we were talking
+about this morning," he remarked. "Perhaps the fellow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+was frightened and lost his head, or perhaps he really
+heard some one at the door, and was obliged to escape
+without reaping any of the fruits of his crime."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps and perhaps," retorted Mr. Ferris, who was
+a quick man, and who, once settled in a belief, was not to
+be easily shaken out of it.</p>
+
+<p>"However that may be," continued Mr. Byrd, without
+seeming to notice the irritating interruption, "I still think
+that the tramp, rather than the humpback, will be the
+man to occupy your future attention."</p>
+
+<p>And with a deprecatory bow to both gentlemen, he
+drew back and quietly left the room.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris at once recovered from his momentary loss
+of temper.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose the young man is right," he acknowledged;
+"but, if so, what an encouragement we have received this
+morning to a belief in clairvoyance." And with less
+irony and more conviction, he added: "The humpback
+<i>must</i> have known something about the murder."</p>
+
+<p>And the coroner bowed; common-sense undoubtedly
+agreeing with this assumption.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p>
+<h2>II.</h2>
+
+<h3>AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+Her step was royal&mdash;queen-like.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Longfellow.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>IT was now half-past one. An hour and a half had
+elapsed since the widow had been laid upon her bed,
+and to all appearance no change had taken place in her
+condition. Within the room where she lay were collected
+the doctor and one or two neighbors of the female sex,
+who watched every breath she drew, and stood ready to
+notice the slightest change in the stony face that, dim with
+the shadow of death, stared upon them from the unruffled
+pillows. In the sitting-room Lawyer Orcutt conversed
+in a subdued voice with Mr. Ferris, in regard to
+such incidents of the widow's life as had come under his
+notice in the years of their daily companionship, while
+the crowd about the gate vented their interest in loud exclamations
+of wrath against the tramp who had been
+found, and the unknown humpback who had not. Our
+story leads us into the crowd in front.</div>
+
+<p>"I don't think she'll ever come to," said one, who
+from his dusty coat might have been a miller. "Blows
+like that <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'have'nt'">haven't</ins> much let-up about them."</p>
+
+<p>"Doctor says she will die before morning," put in a
+pert young miss, anxious to have her voice heard.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Then it will be murder and no mistake, and that
+brute of a tramp will hang as high as Haman."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't condemn a man before you've had a chance to
+hear what he has to say for himself," cried another in a
+strictly judicial tone. "How do you know as he came to
+this house at all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Perkins says he did, and Mrs. Phillips too; they
+saw him go into the gate."</p>
+
+<p>"And what else did they see? I warrant he wasn't the
+only beggar that was roaming round this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"No; there was a tin peddler in the street, for I saw
+him my own self, and Mrs. Clemmens standing in the
+door flourishing her broom at him. She was mighty short
+with such folks. Wouldn't wonder if some of the unholy
+wretches killed her out of spite. They're a wicked lot,
+the whole of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Widow Clemmens had a quick temper, but she had a
+mighty good heart notwithstanding. See how kind she
+was to them Hubbells."</p>
+
+<p>"And how hard she was to that Pratt girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I know, but&mdash;&mdash;" And so on and so on, in a
+hum and a buzz about the head of Mr. Byrd, who, engaged
+in thought seemingly far removed from the subject
+in hand, stood leaning against the fence, careless and <i>insouciant</i>.
+Suddenly there was a lull, then a short cry,
+then a woman's voice rose clear, ringing, and commanding,
+and Mr. Byrd caught the following words:</p>
+
+<p>"What is this I hear? Mrs. Clemmens dead? Struck<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+down by some wandering tramp? Murdered and in her
+own house?"</p>
+
+<p>In an instant, every eye, including Mr. Byrd's, was
+fixed upon the speaker. The crowd parted, and the
+young girl, who had spoken from the street, came into
+the gate. She was a remarkable-looking person. Tall,
+large, and majestic in every proportion of an unusually
+noble figure, she was of a make and possessed a bearing
+to attract attention had she borne a less striking and
+beautiful countenance. As it was, the glance lingered
+but a moment on the grand curves and lithe loveliness of
+that matchless figure, and passed at once to the face.
+Once there, it did not soon wander; for though its beauty
+was incontestable, the something that lay behind that
+beauty was more incontestable still, and held you, in spite
+of yourself, long after you had become acquainted with
+the broad white brow, the clear, deep, changing gray eye,
+the straight but characteristic nose, and the ruddy, nervous
+lip. You felt that, young and beautiful as she was,
+and charming as she might be, she was also one of
+nature's unsolvable mysteries&mdash;a woman whom you might
+study, obey, adore, but whom you could never hope to
+understand; a Sphinx without an &OElig;dipus. She was
+dressed in dark green, and held her gloves in her hand.
+Her appearance was that of one who had been profoundly
+startled.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't some one answer me?" she asked, after
+an instant's pause, seemingly unconscious that, alike to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+those who knew her and to those who did not, her air and
+manner were such as to naturally impose silence. "Must
+I go into the house in order to find out if this good
+woman is dead or not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Shure she isn't dead yet," spoke up a brawny butcher-boy,
+bolder than the rest. "But she's sore hurt, miss,
+and the doctors say as how there is no hope."</p>
+
+<p>A change impossible to understand passed over the
+girl's face. Had she been less vigorous of body, she
+would have staggered. As it was, she stood still, rigidly
+still, and seemed to summon up her faculties, till the very
+clinch of her fingers spoke of the strong control she was
+putting upon herself.</p>
+
+<p>"It is dreadful, dreadful!" she murmured, this time
+in a whisper, and as if to some rising protest in her own
+soul. "No good can come of it, none." Then, as if
+awakening to the scene about her, shook her head and
+cried to those nearest: "It was a tramp who did it, I
+suppose; at least, I am told so."</p>
+
+<p>"A tramp has been took up, miss, on suspicion, as they
+call it."</p>
+
+<p>"If a tramp has been taken up on suspicion, then he
+was the one who assailed her, of course." And pushing
+on through the crowd that fell back still more awe-struck
+than before, she went into the house.</p>
+
+<p>The murmur that followed her was subdued but universal.
+It made no impression on Mr. Byrd. He had
+leaned forward to watch the girl's retreating form, but,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+finding his view intercepted by the wrinkled profile of
+an old crone who had leaned forward too, had drawn
+impatiently back. Something in that crone's aged face
+made him address her.</p>
+
+<p>"You know the lady?" he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the cautious reply, given, however, with a
+leer he found not altogether pleasant.</p>
+
+<p>"She is a relative of the injured woman, or a friend,
+perhaps?"</p>
+
+<p>The old woman's face looked frightful.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she muttered grimly; "they are strangers."</p>
+
+<p>At this unexpected response Mr. Byrd made a perceptible
+start forward. The old woman's hand fell at
+once on his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Stay!" she hoarsely whispered. "By strangers I
+mean they don't visit each other. The town is too small
+for any of us to be strangers."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd nodded and escaped her clutch.</p>
+
+<p>"This is worth seeing through," he murmured, with
+the first gleam of interest he had shown in the affair.
+And, hurrying forward, he succeeded in following the
+lady into the house.</p>
+
+<p>The sight he met there did not tend to allay his newborn
+interest. There she stood in the centre of the sitting-room,
+tall, resolute, and commanding, her eyes fixed
+on the door of the room that contained the still breathing
+sufferer, Mr. Orcutt's eyes fixed upon her. It seemed
+as if she had asked one question and been answered;
+there had not been time for more.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I do not know what to say in apology for my intrusion,"
+she remarked. "But the death, or almost the
+death, of a person of whom we have all heard, seems to
+me so terrible that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But here Mr. Orcutt interrupted gently, almost tenderly,
+but with a fatherly authority which Mr. Byrd expected
+to see her respect.</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene," he observed, "this is no place for you;
+the horror of the event has made you forget yourself; go
+home and trust me to tell you on my return all that it is
+advisable for you to know."</p>
+
+<p>But she did not even meet his glance with her steady
+eyes. "Thank you," she protested; "but I cannot go
+till I have seen the place where this woman fell and the
+weapon with which she was struck. I want to see it all.
+Mr. Ferris, will you show me?" And without giving
+any reason for this extraordinary request, she stood waiting
+with that air of conscious authority which is sometimes
+given by great beauty when united to a distinguished
+personal presence.</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney, taken aback, moved toward the
+dining-room door. "I will consult with the coroner,"
+said he.</p>
+
+<p>But she waited for no man's leave. Following close
+behind him, she entered upon the scene of the tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>"Where was the poor woman hit?" she inquired.</p>
+
+<p>They told her; they showed her all she desired and
+asked her no questions. She awed them, all but Mr.
+Orcutt&mdash;him she both astonished and alarmed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And a tramp did all this?" she finally exclaimed, in
+the odd, musing tone she had used once before, while her
+eye fell thoughtfully to the floor. Suddenly she started,
+or so Mr. Byrd fondly imagined, and moved a pace, setting
+her foot carefully down upon a certain spot in the
+carpet beneath her.</p>
+
+<p>"She has spied something," he thought, and watched
+to see if she would stoop.</p>
+
+<p>But no, she held herself still more erectly than before,
+and seemed, by her rather desultory inquiries, to be
+striving to engage the attention of the others from herself.</p>
+
+<p>"There is some one surely tapping at this door," she
+intimated, pointing to the one that opened into the lane.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Tredwell moved to see.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there not?" she repeated, glancing at Mr. Ferris.</p>
+
+<p>He, too, turned to see.</p>
+
+<p>But there was still an eye regarding her from behind
+the sitting-room door, and, perceiving it, she impatiently
+ceased her efforts. She was not mistaken about the
+tapping. A man was at the door whom both gentlemen
+seemed to know.</p>
+
+<p>"I come from the tavern where they are holding this
+tramp in custody," announced the new-comer in a voice
+too low to penetrate into the room. "He is frightened
+almost out of his wits. Seems to think he was taken up
+for theft, and makes no bones of saying that he did take
+a spoon or two from a house where he was let in for a
+bite. He gave up the spoons and expects to go to jail,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+but seems to have no idea that any worse suspicion is
+hanging over him. Those that stand around think he is
+innocent of the murder."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! well, we will see," ejaculated Mr. Ferris;
+and, turning back, he met, with a certain sort of complacence,
+the eyes of the young lady who had been somewhat
+impatiently awaiting his reappearance. "It seems
+there are doubts, after all, about the tramp being the
+assailant."</p>
+
+<p>The start she gave was sudden and involuntary. She
+took a step forward and then paused as if hesitating.
+Instantly, Mr. Byrd, who had not forgotten the small
+object she had been covering with her foot, sauntered
+leisurely forward, and, spying a ring on the floor where
+she had been standing, unconcernedly picked it up.</p>
+
+<p>She did not seem to notice him. Looking at Mr.
+Ferris with eyes whose startled, if not alarmed, expression
+she did not succeed in hiding from the detective, she
+inquired, in a stifled voice:</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean? What has this man been telling
+you? You say it was not the tramp. Who, then, was it?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is a question we cannot answer," rejoined Mr.
+Ferris, astonished at her heat, while Lawyer Orcutt,
+moving forward, attempted once more to recall her to
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene," he pleaded,&mdash;"Imogene, calm yourself.
+This is not a matter of so much importance to you that
+you need agitate yourself so violently in regard to it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+Come home, I beseech you, and leave the affairs of justice
+to the attention of those whose duty it is to look after
+them."</p>
+
+<p>But beyond acknowledging his well-meant interference
+by a deprecatory glance, she stood immovable, looking
+from Dr. Tredwell to Mr. Ferris, and back again to Dr.
+Tredwell, as if she sought in their faces some confirmation
+of a hideous doubt or fear that had arisen in her own
+mind. Suddenly she felt a touch on her arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me, madam, but is this yours?" inquired a
+smooth and careless voice over her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>As though awakening from a dream she turned; they
+all turned. Mr. Byrd was holding out in his open palm
+a ring blazing with a diamond of no mean lustre or
+value.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of such a jewel, presented at such a moment,
+completed the astonishment of her friends. Pressing
+forward, they stared at the costly ornament and then at
+her, Mr. Orcutt's face especially assuming a startled
+expression of mingled surprise and apprehension, that
+soon attracted the attention of the others, and led to an
+interchange of looks that denoted a mutual but not
+unpleasant understanding.</p>
+
+<p>"I found it at your feet," explained the detective, still
+carelessly, but with just that delicate shade of respect in
+his voice necessary to express a gentleman's sense of presumption
+in thus addressing a strange and beautiful young
+lady.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The tone, if not the explanation, seemed to calm her,
+as powerful natures are calmed in the stress of a sudden
+crisis.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," she returned, not without signs of great
+sweetness in her look and manner. "Yes, it is mine," she
+added slowly, reaching out her hand and taking the ring.
+"I must have dropped it without knowing it." And
+meeting the eye of Mr. Orcutt fixed upon her with that
+startled look of inquiry already alluded to, she flushed, but
+placed the jewel nonchalantly on her finger.</p>
+
+<p>This cool appropriation of something he had no reason
+to believe hers, startled the youthful detective immeasurably.
+He had not expected such a <i>d&eacute;nouement</i> to the little
+drama he had prepared with such quiet assurance, and,
+though with the quick self-control that distinguished him
+he forbore to show his surprise, he none the less felt baffled
+and ill at ease, all the more that the two gentlemen
+present, who appeared to be the most disinterested in
+their regard for this young lady, seemed to accept this
+act on her part as genuine, and therefore not to be questioned.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a clue that is lost," thought he. "I have made
+a mess of my first unassisted efforts at real detective
+work." And, inwardly disgusted with himself, he drew
+back into the other room and took up his stand at a remote
+window.</p>
+
+<p>The slight stir he made in crossing the room seemed to
+break a spell and restore the minds of all present to their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+proper balance. Mr. Orcutt threw off the shadow that
+had momentarily disturbed his quiet and assured mien,
+and advancing once more, held out his arm with even
+more kindness than before, saying impressively:</p>
+
+<p>"Now you will surely consent to accompany me
+home. You cannot mean to remain here any longer, can
+you, Imogene?"</p>
+
+<p>But before she could reply, before her hand could lay
+itself on his arm, a sudden hush like that of awe passed
+solemnly through the room, and the physician, who had
+been set to watch over the dying gasps of the poor sufferer
+within, appeared on the threshold of the bedroom
+door, holding up his hand with a look that at once commanded
+attention and awoke the most painful expectancy
+in the hearts of all who beheld him:</p>
+
+<p>"She stirs; she moves her lips," he announced, and
+again paused, listening.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately there was a sound from the dimness behind
+him, a low sound, inarticulate at first, but presently
+growing loud enough and plain enough to be heard in the
+utmost recesses of the furthermost room on that floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Hand! ring!" was the burden of the short ejaculation
+they heard. "Ring! hand!" till a sudden gasp cut
+short the fearful iteration, and all was silent again.</p>
+
+<p>"Great heavens!" came in an awe-struck whisper from
+Mr. Ferris, as he pressed hastily toward the place from
+which these words had issued.</p>
+
+<p>But the physician at once stopped and silenced him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She may speak again," he suggested. "Wait."</p>
+
+<p>But, though they listened breathlessly, and with ever-growing
+suspense, no further break occurred in the deep
+silence, and soon the doctor announced:</p>
+
+<p>"She has sunk back into her old state; she may rouse
+again, and she may not."</p>
+
+<p>As though released from some painful tension, the
+coroner, the District Attorney, and the detective all
+looked up. They found Miss Dare standing by the open
+window, with her face turned to the landscape, and Mr.
+Orcutt gazing at her with an expression of perplexity that
+had almost the appearance of dismay. This look passed
+instantly from the lawyer's countenance as he met the
+eyes of his friends, but Mr. Byrd, who was still smarting
+under a sense of his late defeat, could not but wonder
+what that gentleman had seen in Miss Dare, during the
+period of their late preoccupation, to call up such an expression
+to his usually keen and composed face.</p>
+
+<p>The clinch of her white hand on the window-sill told
+nothing; but when in a few moments later she turned
+toward them again, Mr. Byrd saw, or thought he saw, the
+last lingering remains of a great horror fading out of her
+eyes, and was not surprised when she walked up to Mr.
+Orcutt and said, somewhat hoarsely: "I wish to go home
+now. This place is a terrible one to be in."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt, who was only too glad to comply with her
+request, again offered her his arm. But anxious as they
+evidently were to quit the house, they were not allowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+to do so without experiencing another shock.
+Just as they were passing the door of the room where the
+wounded woman lay, the physician in attendance again
+appeared before them with that silently uplifted hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" said he; "she stirs again. I think she is
+going to speak."</p>
+
+<p>And once more that terrible suspense held each and
+every one enthralled: once more that faint, inarticulate
+murmur eddied through the house, growing gradually into
+speech that this time took a form that curdled the blood
+of the listeners, and made Mr. Orcutt and the young
+woman at his side drop apart from each other as though
+a dividing sword had passed between them.</p>
+
+<p>"May the <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'vengance'">vengeance</ins> of Heaven light upon the head of
+him who has brought me to this pass," were the words
+that now rose ringing and clear from that bed of death.
+"May the fate that has come upon me be visited upon
+him, measure for measure, blow for blow, death for
+death."</p>
+
+<p>Strange and awe-inspiring words, that drew a pall over
+that house and made the dullest person there gasp for
+breath. In the silence that followed&mdash;a silence that
+could be felt&mdash;the white faces of lawyer and physician,
+coroner and detective, turned and confronted each other.
+But the young lady who lingered in their midst looked at
+no one, turned to no one. Shuddering and white, she
+stood gazing before her as if she already beheld that retributive
+hand descending upon the head of the guilty; then,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+as she awoke to the silence of those around her, gave
+a quick start and flashed forward to the door and so out
+into the street before Mr. Orcutt could rouse himself sufficiently
+from the stupor of the moment to follow her.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p>
+<h2>III.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE UNFINISHED LETTER.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Faith, thou hast some crotchets in thy head now.<br />
+<div class='sig'>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Merry Wives of Windsor.</span></div><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>"WOULD there be any indiscretion in my asking
+who that young lady is?" inquired Mr. Byrd
+of Mr. Ferris, as, after ascertaining that the stricken sufferer
+still breathed, they stood together in a distant corner
+of the dining-room.</div>
+
+<p>"No," returned the other, in a low tone, with a glance
+in the direction of the lawyer, who was just re-entering
+the house, after an unsuccessful effort to rejoin the person
+of whom they were speaking. "She is a Miss Dare,
+a young lady much admired in this town, and believed
+by many to be on the verge of matrimony with&mdash;&mdash;" He
+nodded toward Mr. Orcutt, and discreetly forbore to
+finish the sentence.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" exclaimed the youthful detective, "I understand."
+And he cast a look of suddenly awakened
+interest at the man who, up to this time, he had merely
+regarded as a more than usually acute criminal lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>He saw a small, fair, alert man, of some forty years of
+age, of a good carriage, easy manner, and refined cast of
+countenance, overshadowed now by a secret anxiety<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+he vainly tried to conceal. He was not as handsome
+as Coroner Tredwell, nor as well built as Mr. Ferris, yet
+he was, without doubt, the most striking-looking man in
+the room, and, to the masculine eyes of the detective,
+seemed at first glance to be a person to win the admiration,
+if not the affection, of women.</p>
+
+<p>"She appears to take a great interest in this affair," he
+ventured again, looking back at Mr. Ferris.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is woman's way," replied the other, lightly,
+without any hint of secret feeling or curiosity. "Besides,
+she is an inscrutable girl, always surprising you by
+her emotions&mdash;or by her lack of them," he added, dismissing
+the topic with a wave of his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Which is also woman's way," remarked Mr. Byrd, retiring
+into his shell, from which he had momentarily
+thrust his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Does it not strike you that there are rather more
+persons present than are necessary for the purposes of
+justice?" asked the lawyer, now coming forward with
+a look of rather pointed significance at the youthful
+stranger.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris at once spoke up. "Mr. Orcutt," said he,
+"let me introduce to you Mr. Byrd, of New York. He
+is a member of the police force, and has been rendering
+me assistance in the case just adjourned."</p>
+
+<p>"A detective!" repeated the other, eying the young
+man with a critical eye. "It is a pity, sir," he finally
+observed, "that your present duties will not allow you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+to render service to justice in this case of mysterious
+assault." And with a bow of more kindness than
+Mr. Byrd had reason to look for, he went slowly back to
+his former place near the door that hid the suffering
+woman from sight.</p>
+
+<p>However kindly expressed, Mr. Byrd felt that he had
+received his dismissal, and was about to withdraw, when
+the coroner, who had been absent from their midst for
+the last few minutes, approached them from the foot of
+the stairs, and tapped the detective on the arm.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you," said he.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd bowed, and with a glance toward the District
+Attorney, who returned him a nod of approval, went
+quickly out with the coroner.</p>
+
+<p>"I hear you are a detective," observed the latter, taking
+him up stairs into a room which he carefully locked
+behind them. "A detective on the spot in a case like
+this is valuable; are you willing to assume the duties of
+your profession and act for justice in this matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Tredwell," returned the young man, instantly
+conscious of a vague, inward shrinking from meddling
+further in the affair, "I am not at present master of my
+proceedings. To say nothing of the obedience I owe my
+superiors at home, I am just now engaged in assisting
+Mr. Ferris in the somewhat pressing matter now before
+the court, and do not know whether it would meet with
+his approval to have me mix up matters in this way."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Ferris is a reasonable man," said the coroner.
+"If his consent is all that is necessary&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But it is not, sir. I must have orders from New
+York."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, as to that, I will telegraph at once."</p>
+
+<p>But still the young man hesitated, lounging in his
+easy way against the table by which he had taken his
+stand.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Tredwell," he suggested, "you must have men
+in this town amply able to manage such a matter as this.
+A woman struck in broad daylight and a man already
+taken up on suspicion! 'Tis simple, surely; intricate
+measures are not wanted here."</p>
+
+<p>"So you still think it is the tramp that struck her?"
+quoth the coroner, a trifle baffled by the other's careless
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>"I still think it was not the man who sat in court all
+the morning and held me fascinated by his eye."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, he held you fascinated, did he?" repeated the
+other, a trifle suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is," Mr. Byrd allowed, with the least perceptible
+loss of his easy bearing, "he made me look at
+him more than once. A wandering eye always attracts
+me, and his wandered constantly."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! and you are sure he was in the court every
+minute of the morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"There must be other witnesses who can testify to that,"
+answered the detective, with the perceptible irritation of
+one weary of a subject which he feels he has already
+amply discussed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well," declared the other, dropping his eyes from the
+young man's countenance to a sheet of paper he was
+holding in his hand, "whatever <i>r&ocirc;le</i> this humpback has
+played in the tragedy now occupying us, whether he be a
+wizard, a secret accomplice, a fool who cannot keep his
+own secret, or a traitor who cannot preserve that of his
+tools, this affair, as you call it, is not likely to prove the
+simple matter you seem to consider it. The victim, if not
+her townsfolk, knew she possessed an enemy, and this
+half-finished letter which I have found on her table,
+raises the question whether a common tramp, with no motive
+but that of theft or brutal revenge, was the one to
+meditate the fatal blow, even if he were the one to deal
+it."</p>
+
+<p>A perceptible light flickered into the eyes of Mr. Byrd,
+and he glanced with a new but unmistakable interest at
+the letter, though he failed to put out his hand for it, even
+though the coroner held it toward him.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said he; "but if I do not take the case,
+it would be better for me not to meddle any further with
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"But you are going to take it," insisted the other, with
+temper, his anxiety to secure this man's services increasing
+with the opposition he so unaccountably received.
+"The officers at the detective bureau in New York are
+not going to send another man up here when there is already
+one on the spot. And a man from New York I am
+determined to have. A crime like this shall not go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+unpunished in this town, whatever it may do in a great
+city like yours. We don't have so many murder cases
+that we need to stint ourselves in the luxury of professional
+assistance."</p>
+
+<p>"But," protested the young man, still determined to
+hold back, whatever arguments might be employed or
+inducements offered him, "how do you know I am the
+man for your work? We have many sorts and kinds of
+detectives in our bureau. Some for one kind of business,
+some for another; the following up of a criminal is
+not mine."</p>
+
+<p>"What, then, is yours?" asked the coroner, not yielding
+a jot of his determination.</p>
+
+<p>The detective was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Read the letter," persisted Dr. Tredwell, shrewdly
+conscious that if once the young man's professional
+instinct was aroused, all the puerile objections which
+influenced him would immediately vanish.</p>
+
+<p>There was no resisting that air of command. Taking
+the letter in his hand, the young man read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Emily</span>:&mdash;I don't know why I sit down to write to you
+to-day. I have plenty to do, and morning is no time for indulging
+in sentimentalities; but I feel strangely lonely and strangely anxious.
+Nothing goes just to my mind, and somehow the many causes for
+secret fear which I have always had, assume an undue prominence in
+my mind. It is always so when I am not quite well. In vain I
+reason with myself, saying that respectable people do not lightly
+enter into crime. But there are so many to whom my death would
+be more than welcome, that I constantly see myself in the act of
+being&mdash;&mdash;"</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Struck, shot, murdered," suggested Dr. Tredwell,
+perceiving the young man's eye lingering over the broken
+sentence.</p>
+
+<p>"The words are not there," remonstrated Mr. Byrd;
+but the tone of his voice showed that his professional
+complacency had been disturbed at last.</p>
+
+<p>The other did not answer, but waited with the wisdom
+of the trapper who sees the quarry nosing round the
+toils.</p>
+
+<p>"There is evidently some family mystery," the young
+man continued, glancing again at the letter. "But," he
+remarked, "Mr. Orcutt is a good friend of hers, and can
+probably tell us what it all means."</p>
+
+<p>"Very likely," the other admitted, "if we choose to
+ask him."</p>
+
+<p>Quick as lightning the young man's glance flashed to
+the coroner's face.</p>
+
+<p>"You would rather not put the question to him?" he
+inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"No. As he is the lawyer who, in all probability, will
+be employed by the criminal in this case, I am sure he
+would rather not be mixed up in any preliminary investigation
+of the affair."</p>
+
+<p>The young man's eye did not waver. He appeared to
+take a secret resolve.</p>
+
+<p>"Has it not struck you," he insinuated, "that Mr.
+Orcutt might have other reasons for not wishing to give
+any expression of opinion in regard to it?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The surprise in the coroner's eye was his best answer.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he rejoined.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd at once resumed all his old nonchalance.</p>
+
+<p>"The young lady who was here appeared to show such
+agitated interest in this horrible crime, I thought that, in
+kindness to her, he might wish to keep out of the affair as
+much as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare? Bless your heart, she would not restrict
+him in any way. Her interest in the matter is purely one
+of curiosity. It has been carried, perhaps, to a somewhat
+unusual length for a woman of her position and
+breeding. But that is all, I assure you. Miss Dare's
+eccentricities are well known in this town."</p>
+
+<p>"Then the diamond ring was really hers?" Mr. Byrd
+was about to inquire, but stopped; something in his
+memory of this beautiful woman made it impossible for
+him to disturb the confidence of the coroner in her behalf,
+at least while his own doubts were so vague and shadowy.</p>
+
+<p>The coroner, however, observed the young detective's
+hesitation, and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you thinking of Miss Dare as having any thing to
+do with this shocking affair?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd shook his head, but could not hide the flush
+that stole up over his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>The coroner actually laughed, a low, soft, decorous
+laugh, but none the less one of decided amusement.
+"Your line is not in the direction of spotting criminals,
+I must allow," said he. "Why, Miss Dare is not only as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+irreproachable a young lady as we have in this town, but
+she is a perfect stranger to this woman and all her concerns.
+I doubt if she even knew her name till to-day."</p>
+
+<p>A laugh is often more potent than argument. The
+face of the detective lighted up, and he looked very
+manly and very handsome as he returned the letter to
+the coroner, saying, with a sweep of his hand as if he
+tossed an unworthy doubt away forever:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I do not wish to appear obstinate. If this
+woman dies, and the inquest fails to reveal who her
+assailant is, I will apply to New York for leave to work
+up the case; that is, if you continue to desire my assistance.
+Meanwhile&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You will keep your eyes open," intimated the coroner,
+taking back the letter and putting it carefully away in
+his breast-pocket. "And now, mum!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd bowed, and they went together down the
+stairs.</p>
+
+<p>It was by this time made certain that the dying woman
+was destined to linger on for some hours. She was completely
+unconscious, and her breath barely lifted the
+clothes that lay over the slowly laboring breast; but such
+vitality as there was held its own with scarcely perceptible
+change, and the doctor thought it might be midnight
+before the solemn struggle would end. "In the meantime,
+expect nothing," he exclaimed; "she has said her
+last word. What remains will be a mere sinking into the
+eternal sleep."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This being so, Mr. Orcutt and Mr. Ferris decided to
+leave. Mr. Byrd saw them safely out, and proceeded to
+take one or two private observations of his own. They
+consisted mostly in noting the precise position of the
+various doors in reference to the hearth where the stick
+was picked up, and the clock where the victim was
+attacked. Or, so the coroner gathered from the direction
+which Mr. Byrd's eye took in its travels over the scene of
+action, and the diagram which he hastily drew on the
+back of an envelope. The table was noticed, too, and an
+inventory of its articles taken, after which he opened the
+side-door and looked carefully out into the lane.</p>
+
+<p>To observe him now with his quick eye flashing from
+spot to spot, his head lifted, and a visible air of determination
+infused through his whole bearing, you would
+scarcely recognize the easy, gracefully indolent youth
+who, but a little while before, lounged against the tables
+and chairs, and met the most penetrating eye with the
+sleepy gaze of a totally uninterested man. Dr. Tredwell,
+alert to the change, tapped the letter in his pocket complacently.
+"I have roused up a weasel," he mentally
+decided, and congratulated himself accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>It was two o'clock when Mr. Byrd went forth to join
+Mr. Ferris in the court-room. As he stepped from the
+door, he encountered, to all appearance, just the same
+crowd that had encumbered its entrance a half hour
+before. Even the old crone had not moved from her
+former position, and seeing him, fairly pounced upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+him with question after question, all of which he parried
+with a nonchalant dexterity that drew shout after shout
+from those who stood by, and, finally, as he thought, won
+him the victory, for, with an angry shake of the head, she
+ceased her importunities, and presently let him pass. He
+hastened to improve the chance to gain for himself the
+refuge of the streets; and, having done this, stood for an
+instant parleying with a trembling young girl, whose real
+distress and anxiety seemed to merit some attention.
+Fatal delay. In that instant the old woman had got in
+front of him, and when he arrived at the head of the
+street he found her there.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said she, with full-blown triumph in her
+venomous eyes, "perhaps you will tell me something!
+You think I am a mumbling old woman who don't know
+what she is bothering herself about. But I tell you I've
+not kept my eyes and ears open for seventy-five years in
+this wicked world without knowing a bit of the devil's
+own work when I see it." Here her face grew quite
+hideous, and her eyes gleamed with an aspect of gloating
+over the evil she alluded to, that quite sickened the young
+man, accustomed though he was to the worst phases of
+moral depravity. Leaning forward, she peered inquiringly
+in his face. "What has <i>she</i> to do with it?" she
+suddenly asked, emphasizing the pronoun with an expressive
+leer.</p>
+
+<p>"She?" he repeated, starting back.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she; the pretty young lady, the pert and haughty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+Miss Dare, that had but to speak to make the whole
+crowd stand back. What had she to do with it, I say?
+Something, or she wouldn't be here!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what you are talking about," he replied,
+conscious of a strange and unaccountable dismay at thus
+hearing his own passing doubt put into words by this vile
+and repellent being. "Miss Dare is a stranger. She has
+nothing to do either with this affair or the poor woman
+who has suffered by it. Her interest is purely one of
+sympathy."</p>
+
+<p>"Hi! and you call yourself a smart one, I dare say."
+And the old creature ironically chuckled. "Well, well,
+well, what fools men are! They see a pretty face, and
+blind themselves to what is written on it as plain as black
+writing on a white wall. They call it sympathy, and never
+stop to ask why she, of all the soft-hearted gals in the
+town, should be the only one to burst into that house like
+an avenging spirit! But it's all right," she went on, in
+a bitterly satirical tone. "A crime like this can't be
+covered up, however much you may try; and sooner or
+later we will all know whether this young lady has had
+any thing to do with Mrs. Clemmens' murder or not."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" cried Mr. Byrd, struck in spite of himself by
+the look of meaning with which she said these last words.
+"Do you know any thing against Miss Dare which other
+folks do not? If you do, speak, and let me hear at once
+what it is. But&mdash;" he felt very angry, though he could
+not for the moment tell why&mdash;"if you are only talking to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+gratify your spite, and have nothing to tell me except the
+fact that Miss Dare appeared shocked and anxious
+when she came from the widow's house just now, look out
+what use you make of her name, or you will get yourself
+into trouble. Mr. Orcutt and Mr. Ferris are not men to
+let you go babbling round town about a young lady of
+estimable character." And he tightened the grip he had
+taken upon her arm and looked at her threateningly.</p>
+
+<p>The effect was instantaneous. Slipping from his grasp,
+she gazed at him with a sinister expression and edged
+slowly away.</p>
+
+<p>"I know any thing?" she repeated. "What should I
+know? I only say the young lady's face tells a very
+strange story. If you are too dull or too obstinate to read
+it, it's nothing to me." And with another leer and
+a quick look up and down the street, as if she half feared
+to encounter one or both of the two lawyers whose names
+he had mentioned, she marched quickly away, wagging
+her head and looking back as she went, as much as to
+say: "You have hushed me up for this time, young man,
+but don't congratulate yourself too much. I have still a
+tongue in my head, and the day may come when I
+can use it without any fear of being stopped by you."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd, who was not very well pleased with himself
+or the way he had managed this interview, watched her
+till she was out of sight, and then turned thoughtfully toward
+the court-house. The fact was, he felt both agitated
+and confused. In the first place, he was disconcerted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+at discovering the extent of the impression that
+had evidently been made upon him by the beauty of Miss
+Dare, since nothing short of a deep, unconscious admiration
+for her personal attributes, and a strong and secret
+dread of having his lately acquired confidence in her
+again disturbed, could have led him to treat the insinuations
+of this babbling old wretch in such a cavalier manner.
+Any other detective would have seized with
+avidity upon the opportunity of hearing what she had to
+say on such a subject, and would not only have cajoled
+her into confidence, but encouraged her to talk until she
+had given utterance to all that was on her mind. But in
+the stress of a feeling to which he was not anxious to
+give a name, he had forgotten that he was a detective,
+and remembered only that he was a man; and the consequence
+was that he had frightened the old creature,
+and cut short words that it was possibly his business
+to hear. In the second place, he felt himself in a quandary
+as regarded Miss Dare. If, as was more than possible,
+she was really the innocent woman the coroner considered
+her, and the insinuations, if not threats, to which
+he had been listening were simply the result of a
+wicked old woman's privately nurtured hatred, how could
+he reconcile it to his duty as a man, or even as a detective,
+to let the day pass without warning her, or the eminent
+lawyer who honored her with his regard, of the
+danger in which she stood from this creature's venomous
+tongue.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As he sat in court that afternoon, with his eye upon
+Mr. Orcutt, beneath whose ordinary aspect of quiet, sarcastic
+attention he thought he could detect the secret
+workings of a deep, personal perplexity, if not of actual
+alarm, he asked himself what he would wish done if
+he were that man, and a scandal of a debasing character
+threatened the peace of one allied to him by the
+most endearing ties. "Would I wish to be informed of
+it?" he queried. "I most certainly should," was his
+inward reply.</p>
+
+<p>And so it was that, after the adjournment of court, he
+approached Mr. Orcutt, and leading him respectfully
+aside, said, with visible reluctance:</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, sir, but a fact has come to my
+knowledge to-day with which I think you ought to be
+made acquainted. It is in reference to the young lady
+who was with us at Mrs. Clemmens' house this morning.
+Did you know, sir, that she had an enemy in this
+town?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt, whose thoughts had been very much with
+that young lady since she left him so unceremoniously a
+few hours before, started and looked at Mr. Byrd with
+surprise which was not without its element of distrust.</p>
+
+<p>"An enemy?" he repeated. "An enemy? What do
+you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"What I say, Mr. Orcutt. As I came out of Mrs.
+Clemmens' house this afternoon, an old hag whose name
+I do not know, but whom you will probably have no difficulty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+in recognizing, seized me by the arm and made me
+the recipient of insinuations and threats against Miss
+Dare, which, however foolish and unfounded, betrayed an
+animosity and a desire to injure her that is worthy your
+attention."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very kind," returned Mr. Orcutt, with increased
+astonishment and a visible constraint, "but I do
+not understand you. What insinuations or threats could
+this woman have to make against a young lady of Miss
+Dare's position and character?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is difficult for me to tell you," acknowledged Mr.
+Byrd; "but the vicious old creature presumed to say that
+Miss Dare must have had a special and secret interest in
+this murder, or she would not have gone as she did to that
+house. Of course," pursued the detective, discreetly
+dropping his eyes from the lawyer's face, "I did what I
+could to show her the folly of her suspicions, and tried to
+make her see the trouble she would bring upon herself if
+she persisted in expressing them; but I fear I only succeeded
+in quieting her for the moment, and that she will
+soon be attacking others with this foolish story."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt who, whatever his own doubts or apprehensions,
+could not fail to be totally unprepared for a
+communication of this kind, gave utterance to a fierce
+and bitter exclamation, and fixed upon the detective his
+keen and piercing eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me just what she said," he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"I will try to do so," returned Mr. Byrd. And calling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+to his aid a very excellent memory, he gave a <i>verbatim</i>
+account of the conversation that had passed between him
+and the old woman. Mr. Orcutt listened, as he always
+did, without interruption or outward demonstration; but
+when the recital was over and Mr. Byrd ventured to look
+at him once more, he noticed that he was very pale and
+greatly changed in expression. Being himself in a position
+to understand somewhat of the other's emotion, he
+regained by an effort the air of polite nonchalance that
+became him so well, and quickly suggested: "Miss Dare
+will, of course, be able to explain herself."</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer flashed upon him a quick glance.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you have no doubts on the subject," he said;
+then, as the detective's eye fell a trifle before his, paused
+and looked at him with the self-possession gained in fifteen
+years of practice in the criminal courts, and said:
+"I am Miss Dare's best friend. I know her well, and
+can truly say that not only is her character above reproach,
+but that I am acquainted with no circumstances
+that could in any way connect her with this crime. Nevertheless,
+the incidents of the day have been such as to
+make it desirable for her to explain herself, and this, as
+you say, she will probably have no difficulty in doing. If
+you will, therefore, wait till to-morrow before taking any
+one else into your confidence, I promise you to see Miss
+Dare myself, and, from her own lips, learn the cause of
+her peculiar interest in this affair. Meanwhile, let me
+request you to put a curb upon your imagination, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+not allow it to soar too high into the regions of idle speculation."</p>
+
+<p>And he held out his hand to the detective with a smile
+whose vain attempt at unconcern affected Mr. Byrd more
+than a violent outbreak would have done. It betrayed
+so unmistakably that his own secret doubts were not
+without an echo in the breast of this eminent lawyer.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p>
+<h2>IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>IMOGENE.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+You are a riddle, solve you who can.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Knowles.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>MR. ORCUTT was a man who for many years had
+turned a deaf ear and a cold eye to the various
+attractions and beguilements of woman. Either from
+natural coldness of disposition, or for some other latent
+cause, traceable, perhaps, to some fact in his past history,
+and not to be inquired into by gossiping neighbors and
+so-called friends, he had resisted, even to the point of
+disdain, both the blandishments of acknowledged belles,
+and the more timid but no less pleasing charms of the
+shy country misses that he met upon his travels.</div>
+
+<p>But one day all this was changed. Imogene Dare
+entered his home, awakening a light in the dim old place
+that melted his heart and made a man out of what was
+usually considered a well-ordered machine.</p>
+
+<p>She had been a foundling. Yes, this beautiful, disdainful,
+almost commanding woman, had in the beginning
+been that most unfortunate of beings&mdash;a child without a
+name. But though this fact may have influenced the
+course of her early days, it gradually disappeared from
+notice as she grew up and developed, till in Sibley, at
+least, it became wellnigh a fact forgotten. Her beauty,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+as well as the imposing traits of her character, was the
+cause. There are some persons so gifted with natural
+force that, once brought in contact with them, you forget
+their antecedents, and, indeed, every thing but themselves.
+Either their beauty overawes you or they, by conversation
+or bearing, so completely satisfy you of their right
+to your respect, that indifference takes the place of curiosity,
+and you yield your regard as if you have already
+yielded your admiration, without question and without
+stint.</p>
+
+<p>The early years of her life were passed in the house of
+a poor widow, to whom the appearance of this child on
+her door-step one fine day had been nothing more nor less
+than a veritable godsend. First, because she was herself
+alone in the world, and needed the mingled companionship
+and care which a little one invariably gives; and,
+secondly, because Imogene, from the very first, had been
+a noticeable child, who early attracted the attention of
+the neighbors, and led to many a substantial evidence of
+favor from them, as well as from the strangers who
+passed their gate or frequented their church. Insensibly
+to herself, and without help of circumstances or rearing,
+the girl was a magnet toward which all good things insensibly
+tended; and the widow saw this, and, while
+reaping the reward, stinted neither her affection nor her
+gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>When Imogene was eleven, this protector of her infancy
+died. But another home instantly offered. A wealthy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+couple of much kindness, if little culture, adopted her as
+their child, and gave her every benefit in life save education.
+This never having possessed themselves, they
+openly undervalued. But she was not to be kept down
+by the force of any circumstances, whether favorable or
+otherwise. All the graces of manner and refinements of
+thought which properly belong to the station she had now
+attained, but which, in the long struggle after wealth, had
+escaped the honest couple that befriended her, became
+by degrees her own, tempering without destroying her individuality,
+any more than the new life of restraint that
+now governed her physical powers, was able to weaken or
+subdue that rare and splendid physique which had been
+her fairest birthright.</p>
+
+<p>In the lap of luxury, therefore, and in full possession
+of means to come and go and conform herself to the
+genteel world and its fashions, she passed the next four
+years; but scarcely had she attained the age of fifteen,
+when bankruptcy, followed by death, again robbed her of
+her home and set her once more adrift upon the world.</p>
+
+<p>This time she looked to no one for assistance. Refusing
+all offers, many of them those of honorable marriage,
+she sought for work, and after a short delay found it in
+the household of Mr. Orcutt. The aged sister who
+governed his home and attended to all its domestic
+details, hired her as a sort of assistant, rightly judging
+that the able young body and the alert hand would bring
+into the household economy just that life and interest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+which her own failing strength had now for some time refused
+to supply.</p>
+
+<p>That the girl was a beauty and something more, who
+could not from the nature of things be kept in that subordinate
+position, she either failed to see, or, seeing, was
+pleased to disregard. She never sought to impose restraint
+upon the girl any more than she did upon her
+brother, when in the course of events she saw that his
+eye was at last attracted and his imagination fired by the
+noble specimen of girlhood that made its daily appearance
+at his own board.</p>
+
+<p>That she had introduced a dangerous element into that
+quiet home, that ere long would devastate its sacred precincts,
+and endanger, if not destroy, its safety and honor,
+she had no reason to suspect. What was there in youth,
+beauty, and womanly power that one should shrink from
+their embodiment and tremble as if an evil instead of a
+good had entered that hitherto undisturbed household?
+Nothing, if they had been all. But alas for her, and alas
+for him&mdash;they were not all! Mixed with the youth,
+beauty, and power was a something else not to be so
+readily understood&mdash;a something, too, which, without
+offering explanation to the fascinated mind that studied
+her, made the beauty unique, the youth a charm, and the
+power a controlling force. She was not to be sounded.
+Going and coming, smiling and frowning, in movement or
+at rest, she was always a mystery; the depths of her being
+remaining still in hiding, however calmly she spoke or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+however graciously she turned upon you the light of her
+deep gray eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt loved her. From the first vision he had of
+her face and form dominating according to their nature
+at his board and fireside, he had given up his will into her
+unconscious keeping. She was so precisely what all
+other women he had known were not. At first so distant,
+so self-contained, so unapproachable in her pride; then
+as her passion grew for books, so teachable, so industrious,
+so willing to listen to his explanations and arguments;
+and lastly&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>But that did not come at once. A long struggle took
+place between those hours when he used to encourage
+her to come into his study and sit at his side, and read
+from his books, and the more dangerous time still, when
+he followed her into the drawing-room and sat at her side,
+and sought to read, not from books, but from her eyes,
+the story of his own future fate.</p>
+
+<p>For, powerful as was his passion and deeply as his
+heart had been touched, he did not yield to the thought
+of marriage which such a passion involves, without a conflict.
+He would make her his child, the heiress of his
+wealth, and the support of his old age; this was his first
+resolve. But it did not last; the first sight he had of her
+on her return from a visit to Buffalo, which he had insisted
+upon her making during the time of his greatest
+mental conflict, had assured him that this could never
+be; that he must be husband and she wife, or else their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+relations must entirely cease. Perhaps the look with
+which she met him had something to do with this. It
+was such a blushing, humble&mdash;yes, for her, really humble
+and beautiful&mdash;look. He could not withstand it.
+Though no one could have detected it in his manner,
+he really succumbed in that hour. Doubt and hesitation
+flew to the winds, and to make her his own became the
+sole aim and object of his life.</p>
+
+<p>He did not, however, betray his purpose at once.
+Neighbors and friends might and did suspect the state of
+his feelings, but to her he was silent. That vague something
+which marked her off from the rest of her sex,
+seemed to have deepened in her temporary sojourn from
+his side, and whatever it meant of good or of ill, it taught
+him at least to be wary. At last, was it with premeditation
+or was it in some moment of uncontrollable impulse,
+he spoke; not with definite pleading, or even with any
+very clear intimation that he desired some day to make
+her his wife, but in a way that sufficed to tear the veil
+from their previous intercourse and let her catch a
+glimpse, if no more, of his heart, and its devouring passion.</p>
+
+<p>He was absolutely startled at the result. She avowed
+that she had never thought of his possessing such a regard
+for her; and for two days shut herself up in her
+room and refused to see either him or his sister. Then
+she came down, blooming like a rose, but more distant,
+more quiet, and more inscrutable than ever. Pride, if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+pride she felt, was subdued under a general aspect of
+womanly dignity that for a time held all further avowals
+in check, and made all intercourse between them at once
+potent in its attraction and painful in its restraint.</p>
+
+<p>"She is waiting for a distinct offer of marriage," he
+decided.</p>
+
+<p>And thus matters stood, notwithstanding the general
+opinion of their friends, when the terrible event recorded
+in the foregoing chapters of this story brought her in
+a new light before his eyes, and raised a question, shocking
+as it was unexpected, as to whether this young girl,
+immured as he had believed her to be in his own home,
+had by some unknown and inexplicable means run upon
+the secret involving, if not explaining, the mystery of this
+dreadful and daring crime.</p>
+
+<p>Such an idea was certainly a preposterous one to entertain.
+He neither could nor would believe she knew more
+of this matter than any other disinterested person in town,
+and yet there had certainly been something in her bearing
+upon the scene of tragedy, that suggested a personal interest
+in the affair; nor could he deny that he himself
+had been struck by the incongruity of her behavior long
+before it attracted the attention of others.</p>
+
+<p>But then he had opportunities for judging of her conduct
+which others did not have. He not only had every
+reason to believe that the ring to which she had so publicly
+laid claim was not her own, but he had observed how,
+at the moment the dying woman had made that tell-tale exclamation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+of "<i>Ring</i> and <i>Hand!</i>" Miss Dare had looked
+down at the jewel she had thus appropriated, with a
+quick horror and alarm that seemed to denote she had
+some knowledge of its owner, or some suspicion, at least,
+as to whose hand had worn it before she placed it upon
+her own.</p>
+
+<p>It was not, therefore, a matter of wonder that he was
+visibly affected at finding her conduct had attracted the
+attention of others, and one of those a detective, or that
+the walk home after his interview with Mr. Byrd should
+have been fraught with a dread to which he scarcely
+dared to give a name.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of Miss Dare coming down the path as he
+reached his own gate did not tend to greatly allay his apprehensions,
+particularly as he observed she was dressed
+in travelling costume, and carried a small satchel on her
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene," he cried, as she reached him, "what is the
+meaning of this? Where are you going?"</p>
+
+<p>Her face, which wore a wholly unnatural and strained
+expression, turned slowly toward his.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to Buffalo," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"To Buffalo?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>This was alarming, surely. She was going to leave the
+town&mdash;leave it suddenly, without excuse or explanation!</p>
+
+<p>Looking at her with eyes which, for all their intense
+inquiry, conveyed but little of the serious emotions that
+were agitating his mind, he asked, hurriedly:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What takes you to Buffalo&mdash;to-day&mdash;so suddenly?"</p>
+
+<p>Her answer was set and mechanical.</p>
+
+<p>"I have had news. One of my&mdash;my friends is not well.
+I must go. Do not detain me."</p>
+
+<p>And she moved quickly toward the gate.</p>
+
+<p>But his tremulous hand was upon it, and he made no
+offer to open a passage for her.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," said he, "but I cannot let you go till I
+have had some conversation with you. Come with me to
+the house, Imogene. I will not detain you long."</p>
+
+<p>But with a sad and abstracted gesture she slowly shook
+her head.</p>
+
+<p>"It is too late," she murmured. "I shall miss the train
+if I stop now."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must miss it," he cried, bitterly, forgetting
+every thing else in the torture of his uncertainty. "What
+I have to say cannot wait. Come!"</p>
+
+<p>This tone of command from one who had hitherto
+adapted himself to her every whim, seemed to strike her.
+Paling quickly, she for the first time looked at him with
+something like a comprehension of his feelings, and
+quietly replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me. I had forgotten for the moment the
+extent of your claims upon me. I will wait till to-morrow
+before going." And she led the way back to the house.</p>
+
+<p>When they were alone together in the library, he turned
+toward her with a look whose severity was the fruit of
+his condition of mind rather than of any natural harshness
+or imperiousness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/ill02.jpg" width="400" height="441" alt="&quot;Taking her hand in his, he looked at her long and searchingly. &#39;Imogene,&#39; he exclaimed, &#39;there is something weighing on your heart.&#39;&quot;&mdash;(Page 58.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;Taking her hand in his, he looked at her long and searchingly. &#39;Imogene,&#39; he exclaimed, &#39;there is something weighing on your heart.&#39;&quot;&mdash;(Page 58.)</span>
+</div>
+<p>"Now, Imogene," said he, "tell me why you desire to
+leave my house."</p>
+
+<p>Her face, which had assumed a mask of cold impassiveness,
+confronted him like that of a statue, but her voice,
+when she spoke, was sufficiently gentle.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Orcutt," was her answer, "I have told you. I
+have a call elsewhere which must be attended to. I do
+not leave your house; I merely go to Buffalo for a few
+days."</p>
+
+<p>But he could not believe this short statement of her
+intentions. In the light of these new fears of his, this
+talk of Buffalo, and a call there, looked to him like the
+merest subterfuge. Yet her gentle tone was not without
+its effect, and his voice visibly softened as he said:</p>
+
+<p>"You are intending, then, to return?"</p>
+
+<p>Her reply was prefaced by a glance of amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," she responded at last. "Is not this
+my home?"</p>
+
+<p>Something in the way she said this carried a ray of
+hope to his heart. Taking her hand in his, he looked at
+her long and searchingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene!" he exclaimed, "there is something serious
+weighing upon your heart. What is it? Will you not
+make me the confidant of your troubles? Tell me what
+has made such a change in you since&mdash;since noon, and its
+dreadful event."</p>
+
+<p>But her expression did not soften, and her manner became
+even more reserved than before.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have not any thing to tell," said she.</p>
+
+<p>"Not any thing?" he repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"Not any thing."</p>
+
+<p>Dropping her hand, he communed a moment with himself.
+That a secret of possible consequence lay between
+them he could not doubt. That it had reference to and
+involved the crime of the morning, he was equally sure.
+But how was he to make her acknowledge it? How was
+he to reach her mind and determine its secrets without
+alarming her dignity or wounding her heart?</p>
+
+<p>To press her with questions seemed impossible. Even
+if he could have found words with which to formulate his
+fears, her firm, set face, and steady, unrelenting eye,
+assured him only too plainly that the attempt would
+be met by failure, if it did not bring upon him her
+scorn and contempt. No; some other method must
+be found; some way that would completely and at once
+ease his mind of a terrible weight, and yet involve no risk
+to the love that had now become the greatest necessity of
+his existence. But what way? With all his acumen and
+knowledge of the world, he could think of but one.
+He would ask her hand in marriage&mdash;aye, at this very moment&mdash;and
+from the tenor of her reply judge of the
+nature of her thoughts. For, looking in her face, he felt
+forced to acknowledge that whatever doubts he had
+ever cherished in reference to the character of this remarkable
+girl, upon one point he was perfectly clear, and
+this was, that she was at basis honorable in her instincts,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+and would never do herself or another a real injustice. If
+a distinct wrong or even a secret of an unhappy or debasing
+nature lay between them, he knew that nothing, not
+even the bitterest necessity or the most headlong passion,
+would ever drive her into committing the dishonor of
+marrying him.</p>
+
+<p>No; if with his declaration in her ears, and with his
+eyes fixed upon hers, she should give any token of
+her willingness to accept his addresses, he felt he might
+know, beyond doubt or cavil, that whatever womanish
+excitability may have moved her in her demonstrations
+that day, they certainly arose from no private knowledge
+or suspicion detrimental to his future peace or to hers.</p>
+
+<p>Bracing himself, therefore, to meet any result that
+might follow his attempt, he drew her gently toward him
+and determinedly addressed her.</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene, I told you at the gate that I had something
+to say to you. So I have; and though it may
+not be wholly unexpected to you, yet I doubt if it would
+have left my lips to-night if the events of the day had not
+urged me to offer you my sympathy and protection."</p>
+
+<p>He paused, almost sickened; at that last phrase
+she had grown so terribly white and breathless. But
+something in her manner, notwithstanding, seemed to
+encourage him to proceed, and smothering his doubts,
+trampling, as it were, upon his rising apprehensions,
+he calmed down his tone and went quietly on:</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene, I love you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She did not shrink.</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene, I want you for my wife. Will you listen to
+my prayer, and make my home forever happy with your
+presence?"</p>
+
+<p>Ah, now she showed feeling; now she started and drew
+back, putting out her hands as if the idea he had
+advanced was insupportable to her. But it was only for
+a moment. Before he could say to himself that it was all
+over, that his worst fears had been true, and that nothing
+but the sense of some impassable gulf between them
+could have made her recoil from him like this, she
+had dropped her hands and turned toward him with
+a look whose deep inquiry and evident struggle after
+an understanding of his claims, spoke of a mind clouded
+by trouble, but not alienated from himself by fear.</p>
+
+<p>She did not speak, however,&mdash;not for some few minutes,
+and when she did, her words came in short and hurried
+gasps.</p>
+
+<p>"You are kind," was what she said. "To be your&mdash;wife"&mdash;she
+had difficulty in uttering the word, but it
+came at last&mdash;"would be an honor and a protection. I
+appreciate both. But I am in no mood to-night to listen
+to words of love from any man. Perhaps six months
+hence&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But he already had her in his arms. The joy and relief
+he felt were so great he could not control himself.
+"Imogene," he murmured, "my Imogene!" And
+scarcely heeded her when, in a burst of subdued agony,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+she asked to be released, saying that she was ill and tired,
+and must be allowed to withdraw to her room.</p>
+
+<p>But a second appeal woke him from his dream. If his
+worst fears were without foundation; if her mind was
+pure of aught that unfitted her to be his wife, there was
+yet much that was mysterious in her conduct, and, consequently,
+much which he longed to have explained.</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene," he said, "I must ask you to remain a
+moment longer. Hard as it is for me to distress you,
+there is a question which I feel it necessary to put to you
+before you go. It is in reference to the fearful crime
+which took place to-day. Why did you take such an interest
+in it, and why has it had such an effect upon you
+that you look like a changed woman to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>Disengaging herself from his arms, she looked at him
+with the set composure of one driven to bay, and asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any thing strange in my being interested in a
+murder perpetrated on a person whose name I have frequently
+heard mentioned in this house?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," he murmured, "no; but what led you to her
+home? It was not a spot for a young lady to be in, and
+any other woman would have shrunk from so immediate
+a contact with crime."</p>
+
+<p>Imogene's hand was on the door, but she turned back.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not like other women," she declared. "When I
+hear of any thing strange or mysterious, I want to understand
+it. I did not stop to ask what people would think
+of my conduct."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But your grief and terror, Imogene? They are real,
+and not to be disguised. Look in the glass over there,
+and you will yourself see what an effect all this has had
+upon you. If Mrs. Clemmens is a stranger to you; if you
+know no more of her than you have always led me to suppose,
+why should you have been so unnaturally impressed
+by to-day's tragedy?"</p>
+
+<p>It was a searching question, and her eye fell slightly,
+but her steady demeanor did not fail her.</p>
+
+<p>"Still," said she, "because I am not like other women.
+I cannot forget such horrors in a moment." And she
+advanced again to the door, upon which she laid her
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>Unconsciously his eye followed the movement, and
+rested somewhat inquiringly upon that hand. It was
+gloved, but to all appearance was without the ring which
+he had seen her put on at the widow's house.</p>
+
+<p>She seemed to comprehend his look. Meeting his eye
+with unshaken firmness, she resumed, in a low and constrained
+voice:</p>
+
+<p>"You are wondering about the ring that formed a
+portion of the scene we are discussing. Mr. Orcutt, I
+told the gentleman who handed it to me to-day that it
+was mine. That should be enough for the man who
+professes sufficient confidence in me to wish to make me
+his wife. But since your looks confess a curiosity in
+regard to this diamond, I will say that I was as much astonished
+as anybody to see it picked up from the floor at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+my feet. The last time I had seen it was when I dropped
+it, somewhat recklessly, into a pocket. How or when it
+fell out, I cannot say. As for the ring itself," she haughtily
+added, "young ladies frequently possess articles of
+whose existence their friends are unconscious."</p>
+
+<p>Here was an attempt at an explanation which, though
+meagre and far from satisfactory, had at least a basis in
+possibility. But Mr. Orcutt, as I have before said, was
+certain that the ring was lying on the floor of the room
+where it was picked up, before Imogene had made her
+appearance there, and was therefore struck with dismay
+at this conclusive evidence of her falsehood.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, as he said to himself, she might have some association
+with the ring, might even have an owner's claim
+upon it, incredible as this appeared, without being in the
+possession of such knowledge as definitely connected it
+with this crime. And led by this hope he laid his hand
+on hers as it was softly turning the knob of the door, and
+said, with emotion:</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene, one moment. This is a subject which I am
+as anxious to drop as you are. In your condition it is
+almost cruelty to urge it upon you, but of one thing I
+must be assured before you leave my presence, and that
+is, that whatever secrets you may hide in your soul, or
+whatever motive may have governed your treatment of me
+and my suit to-night, they do not spring from any real or
+supposed interest in this crime, which ought from its
+nature to separate you and me. I ask," he quickly added,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+as he saw her give a start of injured pride or irrepressible
+dismay, "not because I have any doubts on the subject
+myself, but because some of the persons who have
+unfortunately been witness to your strange and excited
+conduct to-day, have presumed to hint that nothing short of
+a secret knowledge of the crime or criminal could explain
+your action upon the scene of tragedy."</p>
+
+<p>And with a look which, if she had observed it, might
+have roused her to a sense of the critical position in which
+she stood, he paused and held his breath for her reply.</p>
+
+<p>It did not come.</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hear."</p>
+
+<p>Cold and hard the words sounded&mdash;his hand went like
+lightning to his heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to answer?" he asked, at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"What is that answer to be, Yes or No?"</p>
+
+<p>She turned upon him her large gray eyes. There was
+misery in their depths, but there was a haughtiness, also,
+which only truth could impart.</p>
+
+<p>"My answer is No!" said she.</p>
+
+<p>And, without another word, she glided from the room.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning, Mr. Byrd found three notes awaiting
+his perusal. The first was a notification from the coroner
+to the effect that the Widow Clemmens had quietly
+breathed her last at midnight. The second, a hurried
+line from Mr. Ferris, advising him to make use of the day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+in concluding a certain matter of theirs in the next town;
+and the third, a letter from Mr. Orcutt, couched in the
+following terms:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Mr. Byrd</span>: <i>Dear Sir</i>&mdash;I have seen the person named between
+us, and I here state, upon my honor, that she is in possession of no
+facts which it concerns the authorities to know.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+<span class="smcap">Tremont B. Orcutt.</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>V.</h2>
+
+<h3>HORACE BYRD.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+But now, I am cabin'd, cribbed, confin'd, bound in<br />
+To saucy doubts and fears.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Macbeth.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>HORACE BYRD was by birth and education a
+gentleman. He was the son of a man of small
+means but great expectations, and had been reared to
+look forward to the day when he should be the possessor
+of a large income. But his father dying, both means and
+expectations vanished into thin air, and at the age of
+twenty, young Horace found himself thrown upon the
+world without income, without business, and, what was
+still worse, without those habits of industry that serve a
+man in such an emergency better than friends and often
+better than money itself.</div>
+
+<p>He had also an invalid mother to look after, and two
+young sisters whom he loved with warm and devoted
+affection; and though by the kindness and forethought
+of certain relatives he was for a time spared all anxiety
+on their account, he soon found that some exertion on
+his part would be necessary to their continued subsistence,
+and accordingly set about the task of finding suitable
+employment, with much spirit and no little hope.</p>
+
+<p>But a long series of disappointments taught him that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+young men cannot leap at a bound into a fine salary or
+even a promising situation; and baffled in every wish,
+worn out with continued failures, he sank from one state
+of hope to another, till he was ready to embrace any
+prospect that would insure ease and comfort to the helpless
+beings he so much loved.</p>
+
+<p>It was while he was in this condition that Mr. Gryce&mdash;a
+somewhat famous police detective of New York&mdash;came
+upon him, and observing, as he thought, some signs of
+natural aptitude for <i>fine work</i>, as he called it, in this
+elegant but decidedly hard-pushed young gentleman, seized
+upon him with an avidity that can only be explained by
+this detective's long-cherished desire to ally to himself a
+man of real refinement and breeding; having, as he
+privately admitted more than once to certain chosen
+friends, a strong need of such a person to assist him in
+certain cases where great houses were to be entered and
+fine gentlemen if not fair ladies subjected to interviews of
+a delicate and searching nature.</p>
+
+<p>To join the police force and be a detective was the last
+contingency that had occurred to Horace Byrd. But
+men in decidedly straitened circumstances cannot pick
+and choose too nicely; and after a week of uncertainty
+and fresh disappointment, he went manfully to his mother
+and told her of the offer that had been made him. Meeting
+with less discouragement than he had expected from the
+broken-down and unhappy woman, he gave himself up to
+the guiding hand of Mr. Gryce, and before he realized it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+was enrolled among the secret members of the New York
+force.</p>
+
+<p>He was not recognized publicly as a detective. His
+name was not even known to any but the highest officials.
+He was employed for special purposes, and it was not
+considered desirable that he should be seen at police
+head-quarters. But being a man of much ability and of a
+solid, reliable nature, he made his way notwithstanding,
+and by the time he had been in the service a year, was
+looked upon as a good-fellow and a truly valuable acquisition
+to the bureau. Indeed, he possessed more than the
+usual qualifications for his calling, strange as the fact
+appeared not only to himself but to the few friends
+acquainted with his secret. In the first place, he possessed
+much acuteness without betraying it. Of an easy
+bearing and a polished address, he was a man to please
+all and alarm none, yet he always knew what he was
+about and what you were about, too, unless indeed you
+possessed a power of dissimulation much beyond ordinary,
+when the chances were that his gentlemanly instincts
+would get in his way, making it impossible for him to
+believe in a guilt that was too hardy to betray itself, and
+too insensible to shame to blush before the touch of the
+inquisitor.</p>
+
+<p>In the second place, he liked the business. Yes, notwithstanding
+the theories of that social code to which he
+once paid deference, notwithstanding the frankness and
+candor of his own disposition, he found in this pursuit a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+nice adjustment of cause to effect and effect to cause
+that at once pleased and satisfied his naturally mathematical
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>He did not acknowledge the fact, not even to himself.
+On the contrary, he was always threatening that in another
+month he should look up some new means of livelihood,
+but the coming month would invariably bring a fresh case
+before his notice, and then it would be: "Well, after this
+matter is probed to the bottom," or, "When that criminal
+is made to confess his guilt," till even his little sisters
+caught the infection, and would whisper over their dolls:</p>
+
+<p>"Brother Horace is going to be a great man when all
+the bad and naughty people in the world are put in
+prison."</p>
+
+<p>As a rule, Mr. Byrd was not sent out of town. But, on
+the occasion of Mr. Ferris desiring a man of singular discretion
+to assist him in certain inquiries connected with
+the case then on trial in Sibley, there happened to be a
+deficiency of capable men in the bureau, and the superintendent
+was obliged to respond to the call by sending Mr.
+Byrd. He did not do it, however, without making the
+proviso that all public recognition of this officer, in his
+real capacity, was to be avoided. And so far the wishes
+of his superiors had been respected. No one outside of
+the few persons mentioned in the first chapter of this
+story suspected that the easy, affable, and somewhat distinguished-looking
+young gentleman who honored the
+village hotel with his patronage was a secret emissary of
+the New York police.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd was, of all men, then, the very one to feel the
+utmost attraction toward, and at the same time the
+greatest shrinking from, the pursuit of such investigations
+as were likely to ensue upon the discovery of the mysterious
+case of murder which had so unexpectedly been
+presented to his notice. As a professional, he could not
+fail to experience that quick start of the blood which
+always follows the recognition of a "big affair," while as
+a gentleman, he felt himself recoil from probing into a
+matter that was blackened by a possibility against which
+every instinct in his nature rebelled.</p>
+
+<p>It was, therefore, with oddly mingled sensations that
+he read Mr. Orcutt's letter, and found himself compelled
+to admit that the coroner had possessed a truer insight
+than himself into the true cause of Miss Dare's eccentric
+conduct upon the scene of the tragedy. His main feeling,
+however, was one of relief. It was such a comfort to
+think he could proceed in the case without the dread of
+stumbling upon a clue that, in some secret and unforeseen
+way, should connect this imposing woman with a revolting
+crime. Or so he fondly considered. But he had not spent
+five minutes at the railroad station, where, in pursuance
+to the commands of Mr. Ferris, he went to take the train
+for Monteith, before he saw reason to again change his
+mind. For, there among the passengers awaiting the
+New York express, he saw Miss Dare, with a travelling-bag
+upon her arm and a look on her face that, to say the
+least, was of most uncommon character in a scene of so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+much bustle and hurry. She was going away, then&mdash;going
+to leave Sibley and its mystery behind her! He was not
+pleased with the discovery. This sudden departure
+looked too much like escape, and gave him, notwithstanding
+the assurance he had received from Mr. Orcutt, an
+uneasy sense of having tampered with his duty as an
+officer of justice, in thus providing this mysterious young
+woman with a warning that could lead to a result like
+this.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, as he stood at the depot surveying Miss Dare, in
+the few minutes they both had to wait, he asked himself
+over and over again how any thought of her possessing a
+personal interest in the crime which had just taken place
+could retain a harbor in his mind. She looked so noble
+in her quiet aspect of solemn determination, so superior
+in her young, fresh beauty&mdash;a determination that, from
+the lofty look it imparted, must have its birth in generous
+emotion, even if her beauty was but the result of a rarely
+modelled frame and a health of surpassing perfection.
+He resolved he would think of her no more in that or any
+other connection; that he would follow the example of
+her best friend, and give his doubts to the wind.</p>
+
+<p>And yet such a burr is suspicion, that he no sooner saw
+a young man approaching her with the evident intention
+of speaking, than he felt an irresistible desire to hear
+what she would have to say, and, led by this impulse,
+allowed himself to saunter nearer and nearer the pair, till
+he stood almost at their backs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The first words he heard were:</p>
+
+<p>"How long do you expect to remain in Buffalo, Miss
+Dare?"</p>
+
+<p>To which she replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I have no idea whether I shall stay a week or a
+month."</p>
+
+<p>Then the whistle of the advancing train was heard, and
+the two pressed hurriedly forward.</p>
+
+<p>The business which had taken Mr. Byrd to Monteith
+kept him in that small town all day. But though he thus
+missed the opportunity of attending the opening of the
+inquest at Sibley, he did not experience the vivid disappointment
+which might have been expected, his interest
+in that matter having in some unaccountable way subsided
+from the moment he saw Imogene Dare take the cars for
+Buffalo.</p>
+
+<p>It was five o'clock when he again returned to Sibley,
+the hour at which the western train was also due. In
+fact, it came steaming in while he stood there, and, as
+was natural, perhaps, he paused a moment to watch the
+passengers alight. There were not many, and he was
+about to turn toward home, when he saw a lady step
+upon the platform whose appearance was so familiar that
+he stopped, disbelieving the evidence of his own senses.
+Miss Dare returned? Miss Dare, who but a few hours
+before had left this very depot for the purpose, as she
+said, of making a visit of more or less length in the distant
+city of Buffalo? It could not be. And yet there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+was no mistaking her, disguised though she was by the
+heavy veil that covered her features. She had come
+back, and the interest which Mr. Byrd had lost in Sibley
+and its possible mystery, revived with a suddenness that
+called up a self-conscious blush to his hardy cheek.</p>
+
+<p>But why had she so changed her plans? What could
+have occurred during the few hours that had elapsed
+since her departure, to turn her about on her path and
+drive her homeward before her journey was half completed?
+He could not imagine. True, it was not his
+present business to do so; and yet, however much he endeavored
+to think of other things, he found this question
+occupying his whole mind long after his return to the
+village hotel. She was such a mystery, this woman, it
+might easily be that she had never intended to go to Buffalo;
+that she had only spoken of that place as the point
+of her destination under the stress of her companion's
+importunities, and that the real place for which she was
+bound had been some spot very much nearer home. The
+fact, that her baggage had consisted only of a small bag
+that she carried on her arm, would lend probability to this
+idea, yet, such was the generous character of the young
+detective, he hesitated to give credit to this suspicion, and
+indeed took every pains to disabuse himself of it by inquiring
+of the ticket-agent, whether it was true, as he had
+heard, that Miss Dare had left town on that day for a
+visit to her friends in Buffalo.</p>
+
+<p>He received for his reply that she had bought a ticket<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+for that place, though she evidently had not used it, a
+fact which seemed at least to prove she was honest in the
+expression of her intentions that morning, whatever alteration
+may have taken place in her plans during the course
+of her journey.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd did not enjoy his supper that night, and was
+heartily glad when, in a few moments after its completion,
+Mr. Ferris came in for a chat and a cigar.</p>
+
+<p>They had many things to discuss. First, their own
+case now drawing to a successful close; next, the murder
+of the day before; and lastly, the few facts which had
+been elicited in regard to that murder, in the inquiry
+which had that day been begun before the coroner.</p>
+
+<p>Of the latter Mr. Ferris spoke with much interest. He
+had attended the inquest himself, and, though he had not
+much to communicate&mdash;the time having been mainly
+taken up in selecting and swearing in a jury&mdash;a few witnesses
+had been examined and certain conclusions
+reached, which certainly added greatly to the impression
+already made upon the public mind, that an affair of
+great importance had arisen; an affair, too, promising
+more in the way of mystery than the simple nature of its
+earlier manifestations gave them reason to suppose.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, the widow had evidently been assaulted
+with a deliberate purpose and a serious intent to
+slay.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, no immediate testimony was forthcoming
+calculated to point with unerring certainty to the guilty
+party.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>To be sure, the tramp and the hunchback still offered
+possibilities of suspicion; but even they were slight, the
+former having been seen to leave the widow's house
+without entering, and the latter having been proved beyond
+a question to have come into town on the morning
+train and to have gone at once to court where he remained
+till the time they all saw him disappear down the
+street.</p>
+
+<p>That the last-mentioned individual may have had some
+guilty knowledge of the crime was possible enough. The
+fact of his having wiped himself out so completely as to
+elude all search, was suspicious in itself, but if he was
+connected with the assault it must have been simply as an
+accomplice employed to distract public attention from
+the real criminal; and in a case like this, the interest
+naturally centres with the actual perpetrator; and the
+question was now and must be: Who was the man who,
+in broad daylight, dared to enter a house situated like
+this in a thickly populated street, and kill with a blow an
+inoffensive woman?</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot imagine," declared Mr. Ferris, as his communication
+reached this point. "It looks as if she had
+an enemy, but what enemy could such a person as she
+possess&mdash;a woman who always did her own work, attended
+to her own affairs, and made it an especial rule of her
+life never to meddle with those of anybody else?"</p>
+
+<p>"Was she such a woman?" inquired Mr. Byrd, to
+whom as yet no knowledge had come of the widow's life,
+habits, or character.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes. In all the years I have been in this town I have
+never heard of her visiting any one or encouraging any
+one to visit her. Had it not been for Mr. Orcutt, she
+would have lived the life of a recluse. As it was, she was
+the most methodical person in her ways that I ever knew.
+At just such an hour she rose; at just such an hour put
+on her kettle, cooked her meal, washed her dishes, and sat
+herself down to her sewing or whatever work it was she
+had to do. The dinner was the only meal that waited,
+and that, Mr. Orcutt says, was always ready and done to
+a turn at whatever moment he chose to present himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Had she no intimates, no relatives?" asked Mr.
+Byrd, remembering that fragment of a letter he had read&mdash;a
+letter which certainly contradicted this assertion in
+regard to her even and quiet life.</p>
+
+<p>"None that I am aware of," was the response. "Wait,
+I believe I have been told she has a nephew somewhere&mdash;a
+sister's son, for whom she had some regard and to whom
+she intended to leave her money."</p>
+
+<p>"She had money, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Some five thousand, maybe. Reports differ about
+such matters."</p>
+
+<p>"And this nephew, where does he live?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell you. I don't know as any one can. My
+remembrances in regard to him are of the vaguest character."</p>
+
+<p>"Five thousand dollars is regarded as no mean sum in
+a town like this," quoth Mr. Byrd, carelessly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I know it. She is called quite rich by many. How
+she got her money no one knows; for when she first
+came here she was so poor she had to eat and sleep all in
+one room. Mr. Orcutt paid her something for his daily
+dinner, of course, but that could not have enabled her to
+put ten dollars in the bank as she has done every week
+for the last ten years. And to all appearances she has
+done nothing else for her living. You see, we have paid
+attention to her affairs, if she has paid none to ours."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd again remembered that scrap of a letter which
+had been shown him by the coroner, and thought to himself
+that their knowledge was in all probability less than
+they supposed.</p>
+
+<p>"Who was that horrid crone I saw shouldering herself
+through the crowd that collected around the gate yesterday?"
+was his remark, however. "Do you remember a
+wizen, toothless old wretch, whose eye has more of the
+Evil One in it than that of many a young thief you see
+locked up in the county jails?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; that is, I wonder if you mean Sally Perkins.
+She is old enough and ugly enough to answer your
+description; and, now I think of it, she <i>has</i> a way of leering
+at you as you go by that is slightly suggestive of a
+somewhat bitter knowledge of the world. What makes
+you ask about her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because she attracted my attention, I suppose. You
+must remember that I don't know any of these people,
+and that an especially vicious-looking person like her
+would be apt to awaken my curiosity."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I see, I see; but, in this case, I doubt if it leads to
+much. Old Sally is a hard one, no doubt. But I don't
+believe she ever contemplated a murder, much less accomplished
+it. It would take too much courage, to say
+nothing of strength. It was a man's hand struck that
+blow, Mr. Byrd."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the quick reply&mdash;a reply given somewhat
+too quickly, perhaps, for it made Mr. Ferris look up inquiringly
+at the young man.</p>
+
+<p>"You take considerable interest in the affair," he remarked,
+shortly. "Well, I do not wonder. Even my old
+blood has been somewhat fired by its peculiar features.
+I foresee that your detective instinct will soon lead you to
+risk a run at the game."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, then, you see no objection to my trying for the
+scent, if the coroner persists in demanding it?" inquired
+Mr. Byrd, as he followed the other to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," was the polite response.</p>
+
+<p>And Mr. Byrd found himself satisfied on that score.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris had no sooner left the room than the coroner
+came in.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," cried he, with no unnecessary delay, "I want
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you telegraphed to New York?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and expect an answer every minute. There will
+be no difficulty about that. The superintendent is my
+friend, and will not be likely to cross me in my expressed
+wish."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;&mdash;" essayed the detective.</p>
+
+<p>"We have no time for buts," broke in the coroner.
+"The inquest begins in earnest to-morrow, and the one
+witness we most want has not yet been found. I mean
+the man or the woman who can swear to seeing some one
+approach or enter the murdered woman's house between
+the time the milkman left it at half-past eleven and the
+hour she was found by Mr. Orcutt, lying upon the floor
+of her dining-room in a dying condition. That such a
+witness exists I have no doubt. A street in which there
+are six houses, every one of which has to be passed by
+the person entering Widow Clemmens' gate, must produce
+one individual, at least, who can swear to what I
+want. To be sure, all whom I have questioned so far say
+that they were either eating dinner at the time or were
+in the kitchen serving it up; but, for all that, there were
+plenty who saw the tramp, and two women, at least, who
+are ready to take their oath that they not only saw him,
+but watched him long enough to observe him go around
+to the Widow Clemmens' kitchen door and turn about
+again and come away as if for some reason he had
+changed his mind about entering. Now, if there were
+two witnesses to see all that, there must have been one
+somewhere to notice that other person, known or unknown,
+who went through the street but a few minutes before
+the tramp. At all events, I believe such a witness can
+be found, and I mean to have him if I call up every man,
+woman, and child who was in the lane at the time. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+a little foreknowledge helps a coroner wonderfully, and
+if you will aid me by making judicious inquiries round
+about, time will be gained, and, perhaps, a clue obtained
+that will lead to a direct knowledge of the perpetrator
+of this crime."</p>
+
+<p>"But," inquired the detective, willing, at least, to discuss
+the subject with the coroner, "is it absolutely necessary
+that the murderer should have advanced from the
+street? Is there no way he could have reached the house
+from the back, and so have eluded the gaze of the
+neighbors round about?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; that is, there is no regular path there, only a
+stretch of swampy ground, any thing but pleasant to travel
+through. Of course a man with a deliberate purpose before
+him might pursue that route and subject himself to
+all its inconveniences; but I would scarcely expect it of
+one who&mdash;who chose such an hour for his assault," the
+coroner explained, with a slight stammer of embarrassment
+that did not escape the detective's notice. "Nor
+shall I feel ready to entertain the idea till it has been
+proved that no person, with the exception of those already
+named, was seen any time during that fatal half-hour to
+advance by the usual way to the widow's house."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you questioned the tramp, or in any way received
+from him an intimation of the reason why he did
+not go into the house after he came to it?"</p>
+
+<p>"He said he heard voices quarrelling."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Of course he was not upon his oath, but as the statement
+was volunteered, we have some right to credit it,
+perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he say"&mdash;it was Mr. Byrd now who lost a trifle
+of his fluency&mdash;"what sort of voices he heard?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; he is an ignorant wretch, and is moreover
+thoroughly frightened. I don't believe he would know
+a cultivated from an uncultivated voice, a gentleman's
+from a quarryman's. At all events, we cannot trust to
+his discrimination."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd started. This was the last construction he
+had expected to be put upon his question. Flushing a
+trifle, he looked the coroner earnestly in the face. But
+that gentleman was too absorbed in the train of thought
+raised by his own remark to notice the look, and Mr.
+Byrd, not feeling any too well assured of his own position,
+forbore to utter the words that hovered on his tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"I have another commission for you," resumed the
+coroner, after a moment. "Here is a name which I wish
+you would look at&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But at this instant a smart tap was heard at the door,
+and a boy entered with the expected telegram from New
+York. Dr. Tredwell took it, and, after glancing at its
+contents with an annoyed look, folded up the paper he
+was about to hand to Mr. Byrd and put it slowly back
+into his pocket. He then referred again to the
+telegram.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not what I expected," he said, shortly, after a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+moment of perplexed thought. "It seems that the superintendent
+is not disposed to accommodate me." And he
+tossed over the telegram.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd took it and read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Expect a suitable man by the midnight express. He will bring
+a letter."</p></div>
+
+<p>A flush mounted to the detective's brow.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, sir," he observed, "I was right when I told
+you I was not the man."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," returned the other, rising. "I have
+not changed my opinion. The man they send may be
+very keen and very well-up in his business, but I doubt
+if he will manage this case any better than you would
+have done," and he moved quietly toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you for your too favorable opinion of my
+skill," said Mr. Byrd, as he bowed the other out. "I am
+sure the superintendent is right. I am not much accustomed
+to work for myself, and was none too eager to take
+the case in the first place, as you will do me the justice to
+remember. I can but feel relieved at this shifting of the
+responsibility upon shoulders more fitted to bear it."</p>
+
+<p>Yet, when the coroner was gone, and he sat down alone
+by himself to review the matter, he found he was in reality
+more disappointed than he cared to confess. Why,
+he scarcely knew. There was no lessening of the shrinking
+he had always felt from the possible developments
+which an earnest inquiry into the causes of this crime
+might educe. Yet, to be severed in this way from all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+professional interest in the pursuit cut him so deeply that,
+in despite of his usual good-sense and correct judgment,
+he was never nearer sending in his resignation than he
+was in that short half-hour which followed the departure
+of Dr. Tredwell. To distract his thoughts, he at last
+went down to the bar-room.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SKILL OF AN ARTIST.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+A hit, a very palpable hit.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Hamlet.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>HE found it occupied by some half-dozen men,
+one of whom immediately attracted his attention,
+by his high-bred air and total absorption in the
+paper he was reading. He was evidently a stranger, and,
+though not without some faint marks of a tendency to
+gentlemanly dissipation, was, to say the least, more than
+ordinarily good-looking, possessing a large, manly figure,
+and a fair, regular-featured face, above which shone a
+thick crop of short curly hair of a peculiarly bright
+blond color. He was sitting at a small table, drawn
+somewhat apart from the rest, and was, as I have said,
+engrossed with a newspaper, to the utter exclusion of any
+apparent interest in the talk that was going on at the
+other end of the room. And yet this talk was of the
+most animated description, and was seemingly of a nature
+to attract the attention of the most indifferent. At all
+events Mr. Byrd considered it so; and, after one comprehensive
+glance at the elegant stranger, that took in not
+only the personal characteristics I have noted, but also
+the frown of deep thought or anxious care that furrowed
+a naturally smooth forehead, he passed quietly up the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+room and took his stand among the group of loungers
+there assembled.</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd was not unknown to the <i>habitu&eacute;s</i> of that
+place, and no cessation took place in the conversation.
+They were discussing an occurrence slight enough in
+itself, but made interesting and dramatic by the unconscious
+enthusiasm of the chief speaker, a young fellow of
+indifferent personal appearance, but with a fervid flow of
+words and a knack at presenting a subject that reminded
+you of the actor's power, and made you as anxious to
+watch his gesticulations as to hear the words that accompanied
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you," he was saying, "that it was just a leaf out
+of a play. I never saw its equal off the stage. She was
+so handsome, so impressive in her trouble or anxiety, or
+whatever it was that agitated her, and he so dark, and so
+determined in <i>his</i> trouble or anxiety, or whatever it was
+that agitated him. They came in at different doors, she
+at one side of the depot and he at another, and they met
+just where I could see them both, directly in the centre
+of the room. 'You!' was her involuntary cry, and she
+threw up her hands before her face just as if she had seen
+a ghost or a demon. An equal exclamation burst from
+him, but he did not cover his eyes, only stood and looked
+at her as if he were turned to stone. In another moment
+she dropped her hands. 'Were you coming to see <i>me?</i>'
+came from her lips in a whisper so fraught with secret
+horror and anguish that it curdled my blood to hear it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+'Were you coming to see <i>me?</i>' was his response, uttered
+in an equally suppressed voice and with an equal intensity
+of expression. And then, without either giving an
+answer to the other's question, they both shrank back,
+and, turning, fled with distracted looks, each by the way
+they had come, the two doors closing with a simultaneous
+bang that echoed through that miserable depot like a
+knell. There were not many folks in the room just at
+that minute, but I tell you those that were looked at each
+other as they had not done before and would not be
+likely to do again. Some unhappy tragedy underlies such
+a meeting and parting, gentlemen, and I for one would
+rather not inquire what."</p>
+
+<p>"But the girl&mdash;the man&mdash;didn't you see them again
+before you left?" asked an eager voice from the group.</p>
+
+<p>"The young lady," remarked the other, "was on the
+train that brought me here. The gentleman went the
+other way."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" "Ah!" and "Where did she get off?" rose
+in a somewhat deafening clamor around him.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not observe. She seemed greatly distressed, if
+not thoroughly overcome, and observing her pull down
+her veil, I thought she did not relish my inquiring looks,
+and as I could not sit within view of her and not watch
+her, I discreetly betook myself into the smoking-car,
+where I stayed till we arrived at this place."</p>
+
+<p>"Hum!" "Ha!" "Curious!" rose in chorus once
+more, and then, the general sympathies of the crowd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+being exhausted, two or three or more of the group
+sauntered up to the bar, and the rest sidled restlessly out
+of the room, leaving the enthusiastic speaker alone with
+Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"A strange scene!" exclaimed the latter, infusing just
+enough of seeming interest into his usually nonchalant
+tone to excite the vanity of the person he addressed, and
+make him more than ever ready to talk. "I wish I had
+been in your place," continued Mr. Byrd, almost enthusiastically.
+"I am sure I could have made a picture of
+that scene that would have been very telling in the
+gazette I draw for."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you make pictures for papers?" the young fellow
+inquired, his respect visibly rising.</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes," the imperturbable detective replied, and
+in so doing told no more than the truth. He had a rare
+talent for off-hand sketching, and not infrequently made
+use of it to increase the funds of the family.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is something I would like to do," acknowledged
+the youth, surveying the other over with curious
+eyes. "But I hav'n't a cent's worth of talent for it. I
+can see a scene in my mind now&mdash;this one for instance&mdash;just
+as plain as I can see you; all the details of it, you
+know, the way they stood, the clothes they wore, the looks
+on their faces, and all that, but when I try to put it on
+paper, why, I just can't, that's all."</p>
+
+<p>"Your forte lies another way," remarked Mr. Byrd.
+"You can present a scene so vividly that a person who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+had not seen it for himself, might easily put it on paper
+just from your description. See now!" And he caught
+up a sheet of paper from the desk and carried it to a side
+table. "Just tell me what depot this was in."</p>
+
+<p>The young fellow, greatly interested at once, leaned
+over the detective's shoulder and eagerly replied: "The
+depot at Syracuse."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd nodded and made a few strokes with his
+pencil on the paper before him.</p>
+
+<p>"How was the lady dressed?" he next asked.</p>
+
+<p>"In blue; dark blue cloth, fitting like a glove. Fine
+figure, you know, very tall and unusually large, but perfect,
+I assure you, perfect. Yes, that is very like it," he
+went on watching the quick, assured strokes of the other
+with growing wonder and an unbounded admiration.
+"You have caught the exact poise of the head, as I live,
+and&mdash;yes, a large hat with two feathers, sir, two feathers
+drooping over the side, so; a bag on the arm; two flounces
+on the skirt; a&mdash;oh! the face? Well, handsome,
+sir, very handsome; straight nose, large eyes, determined
+mouth, strong, violently agitated expression. Well, I will
+give up! A photograph couldn't have done her better
+justice. You are a genius, sir, a genius!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd received this tribute to his skill with some
+confusion and a deep blush, which he vainly sought to
+hide by bending lower over his work.</p>
+
+<p>"The man, now," he suggested, with the least perceptible
+change in his voice, that, however, escaped the attention<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+of his companion. "What was he like; young or
+old?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, young&mdash;about twenty-five I should say; medium
+height, but very firmly and squarely built, with a
+strong face, large mustache, brilliant eyes, and a look&mdash;I
+cannot describe it, but you have caught that of the lady
+so well, you will, doubtless, succeed in getting his also."</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Byrd's pencil moved with less certainty now,
+and it was some time before he could catch even the peculiarly
+sturdy aspect of the figure which made this unknown
+gentleman, as the young fellow declared, look like
+a modern Hercules, though he was far from being either
+large or tall. The face, too, presented difficulties he was
+far from experiencing in the case of the lady, and the
+young fellow at his side was obliged to make several suggestions
+such as:&mdash;"A little more hair on the forehead, if
+you please&mdash;there was quite a lock showing beneath his
+hat;" or, "A trifle less sharpness to the chin,&mdash;so;" or,
+"Stay, you have it too square now; tone it down a hair's
+breadth, and you will get it," before he received even the
+somewhat hesitating acknowledgment from the other of:
+"There, that is something like him!"</p>
+
+<p>But he had not expected to succeed very well in this
+part of the picture, and was sufficiently pleased to have
+gained a very correct notion of the style of clothing the
+gentleman wore, which, it is needless to state, was most
+faithfully reproduced in the sketch, even if the exact
+expression of the strong and masculine face was not.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"A really remarkable bit of work," admitted the young
+fellow when the whole was completed. "And as true to
+the scene, too, as half the illustrations given in the weekly
+papers. Would you mind letting me have it as a <i>souvenir?</i>"
+he eagerly inquired. "I would like to show it to
+a chap who was with me at the time. The likeness to the
+lady is wonderful."</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Byrd, with his most careless air, had already
+thrust the picture into his pocket, from which he refused
+to withdraw it, saying, with an easy laugh, that it might
+come in play with him some time, and that he could not
+afford to part with it. At which remark the young fellow
+looked disappointed and vaguely rattled some coins he
+had in his pocket; but, meeting with no encouragement
+from the other, forbore to press his request, and turned it
+into an invitation to join him in a social glass at the bar.</p>
+
+<p>To this slight token of appreciation Mr. Byrd did not
+choose to turn a deaf ear. So the drinks being ordered,
+he proceeded to clink glasses with the youthful stranger,
+taking the opportunity, at the same time, of glancing over
+to the large, well-built man whose quiet absorption in the
+paper he was reading had so attracted his attention when
+he first came in.</p>
+
+<p>To his surprise he found that person just as engrossed
+in the news as ever, not a feature or an eyelash appearing
+to have moved since the time he looked at him last.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd was so astonished at this that when he left
+the room a few minutes later he took occasion in passing
+the gentleman, to glance at the paper he was studying so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+industriously, and, to his surprise, found it to be nothing
+more nor less than the advertising sheet of the New York
+<i>Herald</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"A fellow of my own craft," was his instantaneous conclusion.
+But a moment's consideration assured him that
+this could not be, as no detective worthy the name would
+place so little value upon the understanding of those
+about him as to sit for a half-hour with his eyes upon a
+sheet of paper totally devoid of news, no matter what his
+purpose might be, or how great was his interest in the conversation
+to which he was secretly listening. No; this gentleman
+was doubtless what he seemed to be, a mere stranger,
+with something of a serious and engrossing nature
+upon his mind, or else he was an amateur, who for some
+reason was acting the part of a detective without either
+the skill or experience of one.</p>
+
+<p>Whichever theory might be true, this gentleman was a
+person who at this time and in this place was well worth
+watching: that is, if a man had any reason for interesting
+himself in the pursuit of possible clues to the mystery
+of Mrs. Clemmens' murder. But Mr. Byrd felt that he
+no longer possessed a professional right to such interest;
+so, leaving behind him this fine-looking gentleman,
+together with all the inevitable conjectures which the
+latter's peculiar manner had irresistibly awakened, he
+proceeded to regain his room and enter upon that contemplation
+of the picture he had just made, which was
+naturally demanded by his regard for one of the persons
+there depicted.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was a vigorous sketch, and the slow blush crept up
+and dyed Mr. Byrd's forehead as he gazed at it and realized
+the perfection of the likeness he had drawn of Miss
+Dare. Yes, that was her form, her face, her expression,
+her very self. She it was and no other who had been the
+heroine of the strange scene enacted that day in the
+Syracuse depot; a scene to which, by means of this impromptu
+sketch, he had now become as nearly a witness
+as any one could hope for who had not been actually upon
+the spot. Strange! And he had been so anxious to
+know what had altered the mind of this lady and sent her
+back to Sibley before her journey was half completed&mdash;had
+pondered so long and vainly upon the whys and
+wherefores of an action whose motive he had never expected
+to understand, but which he now saw suggested in
+a scene that seriously whetted, if it did not thoroughly
+satisfy, his curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>The moment he had chosen to portray was that in
+which the eyes of the two met and their first instinctive
+recoil took place. Turning his attention from the face
+of the lady and bestowing it upon that of the man, he
+perceived there the horror and shrinking which he had
+imprinted so successfully upon hers. That the expression
+was true, though the countenance was not, he had no
+doubt. The man, whatever his name, nature, calling, or
+history, recoiled from a meeting with Imogene Dare as
+passionately as she did from one with him. Both had
+started from home with a simultaneous intention of seeking
+the other, and yet, at the first recognition of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+fact, both had started and drawn back as if death rather
+than life had confronted them in each other's faces.
+What did it mean? What secret of a deep and deadly
+nature could lie between these two, that a scene of such
+evident import could take place between them? He
+dared not think; he could do nothing but gaze upon the
+figure of the man he had portrayed, and wonder if he
+would be able to identify the original in case he ever met
+him. The face was more or less a failure, of course, but
+the form, the cut of the clothes, the manner of carriage,
+and the general aspect of strong and puissant manhood
+which distinguished the whole figure, could not be so far
+from correct but that, with a hint from surrounding circumstances,
+he would know the man himself when he saw
+him. At all events, he meant to imprint the possible
+portrait upon his mind in case&mdash;&mdash;in case what? Pausing
+he asked himself this question with stern determination,
+and could find no answer.</p>
+
+<p>"I will burn the sketch at once, and think of it and her
+no more," he muttered, half-rising.</p>
+
+<p>But he did not do it. Some remembrance crossed his
+mind of what the young fellow downstairs had said about
+retaining it as a <i>souvenir</i>, and he ended in folding it up
+and putting it away somewhat carefully in his memorandum-book,
+with a vow that he would leave Sibley and its
+troublous mystery at the first moment of release that he
+could possibly obtain. The pang which this decision cost
+him convinced him that it was indeed high time he
+did so.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>MISS FIRMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I confess with all humility that at times the line of demarcation between
+truth and fiction is rendered so indefinite and indistinct, that I cannot always
+determine, with unerring certainty, whether an event really happened to me,
+or whether <i>I</i> only dreamed it.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Longfellow.</span></p><br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>MR. BYRD, upon waking next morning, found
+himself disturbed by a great perplexity. Were
+the words then ringing in his ears, real words, which he
+had overheard spoken outside of his door some time during
+the past night, or were they merely the empty utterances
+of a more than usually vivid dream?</div>
+
+<p>He could not tell. He could remember the very tone
+of voice in which he fancied them to have been spoken&mdash;a
+tone which he had no difficulty in recognizing as that
+of the landlord of the hotel; could even recall the faint
+sounds of bustle which accompanied them, as though the
+person using them had been showing another person
+through the hall; but beyond that, all was indistinct and
+dream-like.</p>
+
+<p>The words were these:</p>
+
+<p>"Glad to see you back, sir. This murder following so
+close upon your visit must have been a great surprise. A
+sad occurrence, that, sir, and a very mysterious one.
+Hope you have some information to give."</p>
+
+<p>"If it is a remembrance and such words were uttered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+outside of my door last night," argued the young detective
+to himself, "the guest who called them forth can be
+no other than the tall and florid gentleman whom I encountered
+in the bar-room. But is it a remembrance, or
+only a chimera of my own overwrought brain struggling
+with a subject it will not let drop? As Shakespeare
+says, 'That is the question!'"</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, it was not one which it behooved him to
+decide. So, for the twentieth time, he put the subject by
+and resolved to think of it no more.</p>
+
+<p>But perplexities of this kind are not so easily dismissed,
+and more than once during his hurried and solitary breakfast,
+did he ask himself whether, in case the words were
+real, he had not found in the landlord of this very hotel
+the one witness for which the coroner was so diligently
+seeking.</p>
+
+<p>A surprise awaited him after breakfast, in the sudden
+appearance at his room door of the very gentleman last
+alluded to.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha, Byrd," said he, with cheerful vivacity: "here is a
+line from the superintendent which may prove interesting
+to you."</p>
+
+<p>And with a complacent smile, Dr. Tredwell handed
+over a letter which had been brought to him by the
+detective who had that morning arrived from New York.</p>
+
+<p>With a dim sense of foreboding which he would have
+found difficult to explain, Mr. Byrd opened the note
+and read the following words:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;I send with this a man fully competent to conduct a
+case of any ordinary difficulty. I acknowledge it is for our interest
+that you employ him to the exclusion of the person mentioned in your
+letter. But if you or that person think that he can render you any
+real assistance by his interference, he is at liberty to act in his
+capacity of detective in as far as he can do so without divulging too
+widely the secret of his connection with the force.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&mdash;&mdash;&nbsp;&mdash;&mdash;.</p></div>
+
+<p>"The superintendent need not be concerned," said Mr.
+Byrd, returning the note with a constrained bow. "I
+shall not interfere in this matter."</p>
+
+<p>"You will miss a good thing, then," remarked the
+coroner, shortly, looking keenly at the young man.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot help it," observed the other, with a quick
+sigh of impatience or regret. "I should have to see my
+duty very clearly and possess the very strongest reasons
+for interfering before I presumed to offer either advice or
+assistance after a letter of this kind."</p>
+
+<p>"And who knows but what such reasons may yet present
+themselves?" ventured the coroner. Then seeing
+the young man shake his head, made haste to add in the
+business-like tone of one preparing to take his leave,
+"At all events the matter stands open for the present;
+and if during the course of to-day's inquiry you see fit
+to change your mind, it will be easy enough for you to
+notify me." And without waiting for any further remonstrance,
+he gave a quick nod and passed hastily out.</p>
+
+<p>The state of mind in which he left Mr. Byrd was any
+thing but enviable. Not that the young man's former
+determination to let this matter alone had been in any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+wise shaken by the unexpected concession on the part of
+the superintendent, but that the final hint concerning the
+inquest had aroused his old interest to quite a formidable
+degree, and, what was worse, had reawakened certain
+feelings which since last night it had been his most
+earnest endeavor to subdue. He felt like a man pursued
+by an implacable fate, and dimly wondered whether he
+would be allowed to escape before it was too late to save
+himself from lasting uneasiness, if not lifelong regret.</p>
+
+<p>A final stroke of business for Mr. Ferris kept him at
+the court-house most of the morning; but his duty in
+that direction being at an end, he no longer found any
+excuse for neglecting the task imposed upon him by the
+coroner. He accordingly proceeded to the cottage where
+the inquest was being held, and finding each and every
+available room there packed to its uttermost by interested
+spectators, took up his stand on the outside of a curtained
+window, where with but a slight craning of his neck he
+could catch a very satisfactory view of the different witnesses
+as they appeared before the jury. The day was
+warm and he was by no means uncomfortable, though he
+could have wished that the advantages of his position had
+occasioned less envy in the breasts of the impatient crowd
+that was slowly gathering at his back; or, rather, that
+their sense of these advantages might have been expressed
+in some more pleasing way than by the various pushes he
+received from the more or less adventurous spirits who
+endeavored to raise themselves over his shoulder or insinuate
+themselves under his arms.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The room into which he looked was the sitting-room,
+and it was, so far as he could judge in the first casual
+glance he threw into it, occupied entirely by strangers.
+This was a relief. Since it had become his duty to
+attend this inquiry, he wished to do so with a free mind,
+unhindered by the watchfulness of those who knew his
+interest in the affair, or by the presence of persons around
+whom his own imagination had involuntarily woven a network
+of suspicion that made his observation of them at
+once significant and painful.</p>
+
+<p>The proceedings were at a standstill when he first came
+upon the scene.</p>
+
+<p>A witness had just stepped aside, who, from the impatient
+shrugs of many persons present, had evidently added
+little if any thing to the testimony already given. Taking
+advantage of the moment, Mr. Byrd leaned forward and
+addressed a burly man who sat directly under him.</p>
+
+<p>"What have they been doing all the morning?" he
+asked. "Any thing important?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," was the surly reply. "A score of folks have
+had their say, but not one of them has told any thing
+worth listening to. Nobody has seen any thing, nobody
+knows any thing. The murderer might have risen up
+through the floor to deal his blow, and having given it,
+sunk back again with the same supernatural claptrap, for
+all these stupid people seem to know about him."</p>
+
+<p>The man had a loud voice, and as he made no attempt
+to modulate it, his words were heard on all sides. Naturally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+many heads were turned toward him, and more than
+one person looked at him with an amused smile. Indeed,
+of all the various individuals in his immediate vicinity,
+only one forbore to take any notice of his remark. This
+was a heavy, lymphatic, and somewhat abstracted-looking
+fellow of nondescript appearance, who stood stiff and
+straight as an exclamation point against the jamb of the
+door-way that led into the front hall.</p>
+
+<p>"But have no facts been obtained, no conclusions
+reached, that would serve to awaken suspicion or put
+justice on the right track?" pursued Mr. Byrd, lowering
+his voice in intimation for the other to do the same.</p>
+
+<p>But that other was of an obstinate tendency, and his
+reply rose full and loud.</p>
+
+<p>"No, unless it can be considered proved that it is only
+folly to try and find out who commits a crime in these
+days. Nothing else has come to light, as far as I can see,
+and that much we all knew before."</p>
+
+<p>A remark of this kind was not calculated to allay the
+slight inclination to mirth which his former observation
+had raised; but the coroner rapping with his gavel on
+the table at this moment, every other consideration was
+lost in the natural curiosity which every one felt as to who
+the next witness would be.</p>
+
+<p>But the coroner had something to say before he called
+for further testimony.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," he remarked, in a clear and commanding
+tone that at once secured attention and awakened interest,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+"we have spent the morning in examining the persons
+who live in this street, with a view to ascertaining,
+if possible, who was in conversation with Mrs. Clemmens
+at the time the tramp went up to her door."</p>
+
+<p>Was it a coincidence, or was there something in the
+words themselves that called forth the stir that at this
+moment took place among the people assembled directly
+before Mr. Byrd? It was of the slightest character, and
+was merely momentary in its duration; nevertheless, it
+attracted his attention, especially as it seemed to have its
+origin in a portion of the room shut off from his observation
+by the corner of the wall already alluded to.</p>
+
+<p>The coroner proceeded without pause.</p>
+
+<p>"The result, as you know, has not been satisfactory.
+No one seems to be able to tell us who it was that visited
+Mrs. Clemmens on that day. I now propose to open
+another examination of a totally different character,
+which I hope may be more conclusive in its results.
+Miss Firman, are you prepared to give your testimony?"</p>
+
+<p>Immediately a tall, gaunt, but pleasant-faced woman
+arose from the dim recesses of the parlor. She was
+dressed with decency, if not taste, and took her stand
+before the jury with a lady-like yet perfectly assured
+air that promised well for the correctness and discretion
+of her answers. The coroner at once addressed her.</p>
+
+<p>"Your full name, madam?"</p>
+
+<p>"Emily Letitia Firman, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Emily!" ejaculated Mr. Byrd, to himself, with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+throb of sudden interest. "That is the name of the
+murdered woman's correspondent."</p>
+
+<p>"Your birthplace," pursued the coroner, "and the
+place of your present residence?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was born in Danbury, Connecticut," was the reply,
+"and I am living in Utica, where I support my aged
+mother by dress-making."</p>
+
+<p>"How are you related to Mrs. Clemmens, the lady who
+was found murdered here two days ago?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am her second cousin; her grandmother and my
+mother were sisters."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon what terms have you always lived, and what
+can you tell us of her other relatives and connections?"</p>
+
+<p>"We have always been friends, and I can tell you all
+that is generally known of the two or three remaining
+persons of her blood and kindred. They are, first, my
+mother and myself, who, as I have before said, live in
+Utica, where I am connected with the dress-making
+establishment of Madame Trebelle; and, secondly, a
+nephew of hers, the son of a favorite brother, whom she
+has always supported, and to whom she has frequently
+avowed her intention of leaving her accumulated savings."</p>
+
+<p>"The name of this gentleman and his place of residence?"</p>
+
+<p>"His name is Mansell&mdash;Craik Mansell&mdash;and he lives
+in Buffalo, where he has a situation of some trust in the
+large paper manufactory of Harrison, Goodman, &amp;
+Chamberlin."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Buffalo! Mr. Byrd gave an involuntary start, and became,
+if possible, doubly attentive.</p>
+
+<p>The coroner's questions went on.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know this young man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. He has been several times to our house in
+the course of the last five years."</p>
+
+<p>"What can you tell us of his nature and disposition,
+as well as of his regard for the woman who proposed to
+benefit him so materially by her will?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir," returned Miss Firman, "it is hard to read
+the nature and feelings of any man who has much character,
+and Craik Mansell has a good deal of character.
+But I have always thought him a very honest and capable
+young man, who might do us credit some day, if he were
+allowed to have his own way and not be interfered with
+too much. As for his feelings toward his aunt, they were
+doubtless those of gratitude, though I have never heard
+him express himself in any very affectionate terms toward
+her, owing, no doubt, to a natural reticence of disposition
+which has been observable in him from childhood."</p>
+
+<p>"You have, however, no reason to believe he cherished
+any feelings of animosity toward his benefactress?" continued
+the coroner, somewhat carelessly, "or possessed
+any inordinate desire after the money she was expecting
+to leave him at her death?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. Both having minds of their own, they frequently
+disagreed, especially on business matters; but
+there was never any bitterness between them, as far as I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+know, and I never heard him say any thing about his expectations
+one way or the other. He is a man of much
+natural force, of strong, if not violent, traits of character;
+but he has too keen a sense of his own dignity to intimate
+the existence of desires so discreditable to him."</p>
+
+<p>There was something in this reply and the impartial
+aspect of the lady delivering it that was worthy of notice,
+perhaps. And such it would have undoubtedly received
+from Mr. Byrd, at least, if the words she had used in
+characterizing this person had not struck him so deeply
+that he forgot to note any thing further.</p>
+
+<p>"A man of great natural force&mdash;of strong, if not
+violent traits of character," he kept repeating to himself.
+"The description, as I live, of the person whose picture I
+attempted to draw last night."</p>
+
+<p>And, ignoring every thing else, he waited with almost
+sickening expectation for the question that would link
+this nephew of Mrs. Clemmens either to the tragedy
+itself, or to that person still in the background, of whose
+secret connection with a man of this type, he had
+obtained so curious and accidental a knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>But it did not come. With a quiet abandonment of the
+by no means exhausted topic, which convinced Mr. Byrd
+that the coroner had plans and suspicions to which
+the foregoing questions had given no clue, Dr. Tredwell
+leaned slowly forward, and, after surveying the witness
+with a glance of cautious inquiry, asked in a way to concentrate
+the attention of all present:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You say that you knew the Widow Clemmens well;
+that you have always been on friendly terms with her,
+and are acquainted with her affairs. Does that mean you
+have been made a confidante of her troubles, her responsibilities,
+and her cares?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; that is, in as far as she ever made a confidant
+of any one. Mrs. Clemmens was not of a complaining
+disposition, neither was she by nature very communicative.
+Only at rare times did she make mention of
+herself or her troubles: but when she did, it was invariably
+to me, sir&mdash;or so she used to say; and she was
+not a woman to deceive you in such matters."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then, you are in a position to tell us something
+of her history, and why it is she kept herself so
+close after she came to this town?"</p>
+
+<p>But Miss Firman uttered a vigorous disclaimer to this.
+"No, sir," said she, "I am not. Mrs. Clemmens' history
+was simple enough, but her reasons for living as she did
+have never been explained. She was not naturally a
+quiet woman, and, when a girl, was remarkable for
+her spirits and fondness for company."</p>
+
+<p>"Has she had any great sorrow since you knew her&mdash;any
+serious loss or disappointment that may have soured
+her disposition, and turned her, as it were, against
+the world?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps; she felt the death of her husband very
+much&mdash;indeed, has never been quite the same since
+she lost him."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And when was that, if you please?"</p>
+
+<p>"Full fifteen years ago, sir; just before she came
+to this town."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you know Mr. Clemmens?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; none of us knew him. They were married in
+some small village out West, where he died&mdash;well, I think
+she wrote&mdash;a month if not less after their marriage. She
+was inconsolable for a time, and, though she consented to
+come East, refused to take up her abode with any of
+her relatives, and so settled in this place, where she
+has remained ever since."</p>
+
+<p>The manner of the coroner suddenly changed to one of
+great impressiveness.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Firman," he now asked, "did it ever strike you
+that the hermit life she led was due to any fear or apprehension
+which she may have secretly entertained?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sir?"</p>
+
+<p>The question was peculiar and no one wondered at the
+start which the good woman gave. But what mainly
+struck Mr. Byrd, and gave to the moment a seeming
+importance, was the fact that she was not alone in her
+surprise or even her expression of it; that the indefinable
+stir he had before observed had again taken place in the
+crowd before him, and that this time there was no doubt
+about its having been occasioned by the movements of a
+person whose elbow he could just perceive projecting
+beyond the door-way that led into the hall.</p>
+
+<p>But there was no time for speculation as to whom this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+person might be. The coroner's questions were every
+moment growing more rapid, and Miss Firman's answers
+more interesting.</p>
+
+<p>"I asked," here the coroner was heard to say, "whether,
+in your intercourse with Mrs. Clemmens, you have ever
+had reason to suppose she was the victim of any secret
+or personal apprehension that might have caused her
+to seclude herself as she did? Or let me put it in another
+way. Can you tell me whether you know of any other
+person besides this nephew of hers who is likely to
+be benefited by Mrs. Clemmens' death?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir," was the hasty and somewhat excited reply,
+"you mean young Mr. Hildreth!"</p>
+
+<p>The way in which this was said, together with the
+slight flush of satisfaction or surprise which rose to the
+coroner's brow, naturally awoke the slumbering excitement
+of the crowd and made a small sensation. A low
+murmur ran through the rooms, amid which Mr. Byrd
+thought he heard a suppressed but bitter exclamation.
+He could not be sure of it, however, and had just made
+up his mind that his ears had deceived him, when his
+attention was attracted by a shifting in the position of
+the sturdy, thick-set man who had been leaning against
+the opposite wall, but who now crossed and took his stand
+beside the jamb, on the other side of which sat the unknown
+individual toward whom so many inquiring
+glances had hitherto been directed.</p>
+
+<p>The quietness with which this change was made, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+the slight, almost imperceptible, alteration in the manner
+of the person making it, brought a sudden enlightenment
+to Mr. Byrd, and he at once made up his mind that this
+dull, abstracted-looking nonentity leaning with such apparent
+unconcern against the wall, was the new detective
+who had been sent up that morning from New York.
+His curiosity in regard to the identity of the individual
+round the corner was not lessened by this.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the coroner had answered the hasty exclamation
+of the witness, by disclaiming the existence of
+any special meaning of his own, and had furthermore
+pressed the question as to who this Mr. Hildreth was.</p>
+
+<p>She immediately answered: "A gentleman of Toledo,
+sir; a young man who could only come into his property
+by the death of Mrs. Clemmens."</p>
+
+<p>"How? You have not spoken of any such person as
+connected with her."</p>
+
+<p>"No," was her steady response; "nor was he so connected
+by any tie of family or friendship. Indeed, I do
+not know as they were ever acquainted, or, as for that
+matter, ever saw each other's faces. The fact to which I
+allude was simply the result of a will, sir, made by Mr.
+Hildreth's grandfather."</p>
+
+<p>"A will? Explain yourself. I do not understand."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, I do not know much about the law, and
+may make a dozen mistakes in telling you what you wish
+to know; but what I understand about the matter is this:
+Mr. Hildreth, the grandfather of the gentleman of whom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+I have just spoken, having a large property, which he
+wanted to leave in bulk to his grandchildren,&mdash;their
+father being a very dissipated and reckless man,&mdash;made
+his will in such a way as to prevent its distribution
+among his heirs till after the death of two persons whom
+he mentioned by name. Of these two persons one was
+the son of his head clerk, a young boy, who sickened and
+died shortly after Mr. Hildreth himself, and the other my
+cousin, the poor murdered woman, who was then a little
+girl visiting the family. I do not know how she came to
+be chosen by him for this purpose, unless it was that she
+was particularly round and ruddy as a child, and looked
+as if she might live for many years."</p>
+
+<p>"And the Hildreths? What of them during these
+years?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I cannot exactly say, as I never had any acquaintance
+with them myself. But I know that the
+father, whose dissipated habits were the cause of this
+peculiar will tying up the property, died some little time
+ago; also one or two of his children, but beyond that I
+know little, except that the remaining heirs are a young
+gentleman and one or two young girls, all of the worldliest
+and most fashionable description."</p>
+
+<p>The coroner, who had followed all this with the greatest
+interest, now asked if she knew the first name of the
+young gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said she, "I do. It is Gouverneur."</p>
+
+<p>The coroner gave a satisfied nod, and remarked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+casually, "It is not a common name," and then, leaning
+forward, selected a paper from among several that lay on
+the table before him. "Miss Firman," he inquired, retaining
+this paper in his hand, "do you know when it
+was that Mrs. Clemmens first became acquainted with
+the fact of her name having been made use of in the
+elder Mr. Hildreth's will?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, years ago; when she first came of age, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"Was it an occasion of regret to her? Did she ever
+express herself as sorry for the position in which she
+stood toward this family?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; she did."</p>
+
+<p>The coroner's face assumed a yet greater gravity, and
+his manner became more and more impressive.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you go a step farther and say that she ever
+acknowledged herself to have cherished apprehensions
+of her personal safety, during these years of weary waiting
+on the part of the naturally impatient heirs?"</p>
+
+<p>A distressed look crossed the amiable spinster's face,
+and she looked around at the jury with an expression
+almost deprecatory in its nature.</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely know what answer to give," she hesitatingly
+declared. "It is a good deal to say that she was apprehensive;
+but I cannot help remembering that she once
+told me her peace of mind had left her since she knew
+there were persons in the world to whom her death would
+be a matter of rejoicing. 'It makes me feel as if I were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+keeping people out of their rights,' she remarked at the
+same time. 'And, though it is not my fault, I should
+not be surprised if some day I had to suffer for it.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Was there ever any communication made to Mrs.
+Clemmens by persons cognizant of the relation in which
+she stood to these Hildreths?&mdash;or any facts or gossip
+detailed to her concerning them, that would seem to give
+color to her fears and supply her with any actual grounds
+for her apprehensions?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; only such tales as came to her of their expensive
+ways of living and somewhat headlong rush into all
+fashionable freaks and follies."</p>
+
+<p>"And Gouverneur Hildreth? Any special gossip in
+regard to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"No!"</p>
+
+<p>There are some noes that are equivalent to affirmations.
+This was one of them. Naturally the coroner
+pressed the question.</p>
+
+<p>"I must request you to think again," he persisted.
+Then, with a change of voice: "Are you sure you have
+never heard any thing specially derogatory to this young
+man, or that Mrs. Clemmens had not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have friends in Toledo who speak of him as the
+fastest man about town, if that could be called derogatory.
+As for Mrs. Clemmens, she may have heard as
+much, and she may have heard more, I cannot say. I
+know she always frowned when his father's name was
+mentioned."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Miss Firman," proceeded the coroner, "in the long
+years in which you have been more or less separated
+from Mrs. Clemmens, you have, doubtless, kept up a
+continued if not frequent correspondence with her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think, from the commencement and general
+tone of this letter, which I found lying half finished
+on her desk, that it was written and intended for yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>Taking the letter from his outstretched hand, she
+fumbled nervously for her glasses, put them on, and
+then glanced hurriedly at the sheet, saying as she did
+so:</p>
+
+<p>"There can be no doubt of it. She had no other
+friend whom she would have been likely to address as
+'Dear Emily.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen of the Jury, you have a right to hear the
+words written by the deceased but a few hours, if not a
+few minutes, previous to the brutal assault that has led to
+the present inquiry. Miss Firman, as the letter was intended
+for yourself, will you be kind enough to read it
+aloud, after which you will hand it over to the jury."</p>
+
+<p>With a gloomy shake of her head, and a certain trembling
+in her voice, that was due, perhaps, as much to
+the sadness of her task as to any foreboding of the real
+nature of the words she had to read, she proceeded to
+comply:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Emily</span>:&mdash;I don't know why I sit down to write to you
+to-day. I have plenty to do, and morning is no time for indulging<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+in sentimentalities. But I feel strangely lonely and strangely anxious.
+Nothing goes just to my mind, and somehow the many causes for
+secret fear which I have always had, assume an undue prominence in
+my mind. It is always so when I am not quite well. In vain I
+reason with myself, saying that respectable people do not lightly
+enter into crime. But there are so many to whom my death would
+be more than welcome, that I constantly see myself in the act of
+being&mdash;&mdash;</p></div>
+
+<p>"Good heavens!" ejaculated the spinster, dropping
+the paper from her hand and looking dismally around
+upon the assembled faces of the now deeply interested
+spectators.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing her dismay, a man who stood at the right of the
+coroner, and who seemed to be an officer of the law,
+quietly advanced, and picking up the paper she had let
+fall, handed it to the jury. The coroner meanwhile
+recalled her attention to herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Firman," said he, "allow me to put to you one
+final question which, though it might not be called a
+strictly legal one, is surely justified by the gravity of the
+situation. If Mrs. Clemmens had finished this letter, and
+you in due course had received it, what conclusion
+would you have drawn from the words you have just
+read?"</p>
+
+<p>"I could have drawn but one, sir. I should have considered
+that the solitary life led by my cousin was telling
+upon her mind."</p>
+
+<p>"But these terrors of which she speaks? To what and
+whom would you have attributed them?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like to say it, and I don't know as I am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+justified in saying it, but it would have been impossible
+for me, under the circumstances, to have thought of any
+other source for them than the one we have already
+mentioned."</p>
+
+<p>"And that is?" inexorably pursued the coroner.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Gouverneur Hildreth."</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE THICK-SET MAN.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+Springs to catch woodcocks.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Hamlet.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>IN the pause that followed, Miss Firman stepped
+aside, and Mr. Byrd, finding his attention released,
+stole a glance toward the hall-way and its nearly concealed
+occupant. He found the elbow in agitated movement,
+and, as he looked at it, saw it disappear and a hand
+project into view, groping for the handkerchief which was,
+doubtless, hidden in the hat which he now perceived
+standing on the floor in the corner of the door-way. He
+looked at that hand well. It was large, white, and
+elegantly formed, and wore a seal ring of conspicuous
+size upon the little finger. He had scarcely noticed this
+ring, and wondered if others had seen it too, when the
+hand plunged into the hat, and drawing out the kerchief,
+vanished with it behind the jamb that had already hidden
+so much from his view.</div>
+
+<p>"A fine gentleman's hand, and a fine gentleman's ring,"
+was Mr. Byrd's mental comment; and he was about
+to glance aside, when, to his great astonishment, he saw
+the hand appear once more with the handkerchief in it,
+but without the ring which a moment since had made it
+such a conspicuous mark for his eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Our fine gentleman is becoming frightened," he
+thought, watching the hand until it dropped the handkerchief
+back into the hat. "One does not take off a ring in
+a company like this without a good reason." And
+he threw a quick glance at the man he considered his
+rival in the detective business.</p>
+
+<p>But that worthy was busily engaged in stroking his chin
+in a feeling way, strongly suggestive of a Fledgerby-like
+interest in his absent whisker; and well versed as
+was Mr. Byrd in the ways of his fellow-detectives, he
+found it impossible to tell whether the significant action
+he had just remarked had escaped the attention of
+this man or not. Confused if not confounded, he turned
+back to the coroner, in a maze of new sensations, among
+which a growing hope that his own former suspicions had
+been of a wholly presumptuous character, rose predominant.</p>
+
+<p>He found that functionary preparing to make a remark.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," said he; "you have listened to the
+testimony of Mrs. Clemmens' most confidential friend,
+and heard such explanations as she had to give, of
+the special fears which Mrs. Clemmens acknowledges herself
+to have entertained in regard to her personal safety.
+Now, while duly impressing upon you the necessity of not
+laying too much stress upon the secret apprehensions of
+a woman living a life of loneliness and seclusion, I still
+consider it my duty to lay before you another bit of the
+widow's writing, in which&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Here he was interrupted by the appearance at his side
+of a man with a telegram in his hand. In the pause
+which followed his reading of the same, Mr. Byrd, with
+that sudden impulse of interference which comes upon us
+all at certain junctures, tore out a leaf from his memorandum-book,
+and wrote upon it some half dozen or
+so words indicative of the advisability of examining the
+proprietor of the Eastern Hotel as to the name and
+quality of the several guests entertained by him on the
+day of the murder; and having signed this communication
+with his initial letters H. B., looked about for a
+messenger to carry it to the coroner. He found one in
+the person of a small boy, who was pressing with all his
+might against his back, and having despatched him with
+the note, regained his old position at the window, and
+proceeded to watch, with a growing interest in the drama
+before him, the result of his interference upon the
+coroner.</p>
+
+<p>He had not long to wait. The boy had no sooner
+shown himself at the door with the note, than Dr.
+Tredwell laid down the telegram he was perusing and
+took this new communication. With a slight smile Mr.
+Byrd was not slow in attributing to its true source,
+he read the note through, then turned to the officer
+at his side and gave him some command that sent him
+from the room. He then took up the slip he was on the
+point of presenting to the jury at the time he was
+first interrupted, and continuing his remarks in reference
+to it, said quietly:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, this paper which I here pass over to you,
+was found by me in the recess of Mrs. Clemmens' desk at
+the time I examined it for the address of Miss Firman.
+It was in an envelope that had never been sealed, and
+was, if I may use the expression, tucked away under a pile
+of old receipts. The writing is similar to that used
+in the letter you have just read, and the signature attached
+to it is 'Mary Ann Clemmens.' Will Mr. Black
+of the jury read aloud the words he will there find
+written?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Black, in whose hand the paper then rested,
+looked up with a flush, and slowly, if not painfully, complied:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"I desire"&mdash;such was the language of the writing before him&mdash;"that
+in case of any sudden or violent death on my part, the authorities
+should inquire into the possible culpability of a gentleman living
+in Toledo, Ohio, known by the name of Gouverneur Hildreth. He is
+a man of no principle, and my distinct conviction is, that if such a
+death should occur to me, it will be entirely due to his efforts to gain
+possession of property which cannot be at his full disposal until my
+death.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+"<span class="smcap">Mary Ann Clemmens</span>, Sibley, N. Y."<br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"A serious charge!" quoth a juryman, breaking the
+universal silence occasioned by this communication from
+the dead.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think so," echoed the burly man in front of
+Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Byrd himself and the quiet man who leaned so
+stiffly and abstractedly against the wall, said nothing. Perhaps
+they found themselves sufficiently engaged in watching<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+that half-seen elbow, which since the reading of this
+last slip of paper had ceased all movement and remained
+as stationary as though it had been paralyzed.</p>
+
+<p>"A charge which, as yet, is nothing but a charge," observed
+the coroner. "But evidence is not wanting," he
+went on, "that Mr. Hildreth is not at home at this present
+time, but is somewhere in this region, as will be seen
+by the following telegram from the superintendent of the
+Toledo police." And he held up to view, not the telegram
+he had just received, but another which he had
+taken from among the papers on the table before him:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Party mentioned not in Toledo. Left for the East on midnight
+train of Wednesday the 27th inst. When last heard from was in Albany.
+He has been living fast, and is well known to be in pecuniary
+difficulties, necessitating a large and immediate amount of money.
+Further particulars by letter.</p></div>
+
+<p>"That, gentlemen, I received last night. To-day,"
+he continued, taking up the telegram that had just come
+in, "the following arrives:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Fresh advices. Man you are in search of talked of suicide at
+his club the other night. Seemed in a desperate way, and said that
+if something did not soon happen he should be a lost man. Horse-flesh
+and unfortunate speculations have ruined him. They say it will
+take all he will ultimately receive to pay his debts.</p></div>
+
+<p>"And below:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Suspected that he has been in your town."</p></div>
+
+<p>A crisis was approaching round the corner. This, to
+the skilled eyes of Mr. Byrd, was no longer doubtful.
+Even if he had not observed the wondering glances cast<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+in that direction by persons who could see the owner of
+that now immovable elbow, he would have been assured
+that all was not right, by the alert expression which had
+now taken the place of the stolid and indifferent look
+which had hitherto characterized the face of the man he
+believed to be a detective.</p>
+
+<p>A panther about to spring could not have looked more
+threatening, and the wonder was, that there were no more
+to observe this exciting by-play. Yet the panther did
+not spring, and the inquiry went on.</p>
+
+<p>"The witness I now propose to call," announced the
+coroner, after a somewhat trying delay, "is the proprietor
+of the Eastern Hotel. Ah, here he is. Mr. Symonds,
+have you brought your register for the past week?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," answered the new-comer, with a good deal
+of flurry in his manner and an embarrassed look about
+him, which convinced Mr. Byrd that the words in regard
+to whose origin he had been so doubtful that morning,
+had been real words and no dream.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then, submit it, if you please, to the jury,
+and tell us in the meantime whether you have entertained
+at your house this week any guest who professed to come
+from Toledo?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I don't remember any such," began
+the witness, in a stammering sort of way. "We have
+always a great many men from the West stopping at our
+house, but I don't recollect any special one who registered
+himself as coming from Toledo."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You, however, always expect your guests to put their
+names in your book?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>There was something in the troubled look of the man
+which aroused the suspicion of the coroner, and he was
+about to address him with another question when one of
+the jury, who was looking over the register, spoke up and
+asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Who is this Clement Smith who writes himself down
+here as coming from Toledo?"</p>
+
+<p>"Smith?&mdash;Smith?" repeated Symonds, going up to
+the juryman and looking over his shoulder at the book.
+"Oh, yes, the gentleman who came yesterday. He&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But at this moment a slight disturbance occurring in
+the other room, the witness paused and looked about him
+with that same embarrassed look before noted. "He is
+at the hotel now," he added, with an attempt at ease,
+transparent as it was futile.</p>
+
+<p>The disturbance to which I have alluded was of a
+peculiar kind. It was occasioned by the thick-set man
+making the spring which, for some minutes, he had evidently
+been meditating. It was not a tragic leap, however, but
+a decidedly comic one, and had for its end and aim the
+recovery of a handkerchief which he had taken from his
+pocket at the moment when the witness uttered the name
+of Smith, and, by a useless flourish in opening it, flirted
+from his hand to the floor. At least, so the amused
+throng interpreted the sudden dive which he made, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+the heedless haste that caused him to trip over the gentleman's
+hat that stood on the floor, causing it to fall and
+another handkerchief to tumble out. But Mr. Byrd, who
+had a detective's insight into the whole matter, saw
+something more than appeared in the profuse apologies
+which the thick-set man made, and the hurried manner
+in which he gathered up the handkerchiefs and stood
+looking at them before returning one to his pocket and
+the other to its place in the gentleman's hat. Nor was
+Mr. Byrd at all astonished to observe that the stand
+which his fellow-detective took, upon resettling himself,
+was much nearer the unseen gentleman than before, or
+that in replacing the hat, he had taken pains to put it so
+far to one side that the gentleman would be obliged to
+rise and come around the corner in order to obtain it.
+The drift of the questions propounded to the witness at
+this moment opened his eyes too clearly for him to fail
+any longer to understand the situation.</p>
+
+<p>"Now at the hotel?" the coroner was repeating.
+"And came yesterday? Why, then, did you look so embarrassed
+when I mentioned his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;well&mdash;ah," stammered the man, "because he was
+there once before, though his name is not registered but
+once in the book."</p>
+
+<p>"He was? And on what day?"</p>
+
+<p>"On Tuesday," asserted the man, with the sudden decision
+of one who sees it is useless to attempt to keep
+silence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The day of the murder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And why is his name not on the book at that time if
+he came to your house and put up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because he did not put up; he merely called in, as it
+were, and did not take a meal or hire a room."</p>
+
+<p>"How did you know, then, that he was there? Did
+you see him or talk to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And what did you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"He asked me for directions to a certain house, and I
+gave them."</p>
+
+<p>"Whose house?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Widow Clemmens', sir."</p>
+
+<p>Ah, light at last! The long-sought-for witness had
+been found! Coroner and jury brightened visibly, while
+the assembled crowd gave vent to a deep murmur, that
+must have sounded like a knell of doom&mdash;in one pair of
+ears, at least.</p>
+
+<p>"He asked you for directions to the house of Widow
+Clemmens. At what time was this?"</p>
+
+<p>"At about half-past eleven in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>The very hour!</p>
+
+<p>"And did he leave then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; after taking a glass of brandy."</p>
+
+<p>"And did you not see him again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not till yesterday, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, and at what time did you see him yesterday?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"At bedtime, sir. He came with other arrivals on the
+five o'clock train; but I was away all the afternoon and
+did not see him till I went into the bar-room in the
+evening."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and what passed between you then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not much, sir. I asked if he was going to stay with
+us, and when he said 'Yes,' I inquired if he had registered
+his name. He replied 'No.' At which I pointed
+to the book, and he wrote his name down and then went
+up-stairs with me to his room."</p>
+
+<p>"And is that all? Did you say nothing beyond what
+you have mentioned? ask him no questions or make no
+allusions to the murder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, I did make some attempt that way, for I
+was curious to know what took him to the Widow Clemmens'
+house, but he snubbed me so quickly, I concluded
+to hold my tongue and not trouble myself any further
+about the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you mean to say you haven't told any one
+that an unknown man had been at your house on the
+morning of the murder inquiring after the widow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. I am a poor man, and believe in keeping
+out of all sort of messes. Policy demands that much of
+me, gentlemen."</p>
+
+<p>The look he received from the coroner may have convinced
+him that policy can be carried too far.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," said Dr. Tredwell, "what sort of a man is
+this Clement Smith?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He is a gentleman, sir, and not at all the sort of person
+with whom you would be likely to connect any unpleasant
+suspicion."</p>
+
+<p>The coroner surveyed the hotel-keeper somewhat
+sternly.</p>
+
+<p>"We are not talking about suspicions!" he cried;
+then, in a different tone, repeated: "This gentleman, you
+say, is still at your house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, or was at breakfast-time. I have not seen
+him since."</p>
+
+<p>"We will have to call Mr. Smith as a witness," declared
+the coroner, turning to the officer at his side. "Go and
+see if you cannot bring him as soon as you did Mr.
+Symonds."</p>
+
+<p>But here a voice spoke up full and loud from the other
+room.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not necessary, sir. A witness you will consider
+more desirable than he is in the building." And the
+thick-set man showed himself for an instant to the coroner,
+then walking back, deliberately laid his hand on the
+elbow which for so long a time had been the centre of
+Mr. Byrd's wondering conjectures.</p>
+
+<p>In an instant the fine, gentlemanly figure of the stranger,
+whom he had seen the night before in the bar-room, appeared
+with a bound from beyond the jamb, and pausing
+excitedly before the man, now fully discovered to all
+around as a detective, asked him, in shaking tones of
+suppressed terror or rage, what it was he meant.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you," was the ready assurance, "if you will
+step out here in view of the coroner and jury."</p>
+
+<p>With a glance that for some reason disturbed Mr. Byrd
+in his newly acquired complacency, the gentleman stalked
+hurriedly forward and took his stand in the door-way
+leading into the room occupied by the persons mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," he cried, "what have you to say?"</p>
+
+<p>But the detective, who had advanced behind him, still
+refrained from replying, though he gave a quick look at
+the coroner, which led that functionary to glance at the
+hotel-keeper and instantly ask:</p>
+
+<p>"You know this gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is Mr. Clement Smith."</p>
+
+<p>A flush so violent and profuse, that even Mr. Byrd
+could see it from his stand outside the window, inundated
+for an instant the face and neck of the gentleman, but
+was followed by no words, though the detective at his
+side waited for an instant before saying:</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are mistaken; I should call him now Mr.
+Gouverneur Hildreth!"</p>
+
+<p>With a start and a face grown as suddenly white as it
+had but an instant before been red, the gentleman turned
+and surveyed the detective from head to foot, saying, in
+a tone of mock politeness:</p>
+
+<p>"And why, if you please? I have never been introduced
+to you that I remember."</p>
+
+<p>"No," rejoined the detective, taking from his pocket
+the handkerchief which he had previously put there, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
+presenting it to the other with a bow, "but I have read
+the monogram upon your handkerchief and it happens to
+be&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Enough!" interrupted the other, in a stern if not
+disdainful voice. "I see I have been the victim of
+espionage." And stepping into the other room, he walked
+haughtily up to the coroner and exclaimed: "I am
+Gouverneur Hildreth, and I come from Toledo. Now,
+what is it you have to say to me?"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p>
+<h2>IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>CLOSE CALCULATIONS.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Truth alone,</span><br />
+Truth tangible and palpable; such truth<br />
+As may be weighed and measured; truth deduced<br />
+By logical conclusion&mdash;close, severe&mdash;<br />
+From premises incontrovertible.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Moultrie.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THE excitement induced by the foregoing announcement
+had, in a degree, subsided. The coroner,
+who appeared to be as much startled as any one at the
+result of the day's proceedings, had manifested his desire
+of putting certain questions to the young man, and had
+begun by such inquiries into his antecedents, and his
+connection with Mrs. Clemmens, as elicited the most
+complete corroboration of all Miss Firman's statements.</div>
+
+<p>An investigation into his motives for coming East at
+this time next followed, in the course of which he acknowledged
+that he undertook the journey solely for the
+purpose of seeing Mrs. Clemmens. And when asked
+why he wished to see her at this time, admitted, with
+some manifestation of shame, that he desired to see for
+himself whether she was really in as strong and healthy a
+condition as he had always been told; his pecuniary embarrassments
+being such that he could not prevent his
+mind from dwelling upon possibilities which, under any
+other circumstances, he would have been ashamed to
+consider.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And did you see Mrs. Clemmens?" the coroner inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; I did."</p>
+
+<p>"When?"</p>
+
+<p>"On Tuesday, sir; about noon."</p>
+
+<p>The answer was given almost with bravado, and the silence
+among the various auditors became intense.</p>
+
+<p>"You admit, then, that you were in the widow's house
+the morning she was murdered, and that you had an interview
+with her a few minutes before the fatal blow was
+struck?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do."</p>
+
+<p>There was doggedness in the tone, and doggedness in
+the look that accompanied it. The coroner moved a little
+forward in his chair and uttered his next question with
+deep gravity.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you approach the widow's house by the road and
+enter into it by means of the front door overlooking
+the lane?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did."</p>
+
+<p>"And did you meet no one in the lane, or see no one
+at the windows of any of the houses as you came by?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"How long did you stay in this house, and what was
+the result of the interview which you had with Mrs. Clemmens?"</p>
+
+<p>"I stayed, perhaps, ten minutes, and I learned nothing
+from Mrs. Clemmens, save that she was well and hearty,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+and likely to live out her threescore years and ten for
+all hint that her conversation or appearance gave me."</p>
+
+<p>He spoke almost with a tone of resentment; his eyes
+glowed darkly, and a thrill of horror sped through the
+room as if they felt that the murderer himself stood before
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"You will tell me what was said in this interview, if
+you please, and whether the widow knew who you were;
+and, if so, whether any words of anger passed between
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>The face of the young man burned, and he looked at
+the coroner and then at the jurymen, as if he would like
+to challenge the whole crew, but the color that showed in
+his face was the flush of shame, or, so thought Mr. Byrd,
+and in his reply, when he gave it, there was a bitterness
+of self-scorn that reminded the detective more of the mortification
+of a gentleman caught in an act of meanness
+than the secret alarm of a man who had been beguiled
+into committing a dastardly crime.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Clemmens was evidently a woman of some
+spirit," said he, forcing out his words with sullen desperation.
+"She may have used sharp language; I believe
+indeed she did; but she did not know who I was,
+for&mdash;for I pretended to be a seller of patent medicine,
+warranted to cure all ills, and she told me she had no ills,
+and&mdash;and&mdash;Do you want a man to disgrace himself in
+your presence?" he suddenly flashed out, cringing under
+the gaze of the many curious and unsympathetic eyes
+fixed upon him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But the coroner, with a sudden assumption of severity,
+pardonable, perhaps, in a man with a case of such importance
+on his hands, recommended the witness to be calm
+and not to allow any small feelings of personal mortification
+to interfere with a testimony of so much evident
+value. And without waiting for the witness to recover
+himself, asked again:</p>
+
+<p>"What did the widow say, and with what words did
+you leave?"</p>
+
+<p>"The widow said she abominated drugs, and never
+took them. I replied that she made a great mistake, if
+she had any ailments. Upon which she retorted that
+she had no ailment, and politely showed me the door.
+I do not remember that any thing else passed between
+us."</p>
+
+<p>His tone, which had been shrill and high, dropped at
+the final sentence, and by the nervous workings of his
+lips, Mr. Byrd perceived that he dreaded the next question.
+The persons grouped around him evidently dreaded
+it too.</p>
+
+<p>But it was less searching than they expected, and
+proved that the coroner preferred to approach his point
+by circuitous rather than direct means.</p>
+
+<p>"In what room was the conversation held, and by what
+door did you come in and go out?"</p>
+
+<p>"I came in by the front door, and we stood in that
+room"&mdash;pointing to the sitting-room from which he had
+just issued.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Stood! Did you not sit down?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Stood all the time, and in that room to which you
+have just pointed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>The coroner drew a deep breath, and looked at the
+witness long and searchingly. Mr. Hildreth's way of
+uttering this word had been any thing but pleasant, and
+consequently any thing but satisfactory. A low murmur
+began to eddy through the rooms.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, silence!" commanded the coroner, venting
+in this injunction some of the uncomfortable emotion
+with which he was evidently surcharged; for his next
+words were spoken in a comparatively quiet voice, though
+the fixed severity of his eye could have given the witness
+but little encouragement.</p>
+
+<p>"You say," he declared, "that in coming through the
+lane you encountered no one. Was this equally true of
+your return?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; I believe so. I don't remember. I was not
+looking up," was the slightly confused reply.</p>
+
+<p>"You passed, however, through the lane, and entered
+the main street by the usual path?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And where did you go then?"</p>
+
+<p>"To the depot."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>"I wished to leave the town. I had done with it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And did you do so, Mr. Hildreth?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did."</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you go?"</p>
+
+<p>"To Albany, where I had left my traps."</p>
+
+<p>"You took the noon train, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Which leaves precisely five minutes after twelve?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so."</p>
+
+<p>"Took it without stopping anywhere on the way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you buy a ticket at the office?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not have time."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, the train was at the station, then?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hildreth did not reply; he had evidently been
+driven almost to the end of his patience, or possibly of
+his courage, by this quick fire of small questions.</p>
+
+<p>The coroner saw this and pressed his advantage.</p>
+
+<p>"Was the train at the station or not when you arrived
+there, Mr. Hildreth?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not see why it can interest you to know," the
+witness retorted, with a flash of somewhat natural anger;
+"but since you insist, I will tell you that it was just going
+out, and that I had to run to reach it, and only got a foothold
+upon the platform of the rear car at the risk of my
+life."</p>
+
+<p>He looked as if he wished it had been at the cost of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+life, and compressed his lips and moved restlessly from
+side to side as if the battery of eyes levelled upon his face
+were so many points of red-hot steel burning into his
+brain.</p>
+
+<p>But the coroner, intent upon his duty, released not one
+jot of the steady hold he had taken upon his victim.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hildreth," said he, "your position as the only
+person who acknowledges himself to have been in this
+house during the half-hour that preceded the assault,
+makes every thing you can tell us in reference to your
+visit of the highest importance. Was the widow alone,
+do you think, or did you see any thing&mdash;pause now and
+consider well&mdash;<i>any thing</i> that would lead you to suppose
+there was any one beside her and yourself in the house?"</p>
+
+<p>It was the suggestion of a just man, and Mr. Byrd
+looked to see the witness grasp with all the energy of
+despair at the prospect of release it held out. But Mr.
+Hildreth either felt his cause beyond the reach of any
+such assistance, or his understanding was so dulled by
+misery he could not see the advantage of acknowledging
+the presence of a third party in the cottage. Giving a
+dreary shake of the head, he slowly answered:</p>
+
+<p>"There may have been somebody else in the house, I
+don't know; but if so, I didn't hear him or see him. I
+thought we were alone."</p>
+
+<p>The frankness with which he made the admission was
+in his favor, but the quick and overpowering flush that
+rose to his face the moment he had given utterance to it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+betrayed so unmistakable a consciousness of what the
+admission implied that the effect was immediately reversed.
+Seeing that he had lost rather than gained in the
+opinions of the merciless inquisitors about him, he
+went back to his old bravado, and haughtily lifted his
+head.</p>
+
+<p>"One question more," resumed the coroner. "You
+have said that Mrs. Clemmens was a spirited woman.
+Now, what made you think so? Any expression of
+annoyance on her part at the interruption in her work
+which your errand had caused her, or merely the expression
+of her face and the general way she had of
+speaking?"</p>
+
+<p>"The latter, I think, though she did use a harsh word
+or two when she showed me the door."</p>
+
+<p>"And raised her voice?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hildreth," intimated the coroner, rising, "will
+you be kind enough to step with me into the adjoining
+room?"</p>
+
+<p>With a look of wonder not unmixed with alarm,
+the young man prepared to comply.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like the attention of the jury," Dr. Tredwell
+signified as he passed through the door.</p>
+
+<p>There was no need to give them this hint. Not a man
+of them but was already on his feet in eager curiosity
+as to what their presiding officer was about to do.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you to tell me now," the coroner demanded of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+Mr. Hildreth, as they paused in the centre of the sitting-room,
+"where it was you stood during your interview
+with Mrs. Clemmens, and, if possible, take the very
+position now which you held at that time."</p>
+
+<p>"There are too many persons here," the witness
+objected, visibly rebelling at a request of which he could
+not guess the full significance.</p>
+
+<p>"The people present will step back," declared the
+coroner; "you will have no trouble in taking your stand
+on the spot you occupied the other day."</p>
+
+<p>"Here, then!" exclaimed the young man, taking
+a position near the centre of the room.</p>
+
+<p>"And the widow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stood there."</p>
+
+<p>"Facing you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," intimated the coroner, pointing toward the
+windows. "Her back was to the yard while you stood
+with your face toward it." Then with a quick motion,
+summoning the witness back into the other room, asked,
+amid the breathless attention of the crowd, whom this bit
+of by-play had wrought up to expectation: "Did you
+observe any one go around to the back door while you
+stood there, and go away again without attempting to
+knock?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hildreth knitted his brow and seemed to think.</p>
+
+<p>"Answer," persisted the coroner; "it is not a question
+that requires thought."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, I did not," cried the witness, looking the
+other directly in the eye, with the first gleam of real
+manly feeling which he had yet displayed.</p>
+
+<p>"You did not see a tramp come into the yard, walk
+around to the kitchen door, wait a moment as if hesitating
+whether he would rap, and then turn and come back
+again without doing so?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>The coroner drew a piece of paper before him and began
+figuring on it. Earnestly, almost wildly, the young
+man watched him, drawing a deep breath and turning
+quite pale as the other paused and looked up.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet," affirmed the coroner, as if no delay had
+occurred since he received his last answer, "such a person
+did approach the house while you were in it, and if
+you had stood where you say, you must have seen him."</p>
+
+<p>It was a vital thrust, a relentless presentation of fact,
+and as such shook the witness out of his lately acquired
+composure. Glancing hastily about, he sought the assistance
+of some one both capable and willing to advise
+him in this crisis, but seeing no one, he made a vigorous
+effort and called together his own faculties.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," he protested, a tremor of undisguised anxiety
+finding way into his voice, "I do not see how you make
+that all out. What proof have you that this tramp of
+which you speak came to the house while I was in it?
+Could he not have come before? Or, what was better,
+could he not have come after?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The ringing tone with which the last question was put
+startled everybody. No such sounds had issued from his
+lips before. Had he caught a glimpse of hope, or was
+he driven to an extremity in his defence that forced him
+to assert himself? The eyes of Miss Firman and of
+a few other women began to soften, and even the face of
+Mr. Byrd betrayed that a change was on the verge of taking
+place in his feelings.</p>
+
+<p>But the coroner's look and tone dashed cold water on
+this young and tender growth of sympathy. Passing over
+to the witness the paper on which he had been scribbling,
+he explained with dry significance:</p>
+
+<p>"It is only a matter of subtraction and addition, Mr.
+Hildreth. You have said that upon quitting this house
+you went directly to the depot, where you arrived barely
+in time to jump on the train as it was leaving the station.
+Now, to walk from this place to the depot at any pace
+<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'yon'">you</ins> would be likely to use, would occupy&mdash;well, let us
+say seven minutes. At two minutes before twelve, then,
+you were still in this house. Well!" he ejaculated, interrupting
+himself as the other opened his lips, "have you
+any thing to say?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," was the dejected and hesitating reply.</p>
+
+<p>The coroner at once resumed:</p>
+
+<p>"But at five minutes before twelve, Mr. Hildreth, the
+tramp walked into the widow's yard. Now, allowing only
+two minutes for your interview with that lady, the conclusion
+remains that you were in the house when he came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+up to it. Yet you declare that, although you stood in full
+view of the yard, you did not see him."</p>
+
+<p>"You figure closer than an astronomer calculating an
+eclipse," burst from the young man's lips in a flash of that
+resolution which had for the last few minutes animated
+him. "How do you know your witnesses have been so
+exact to a second when they say this and that of the goings
+and comings you are pleased to put into an arithmetical
+problem. A minute or two one way or the other
+would make a sad discrepancy in your calculations, Mr.
+Coroner."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it," assented Dr. Tredwell, quietly ignoring
+the other's heat; "but if the jury will remember, there were
+four witnesses, at least, who testified to the striking of the
+town clock just as the tramp finally issued from the lane,
+and one witness, of well-known accuracy in matters of
+detail, who declared on oath that she had just dropped
+her eyes from that same clock when she observed the
+tramp go into the widow's gate, and that it was five minutes
+to twelve exactly. But, lest I do seem too nice
+in my calculations," the coroner inexorably pursued, "I
+will take the trouble of putting it another way. At what
+time did you leave the hotel, Mr. Hildreth?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," was the testy response.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can tell you," the coroner assured him. "It
+was about twenty minutes to twelve, or possibly earlier,
+but no later. My reason for saying this," he went on,
+drawing once more before him the fatal sheet of paper,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+"is that Mrs. Dayton's children next door were out playing
+in front of this house for some few minutes previous
+to the time the tramp came into the lane. As you did
+not see them you must have arrived here before they began
+their game, and that, at the least calculation, would
+make the time as early as a quarter to twelve."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," the fierce looks of the other seemed to say,
+"and what if it was?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hildreth," continued the coroner, "if you were
+in this house at a quarter to twelve and did not leave it
+till two minutes before, and the interview was as you say
+a mere interchange of a dozen words or so, that could not
+possibly have occupied more than three minutes; <i>where
+were you during all the rest of the time</i> that must have
+elapsed after you finished your interview and the moment
+you left the house?"</p>
+
+<p>It was a knock-down question. This aristocratic-looking
+young gentleman who had hitherto held himself erect before
+them, <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'notwithstandingt he'">notwithstanding the</ins> humiliating nature of the
+inquiries which had been propounded to him, cringed
+visibly and bowed his head as if a stroke of vital force
+had descended upon it. Bringing his fist down on the
+table near which he stood, he seemed to utter a muttered
+curse, while the veins swelled on his forehead so powerfully
+that more than one person present dropped their
+eyes from a spectacle which bore so distinctly the stamp
+of guilt.</p>
+
+<p>"You have not answered," intimated the coroner, after
+a moment of silent waiting.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No!" was the loud reply, uttered with a force that
+startled all present, and made the more timid gaze with
+some apprehension at his suddenly antagonistic attitude.
+"It is not pleasant for a gentleman"&mdash;he emphasized the
+word bitterly&mdash;"for a <i>gentleman</i> to acknowledge himself
+caught at a time like this in a decided equivocation. But
+you have cornered me fairly and squarely, and I am bound
+to tell the truth. Gentlemen, I did not leave the widow's
+house as immediately as I said. I stayed for fully five
+minutes or so alone in the small hall that leads to the
+front door. In all probability I was there when the tramp
+passed by on his way to the kitchen-door, and there when
+he came back again." And Mr. Hildreth fixed his eyes
+on the coroner as if he dared him to push him further.</p>
+
+<p>But Dr. Tredwell had been in his present seat before.
+Merely confronting the other with that cold official gaze
+which seems to act like a wall of ice between a witness
+and the coroner, he said the two words: "What doing?"</p>
+
+<p>The effect was satisfactory. Paling suddenly, Mr.
+Hildreth dropped his eyes and replied humbly, though
+with equal laconism, "I was thinking." But scarcely had
+the words left his lips, than a fresh flame of feeling started
+up within him, and looking from juryman to juryman he
+passionately exclaimed: "You consider that acknowledgment
+suspicious. You wonder why a man should give a
+few minutes to thought after the conclusion of an interview
+that terminated all hope. I wonder at it now
+myself. I wonder I did not go straight out of the house<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+and rush headlong into any danger that promised an
+immediate extinction of my life."</p>
+
+<p>No language could have more forcibly betrayed the
+real desperation of his mind at the critical moment when
+the widow's life hung in the balance. He saw this, perhaps,
+when it was too late, for the sweat started on his
+brow, and he drew himself up like a man nerving himself
+to meet a blow he no longer hoped to avert. One
+further remark, however, left his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever I did or of whatever I was thinking, one
+thing I here declare to be true, and that is, that I did not
+see the widow again after she left my side and went back
+to her kitchen in the rear of the house. The hand that
+struck her may have been lifted while I stood in the hall,
+but if so, I did not know it, nor can I tell you now who
+it was that killed her."</p>
+
+<p>It was the first attempt at direct disavowal which he
+had made, and it had its effect. The coroner softened
+a trifle of his austerity, and the jurymen glanced at each
+other relieved. But the weight of suspicion against this
+young man was too heavy, and his manner had been too
+unfortunate, for this effect to last long. Gladly as many
+would have been to credit this denial, if only for the name
+he bore and a certain fine aspect of gentlemanhood that
+surrounded him in spite of his present humiliation, it was
+no longer possible to do so without question, and he
+seemed to feel this and do his best to accept the situation
+with patience.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>An inquiry which was put to him at this time by a
+juryman showed the existent state of feeling against
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask," that individual dryly interrogated, "why
+you came back to Sibley, after having left it?"</p>
+
+<p>The response came clear and full. Evidently the
+gravity of his position had at last awakened the latent
+resources of Mr. Hildreth's mind.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard of the death of this woman, and my surprise
+caused me to return."</p>
+
+<p>"How did you hear of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Through the newspapers."</p>
+
+<p>"And you were surprised?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was astounded; I felt as if I had received a blow
+myself, and could not rest till I had come back where I
+could learn the full particulars."</p>
+
+<p>"So, then, it was curiosity that brought you to the
+inquest to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was."</p>
+
+<p>The juryman looked at him astonished; so did all the
+rest. His manner was so changed, his answers so prompt
+and ringing.</p>
+
+<p>"And what was it," broke in the coroner, "that led you
+to register yourself at the hotel under a false name?"</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely know," was the answer, given with less fire
+and some show of embarrassment. "Perhaps I thought
+that, under the circumstances, it would be better for me
+not to use my own."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"In other words, you were afraid?" exclaimed the
+coroner, with the full impressiveness of his somewhat
+weighty voice and manner.</p>
+
+<p>It was a word to make the weakest of men start. Mr.
+Hildreth, who was conspicuous in his own neighborhood
+for personal if not for moral courage, flushed till it
+looked as if the veins would burst on his forehead, but
+he made no other reply than a proud and angry look and
+a short:</p>
+
+<p>"I was not aware of fear; though, to be sure, I had no
+premonition of the treatment I should be called upon to
+suffer here to-day."</p>
+
+<p>The flash told, the coroner sat as if doubtful, and
+looked from man to man of the jury as if he would question
+their feelings on this vital subject. Meantime the
+full shame of his position settled heavier and heavier
+upon Mr. Hildreth; his head fell slowly forward, and he
+seemed to be asking himself how he was to meet the possibly
+impending ignominy of a direct accusation. Suddenly
+he drew himself erect, and a gleam shot from his eyes
+that, for the first time, revealed him as a man of latent
+pluck and courage.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," he began, looking first at the coroner
+and then at the jury, "you have not said you consider
+me guilty of this crime, but you evidently harbor the
+suspicion. I do not wonder; my own words have given
+me away, and any man would find it difficult to believe
+in my innocence after what has been testified to in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+this place. Do not hesitate, then. The shock of finding
+myself suspected of a horrible murder is passed. I am
+willing to be arrested. Indeed, after what has here taken
+place, I not only am willing but even anxious. I want to
+be tried, if only to prove to the world my complete and
+entire innocence."</p>
+
+<p>The effect of this speech, uttered at a moment so critical,
+may be easily imagined. All the impressible people
+present at once signified their belief in his honesty, and
+gave him looks of sympathy, if not approval; while the
+cooler and possibly the more judicious of his auditors
+calmly weighed these assertions against the evidence that
+had been advanced, and finding the result unsatisfactory,
+shook their heads as if unconvinced, and awaited further
+developments.</p>
+
+<p>They did not come. The inquiry had reached its
+climax, and little, if any thing, more was left to be said.
+Mr. Hildreth was examined more fully, and some few of
+the witnesses who had been heard in the early part of the
+day were recalled, but no new facts came to light, and no
+fresh inquiries were started.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd, who from the attitude of the coroner could
+not fail to see Mr. Hildreth was looked upon with a suspicion
+that would ultimately end in arrest, decided that
+his interest in the inquest was at an end, and being greatly
+fatigued, gave up his position at the window and
+quietly stole away.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p>
+<h2>X.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FINAL TEST.</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they
+should see twice as much as they say.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Colton.</span></p><br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THE fact was, he wanted to think. Detective though
+he was and accustomed to the bravado with
+which every sort of criminal will turn to meet their fate
+when fully driven to bay, there had been something in the
+final manner of this desperate but evidently cultured
+gentleman, which had impressed him against his own
+will, and made him question whether the suspected man
+was not rather the victim of a series of extraordinary circumstances,
+than the selfish and brutal criminal which the
+evidence given seemed to suggest.</div>
+
+<p>Not that Mr. Byrd ever allowed his generous heart to
+blind him to the plain language of facts. His secret and
+not to be smothered doubts in another direction were
+proof enough of this; and had it not been for those very
+doubts, the probabilities are that he would have agreed
+with the cooler-headed portion of the crowd, which listened
+unmoved to that last indignant burst of desperate manhood.</p>
+
+<p>But with those doubts still holding possession of his
+mind, he could not feel so sure of Mr. Hildreth's guilt;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+and the struggle that was likely to ensue between his
+personal feelings on the one side and his sense of duty on
+the other did not promise to be so light as to make it
+possible for him to remain within eye and earshot of an
+unsympathetic crowd.</p>
+
+<p>"If only the superintendent had not left it to my judgment
+to interfere," thought he, pacing the streets with
+ever-increasing uneasiness, "the responsibility would have
+been shifted from my shoulders, and I would have left
+the young man to his fate in peace. But now I would
+be criminally at fault if I were to let him drift hopelessly
+to his doom, when by a lift of my finger I might possibly
+turn the attention of justice toward the real culprit."</p>
+
+<p>Yet the making up of his mind to interfere was a torture
+to Horace Byrd. If he was not conscious of any
+love for Imogene Dare, he was sufficiently under the
+dominion of her extraordinary fascinations to feel that
+any movement on his part toward the unravelling of
+the mystery that enveloped her, would be like subjecting
+his own self to the rack of public inquiry and suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>Nor, though he walked the streets for hours, each
+moment growing more and more settled in his conviction
+of Mr. Hildreth's innocence, could he bring himself to
+the point of embracing the duty presented to him, till he
+had subjected Miss Dare to a new test, and won for himself
+absolute certainty as to the fact of her possessing a
+clue to the crime, which had not been discovered in the
+coroner's inquiry.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The possibility of innocence on her part is even
+greater than on that of Mr. Hildreth," he considered,
+"and nothing, not even the peril of those dearest to me,
+could justify me in shifting the weight of suspicion from
+a guiltless man to an equally guiltless woman."</p>
+
+<p>It was, therefore, for the purpose of solving this doubt,
+that he finally sought Mr. Ferris, and after learning that
+Mr. Hildreth was under surveillance, and would in all
+probability be subjected to arrest on the morrow, asked
+for some errand that would take him to Mr. Orcutt's
+house.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a great admiration for that gentleman and
+would like to make his acquaintance," he remarked carelessly,
+hiding his true purpose under his usual nonchalant
+tones. "But I do not want to seem to be pushing myself
+forward; so if you could give me some papers to carry to
+him, or some message requiring an introduction to his
+presence, I should feel very much obliged."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris, who had no suspicions of his own to assist
+him in understanding the motives that led to this request,
+easily provided the detective with the errand he sought.
+Mr. Byrd at once started for the lawyer's house.</p>
+
+<p>It was fully two miles away, but once arrived there, he
+was thankful that the walk had been so long, as the
+fatigue, following upon the activity of the afternoon, had
+succeeded in quieting his pulses and calming down the
+fierce excitement which had held him under its control
+ever since he had taken the determination to satisfy his
+doubts by an interview with Miss Dare.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Ringing the bell of the rambling old mansion that
+spread out its wide extensions through the vines and
+bushes of an old-fashioned and most luxuriant garden, he
+waited the issue with beating heart. A respectable-looking
+negro servant came to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mr. Orcutt in?" he asked; "or, if not, Miss
+Dare? I have a message from Mr. Ferris and would be
+glad to see one of them."</p>
+
+<p>This, in order to ascertain at a word if the lady was at
+home.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare is not in," was the civil response, "and
+Mr. Orcutt is very busily engaged; but if you will step
+into the parlor I will tell him you are here."</p>
+
+<p>"No," returned the disappointed detective, handing
+her the note he held in his hand. "If your master is
+busy I will not disturb him." And, turning away, he
+went slowly down the steps.</p>
+
+<p>"If I only knew where she was gone!" he muttered,
+bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>But he did not consider himself in a position to ask.</p>
+
+<p>Inwardly chafing over his ill-luck, Mr. Byrd proceeded
+with reluctant pace to regain the street, when, hearing the
+gate suddenly click, he looked up, and saw advancing
+toward him a young gentleman of a peculiarly spruce
+and elegant appearance.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! another visitor for Miss Dare," was the detective's
+natural inference. And with a sudden movement
+he withdrew from the path, and paused as if to light his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+cigar in the shadow of the thick bushes that grew against
+the house.</p>
+
+<p>In an instant the young stranger was on the stoop.
+Another, and he had rung the bell, which was answered
+almost as soon as his hand dropped from the knob.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Miss Dare in?" was the inquiry, uttered in loud
+and cheery tones.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. She is spending a few days with Miss
+Tremaine," was the clear and satisfactory reply. "Shall
+I tell her you have been here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I will call myself at Miss Tremaine's," rejoined
+the gentleman. And, with a gay swing of his cane and a
+cheerful look overhead where the stars were already becoming
+visible, he sauntered easily off, followed by the
+envious thoughts of Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Tremaine," repeated the latter, musingly.
+"Who knows Miss Tremaine?"</p>
+
+<p>While he was asking himself this question, the voice of
+the young man rose melodiously in a scrap of old song,
+and instantly Mr. Byrd recognized in the seeming stranger
+the well-known tenor singer of the church he had himself
+attended the Sunday before&mdash;a gentleman, too, to whom
+he had been introduced by Mr. Ferris, and with whom he
+had exchanged something more than the passing civilities
+of the moment.</p>
+
+<p>To increase his pace, overtake the young man, recall
+himself to his attention, and join him in his quick walk
+down the street, was the work of a moment. The natural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+sequence followed. Mr. Byrd made himself so agreeable
+that by the time they arrived at Miss Tremaine's the
+other felt loath to part with him, and it resulted in his being
+urged to join this chance acquaintance in his call.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could have pleased Mr. Byrd better. So,
+waiving for once his instinctive objection to any sort of
+personal intrusion, he signified his acquiescence to the
+proposal, and at once accompanied his new friend into the
+house of the unknown Miss Tremaine. He found it
+lit up as for guests. All the rooms on the ground
+floor were open, and in one of them he could discern a
+dashing and coquettish young miss holding court over a
+cluster of eager swains.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I forgot," exclaimed Mr. Byrd's companion,
+whose name, by-the-way, was Duryea. "It is Miss
+Tremaine's reception night. She is the daughter of one
+of the professors of the High School," he went on, whispering
+his somewhat late explanations into the ear of Mr.
+Byrd. "Every Thursday evening she throws her house
+open for callers, and the youth of the academy are only
+too eager to avail themselves of the opportunity of coming
+here. Well, it is all the better for us. Miss Dare
+despises boys, and in all likelihood we shall have her entirely
+to ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>A quick pang contracted the breast of Mr. Byrd.
+If this easy, almost rakish, fellow at his side but knew the
+hideous errand which brought him to this house, what
+a scene would have ensued!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But he had no time for reflection, or even for that
+irresistible shrinking from his own designs which he now
+began to experience. Before he realized that he was
+fully committed to this venture, he found himself in the
+parlor bowing before the <i>na&iuml;ve</i> and laughing-eyed Miss
+Tremaine, who rose to receive him with all the airy
+graciousness of a finished coquette.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dare was not visible, and Mr. Byrd was just
+wondering if he would be called upon to enter into a sustained
+conversation with his pretty hostess, when a deep,
+rich voice was heard in the adjoining room, and, looking
+up, he saw the stately figure he so longed and yet dreaded
+to encounter, advancing toward them through the open
+door. She was very pale, and, to Mr. Byrd's eyes,
+looked thoroughly worn out, if not ill. Yet, she bore
+herself with a steadiness that was evidently the result of
+her will; and manifested neither reluctance nor impatience
+when the eager Mr. Duryea pressed forward with
+his compliments, though from the fixedness of her gaze
+and the immobility of her lip, Mr. Byrd too truly
+discovered that her thoughts were far away from the
+scene of mirth and pleasure in which she found herself.</p>
+
+<p>"You see I have presumed to follow you, Miss Dare,"
+was the greeting with which Mr. Duryea hailed her
+approach. And he immediately became so engrossed
+with his gallantries he forgot to introduce his companion.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd was rather relieved at this. He was not yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+ready to submit her to the test he considered necessary
+to a proper understanding of the situation; and he had
+not the heart to approach her with any mere civility on
+his tongue, while matters of such vital importance to her
+happiness, if not to her honor, trembled in the balance.</p>
+
+<p>He preferred to talk to Miss Tremaine, and this he continued
+to do till the young fellows at his side, one by
+one, edged away, leaving no one in that portion of the room
+but himself and Miss Tremaine, Mr. Duryea and Miss
+Dare.</p>
+
+<p>The latter two stood together some few feet behind
+him, and were discussing in a somewhat languid way, the
+merits of a <i>musicale</i> which they had lately attended.
+They were approaching, however, and he felt that if he
+did not speak at once he might not have another opportunity
+for doing so during the whole evening. Turning,
+therefore, to Miss Tremaine, with more seriousness than
+her gay and totally inconsequent conversation had
+hitherto allowed, he asked, in what he meant to be a
+simply colloquial and courteous manner, if she had heard
+the news.</p>
+
+<p>"News," she repeated, "no; is there any news?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I call it news. But, perhaps, you are not interested
+in the murder that has lately taken place in this
+town?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I am," she exclaimed, all eagerness at once,
+while he felt rather than perceived that the couple at his
+back stood suddenly still, as if his words had worked their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+spell over one heart there at least. "Papa knew Mrs.
+Clemmens very well," the little lady proceeded with a
+bewitchingly earnest look. "Have they found the murderer,
+do you think? Any thing less than that would be
+no news to me."</p>
+
+<p>"There is every reason to suppose&mdash;&mdash;" he began, and
+stopped, something in the deadly silence behind him making
+it impossible for him to proceed. Happily he was not
+obliged to. An interruption occurred in the shape of a
+new-comer, and he was left with the fatal word on his
+lips to await the approach of that severely measured step
+behind him, which by this time he knew was bringing the
+inscrutable Miss Dare to his side.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, allow me to present to you Mr. Byrd. Mr.
+Byrd, Miss Dare."</p>
+
+<p>The young detective bowed. With rigid attention to
+the forms of etiquette, he uttered the first few acknowledgments
+necessary to the occasion, and then glanced
+up.</p>
+
+<p>She was looking him full in the face.</p>
+
+<p>"We have met before," he was about to observe, but
+not detecting the least sign of recognition in her gaze, restrained
+the words and hastily dropped his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Duryea informs me you are a stranger in the
+town," she remarked, moving slowly to one side in a way
+to rid herself of that gentleman's too immediate presence.
+"Have you a liking for the place, or do you meditate any
+lengthy stay?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No. That is," he rejoined, somewhat shaken in his
+theories by the self-possession of her tone and the ease
+and quietness with which she evidently prepared to enter
+into a sustained conversation, "I may go away to-morrow,
+and I may linger on for an indefinite length of time. It
+all depends upon certain matters that will be determined for
+me to-night. Sibley is a very pretty place," he observed,
+startled at his own temerity in venturing the last remark.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>The word came as if forced, and she looked at Mr.
+Duryea.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you wish any thing, Miss Dare?" that gentleman
+suddenly asked. "You do not look well."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not well," she acknowledged. "No, thank you,"
+she cried, as he pushed a chair toward her. "It is too
+warm here. If you do not object, we will go into the
+other room." And with a courteous glance that included
+both gentlemen in its invitation, she led the way into the
+adjoining apartment. Could it have been with the purpose
+of ridding herself of the assiduities of Mr. Duryea?
+The room contained half a dozen or more musical people,
+and no sooner did they perceive their favorite tenor approach
+than they seized upon him and, without listening
+to his excuses, carried him off to the piano, leaving Miss
+Dare alone with Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>She seemed instantly to forget her indisposition. Drawing
+herself up till every queenly attribute she possessed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+flashed brilliantly before his eyes, she asked, with sudden
+determination, if she had been right in understanding him
+to say that there was news in regard to the murder of Mrs.
+Clemmens?</p>
+
+<p>Subduing, by a strong inward effort, every token of the
+emotion which her own introduction of this topic naturally
+evoked, he replied in his easiest tones:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; there was an inquest held to-day, and the authorities
+evidently think they have discovered the person
+who killed her." And obliging himself to meet half-way
+the fate that awaited him, he bestowed upon the lady
+before him a casual glance that hid beneath its easy politeness
+the greatest anxiety of his life.</p>
+
+<p>The test worked well. From the pallor of sickness,
+grief, or apprehension, her complexion whitened to the
+deadlier hue of mortal terror.</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!" her lips seemed to breathe; and Mr.
+Byrd could almost fancy he saw the hair rise on her
+forehead.</p>
+
+<p>Cursing in his heart the bitter necessity that had forced
+him into this duty, he was about to address her in a way
+calculated to break the spell occasioned by his last words,
+when the rich and tuneful voice of the melodious
+singer rose suddenly on the air, and they heard the
+words:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Come rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Though the herd have fled from thee, thy home is still here;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Here still is the smile that no cloud can o'ercast,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And a heart and a hand all thy own to the last."</span><br />
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Instantly Mr. Byrd perceived that he should not be
+obliged to speak. Though the music, or possibly the
+words, struck her like a blow, it likewise served to recall
+her to herself. Dropping her gaze, which had remained
+fixed upon his own, she turned her face aside, saying with
+forced composure:</p>
+
+<p>"This near contact with crime is dreadful." Then
+slowly, and with a quietness that showed how great
+was her power of self-control when she was not under
+the influence of surprise, she inquired: "And who do
+they think this person is? What name do they presume
+to associate with the murderer of this woman?"</p>
+
+<p>With something of the feeling of a surgeon who nerves
+himself to bury the steel in his patient's quivering flesh,
+he gave his response unhesitatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"A gentleman's, I believe. A young man connected
+with her, in some strange way, by financial interests.
+A Mr. Hildreth, of Toledo&mdash;Gouverneur Hildreth, I
+think they call him."</p>
+
+<p>It was not the name she expected. He saw this by
+the relaxation that took place in all her features, by the
+look of almost painful relief that flashed for a moment
+into the eyes she turned like lightning upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"Gouverneur Hildreth!" she repeated. And he knew
+from the tone that it was not only a different name from
+what she anticipated, but that it was also a strange one to
+her. "I never heard of such a person," she went on
+after a minute, during which the relentless mellow voice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+of the unconscious singer filled the room with the passionate
+appeal:</p>
+
+<div class='poem2'>
+"Oh, what was love made for, if 't is not the same,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Through joy and through sorrow, through glory and shame!"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"That is not strange," explained Mr. Byrd, drawing
+nearer, as if to escape that pursuing sweetness of incongruous
+song. "He is not known in this town. He only
+came here the morning the unfortunate woman was murdered.
+Whether he really killed her or not," he proceeded,
+with forced quietness, "no one can tell, of course.
+But the facts are very much against him, and the poor
+fellow is under arrest."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>The word was involuntary. So was the tone of horrified
+surprise in which it was uttered. But the music,
+now swelling to a crescendo, drowned both word and
+tone, or so she seemed to fondly imagine; for, making
+another effort at self-control, she confined herself to a
+quiet repetition of his words, "'Under arrest'?" and
+then waited with only a suitable display of emotion for
+whatever further enlightenment he chose to give her.</p>
+
+<p>He mercifully spoke to the point.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, under arrest. You see he was in the house
+at or near the time the deadly blow was struck. He was
+in the front hall, he says, and nowhere near the woman
+or her unknown assailant, but there is no evidence
+against any one else, and the facts so far proved, show he
+had an interest in her death, and so he has to pay the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+penalty of circumstances. And he may be guilty, who
+knows," the young detective pursued, seeing she was
+struck with horror and dismay, "dreadful as it is to
+imagine that a gentleman of culture and breeding could
+be brought to commit such a deed."</p>
+
+<p>But she seemed to have ears for but one phrase of
+all this.</p>
+
+<p>"He was in the front hall," she repeated. "How did
+he get there? What called him there?"</p>
+
+<p>"He had been visiting the widow, and was on his way
+out. He paused to collect his thoughts, he said. It
+seems unaccountable, Miss Dare; but the whole thing is
+strange and very mysterious."</p>
+
+<p>She was deaf to his explanations.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose he heard the widow scream?" she
+asked, tremblingly, "or&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A sinking of the ringing tones whose powerful vibration
+had made this conversation possible, caused her to
+pause. When the notes grew loud enough again for her
+to proceed, she seemed to have forgotten the question she
+was about to propound, and simply inquired:</p>
+
+<p>"Had he any thing to say about what he overheard&mdash;or
+saw?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. If he spoke the truth and stood in the hall as
+he said, the sounds, if sounds there were, stopped short
+of the sitting-room door, for he has nothing to say about
+them."</p>
+
+<p>A change passed over Miss Dare. She dropped her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
+eyes, and an instant's pause followed this last acknowledgment.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you tell me," she inquired, at last, speaking very
+slowly, in an attempt to infuse into her voice no more
+than a natural tone of interest, "how it was he came to
+say he stood in that place during the assault?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did not say he stood in that place during the
+assault," was again the forced rejoinder of Mr. Byrd.
+"It was by means of a nice calculation of time and events,
+that it was found he must have been in the house at or
+near the fatal moment."</p>
+
+<p>Another pause; another bar of that lovely music.</p>
+
+<p>"And he is a gentleman, you say?" was her hurried
+remark at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and a very handsome one."</p>
+
+<p>"And they have put him in prison?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, or will on the morrow."</p>
+
+<p>She turned and leaned against a window-frame near by,
+looking with eyes that saw nothing into the still vast night.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose he has friends," she faintly suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Two sisters, if no one nearer and dearer."</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Thou hast called me thy angel in moments of bliss,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And thy angel I 'll be, 'mid the horrors of this&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Through the furnace, unshrinking, thy steps to pursue,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And shield thee, and save thee&mdash;or perish there too,"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>rang the mellow song.</div>
+
+<p>"I am not well," she suddenly cried, leaving the window
+and turning quickly toward Mr. Byrd. "I am much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+obliged to you," said she, lowering her voice to a whisper,
+for the last note of the song was dying away in a quivering
+<i>pianissimo</i>. "I have been deeply interested in this
+tragedy, and am thankful for any information in regard
+to it. I must now bid you good-evening."</p>
+
+<p>And with a stately bow into which she infused the
+mingled courtesy and haughtiness of her nature, she
+walked steadily away through the crowd that vainly
+sought to stay her, and disappeared, almost without a
+pause, behind the door that opened into the hall.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd remained for a full half-hour after that, but
+he never could tell what he did, or with whom he conversed,
+or how or when he issued from the house and
+made his way back to his room in the hotel. He only
+knew that at midnight he was still walking the floor, and
+had not yet made up his mind to take the step which his
+own sense of duty now inexorably demanded.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>DECISION.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Who dares</span><br />
+To say that he alone has found the truth.<br />
+<div class='sig'>
+&mdash;<span class="smcap">Longfellow.</span></div><br /><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THE next morning Mr. Ferris was startled by the
+appearance in his office of Mr. Byrd, looking
+wretchedly anxious and ill.</div>
+
+<p>"I have come," said the detective, "to ask you what
+you think of Mr. Hildreth's prospects. Have you made
+up your mind to have him arrested for this crime?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the reply. "The evidence against him is
+purely circumstantial, but it is very strong; and if no
+fresh developments occur, I think there can be no doubt
+about my duty. Each and every fact that comes to light
+only strengthens the case against him. When he came to
+be examined last night, a ring was found on his person,
+which he acknowledged to having worn on the day of the
+murder."</p>
+
+<p>"He took it off during the inquest," murmured Mr.
+Byrd; "I saw him."</p>
+
+<p>"It is said by Hickory&mdash;the somewhat questionable
+cognomen of your fellow-detective from New York&mdash;that
+the young man manifested the most intense uneasiness
+during the whole inquiry. That in fact his attention<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+was first drawn to him by the many tokens which he
+gave of suppressed agitation and alarm. Indeed, Mr.
+Hickory at one time thought he should be obliged to
+speak to this stranger in order to prevent a scene. Once
+Mr. Hildreth got up as if to go, and, indeed, if he had
+been less hemmed in by the crowd, there is every reason
+to believe he would have attempted an escape."</p>
+
+<p>"Is this Hickory a man of good judgment?" inquired
+Mr. Byrd, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, I should say so. He seems to understand
+his business. The way he procured us the testimony of
+Mr. Hildreth was certainly satisfactory."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish that, without his knowing it, I could hear him
+give his opinion of this matter," intimated the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you can," rejoined Mr. Ferris, after a quick
+and comprehensive survey of Mr. Byrd's countenance.
+"I am expecting him here any moment, and if you see fit
+to sit down behind that screen, you can, without the least
+difficulty to yourself or him, hear all he has to impart."</p>
+
+<p>"I will, then," the detective declared, a gloomy frown
+suddenly corrugating his brow; and he stepped across to
+the screen which had been indicated to him, and quietly
+withdrew from view.</p>
+
+<p>He had scarcely done this, when a short, quick step
+was heard at the door, and a wide-awake voice called out,
+cheerily:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you alone, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" ejaculated Mr. Ferris, "come in, come in. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+have been awaiting you for some minutes," he declared,
+ignoring the look which the man threw hastily around the
+room. "Any news this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," returned the other, in a tone of complete self-satisfaction.
+"We've caged the bird and mustn't expect
+much more in the way of news. I'm on my way to
+Albany now, to pick up such facts about him as may be
+lying around there loose, and shall be ready to start for
+Toledo any day next week that you may think proper."</p>
+
+<p>"You are, then, convinced that Mr. Hildreth is undeniably
+the guilty party in this case?" exclaimed the
+District Attorney, taking a whiff at his cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"Convinced? That is a strong word, sir. A detective
+is never convinced," protested the man. "He leaves
+that for the judge and jury. But if you ask me if there is
+any doubt about the direction in which all the circumstantial
+evidence in this case points, I must retort by
+asking you for a clue, or the tag-end of a clue, guiding
+me elsewhere. I know," he went on, with the volubility
+of a man whose work is done, and who feels he has the
+right to a momentary indulgence in conversation, "that
+it is not an agreeable thing to subject a gentleman like
+Mr. Hildreth to the shame of a public arrest. But facts
+are not partial, sir; and the gentleman has no more rights
+in law than the coarsest fellow that we take up for butchering
+his mother. But you know all this without my telling
+you, and I only mention it to excuse any obstinacy I may
+have manifested on the subject. He is mightily cut up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+about it," he again proceeded, as he found Mr. Ferris
+forebore to reply. "I am told he didn't sleep a wink
+all night, but spent his time alternately in pacing the floor
+like a caged lion, and in a wild sort of stupor that had
+something of the hint of madness in it. 'If my grandfather
+had only known!' was the burden of his song;
+and when any one approached him he either told them to
+keep their eyes off him, or else buried his face in his
+hands with an entreaty for them not to disturb the last
+hours of a dying man. He evidently has no hope of
+escaping the indignity of arrest, and as soon as it was
+light enough for him to see, he asked for paper and pencil.
+They were brought him, and a man stood over
+him while he wrote. It proved to be a letter to his
+sisters enjoining them to believe in his innocence, and
+wound up with what was very much like an attempt at a
+will. Altogether, it looks as if he meditated suicide, and
+we have been careful to take from him every possible
+means for his effecting his release in this way, as well as
+set a strict though secret watch upon him."</p>
+
+<p>A slight noise took place behind the screen, which at
+any other time Mr. Hickory would have been the first to
+notice and inquire into. As it was, it had only the effect
+of unconsciously severing his train of thought and starting
+him alertly to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said he, facing the District Attorney with
+cheerful vivacity, "any orders?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," responded Mr. Ferris. "A run down to Albany<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+seems to be the best thing for you at present. On your
+return we will consult again."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, sir. I shall not be absent more than two
+days, and, in the meantime, you will let me know if any
+thing important occurs?" And, handing over his new
+address, Hickory speedily took his leave.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Byrd, what do you think of him?"</p>
+
+<p>For reply, Mr. Byrd stepped forth and took his stand
+before the District Attorney.</p>
+
+<p>"Has Coroner Tredwell informed you," said he, "that
+the superintendent has left it to my discretion to interfere
+in this matter if I thought that by so doing I could
+further the ends of justice?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the language of the quick, short nod he received.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," continued the other, "you will pardon
+me, then, if I ask you to convey to Mr. Hildreth the following
+message: That if he is guiltless of this crime he
+need have no fear of the results of the arrest to which he
+may be subjected; that a man has interested himself in
+this matter who pledges his word not to rest till he has
+discovered the guilty party and freed the innocent from
+suspicion."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" cried Mr. Ferris, astonished at the severe
+but determined bearing of the young man who, up to
+this time, he had only seen under his lighter and more
+indifferent aspect. "You don't agree with this fellow,
+then, in his conclusions regarding Mr. Hildreth?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. Hickory, as I judge, is an egotist. He discovered
+Mr. Hildreth and brought him to the notice of
+the jury, therefore Mr. Hildreth is guilty."</p>
+
+<p>"And you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am open to doubt about it. Not that I would
+acknowledge it to any one but you, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because if I work in this case at all, or make any
+efforts to follow up the clue which I believe myself to
+have received, it must be done secretly, and without
+raising the suspicion of any one in this town. I am not
+in a position, as you know, to work openly, even if it
+were advisable to do so, which it certainly is not.
+What I do must be accomplished under cover, and
+I ask you to help me in my self-imposed and by no
+means agreeable task, by trusting me to pursue my
+inquiries alone, until such time as I assure myself beyond
+a doubt that my own convictions are just, and
+that the man who murdered Mrs. Clemmens is some
+one entirely separated from Mr. Hildreth and any
+interests that he represents."</p>
+
+<p>"You are, then, going to take up this case?"</p>
+
+<p>The answer given was short, but it meant the deliberate
+shivering of the fairest dream of love that had ever
+visited Mr. Byrd's imagination.</p>
+
+<p>"I am."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p>
+<h2>BOOK II.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE WEAVING OF A WEB.</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SPIDER.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+"Thus far we run before the wind."<br /><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>IN the interview which Mr. Byrd had held with Miss
+Dare he had been conscious of omitting one test
+which many another man in his place would have made.
+This was the utterance of the name of him whom he really
+believed to be the murderer of Mrs. Clemmens. Had he
+spoken this name, had he allowed himself to breathe the
+words "Craik Mansell" into the ears of this agitated
+woman, or even gone so far as to allude in the most careless
+way to the widow's nephew, he felt sure his daring
+would have been rewarded by some expression on her
+part that would have given him a substantial basis for
+his theories to rest upon.</div>
+
+<p>But he had too much natural chivalry for this. His
+feelings as a man got in the way of his instinct as a detective.
+Nevertheless, he felt positive that his suspicions in
+regard to this nephew of Mrs. Clemmens were correct,
+and set about the task of fitting facts to his theory, with
+all that settled and dogged determination which follows
+the pursuit of a stern duty unwillingly embraced.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Two points required instant settling.</p>
+
+<p>First, the truth or falsehood of his supposition as to
+the identification of the person confronted by Miss Dare
+in the Syracuse depot with the young man described by
+Miss Firman as the nephew of Widow Clemmens.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, the existence or non-existence of proof going
+to show the presence of this person at or near the house
+of Mrs. Clemmens, during the time of the assault.</p>
+
+<p>But before proceeding to satisfy himself in regard to
+these essentials, he went again to the widow's house and
+there spent an hour in a careful study of its inner and
+outer arrangements, with a view to the formation of a
+complete theory as to the manner and method of the
+murder. He found that in default of believing Mr.
+Hildreth the assailant, one supposition was positively
+necessary, and this was that the murderer was in the
+house when this gentleman came to it. A glance at the
+diagram on next page will explain why.</p>
+
+<p>The house, as you will see, has but three entrances:
+the front door, at which Mr. Hildreth unconsciously
+stood guard; the kitchen door, also unconsciously guarded
+during the critical moment by the coming and going
+of the tramp through the yard; and the dining-room
+door, which, though to all appearance free from the surveillance
+of any eye, was so situated in reference to the
+clock at which the widow stood when attacked, that it
+was manifestly impossible for any one to enter it and
+cross the room to the hearth without attracting the attention
+of her eye if not of her ear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/diagram01.png" width="600" height="799" alt="Diagram" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>To be sure, there was the bare possibility of his having
+come in by the kitchen-door, after the departure of the
+tramp, but such a contingency was scarcely worth considering.
+The almost certain conclusion was that he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
+been in the house for some time, and was either in the
+dining-room when Mrs. Clemmens returned to it from her
+interview with Mr. Hildreth, or else came down to it from
+the floor above by means of the staircase that so strangely
+descended into that very room.</p>
+
+<p>Another point looked equally clear. The escape of
+the murderer&mdash;still in default of considering Mr. Hildreth
+as such&mdash;must have been by means of one of the back
+doors, and must have been in the direction of the woods.
+To be sure there was a stretch of uneven and marshy
+ground to be travelled over before the shelter of the trees
+could be reached; but a person driven by fear could, at
+a pinch, travel it in five minutes or less; and a momentary
+calculation on the part of Mr. Byrd sufficed to show
+him that more time than this had elapsed from the probable
+instant of assault to the moment when Mr. Ferris
+opened the side door and looked out upon the swamp.</p>
+
+<p>The dearth of dwellings on the left-hand side of the
+street, and, consequently, the comparative immunity
+from observation which was given to that portion of the
+house which over-looked the swamp, made him conclude
+that this outlet from the dining-room had been the one
+made use of in the murderer's flight. A glance down the
+yard to the broken fence that separated the widow's land
+from the boggy fields beyond, only tended to increase the
+probabilities of this supposition, and, alert to gain for
+himself that full knowledge of the situation necessary to
+a successful conduct of this mysterious affair, he hastily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+left the house and started across the swamp, with the idea
+of penetrating the woods and discovering for himself
+what opportunity they afforded for concealment or
+escape.</p>
+
+<p>He had more difficulty in doing this than he expected.
+The ground about the hillocks was half-sunk in water,
+and the least slip to one side invariably precipitated him
+among the brambles that encumbered this spot. Still, he
+compassed his task in little more than five minutes,
+arriving at the firm ground, and its sturdy growth of
+beeches and maples, well covered with mud, but so far
+thoroughly satisfied with the result of his efforts.</p>
+
+<p>The next thing to be done was to search the woods,
+not for the purpose of picking up clues&mdash;it was too late
+for that&mdash;but to determine what sort of a refuge they
+afforded, and whether, in the event of a man's desiring to
+penetrate them quickly, many impediments would arise
+in the shape of tangled underground or loose-lying
+stones.</p>
+
+<p>He found them remarkably clear; so much so, indeed,
+that he travelled for some distance into their midst before
+he realized that he had passed beyond their borders.
+More than this, he came ere long upon something like a
+path, and, following it, emerged into a sort of glade,
+where, backed up against a high rock, stood a small and
+seemingly deserted hut. It was the first object he had
+met with that in any way suggested the possible presence
+of man, and advancing to it with cautious steps, he looked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+into its open door-way. Nothing met his eyes but an
+empty interior, and without pausing to bestow upon the
+building a further thought, he hurried on through a path
+he saw opening beyond it, till he came to the end of the
+wood.</p>
+
+<p>Stepping forth, he paused in astonishment. Instead
+of having penetrated the woods in a direct line, he found
+that he had merely described a half circle through them,
+and now stood on a highway leading directly back into
+the town.</p>
+
+<p>Likewise, he was in full sight of the terminus of a line
+of horse-cars that connected this remote region of Sibley
+with its business portion, and though distant a good mile
+from the railway depot, was, to all intents and purposes,
+as near that means of escape as he would have been in
+the street in front of Widow Clemmens' house.</p>
+
+<p>Full of thoughts and inly wondering over the fatality
+that had confined the attention of the authorities to the
+approaches afforded by the lane, to the utter exclusion of
+this more circuitous, but certainly more elusive, road of
+escape, he entered upon the highway, and proceeded to
+gain the horse-car he saw standing at the head of the road,
+a few rods away. As he did so, he for the first time realized
+just where he was. The elegant villa of Professor
+Darling rising before him on the ridge that ran along on
+the right-hand side of the road, made it at once evident
+that he was on the borders of that choice and aristocratic
+quarter known as the West Side. It was a new region to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+him, and, pausing for a moment, he cast his eyes over the
+scene which lay stretched out before him. He had frequently
+heard it said that the view commanded by the
+houses on the ridge was the finest in the town, and he was
+not disappointed in it. As he looked across the verdant
+basin of marshy ground around which the road curved
+like a horseshoe, he could see the city spread out like a
+map before him. So unobstructed, indeed, was the view
+he had of its various streets and buildings, that he thought
+he could even detect, amid the taller and more conspicuous
+dwellings, the humble walls and newly-shingled roof
+of the widow's cottage.</p>
+
+<p>But he could not be sure of this; his eyesight was any
+thing but trustworthy for long distances, and hurrying
+forward to the car, he took his seat just as it was about
+to start.</p>
+
+<p>It carried him straight into town, and came to a standstill
+not ten feet from the railroad depot. As he left it
+and betook himself back to his hotel, he gave to his
+thoughts a distinct though inward expression.</p>
+
+<p>"If," he mused, "my suppositions in regard to this
+matter are true, and another man than Mr. Hildreth
+struck the fatal blow, then I have just travelled over the
+self-same route he took in his flight."</p>
+
+<p>But were his suppositions true? It remained for him to
+determine.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FLY.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+Like&mdash;but oh! how different.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Wordsworth.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THE paper mill of Harrison, Goodman &amp; Chamberlain
+was situated in one of the main thoroughfares
+of Buffalo. It was a large but otherwise unpretentious
+building, and gave employment to a vast number of
+operatives, mostly female.</div>
+
+<p>Some of these latter might have been surprised, and
+possibly a little fluttered, one evening, at seeing a well-dressed
+young gentleman standing at the gate as they
+came forth, gazing with languid interest from one face to
+another, as if he were on the look-out for some one of
+their number.</p>
+
+<p>But they would have been yet more astonished could
+they have seen him still lingering after the last one had
+passed, watching with unabated patience the opening and
+shutting of the small side door devoted to the use of the
+firm, and such employ&eacute;s as had seats in the office. It
+was Mr. Byrd, and his purpose there at this time of day
+was to see and review the whole rank and file of the
+young men employed in the place, in the hope of being
+able to identify the nephew of Mrs. Clemmens by his supposed
+resemblance to the person whose character of face
+and form had been so minutely described to him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>For Mr. Byrd was a just man and a thoughtful one, and
+knowing this identification to be the key-stone of his
+lately formed theory, desired it to be complete and of no
+doubtful character. He accordingly held fast to his
+position, watching and waiting, seemingly in vain, for the
+dark, powerful face and the sturdily-built frame of the
+gentleman whose likeness he had attempted to draw in
+conjunction with that of Miss Dare. But, though he saw
+many men of all sorts and kinds issue from one door or
+another of this vast building, not one of them struck him
+with that sudden and unmistakable sense of familiarity
+which he had a right to expect, and he was just beginning
+to doubt if the whole framework of his elaborately-formed
+theory was not destined to fall into ruins, when the small
+door, already alluded to, opened once more, and a couple
+of gentlemen came out.</p>
+
+<p>The appearance of one of them gave Mr. Byrd a start.
+He was young, powerfully built, wore a large mustache,
+and had a complexion of unusual swarthiness. There
+was character, too, in his face, though not so much as Mr.
+Byrd had expected to see in the nephew of Mrs. Clemmens.
+Still, people differ about degrees of expression,
+and to his informant this face might have appeared strong.
+He was dressed in a business suit, and was without an
+overcoat&mdash;two facts that made it difficult for Mr. Byrd
+to get any assistance from the cut and color of his
+clothes.</p>
+
+<p>But there was enough in the general style and bearing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+of this person to make Mr. Byrd anxious to know his
+name. He, therefore, took it upon himself to follow
+him&mdash;a proceeding which brought him to the corner just
+in time to see the two gentlemen separate, and the especial
+one in whom he was interested, step into a car.</p>
+
+<p>He succeeded in getting a seat in the same car, and for
+some blocks had the pleasure of watching the back of the
+supposed Mansell, as he stood on the front platform with
+the driver. Then others got in, and the detective's view
+was obstructed, and presently&mdash;he never could tell how
+it was&mdash;he lost track of the person he was shadowing,
+and when the chance came for another sight of the driver
+and platform, the young man was gone.</p>
+
+<p>Annoyed beyond expression, Mr. Byrd went to a hotel,
+and next day sent to the mill and procured the address
+of Mr. Mansell. Going to the place named, he found it
+to be a very respectable boarding-house, and, chancing
+upon a time when more or less of the rooms were empty,
+succeeded in procuring for himself an apartment there.</p>
+
+<p>So here he was a fixture in the house supposed by him
+to hold the murderer of Mrs. Clemmens. When the
+time for dinner came, and with it an opportunity for settling
+the vexed question of Mr. Mansell's identity not
+only with the man in the Syracuse depot, but with the
+person who had eluded his pursuit the day before, something
+of the excitement of the hunter in view of his game
+seized upon this hitherto imperturbable detective, and it
+was with difficulty he could sustain his usual <i>r&ocirc;le</i> of fashionable
+indifference.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He arrived at the table before any of the other boarders,
+and presently a goodly array of amiable matrons, old
+and young gentlemen, and pretty girls came filing into the
+room, and finally&mdash;yes, finally&mdash;the gentleman whom he
+had followed from the mill the day before, and whom he
+now had no hesitation in fixing upon as Mr. Mansell.</p>
+
+<p>But the satisfaction occasioned by the settlement of
+this perplexing question was dampened somewhat by a
+sudden and uneasy sense of being himself at a disadvantage.
+Why he should feel thus he did not know. Perhaps
+the almost imperceptible change which took place
+in that gentleman's face as their eyes first met, may have
+caused the unlooked-for sensation; though why Mr.
+Mansell should change at the sight of one who must have
+been a perfect stranger to him, was more than Mr. Byrd
+could understand. It was enough that the latter felt he
+had made a mistake in not having donned a disguise
+before entering this house, and that, oppressed by the
+idea, he withdrew his attention from the man he had
+come to watch, and fixed it upon more immediate and
+personal matters.</p>
+
+<p>The meal was half over. Mr. Byrd who, as a stranger
+of more than ordinary good looks and prepossessing manners,
+had been placed by the obliging landlady between
+her own daughter and a lady of doubtful attractions, was
+endeavoring to improve his advantages and make himself
+as agreeable as possible to both of his neighbors,
+when he heard a lady near him say aloud, "You are late,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+Mr. Mansell," and, looking up in his amazement, saw
+entering the door&mdash;&mdash; Well, in the presence of the real
+owner of this name, he wondered he ever could have
+fixed upon the other man as the original of the person
+that had been described to him. The strong face, the
+sombre expression, the herculean frame, were unique,
+and in the comparison which they inevitably called forth,
+made all other men in the room look dwarfed if not
+actually commonplace.</p>
+
+<p>Greatly surprised at this new turn of affairs, and satisfied
+that he at last had before him the man who had confronted
+Miss Dare in the Syracuse depot, he turned his
+attention back to the ladies. He, however, took care to
+keep one ear open on the side of the new-comer, in the
+hope of gleaning from his style and manner of conversation
+some notion of his disposition and nature.</p>
+
+<p>But Craik Mansell was at no time a talkative man, and
+at this especial period of his career was less inclined than
+ever to enter into the trivial debates or good-natured
+repartee that was the staple of conversation at Mrs.
+Hart's table.</p>
+
+<p>So Mr. Byrd's wishes in this regard were foiled. He
+succeeded, however, in assuring himself by a square look,
+into the other's face, that to whatever temptation this man
+may have succumbed, or of whatever crime he may have
+been guilty, he was by nature neither cold, cruel, nor
+treacherous, and that the deadly blow, if dealt by him,
+was the offspring of some sudden impulse or violent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+ebullition of temper, and was being repented of with
+every breath he drew.</p>
+
+<p>But this discovery, though it modified Mr. Byrd's own
+sense of personal revolt against the man, could not influence
+him in the discharge of his duty, which was to save
+another of less interesting and perhaps less valuable traits
+of character from the consequences of a crime he had
+never committed. It was, therefore, no more than just,
+that, upon withdrawing from the table, he should endeavor
+to put himself in the way of settling that second question,
+upon whose answer in the affirmative depended the rightful
+establishment of his secret suspicions.</p>
+
+<p>That was, whether this young man was at or near the
+house of his aunt at the time when she was assaulted.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hart's parlors were always thrown open to her
+boarders in the evening.</p>
+
+<p>There, at any time from seven to ten, you might meet
+a merry crowd of young people intent upon enjoying
+themselves, and usually highly successful in their endeavors
+to do so. Into this throng Mr. Byrd accordingly
+insinuated himself, and being of the sort to win instant
+social recognition, soon found he had but to make his
+choice in order to win for himself that <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> conversation
+from which he hoped so much. He consequently
+surveyed the company with a critical eye, and soon made
+up his mind as to which lady was the most affable in her
+manners and the least likely to meet his advances with
+haughty reserve, and having won an introduction to her,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+sat down at her side with the stern determination of
+making her talk about Mr. Mansell.</p>
+
+<p>"You have a very charming company here," he remarked;
+"the house seems to be filled with a most
+cheerful class of people."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the not-unlooked-for reply. "We are all
+merry enough if we except Mr. Mansell. But, of course,
+there is excuse for him. No one expects him to join in
+our sports."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Mansell? the gentleman who came in late to
+supper?" repeated Mr. Byrd, with no suggestion of the
+secret satisfaction he felt at the immediate success of his
+scheme.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he is in great trouble, you know; is the nephew
+of the woman who was killed a few days ago at Sibley,
+don't you remember? The widow lady who was struck
+on the head by a man of the name of Hildreth, and who
+died after uttering something about a ring, supposed by
+many to be an attempt on her part to describe the murderer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the slow, almost languid, response; "and
+a dreadful thing, too; quite horrifying in its nature. And
+so this Mr. Mansell is her nephew?" he suggestively repeated.
+"Odd! I suppose he has told you all about the
+affair?"</p>
+
+<p>"He? Mercy! I don't suppose you could get him to
+say anything about it to save your life. He isn't of the
+talking sort. Besides, I don't believe he knows any more
+about it than you or I. He hasn't been to Sibley."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Didn't he go to the funeral?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; he said he was too ill; and indeed he was shut
+up one whole day with a terrible sore throat. He is the
+heir, too, of all her savings, they say; but he won't go
+to Sibley. Some folks think it is queer, but I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Here her eyes wandered and her almost serious look
+vanished in a somewhat coquettish smile. Following her
+gaze with his own, Mr. Byrd perceived a gentleman approaching.
+It was the one he had first taken for Mr.
+Mansell.</p>
+
+<p>"Beg pardon," was the somewhat abrupt salutation
+with which this person advanced. "But they are proposing
+a game in the next room, and Miss Clayton's assistance
+is considered absolutely indispensable."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Brown, first allow me to make you acquainted
+with Mr. Byrd," said the light-hearted damsel, with a
+gracious inclination. "As you are both strangers, it is
+well for you to know each other, especially as I expect
+you to join in our games."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," protested Mr. Brown, "but I don't
+play games." Then seeing the deep bow of acquiescence
+which Mr. Byrd was making, added, with what appeared
+to be a touch of jealousy, "Except under strong provocation,"
+and holding out his arm, offered to escort the
+young lady into the next room.</p>
+
+<p>With an apologetic glance at Mr. Byrd, she accepted
+the attention proffered her, and speedily vanished into
+the midst of the laughing group that awaited her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd found himself alone.</p>
+
+<p>"Check number one," thought he; and he bestowed
+any thing but an amiable benediction upon the man who
+had interrupted him in the midst of so promising a conversation.</p>
+
+<p>His next move was in the direction of the landlady's
+daughter, who, being somewhat shy, favored a retired
+nook behind the piano. They had been neighbors at
+table, and he could at once address her without fear of
+seeming obtrusive.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not see here the dark young gentleman whom
+you call Mr. Mansell?" he remarked, inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; he is in trouble. A near relative of his was
+murdered in cold blood the other day, and under the
+most aggravating circumstances. Haven't you heard
+about it? She was a Mrs. Clemmens, and lived in Sibley.
+It was in all the papers."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes; I remember about it very well. And so he
+is her nephew," he went on, recklessly repeating himself
+in his determination to elicit all he could from these
+young and thoughtless misses. "A peculiar-looking
+young man; has the air of thoroughly understanding
+himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he is very smart, they say."</p>
+
+<p>"Does he never talk?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; that is, he used to; but, since his aunt's
+death, we don't expect it. He is very much interested in
+machinery, and has invented something&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Clara, you are not going to sit here," interposed
+the reproachful voice of a saucy-eyed maiden, who at this
+moment peeped around the corner of the piano. "We
+want all the recruits we can get," she cried, with a sudden
+blush, as she encountered the glance of Mr. Byrd.
+"Do come, and bring the gentleman too." And she
+slipped away to join that very Mr. Brown who, by his importunities,
+had been the occasion of the former interruption
+from which Mr. Byrd had suffered.</p>
+
+<p>"That man and I will quarrel yet," was the mental
+exclamation with which the detective rose. "Shall we
+join your friends?" asked he, assuming an unconcern he
+was far from feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if you please," was the somewhat timid, though
+evidently pleased, reply.</p>
+
+<p>And Mr. Byrd noted down in his own mind check
+number two.</p>
+
+<p>The game was a protracted one. Twice did he think
+to escape from the merry crowd he had entered, and
+twice did he fail to do so. The indefatigable Brown
+would not let him slip, and it was only by a positive
+exertion of his will that he finally succeeded in withdrawing
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to have a word with your mother," he explained,
+in reply to the look of protest with which Miss
+Hart honored his departure. "I hear she retires early;
+so you will excuse me if I leave somewhat abruptly."</p>
+
+<p>And to Mrs. Hart's apartment he at once proceeded,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+and, by dint of his easy assurance, soon succeeded in
+leading her, as he had already done the rest, into a discussion
+of the one topic for which he had an interest.
+He had not time, however, to glean much from her, for,
+just as she was making the admission that Mr. Mansell
+had not been home at the time of the murder, a knock
+was heard at the door, and, with an affable bow and a
+short, quick stare of surprise at Mr. Byrd, the ubiquitous
+Mr. Brown stepped in and took a seat on the sofa, with
+every appearance of intending to make a call.</p>
+
+<p>At this third check, Mr. Byrd was more than annoyed.
+Rising, however, with the most amiable courtesy, he
+bowed his acknowledgments to the landlady, and, without
+heeding her pressing invitation to remain and make the
+acquaintance of Mr. Brown, left the room and betook
+himself back to the parlors.</p>
+
+<p>He was just one minute too late. The last of the
+boarders had gone up-stairs, and only an empty room met
+his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He at once ascended to his own apartment. It was on
+the fourth floor. There were many other rooms on this
+floor, and for a moment he could not remember which
+was his own door. At last, however, he felt sure it was
+the third one from the stairs, and, going to it, gave a
+short knock in case of mistake, and, hearing no reply,
+opened it and went in.</p>
+
+<p>The first glance assured him that his recollection had
+played him false, and that he was in the wrong room.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
+The second, that he was in that of Mr. Mansell. The
+sight of the small model of a delicate and intricate
+machine that stood in full view on a table before him
+would have been sufficient assurance of this fact, even if
+the inventor himself had been absent. But he was there.
+Seated at a table, with his back to the door, and his head
+bowed forward on his arms, he presented such a picture
+of misery or despair, that Mr. Byrd felt his sympathies
+touched in spite of himself, and hastily stumbling backward,
+was about to confusedly withdraw, when a doubt
+struck him as to the condition of the deathly, still, and
+somewhat pallid figure before him, and, stepping hurriedly
+forward, he spoke the young man's name, and, failing to
+elicit a response, laid his hand on his shoulder, with an
+apology for disturbing him, and an inquiry as to how he
+felt.</p>
+
+<p>The touch acted where the voice had failed. Leaping
+from his partly recumbent position, Craik Mansell faced
+the intruder with indignant inquiry written in every line
+of his white and determined face.</p>
+
+<p>"To what do I owe this intrusion?" he cried, his
+nostrils expanding and contracting with an anger that
+proved the violence of his nature when aroused.</p>
+
+<p>"First, to my carelessness," responded Mr. Byrd;
+"and, secondly&mdash;&mdash;" But there he paused, for the first
+time in his life, perhaps, absolutely robbed of speech.
+His eye had fallen upon a picture that the other held
+clutched in his vigorous right hand. It was a photograph<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+of Imogene Dare, and it was made conspicuous by
+two heavy black lines which had been relentlessy drawn
+across the face in the form of a cross. "Secondly," he
+went on, after a moment, resolutely tearing his gaze away
+from this startling and suggestive object, "to my fears.
+I thought you looked ill, and could not forbear making
+an effort to reassure myself that all was right."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," ejaculated the other, in a heavy weariful
+tone. "I am perfectly well." And with a short bow
+he partially turned his back, with a distinct intimation
+that he desired to be left alone.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd could not resist this appeal. Glad as he
+would have been for even a moment's conversation with
+this man, he was, perhaps unfortunately, too much of a
+gentleman to press himself forward against the expressed
+wishes even of a suspected criminal. He accordingly
+withdrew to the door, and was about to open it and go
+out, when it was flung violently forward, and the ever-obtrusive
+Brown stepped in.</p>
+
+<p>This second intrusion was more than unhappy Mr.
+Mansell could stand. Striding passionately forward, he
+met the unblushing Brown at full tilt, and angrily pointing
+to the door, asked if it was not the custom of gentlemen
+to knock before entering the room of strangers.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg pardon," said the other, backing across the
+threshold, with a profuse display of confusion. "I had
+no idea of its being a stranger's room. I thought it was
+my own. I&mdash;I was sure that my door was the third from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+the stairs. Excuse me, excuse me." And he bustled
+noisily out.</p>
+
+<p>This precise reproduction of his own train of thought
+and action confounded Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>Turning with a deprecatory glance to the perplexed
+and angry occupant of the room, he said something
+about not knowing the person who had just left them;
+and then, conscious that a further contemplation of the
+stern and suffering countenance before him would unnerve
+him for the duty he had to perform, hurriedly
+withdrew.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>A LAST ATTEMPT.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+When Fortune means to men most good,<br />
+She looks upon them with a threatening eye.&mdash;<span class="smcap">King John.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THE sleep of Horace Byrd that night was any thing
+but refreshing. In the first place, he was
+troubled about this fellow Brown, whose last impertinence
+showed he was a man to be watched, and, if
+possible, understood. Secondly, he was haunted by a
+vision of the unhappy youth he had just left; seeing,
+again and again, both in his dreams and in the rush of
+heated fancies which followed his awaking, that picture
+of utter despair which the opening of his neighbor's door
+had revealed. He could not think of that poor mortal
+as sleeping. Whether it was the result of his own sympathetic
+admiration for Miss Dare, or of some subtle clairvoyance
+bestowed upon him by the darkness and stillness
+of the hour, he felt assured that the quiet watch he
+had interrupted by his careless importunity, had been
+again established, and that if he could tear down the
+partition separating their two rooms, he should see that
+bowed form and buried face crouched despairingly above
+the disfigured picture. The depths of human misery and
+the maddening passions that underlie all crime had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+revealed to him for the first time, perhaps, in all their
+terrible suggestiveness, and he asked himself over and
+over as he tossed on his uneasy pillow, if he possessed
+the needful determination to carry on the scheme he had
+undertaken, in face of the unreasoning sympathies which
+the fathomless misery of this young man had aroused.
+Under the softening influences of the night, he answered,
+No; but when the sunlight came and the full flush of
+life with its restless duties and common necessities awoke
+within him, he decided, Yes.</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Mansell was not at the breakfast-table when Mr.
+Byrd came down. His duties at the mill were peremptory,
+and he had already taken his coffee and gone. But
+Mr. Brown was there, and at sight of him Mr. Byrd's
+caution took alarm, and he bestowed upon this intrusive
+busybody a close and searching scrutiny. It, however,
+elicited nothing in the way of his own enlightenment beyond
+the fact that this fellow, total stranger though he
+seemed, was for some inexplicable reason an enemy to
+himself or his plans.</p>
+
+<p>Not that Mr. Brown manifested this by any offensive
+token of dislike or even of mistrust. On the contrary,
+he was excessively polite, and let slip no opportunity of
+dragging Mr. Byrd into the conversation. Yet, for all
+that, a secret influence was already at work against the
+detective, and he could not attribute it to any other
+source than the jealous efforts of this man. Miss Hart
+was actually curt to him, and in the attitude of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+various persons about the board he detected a certain reserve
+which had been entirely absent from their manner
+the evening before.</p>
+
+<p>But while placing, as he thought, due weight upon this
+fellow's animosity, he had no idea to what it would lead,
+till he went up-stairs. Mrs. Hart, who had hitherto
+treated him with the utmost cordiality, now called him
+into the parlor, and told him frankly that she would be
+obliged to him if he would let her have his room. To be
+sure, she qualified the seeming harshness of her request
+by an intimation that a permanent occupant had applied
+for it, and offered to pay his board at the hotel till
+he could find a room to suit him in another house; but
+the fact remained that she was really in a flutter to rid
+herself of him, and no subterfuge could hide it, and Mr.
+Byrd, to whose plans the full confidence of those around
+him was essential, found himself obliged to acquiesce in
+her desires, and announce at once his willingness to depart.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly she was all smiles, and overwhelmed him with
+overtures of assistance; but he courteously declined her
+help, and, flying from her apologies with what speed he
+could, went immediately to his room. Here he sat down
+to deliberate.</p>
+
+<p>The facts he had gleaned, despite the interference of
+his unknown enemy, were three:</p>
+
+<p>First, that Craik Mansell had found excuses for not attending
+the inquest, or even the funeral, of his murdered
+aunt.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Secondly, that he had a strong passion for invention,
+and had even now the model of a machine on hand.</p>
+
+<p>And third, that he was not at home, wherever else
+he may have been, on the morning of the murder in
+Sibley.</p>
+
+<p>"A poor and meagre collection of insignificant facts,"
+thought Mr. Byrd. "Too poor and meagre to avail
+much in stemming the tide threatening to overwhelm
+Gouverneur Hildreth."</p>
+
+<p>But what opportunity remained for making them
+weightier? He was turned from the house that held the
+few persons from whom he could hope to glean more
+complete and satisfactory information, and he did
+not know where else to seek it unless he went to the
+mill. And this was an alternative from which he shrank,
+as it would, in the first place, necessitate a revelation of his
+real character; and, secondly, make known the fact that
+Mr. Mansell was under the surveillance of the police, if
+not in the actual attitude of a suspected man.</p>
+
+<p>A quick and hearty, "Shure, you are very good,
+sir!" uttered in the hall without roused him from his
+meditations and turned his thoughts in a new direction.
+What if he could learn something from the servants? He
+had not thought of them. This girl, now, whose work
+constantly carried her into the various rooms on this
+floor, would, of course, know whether Mr. Mansell had
+been away on the day of the murder, even if she
+could not tell the precise time of his return. At all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+events, it was worth while to test her with a question
+or two before he left, even if he had to resort to the
+means of spurring her memory with money. His failure
+in other directions did not necessitate a failure here.</p>
+
+<p>He accordingly called her in, and showing her a
+bright silver dollar, asked her if she thought it good
+enough pay for a short answer to a simple question.</p>
+
+<p>To his great surprise she blushed and drew back, shaking
+her head and muttering that her mistress didn't like
+to have the girls talk to the young men about the house,
+and finally going off with a determined toss of her frowsy
+head, that struck Mr. Byrd aghast, and made him believe
+more than ever that his evil star hung in the ascendant,
+and that the sooner he quit the house the better.</p>
+
+<p>In ten minutes he was in the street.</p>
+
+<p>But one thing now remained for him to do. He must
+make the acquaintance of one of the mill-owners, or
+possibly of an overseer or accountant, and from him learn
+where Mr. Mansell had been at the time of his aunt's
+murder. To this duty he devoted the day; but here
+also he was met by unexpected difficulties. Though he
+took pains to disguise himself before proceeding to the
+mill, all the endeavors which he made to obtain an interview
+there with any responsible person were utterly fruitless.
+Whether his ill-luck at the house had followed him
+to this place he could not tell, but, for some reason or
+other, there was not one of the gentlemen for whom he
+inquired but had some excuse for not seeing him; and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+worn out at last with repeated disappointments, if not
+oppressed by the doubtful looks he received from the
+various subordinates who carried his messages, he left the
+building, and proceeded to make use of the only means
+now left him of compassing his end.</p>
+
+<p>This was to visit Mr. Goodman, the one member of the
+firm who was not at his post that day, and see if from
+him he could gather the single fact he was in search of.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps the atmosphere of distrust with which I am
+surrounded in this quarter has not reached this gentleman's
+house," thought he. And having learned from the
+directory where that house was, he proceeded immediately
+to it.</p>
+
+<p>His reception was by no means cordial. Mr. Goodman
+had been ill the night before, and was in no mood
+to see strangers.</p>
+
+<p>"Mansell?" he coolly repeated, in acknowledgment
+of the other's inquiry as to whether he had a person of
+that name in his employ. "Yes, our book-keeper's
+name is Mansell. May I ask"&mdash;and here Mr. Byrd felt
+himself subjected to a thorough, if not severe, scrutiny&mdash;"why
+you come to me with inquiries concerning him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because," the determined detective responded, adopting
+at once the bold course, "you can put me in possession
+of a fact which it eminently befits the cause of
+justice to know. I am an emissary, sir, from the District
+Attorney at Sibley, and the point I want settled is,
+where Mr. Mansell was on the morning of the twenty-sixth
+of September?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This was business, and the look that involuntarily
+leaped into Mr. Goodman's eye proved that he considered
+it so. He did not otherwise betray this feeling, however,
+but turned quite calmly toward a chair, into which he
+slowly settled himself before replying:</p>
+
+<p>"And why do you not ask the gentleman himself where
+he was? He probably would be quite ready to tell you."</p>
+
+<p>The inflection he gave to these words warned Mr.
+Byrd to be careful. The truth was, Mr. Goodman was
+Mr. Mansell's best friend, and as such had his own
+reasons for not being especially communicative in his
+regard, to this stranger. The detective vaguely felt this,
+and immediately changed his manner.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt of that, sir," he ingenuously answered.
+"But Mr. Mansell has had so much to distress him lately,
+that I was desirous of saving him from the unpleasantness
+which such a question would necessarily cause. It
+is only a small matter, sir. A person&mdash;it is not essential
+to state whom&mdash;has presumed to raise the question
+among the authorities in Sibley as to whether Mr. Mansell,
+as heir of poor Mrs. Clemmens' small property,
+might not have had some hand in her dreadful death.
+There was no proof to sustain the assumption, and Mr.
+Mansell was not even known to have been in the town on
+or after the day of her murder; but justice, having
+listened to the aspersion, felt bound to satisfy itself of its
+falsity; and I was sent here to learn where Mr. Mansell
+was upon that fatal day. I find he was not in Buffalo.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
+But this does not mean he was in Sibley, and I am sure
+that, if you will, you can supply me with facts that will
+lead to a complete and satisfactory <i>alibi</i> for him."</p>
+
+<p>But the hard caution of the other was not to be moved.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry," said he, "but I can give you no information
+in regard to Mr. Mansell's travels. You will have
+to ask the gentleman himself."</p>
+
+<p>"You did not send him out on business of your own,
+then?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"But you knew he was going?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And can tell when he came back?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was in his place on Wednesday."</p>
+
+<p>The cold, dry nature of these replies convinced Mr.
+Byrd that something more than the sullen obstinacy of
+an uncommunicative man lay behind this determined
+reticence. Looking at Mr. Goodman inquiringly, he
+calmly remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"You are a friend of Mr. Mansell?"</p>
+
+<p>The answer came quick and coldly:</p>
+
+<p>"He is a constant visitor at my house."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd made a respectful bow.</p>
+
+<p>"You can, then, have no doubts of his ability to prove
+an <i>alibi?</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubts concerning Mr. Mansell," was the
+stern and uncompromising reply.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd at once felt he had received his dismissal.
+But before making up his mind to go, he resolved upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+one further effort. Calling to his aid his full power of
+acting, he slowly shook his head with a thoughtful air,
+and presently murmured half aloud and half, as it were,
+to himself:</p>
+
+<p>"I thought, possibly, he might have gone to Washington."
+Then, with a casual glance at Mr. Goodman,
+added: "He is an inventor, I believe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was again the laconic response.</p>
+
+<p>"Has he not a machine at present which he desires to
+bring to the notice of some capitalist?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe he has," was the forced and none too amiable
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd at once leaned confidingly forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you think," he asked, "that he may have gone
+to New York to consult with some one about this pet
+hobby of his? It would certainly be a natural thing for
+him to do, and if I only knew it was so, I could go back
+to Sibley with an easy conscience."</p>
+
+<p>His disinterested air, and the tone of kindly concern
+which he had adopted, seemed at last to produce its effect
+on his companion. Relaxing a trifle of his austerity, Mr.
+Goodman went so far as to admit that Mr. Mansell had
+told him that business connected with his patent had
+called him out of town; but beyond this he would allow
+nothing; and Mr. Byrd, baffled in his attempts to elicit
+from this man any distinct acknowledgment of Mr. Mansell's
+whereabouts at the critical time of Mrs. Clemmens'
+death, made a final bow and turned toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>It was only at this moment he discovered that Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+Goodman and himself had not been alone in the room;
+that curled up in one of the window-seats was a little girl
+of some ten or twelve years of age, who at the first tokens
+of his taking his departure slipped shyly down to the
+floor and ran before him out into the hall. He found
+her by the front door when he arrived there. She was
+standing with her hand on the knob, and presented such
+a picture of childish eagerness, tempered by childish timidity,
+that he involuntarily paused before her with a
+smile. She needed no further encouragement.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir, I know about Mr. Mansell!" she cried. "He
+wasn't in that place you talk about, for he wrote a letter
+to papa just the day before he came back, and the postmark
+on the envelope was Monteith. I remember, because
+it was the name of the man who made our big
+map." And, looking up with that eager zeal which marks
+the liking of very little folks for some one favorite person
+among their grown acquaintances, she added, earnestly:
+"I do hope you won't let them say any thing bad about
+Mr. Mansell, he is so good."</p>
+
+<p>And without waiting for a reply, she ran off, her curls
+dancing, her eyes sparkling, all her little innocent form
+alive with the joy of having done a kindness, as she
+thought, for her favorite, Mr. Mansell.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd, on the contrary, felt a strange pang that the
+information he had sought for so long and vainly should
+come at last from the lips of an innocent child.</p>
+
+<p>Monteith, as you remember, was the next station to
+Sibley.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE END OF A TORTUOUS PATH.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Hamlet.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THE arrest of Mr. Hildreth had naturally quieted
+public suspicion by fixing attention upon a definite
+point, so that when Mr. Byrd returned to Sibley he
+found that he could pursue whatever inquiries he chose
+without awakening the least mistrust that he was on the
+look-out for the murderer of Mrs. Clemmens.</div>
+
+<p>The first use he made of his time was to find out if Mr.
+Mansell, or any man answering to his description, had
+been seen to take the train from the Sibley station on the
+afternoon or evening of the fatal Tuesday. The result
+was unequivocal. No such person had been seen there,
+and no such person was believed to have been at the
+station at any time during that day. This was his first
+disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>He next made the acquaintance of the conductors on
+that line of street-cars by means of which he believed
+Mr. Mansell to have made his escape. But with no better
+result. Not one of them remembered having taken
+up, of late, any passenger from the terminus, of the appearance
+described by Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>And this was his second disappointment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>His next duty was obviously to change his plan of
+action and make the town of Monteith the centre of his
+inquiries. But he hesitated to do this till he had made one
+other visit to the woods in whose recesses he still believed
+the murderer to have plunged immediately upon
+dealing the fatal blow.</p>
+
+<p>He went by the way of the street railroad, not wishing
+to be again seen crossing the bog, and arrived at the hut
+in the centre of the glade without meeting any one or
+experiencing the least adventure.</p>
+
+<p>This time he went in, but nothing was to be seen save
+bare logs, a rough hearth where a fire had once been
+built, and the rudest sort of bench and table; and hurrying
+forth again, he looked doubtfully up and down the
+glade in pursuit of some hint to guide him in his future
+researches.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly he received one. The thick wall of foliage
+which at first glance revealed but the two outlets already
+traversed by him, showed upon close inspection a third
+path, opening well behind the hut, and leading, as he
+soon discovered, in an entirely opposite direction from
+that which had taken him to West Side. Merely stopping
+to cast one glance at the sun, which was still well
+overhead, he set out on this new path. It was longer and
+much more intricate than the other. It led through hollows
+and up steeps, and finally out into an open blackberry
+patch, where it seemed to terminate. But a close
+study of the surrounding bushes, soon disclosed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+signs of a narrow and thread-like passage curving about a
+rocky steep. Entering this he presently found himself
+drawn again into the woods, which he continued to traverse
+till he came to a road cut through the heart of the
+forest, for the use of the lumbermen. Here he paused.
+Should he turn to the right or left? He decided to turn
+to the right. Keeping in the road, which was rough with
+stones where it was not marked with the hoofs of both
+horses and cattle, he walked for some distance. Then he
+emerged into open space again, and discovered that he
+was on the hillside overlooking Monteith, and that by a
+mile or two's further walk over the highway that was
+dimly to be descried at the foot of the hill, he would
+reach the small station devoted to the uses of the quarrymen
+that worked in this place.</p>
+
+<p>There was no longer any further doubt that this route,
+and not the other, had been the one taken by Mr. Mansell
+on that fatal afternoon. But he was determined not
+to trust any further to mere surmises; so hastening down
+the hill, he made his way in the direction of the highway,
+meaning to take the walk alluded to, and learn for himself
+what passengers had taken the train at this point on
+the Tuesday afternoon so often mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>But a barrier rose in his way. A stream which he had
+barely noticed in the quick glance he threw over the landscape
+from the brow of the hill, separated with quite a
+formidable width of water the hillside from the road, and
+it was not till he wandered back for some distance along<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+its banks, that he found a bridge. The time thus lost was
+considerable, but he did not think of it; and when, after a
+long and weary tramp, he stepped upon the platform of
+the small station, he was so eager to learn if he had correctly
+followed the scent, that he forgot to remark that
+the road he had taken was any thing but an easy or
+feasible one for a hasty escape.</p>
+
+<p>The accommodation-trains, which alone stop at this
+point, had both passed, and he found the station-master
+at leisure. A single glance into his honest and intelligent
+face convinced the detective that he had a reliable
+man to deal with. He at once commenced his questions.</p>
+
+<p>"Do many persons besides the quarrymen take the
+train at this place?" asked he.</p>
+
+<p>"Not many," was the short but sufficiently good-natured
+rejoinder. "I guess I could easily count them
+on the fingers of one hand," he laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You would be apt to notice, then, if a strange gentleman
+got on board here at any time, would you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Guess so; not often troubled that way, but sometimes&mdash;sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you tell me whether a young man of very dark
+complexion, heavy mustache, and a determined, if not
+excited, expression, took the cars here for Monteith, say,
+any day last week?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," mused the man. "Dark complexion,
+you say, large mustache; let me see."</p>
+
+<p>"No dandy," Mr. Byrd carefully explained, "but a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+strong man, who believes in work. He was possibly in a
+state of somewhat nervous hurry," he went on, suggestively,
+"and if he wore an overcoat at all, it was a gray
+one."</p>
+
+<p>The face of the man lighted up.</p>
+
+<p>"I seem to remember," said he. "Did he have a very
+bright blue eye and a high color?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"And did he carry a peculiarly shaped bag, of which
+he was very careful?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Mr. Byrd, but remembering the
+model, added with quick assurance, "I have no doubt he
+did"; which seemed to satisfy the other, for he at once
+cried:</p>
+
+<p>"I recollect such a person very well. I noticed him
+before he got to the station; as soon in fact as he came
+in sight. He was walking down the highway, and seemed
+to be thinking about something. He's of the kind to
+attract attention. What about him, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing. He was in trouble of some kind, and he
+went from home without saying where he was going;
+and his friends are anxious about him, that is all. Do
+you think you could swear to his face if you saw it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think I could. He was the only stranger that got
+on to the cars that afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember, then, the day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, no, now, I don't."</p>
+
+<p>"But can't you, if you try? Wasn't there something
+done by you that day which will assist your memory?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Again that slow "Let me see" showed that the man
+was pondering. Suddenly he slapped his thigh and exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"You might be a lawyer's clerk now, mightn't you;
+or, perhaps, a lawyer himself? I do remember that a
+large load of stone was sent off that day, and a minute's
+look at my book&mdash;&mdash; It was Tuesday," he presently
+affirmed.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd drew a deep breath. There is sadness mixed
+with the satisfaction of such a triumph.</p>
+
+<p>"I am much obliged to you," he said, in acknowledgment
+of the other's trouble. "The friends of this gentleman
+will now have little difficulty in tracing him. There
+is but one thing further I should like to make sure of."</p>
+
+<p>And taking from his memorandum-book the picture he
+kept concealed there, he showed him the face of Mr.
+Mansell, now altered to a perfect likeness, and asked him
+if he recognized it.</p>
+
+<p>The decided Yes which he received made further
+questions unnecessary.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>STORM.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Oh, my offence is rank, it smells to heav'n:<br />
+It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't!&mdash;<span class="smcap">Hamlet.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>A &nbsp;&nbsp;DAY had passed. Mr. Byrd, who no longer had
+any reason to doubt that he was upon the trail of
+the real assailant of the Widow Clemmens, had resolved
+upon a third visit to the woods, this time with the
+definite object of picking up any clew, however trifling,
+in support of the fact that Craik Mansell had passed
+through the glade behind his aunt's house.</div>
+
+<p>The sky, when he left the hotel, was one vast field of
+blue; but by the time he reached the terminus of the
+car-route, and stepped out upon the road leading to the
+woods, dark clouds had overcast the sun, and a cool
+wind replaced the quiet zephyrs which had all day
+fanned the brilliant autumn foliage.</p>
+
+<p>He did not realize the condition of the atmosphere,
+however, and proceeded on his way, thinking more of the
+person he had just perceived issuing from the door-way of
+Professor Darling's lofty mansion, than of the low mutterings
+of distant thunder that now and then disturbed
+the silence of the woods, or of the ominous, brazen tint
+which was slowly settling over the huge bank of cloud<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+that filled the northern sky. For that person was Miss
+Dare, and her presence here, or anywhere near him, at
+this time, must of necessity, awaken a most painful train
+of thought.</p>
+
+<p>But, though unmindful of the storm, he was dimly
+conscious of the darkness that was settling about him.
+Quicker and quicker grew his pace, and at last he almost
+broke into a run as the heavy pall of a large black cloud
+swept up over the zenith, and wiped from the heavens
+the last remnant of blue sky. One drop fell, then another,
+then a slow, heavy patter, that bent double the
+leaves they fell upon, as if a shower of lead had
+descended upon the heavily writhing forest. The wind
+had risen, too, and the vast aisles of that clear and
+beautiful wood thundered with the swaying of boughs,
+and the crash here and there of an old and falling limb.
+But the lightning delayed.</p>
+
+<p>The blindest or most abstracted man could be ignorant
+no longer of what all this turmoil meant. Stopping in
+the path along which he had been speeding, Mr. Byrd
+glanced before him and behind, in a momentary calculation
+of distances, and deciding he could not regain the
+terminus before the storm burst, pushed on toward the
+hut.</p>
+
+<p>He reached it just as the first flash of lightning darted
+down through the heavy darkness, and was about to
+fling himself against the door, when something&mdash;was it
+the touch of an invisible hand, or the crash of awful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+thunder which at this instant plowed up the silence of
+the forest and woke a pandemonium of echoes about his
+head?&mdash;stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>He never knew. He only realized that he shuddered
+and drew back, with a feeling of great disinclination to
+enter the low building before him, alone; and that presently
+taking advantage of another loud crash of falling
+boughs, he crept around the corner of the hut, and satisfied
+his doubts by looking into the small, square window
+opening to the west.</p>
+
+<p>He found there was ample reason for all the hesitation
+he had felt. A man was sitting there, who, at the first
+glimpse, appeared to him to be none other than Craik
+Mansell. But reason soon assured him this could not be,
+though the shape, the attitude&mdash;that old attitude of
+despair which he remembered so well&mdash;was so startlingly
+like that of the man whose name was uppermost in his
+thoughts, that he recoiled in spite of himself.</p>
+
+<p>A second flash swept blinding through the wood. Mr.
+Byrd advanced his head and took another glance at the
+stranger. It <i>was</i> Mr. Mansell. No other man would sit
+so quiet and unmoved during the rush and clatter of a
+terrible storm.</p>
+
+<p>Look! not a hair of his head has stirred, not a movement
+has taken place in the hands clasped so convulsively
+beneath his brow. He is an image, a stone, and
+would not hear though the roof fell in.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd himself forgot the storm, and only queried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+what his duty was in this strange and surprising emergency.</p>
+
+<p>But before he could come to any definite conclusion,
+he was subjected to a new sensation. A stir that was not
+the result of the wind or the rain had taken place in the
+forest before him. A something&mdash;he could not tell what&mdash;was
+advancing upon him from the path he had himself
+travelled so short a time before, and its step, if step it
+were, shook him with a vague apprehension that made
+him dread to lift his eyes. But he conquered the unmanly
+instinct, and merely taking the precaution to step
+somewhat further back from view, looked in the direction
+of his fears, and saw a tall, firmly-built woman, whose
+grandly poised head, held high, in defiance of the gale,
+the lightning, and the rain, proclaimed her to be none
+other than Imogene Dare.</p>
+
+<p>It was a juxtaposition of mental, moral, and physical
+forces that almost took Mr. Byrd's breath away. He had
+no doubt whom she had come to see, or to what sort of a
+tryst he was about to be made an unwilling witness. But
+he could not have moved if the blast then surging through
+the trees had uprooted the huge pine behind which he
+had involuntarily drawn at the first impression he had
+received of her approach. He must watch that white
+face of hers slowly evolve itself from the surrounding
+darkness, and he must be present when the dreadful bolt
+swept down from heaven, if only to see her eyes in the
+flare of its ghostly flame.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It came while she was crossing the glade. Fierce,
+blinding, more vivid and searching than at any time
+before, it flashed down through the cringing boughs, and,
+like a mantle of fire, enveloped her form, throwing out
+its every outline, and making of the strong and beautiful
+face an electric vision which Mr. Byrd was never able to
+forget.</p>
+
+<p>A sudden swoop of wind followed, flinging her almost
+to the ground, but Mr. Byrd knew from that moment that
+neither wind nor lightning, not even the fear of death,
+would stop this woman if once she was determined upon
+any course.</p>
+
+<p>Dreading the next few moments inexpressibly, yet
+forcing himself, as a detective, to remain at his post,
+though every instinct of his nature rebelled, Mr. Byrd
+drew himself up against the side of the low hut and
+listened. Her voice, rising between the mutterings of
+thunder and the roar of the ceaseless gale, was plainly to
+be heard.</p>
+
+<p>"Craik Mansell," said she, in a strained tone, that was
+not without its severity, "you sent for me, and I am
+here."</p>
+
+<p>Ah, this was her mode of greeting, was it? Mr. Byrd
+felt his breath come easier, and listened for the reply
+with intensest interest.</p>
+
+<p>But it did not come. The low rumbling of the thunder
+went on, and the wind howled through the gruesome
+forest, but the man she had addressed did not speak.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Craik!" Her voice still came from the door-way,
+where she had seemingly taken her stand. "Do you not
+hear me?"</p>
+
+<p>A stifled groan was the sole reply.</p>
+
+<p>She appeared to take one step forward, but no more.</p>
+
+<p>"I can understand," said she, and Mr. Byrd had no
+difficulty in hearing her words, though the turmoil overhead
+was almost deafening, "why the restlessness of
+despair should drive you into seeking this interview. I
+have longed to see you too, if only to tell you that I wish
+heaven's thunderbolts had fallen upon us both on that
+day when we sat and talked of our future prospects
+and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A lurid flash cut short her words. Strange and awesome
+sounds awoke in the air above, and the next moment
+a great branch fell crashing down upon the roof of the
+hut, beating in one corner, and sliding thence heavily to
+the ground, where it lay with all its quivering leaves
+uppermost, not two feet from the door-way where this
+woman stood.</p>
+
+<p>A shriek like that of a lost spirit went up from her
+lips.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought the vengeance of heaven had fallen!" she
+gasped. And for a moment not a sound was heard within
+or without the hut, save that low flutter of the disturbed
+leaves. "It is not to be," she then whispered, with a
+return of her old calmness, that was worse than any
+shriek. "Murder is not to be avenged thus." Then,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+shortly: "A dark and hideous line of blood is drawn
+between you and me, Craik Mansell. <i>I</i> cannot pass it,
+and you must not, forever and forever and forever. But
+that does not hinder me from wishing to help you, and so
+I ask, in all sincerity, What is it you want me to do for
+you to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>A response came this time.</p>
+
+<p>"Show me how to escape the consequences of my
+act," were his words, uttered in a low and muffled voice.</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you threatened?" she inquired at last, in a tone
+that proved she had drawn one step nearer to the bowed
+form and hidden face of the person she addressed.</p>
+
+<p>"My conscience threatens me," was the almost stifled
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>Again that heavy silence, all the more impressive that
+the moments before had been so prolific of heaven's most
+terrible noises.</p>
+
+<p>"You suffer because another man is forced to endure
+suspicion for a crime he never committed," she whisperingly
+exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>Only a groan answered her; and the moments grew
+heavier and heavier, more and more oppressive, though
+the hitherto accompanying outcries of the forest had
+ceased, and a faint lightening of the heavy darkness was
+taking place overhead. Mr. Byrd felt the pressure of the
+situation so powerfully, he drew near to the window he
+had hitherto avoided, and looked in. She was standing a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+foot behind the crouched figure of the man, between
+whom and herself she had avowed a line of blood to be
+drawn. As he looked she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Craik," said she, and the deathless yearning of love
+spoke in her voice at last, "there is but one thing to do.
+Expiate your guilt by acknowledging it. Save the innocent
+from unmerited suspicion, and trust to the mercy
+of God. It is the only advice I can give you. I know
+no other road to peace. If I did&mdash;&mdash;" She stopped,
+choked by the terror of her own thoughts. "Craik," she
+murmured, at last, "on the day I hear of your having
+made this confession, I vow to take an oath of celibacy
+for life. It is the only recompense I can offer for the
+misery and sin into which our mutual mad ambitions have
+plunged you."</p>
+
+<p>And subduing with a look of inexpressible anguish an
+evident longing to lay her hand in final caress upon that
+bended head, she gave him one parting look, and then,
+with a quick shudder, hurried away, and buried herself
+amid the darkness of the wet and shivering woods.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A SURPRISE.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+Season your admiration for awhile.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Hamlet.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>WHEN all was still again, Mr. Byrd advanced from
+his place of concealment, and softly entered
+the hut. Its solitary occupant sat as before, with his
+head bent down upon his clasped hands. But at the first
+sound of Mr. Byrd's approach he rose and turned. The
+shock of the discovery which followed sent the detective
+reeling back against the door. The person who faced
+him with such quiet assurance was <i>not</i> Craik Mansell.</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A BRACE OF DETECTIVES.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+Hath this fellow no feeling of his business?&mdash;<span class="smcap">Hamlet.</span><br />
+<br /></div>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+No action, whether foul or fair,<br />
+Is ever done, but it leaves somewhere<br />
+A record.  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &mdash;<span class="smcap">Longfellow.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>"SO there are two of us! I thought as much when
+I first set eyes upon your face in Buffalo!"</div>
+
+<p>This exclamation, uttered in a dry and musing tone,
+woke Mr. Byrd from the stupor into which this astonishing
+discovery had thrown him. Advancing upon the
+stranger, who in size, shape, and coloring was almost the
+<i>fac-simile</i> of the person he had so successfully represented,
+Mr. Byrd looked him scrutinizingly over.</p>
+
+<p>The man bore the ordeal with equanimity; he even
+smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't recognize me, I see."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd at once recoiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" cried he, "you are that Jack-in-the-box,
+Brown!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Alias</i> Frank Hickory, at your service."</p>
+
+<p>This name, so unexpected, called up a flush of mingled
+surprise and indignation to Mr. Byrd's cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought&mdash;&mdash;" he began<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't think," interrupted the other, who, when
+excited, affected laconicism, "know." Then, with affability,
+proceeded, "You are the gentleman&mdash;&mdash;" he paid
+that much deference to Mr. Byrd's air and manner, "who
+I was told might lend me a helping hand in this Clemmens
+affair. I didn't recognize you before, sir. Wouldn't
+have stood in your way if I had. Though, to be sure,
+I did want to see this matter through myself. I thought
+I had the right. And I've done it, too, as you must
+acknowledge, if you have been present in this terrible
+place very long."</p>
+
+<p>This self-satisfied, if not boastful, allusion to a scene in
+which this strange being had played so unworthy, if not
+unjustifiable, a part, sent a thrill of revulsion through Mr.
+Byrd. Drawing hastily back with an instinct of dislike
+he could not conceal, he cast a glance through the thicket
+of trees that spread beyond the open door, and pointedly
+asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Was there no way of satisfying yourself of the guilt of
+Craik Mansell, except by enacting a farce that may lead
+to the life-long remorse of the woman out of whose love
+you have made a trap?"</p>
+
+<p>A slow flush, the first, possibly, that had visited the
+hardy cheek of this thick-skinned detective for years,
+crept over the face of Frank Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mean she shall ever know," he sullenly protested,
+kicking at the block upon which he had been sitting.
+"But it <i>was</i> a mean trick," he frankly enough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+admitted the next moment. "If I hadn't been the
+tough old hickory knot that I am, I couldn't have done
+it, I suppose. The storm, too, made it seem a bit trifling.
+But&mdash;&mdash; Well, well!" he suddenly interjected, in a
+more cheerful tone, "'tis too late now for tears and
+repentance. The thing is done, and can't be undone.
+And, at all events, I reckon we are both satisfied <i>now</i> as
+to who killed Widow Clemmens!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd could not resist a slight sarcasm. "I thought
+you were satisfied in that regard before?" said he. "At
+least, I understood that at a certain time you were very
+positive it was Mr. Hildreth."</p>
+
+<p>"So I was," the fellow good-naturedly allowed; "so I
+was. The byways of a crime like this are dreadful dark
+and uncertain. It isn't strange that a fellow gets lost
+sometimes. But I got a jog on my elbow that sent me
+into the right path," said he, "as, perhaps, you did too,
+sir, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>Not replying to this latter insinuation, Mr. Byrd
+quietly repeated:</p>
+
+<p>"You got a jog on your elbow? When, may I ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"Three days ago, <i>just!</i>" was the emphatic reply.</p>
+
+<p>"And from whom?"</p>
+
+<p>Instead of replying, the man leaned back against the
+wall of the hut and looked at his interlocutor in silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Are we going to join hands over this business?" he
+cried, at last, "or are you thinking of pushing your way
+on alone after you have got from me all that I know?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The question took Mr. Byrd by surprise.</p>
+
+<p>He had not thought of the future. He was as yet too
+much disturbed by his memories of the past. To hide
+his discomfiture, he began to pace the floor, an operation
+which his thoroughly wet condition certainly made
+advisable.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no wish to rob you of any glory you may hope
+to reap from the success of the plot you have carried on
+here to-day," he presently declared, with some bitterness;
+"but if this Craik Mansell <i>is</i> guilty, I suppose it
+is my duty to help you in the collection of all suitable
+and proper evidence against him."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said the other, who had been watching him
+with rather an anxious eye, "let us to work." And, sitting
+down on the table, he motioned to Mr. Byrd to take
+a seat upon the block at his side.</p>
+
+<p>But the latter kept up his walk.</p>
+
+<p>Hickory surveyed him for a moment in silence, then he
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"You must have something against this young man, or
+you wouldn't be here. What is it? What first set you
+thinking about Craik Mansell?"</p>
+
+<p>Now, this was a question Mr. Byrd could not and
+would not answer. After what had just passed in the
+hut, he felt it impossible to mention to this man the name
+of Imogene Dare in connection with that of the nephew
+of Mrs. Clemmens. He therefore waived the other's
+interrogation and remarked:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"My knowledge was rather the fruit of surmise than
+fact. I did not believe in the guilt of Gouverneur Hildreth,
+and so was forced to look about me for some one
+whom I could conscientiously suspect. I fixed upon this
+unhappy man in Buffalo; how truly, your own suspicions,
+unfortunately, reveal."</p>
+
+<p>"And I had to have my wits started by a horrid old
+woman," murmured the evidently abashed Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>"Horrid old woman!" repeated Mr. Byrd. "Not
+Sally Perkins?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. A sweet one, isn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me about it," said he, coming and sitting down
+in the seat the other had previously indicated to him.</p>
+
+<p>"I will, sir; I will: but first let's look at the weather.
+Some folks would think it just as well for you to change
+that toggery of yours. What do you say to going home
+first, and talking afterward?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it would be wise," admitted Mr. Byrd,
+looking down at his garments, whose decidedly damp
+condition he had scarcely noticed in his excitement.
+"And yet I hate to leave this spot till I learn how you
+came to choose it as the scene of the tragi-comedy you
+have enacted here to-day, and what position it is likely
+to occupy in the testimony which you have collected
+against this young man."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, then," said the bustling fellow, "till I build you
+the least bit of a fire to warm you. It won't take but a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+minute," he averred, piling together some old sticks that
+cumbered the hearth, and straightway setting a match to
+them. "See! isn't that pleasant? And now, just cast
+your eye at this!" he continued, drawing a comfortable-looking
+flask out of his pocket and handing it over to
+the other with a dry laugh. "Isn't <i>this</i> pleasant?" And
+he threw himself down on the floor and stretched out his
+hands to the blaze, with a gusto which the dreary hour
+he had undoubtedly passed made perfectly natural, if not
+excusable.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you," said Mr. Byrd; "I didn't know I was
+so chilled," and he, too, enjoyed the warmth. "And,
+now," he pursued, after a moment, "go on; let us have
+the thing out at once."</p>
+
+<p>But the other was in no hurry. "Very good, sir," he
+cried; "but, first, if you don't mind, suppose you tell me
+what brought <i>you</i> to this hut to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was on the look-out for clues. In my study of the
+situation, I decided that the murderer of Mrs. Clemmens
+escaped, not from the front, but from the back, of the
+house. Taking the path I imagined him to have trod, I
+came upon this hut. It naturally attracted my attention,
+and to-day I came back to examine it more closely in the
+hope of picking up some signs of his having been here,
+or at least of having passed through the glade on his
+way to the deeper woods."</p>
+
+<p>"And what, if you had succeeded in this, sir? What,
+if some token of his presence had rewarded your search?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I should have completed a chain of proof of which
+only this one link is lacking. I could have shown how
+Craik Mansell fled from this place on last Tuesday afternoon,
+making his way through the woods to the highway,
+and thence to the Quarry Station at Monteith, where he
+took the train which carried him back to Buffalo."</p>
+
+<p>"You could!&mdash;show me how?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd explained himself more definitely.</p>
+
+<p>Hickory at once rose.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess we can give you the link," he dryly remarked.
+"At all events, suppose you just step here and tell me
+what conclusion you draw from the appearance of this
+pile of brush."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd advanced and looked at a small heap of
+hemlock that lay in a compact mass in one corner.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not disturbed it," pursued the other. "It is
+just as it was when I found it."</p>
+
+<p>"Looks like a pillow," declared Mr. Byrd. "Has
+been used for such, I am sure; for see, the dust in this
+portion of the floor lies lighter than elsewhere. You can
+almost detect the outline of a man's recumbent form," he
+went on, slowly, leaning down to examine the floor more
+closely. "As for the boughs, they have been cut from
+the tree with a knife, and&mdash;&mdash;" Lifting up a sprig, he
+looked at it, then passed it over to Hickory, with a
+meaning glance that directed attention to one or two
+short hairs of a dark brown color, that were caught in
+the rough bark. "He did not even throw his pocket-handkerchief<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+over the heap before lying down," he
+observed.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hickory smiled. "You're up in your business, I
+see." And drawing his new colleague to the table, he
+asked him what he saw there.</p>
+
+<p>At first sight Mr. Byrd exclaimed: "Nothing," but in
+another moment he picked up an <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'infinitesmal'">infinitesimal</ins> chip from
+between the rough logs that formed the top of this somewhat
+rustic piece of furniture, and turning it over in his
+hand, pronounced it to be a piece of wood from a lead-pencil.</p>
+
+<p>"Here are several of them," remarked Mr. Hickory,
+"and what is more, it is easy to tell just the color
+of the pencil from which they were cut. It was blue."</p>
+
+<p>"That is so," assented Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Quarrymen, charcoal-burners, and the like are not
+much in the habit of sharpening pencils," suggested
+Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the pencil now to be found in the pocket of Mr.
+Mansell a blue one?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any thing more to show me?" asked Mr.
+Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Only this," responded the other, taking out of his
+pocket the torn-off corner of a newspaper. "I found
+this blowing about under the bushes out there," said he.
+"Look at it and tell me from what paper it was torn."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Mr. Byrd; "none that I am
+acquainted with."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You don't read the Buffalo <i>Courier?</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, is this&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A corner from the Buffalo <i>Courier?</i> I don't know,
+but I mean to find out. If it is, and the date proves to
+be correct, we won't have much trouble about the little
+link, will we?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd shook his head and they again crouched
+down over the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"And, now, what did you learn in Buffalo?" inquired
+the persistent Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>"Not much," acknowledged Mr. Byrd. "The man
+Brown was entirely too ubiquitous to give me my full
+chance. Neither at the house nor at the mill was I able
+to glean any thing beyond an admission from the landlady
+that Mr. Mansell was not at home at the time of his
+aunt's murder. I couldn't even learn where he was on
+that day, or where he had ostensibly gone? If it had
+not been for the little girl of Mr. Goodman&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I had not time to go to that house," interjected
+the other, suggestively.</p>
+
+<p>"I should have come home as wise as I went," continued
+Mr. Byrd. "She told me that on the day before
+Mr. Mansell returned, he wrote to her father from Monteith,
+and <i>that</i> settled my mind in regard to him. It was
+pure luck, however."</p>
+
+<p>The other laughed long and loud.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't know I did it up so well," he cried. "I
+told the landlady you were a detective, or acted like one,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+and she was very ready to take the alarm, having, as I
+judge, a motherly liking for her young boarder. Then I
+took Messrs. Chamberlin and Harrison into my confidence,
+and having got from them all the information
+they could give me, told them there was evidently
+another man on the track of this Mansell, and warned
+them to keep silence till they heard from the prosecuting
+attorney in Sibley. But I didn't know who you were, or,
+at least, I wasn't sure; or, as I said before, I shouldn't
+have presumed."</p>
+
+<p>The short, dry laugh with which he ended this explanation
+had not ceased, when Mr. Byrd observed:</p>
+
+<p>"You have not told me what <i>you</i> gathered in Buffalo."</p>
+
+<p>"Much," quoth Hickory, reverting to his favorite
+laconic mode of speech. "First, that Mansell went
+from home on Monday, the day before the murder, for
+the purpose, as he said, of seeing a man in New York
+about his wonderful invention. Secondly, that he never
+went to New York, but came back the next evening,
+bringing his model with him, and looking terribly used
+up and worried. Thirdly, that to get this invention
+before the public had been his pet aim and effort for a
+whole year. That he believed in it as you do in your
+Bible, and would have given his heart's blood, if it would
+have done any good, to start the thing, and prove himself
+right in his estimate of its value. That the money to
+do this was all that was lacking, no one believing in him
+sufficiently to advance him the five thousand dollars considered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+necessary to build the machine and get it in working
+order. That, in short, he was a fanatic on the subject,
+and often said he would be willing to die within the
+year if he could first prove to the unbelieving capitalists
+whom he had vainly importuned for assistance, the worth
+of the discovery he believed himself to have made.
+Fourthly&mdash;but what is it you wish to say, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Five thousand dollars is just the amount Widow Clemmens
+is supposed to leave him," remarked Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely," was the short reply.</p>
+
+<p>"And fourthly?" suggested the former.</p>
+
+<p>"Fourthly, he was in the mill on Wednesday morning,
+where he went about his work as usual, until some one
+who knew his relation to Mrs. Clemmens looked up from the
+paper he was reading, and, in pure thoughtlessness, cried,
+'So they have killed your aunt for you, have they?' A
+barbarous jest, that caused everybody near him to start in
+indignation, but which made him recoil as if one of these
+thunderbolts we have been listening to this afternoon had
+fallen at his feet. And he didn't get over it," Hickory
+went on. "He had to beg permission to go home. He
+said the terrible news had made him ill, and indeed he
+looked sick enough, and continued to look sick enough
+for days. He had letters from Sibley, and an invitation
+to attend the inquest and be present at the funeral
+services, but he refused to go. He was threatened with
+diphtheria, he declared, and remained away from the mill
+until the day before yesterday. Some one, I don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+remember who, says he went out of town the very Wednesday
+he first heard the news; but if so, he could
+not have been gone long, for he was at home Wednesday
+night, sick in bed, and threatened, as I have said, with
+the diphtheria. Fifthly&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, fifthly?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid of your criticisms," laughed the rough
+detective. "Fifthly is the result of my poking about
+among Mr. Mansell's traps."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" frowned the other, with a vivid remembrance
+of that picture of Miss Dare, with its beauty blotted out
+by the ominous black lines.</p>
+
+<p>"You are too squeamish for a detective," the other
+declared. "Guess you're kept for the fancy business,
+eh?"</p>
+
+<p>The look Mr. Byrd gave him was eloquent. "Go on,"
+said he; "let us hear what lies behind your fifthly."</p>
+
+<p>"Love," returned the man. "Locked in the drawer of
+this young gentleman's table, I found some half-dozen
+letters tied with a black ribbon. I knew they were
+written by a lady, but squeamishness is not a fault
+of mine, and so I just allowed myself to glance over them.
+They were from Miss Dare, of course, and they revealed
+the fact that love, as well as ambition, had been a motive
+power in determining this Mansell to make a success
+out of his invention."</p>
+
+<p>Leaning back, the now self-satisfied detective looked
+at Mr. Byrd.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The name of Miss Dare," he went on, "brings me to
+the point from which we started. I haven't yet told
+you what old Sally Perkins had to say to me."</p>
+
+<p>"No," rejoined Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," continued the other, poking with his foot the
+dying embers of the fire, till it started up into a fresh
+blaze, "the case against this young fellow wouldn't be
+worth very much without that old crone's testimony,
+I reckon; but with it I guess we can get along."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us hear," said Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"The old woman is a wretch," Hickory suddenly
+broke out. "She seems to gloat over the fact that
+a young and beautiful woman is in trouble. She actually
+trembled with eagerness as she told her story. If I
+hadn't been rather anxious myself to hear what she had
+to say, I could have thrown her out of the window.
+As it was, I let her go on; duty before pleasure, you see&mdash;duty
+before pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>"But her story," persisted Mr. Byrd, letting some
+of his secret irritation betray itself.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, her story was this: Monday afternoon, the day
+before the murder, you know, she was up in these very
+woods hunting for witch-hazel. She had got her arms
+full and was going home across the bog when she suddenly
+heard voices. Being of a curious disposition, like myself,
+I suppose, she stopped, and seeing just before her
+a young gentleman and lady sitting on an old stump,
+crouched down in the shadow of a tree, with the harmless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+intent, no doubt, of amusing herself with their conversation.
+It was more interesting than she expected,
+and she really became quite tragic as she related her
+story to me. I cannot do justice to it myself, and I
+sha'n't try. It is enough that the man whom she did
+not know, and the woman whom she immediately recognized
+as Miss Dare, were both in a state of great indignation.
+That he spoke of selfishness and <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'obstancy'">obstinacy</ins> on
+the part of his aunt, and that she, in the place of rebuking
+him, replied in a way to increase his bitterness, and lead
+him finally to exclaim: 'I cannot bear it! To think that
+with just the advance of the very sum she proposes to
+give me some day, I could make her fortune and my own,
+and win <i>you</i> all in one breath! It is enough to drive a
+man mad to see all that he craves in this world so near
+his grasp, and yet have nothing, not even hope, to comfort
+him.' And at that, it seems, they both rose, and she,
+who had not answered any thing to this, struck the tree
+before which they stood, with her bare fist, and murmured
+a word or so which the old woman couldn't catch, but
+which was evidently something to the effect that she
+wished she knew Mrs. Clemmens; for Mansell&mdash;of
+course it was he&mdash;said, in almost the same breath, 'And
+if you did know her, what then?' A question which
+elicited no reply at first, but which finally led her to say:
+'Oh! I think that, possibly, I might be able to persuade
+her.' All this," the detective went on, "old Sally related
+with the greatest force; but in regard to what followed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
+she was not so clear. Probably they interrupted
+their conversation with some lovers' by-play, for they
+stood very near together, and he seemed to be earnestly
+pleading with her. 'Do take it,' old Sally heard him
+say. 'I shall feel as if life held some outlook for
+me, if you only will gratify me in this respect.' But
+she answered: 'No; it is of no use. I am as
+ambitious as you are, and fate is evidently against
+us,' and put his hand back when he endeavored to take
+hers, but finally yielded so far as to give it to him for a
+moment, though she immediately snatched it away again,
+crying: 'I cannot; you must wait till to-morrow.' And
+when he asked: 'Why to-morrow?' she answered: 'A
+night has been known to change the whole current of a
+person's affairs.' To which he replied: 'True,' and
+looked thoughtful, very thoughtful, as he met her eyes
+and saw her raise that white hand of hers and strike the
+tree again with a passionate force that made her fingers
+bleed. And she was right," concluded the speaker.
+"The night, or if not the night, the next twenty-four
+hours, <i>did</i> make a change, as even old Sally Perkins
+observed. Widow Clemmens was struck down and Craik
+Mansell became the possessor of the five thousand dollars
+he so much wanted in order to win for himself a fortune
+and a bride."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd, who had been sitting with his face turned
+aside during this long recital, slowly rose to his feet.
+"Hickory," said he, and his tone had an edge of suppressed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
+feeling in it that made the other start, "don't
+let me ever hear you say, in my presence, that you think
+this young and beautiful woman was the one to suggest
+murder to this man, for I won't hear it. And now," he
+continued, more calmly, "tell me why this babbling old
+wretch did not enliven the inquest with her wonderful
+tale. It would have been a fine offset to the testimony
+of Miss Firman."</p>
+
+<p>"She said she wasn't fond of coroners and had no
+wish to draw the attention of twelve of her own townsfolk
+upon herself. She didn't mean to commit herself with
+me," pursued Hickory, rising also. "She was going to
+give me a hint of the real state of affairs; or, rather, set
+me working in the right direction, as this little note which
+she tucked under the door of my room at the hotel will
+show. But I was too quick for her, and had her by the
+arm before she could shuffle down the stairs. It was
+partly to prove her story was true and not a romance
+made up for the occasion, that I lured this woman here
+this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not as bad a fellow as I thought," Mr. Byrd
+admitted, after a momentary contemplation of the
+other's face. "If I might only know how you managed
+to effect this interview."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing easier. I found in looking over the scraps
+of paper which Mansell had thrown into the waste-paper
+basket in Buffalo, the draft of a note which he had written
+to Miss Dare, under an impulse which he afterward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+probably regretted. It was a summons to their usual
+place of tryst at or near this hut, and though unsigned,
+was of a character, as I thought, to effect its purpose. I
+just sent it to her, that's all."</p>
+
+<p>The nonchalance with which this was said completed
+Mr. Byrd's astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a worthy disciple of Gryce," he asserted, leading
+the way to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Think so?" exclaimed the man, evidently flattered
+at what he considered a great compliment. "Then shake
+hands," he cried, with a frank appeal Mr. Byrd found it
+hard to resist. "Ah, you don't want to," he somewhat
+ruefully declared. "Will it change your feelings any if I
+promise to ignore what happened here to-day&mdash;my trick
+with Miss Dare and what she revealed and all that? If
+it will, I swear I won't even think of it any more if I can
+help it. At all events, I won't tattle about it even to the
+superintendent. It shall be a secret between you and me,
+and she won't know but what it was her lover she talked
+to, after all."</p>
+
+<p>"You are willing to do all this?" inquired Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Willing and ready," cried the man. "I believe in
+duty to one's superiors, but duty doesn't always demand
+of one to tell every thing he knows. Besides, it won't be
+necessary, I imagine. There is enough against this poor
+fellow without that."</p>
+
+<p>"I fear so," ejaculated Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it is a bargain?" said Hickory.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>And Mr. Byrd held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>The rain had now ceased and they prepared to return
+home. Before leaving the glade, however, Mr. Byrd ran
+his eye over the other's person and apparel, and in some
+wonder inquired:</p>
+
+<p>"How do you fellows ever manage to get up such complete
+disguises? I declare you look enough like Mr.
+Mansell in the back to make me doubt even now who I
+am talking to."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," laughed the other, "it is easy enough. It's my
+specialty, you see, and one in which I <i>am</i> thought to
+excel. But, to tell the truth, I hadn't much to contend
+with in this case. In build I am famously like this man,
+as you must have noticed when you saw us together in
+Buffalo. Indeed, it was our similarity in this respect that
+first put the idea of personifying him into my head. My
+complexion had been darkened already, and, as for such
+accessories as hair, voice, manner, dress, etc., a five-minutes'
+study of my model was sufficient to prime me up in
+all that&mdash;enough, at least, to satisfy the conditions of an
+interview which did not require me to show my face."</p>
+
+<p>"But you did not know when you came here that you
+would not have to show your face," persisted Mr. Byrd,
+anxious to understand how this man dared risk his reputation
+on an undertaking of this kind.</p>
+
+<p>"No, and I did not know that the biggest thunderstorm
+of the season was going to spring up and lend me its darkness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>
+to complete the illusion I had attempted. I only
+trusted my good fortune&mdash;and my wits," he added, with a
+droll demureness. "Both had served me before, and
+both were likely to serve me again. And, say she had
+detected me in my little game, what then? Women like
+her don't babble."</p>
+
+<p>There was no reply to make to this, and Mr. Byrd's
+thoughts being thus carried back to Imogene Dare and the
+unhappy revelations she had been led to make, he walked
+on in a dreary silence his companion had sufficient discretion
+not to break.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>MR. FERRIS.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Which of you have done this?&mdash;<span class="smcap">Macbeth.</span><br />
+What have we here?&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tempest.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>MR. FERRIS sat in his office in a somewhat
+gloomy frame of mind. There had been bad
+news from the jail that morning. Mr. Hildreth had
+attempted suicide the night before, and was now lying in
+a critical condition at the hospital.</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris himself had never doubted this man's guilt.
+From Hildreth's first appearance at the inquest, the
+District Attorney had fixed upon him as the murderer of
+Mrs. Clemmens, and up to this time he had seen no good
+and substantial reason for altering his opinion.</p>
+
+<p>Even the doubts expressed by Mr. Byrd had moved
+him but little. Mr. Byrd was an enthusiast, and, naturally
+enough, shrank from believing a gentleman capable of
+such a crime. But the other detective's judgment was unswayed,
+and he considered Hildreth guilty. It was not
+astonishing, then, that the opinion of Mr. Ferris should
+coincide with that of the older and more experienced
+man.</p>
+
+<p>But the depth of despair or remorse which had led Mr.
+Hildreth to this desperate attempt upon his own life had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+struck the District Attorney with dismay. Though not
+over-sensitive by nature, he could not help feeling sympathy
+for the misery that had prompted such a deed, and
+while secretly regarding this unsuccessful attempt at
+suicide as an additional proof of guilt, he could not forbear
+satisfying himself by a review of the evidence elicited
+at the inquest, that the action of the authorities in
+arresting this man had been both warrantable and necessary.</p>
+
+<p>The result was satisfactory in all but one point. When
+he came to the widow's written accusation against one by
+the name of Gouverneur Hildreth, he was impressed by a
+fact that had hitherto escaped his notice. This was the
+yellowness of the paper upon which the words were
+written. If they had been transcribed a dozen years before,
+they would not have looked older, nor would the
+ink have presented a more faded appearance. Now, as
+the suspected man was under twenty-five years of age,
+and must, therefore, have been a mere child when the
+paper was drawn up, the probability was that the Gouverneur
+intended was the prisoner's father, their names being
+identical.</p>
+
+<p>But this discovery, while it robbed the affair of its most
+dramatic feature, could not affect in any serious way the
+extreme significance of the remaining real and compromising
+facts which told so heavily against this unfortunate
+man. Indeed, the well-known baseness of the father
+made it easier to distrust the son, and Mr. Ferris had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>
+just come to the conclusion that his duty compelled him
+to draw up an indictment of the would-be suicide, when
+the door opened, and Mr. Byrd and Mr. Hickory came in.</p>
+
+<p>To see these two men in conjunction was a surprise to
+the District Attorney. He, however, had no time to
+express himself on the subject, for Mr. Byrd, stepping
+forward, immediately remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hickory and I have been in consultation, sir;
+and we have a few facts to give you that we think will
+alter your opinion as to the person who murdered Mrs.
+Clemmens."</p>
+
+<p>"Is this so?" cried Mr. <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Ferrris'">Ferris</ins>, looking at Hickory
+with a glance indicative of doubt.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, <i>sir</i>," exclaimed that not easily abashed individual,
+with an emphasis decided enough to show the state
+of his feelings on the subject. "After I last saw you a
+woman came in my way and put into my hands so fresh
+and promising a clue, that I dropped the old scent at
+once and made instanter for the new game. But I soon
+found I was not the only sportsman on this trail. Before
+I had taken a dozen steps I ran upon this gentleman, and,
+finding him true grit, struck up a partnership with him
+that has led to our bringing down the quarry together."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph!" quoth the District Attorney. "Some very
+remarkable discoveries must have come to light to influence
+the judgment of two such men as yourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right," rejoined Mr. Byrd. "In fact, I
+should not be surprised if this case proved to be one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>
+the most remarkable on record. It is not often that
+equally convincing evidence of guilt is found against two
+men having no apparent connection."</p>
+
+<p>"And have you collected such evidence?"</p>
+
+<p>"We have."</p>
+
+<p>"And who is the person you consider equally open to
+suspicion with Mr. Hildreth?"</p>
+
+<p>"Craik Mansell, Mrs. Clemmens' nephew."</p>
+
+<p>The surprise of the District-Attorney was, as Mr.
+Hickory in later days remarked, nuts to him. The solemn
+nature of the business he was engaged upon never disturbed
+this hardy detective's sense of the ludicrous, and
+he indulged in one of his deepest chuckles as he met the
+eye of Mr. Ferris.</p>
+
+<p>"One never knows what they are going to run upon in
+a chase of this kind, do they, sir?" he remarked, with the
+greatest cheerfulness. "Mr. Mansell is no more of a
+gentleman than Mr. Hildreth; yet, because he is the
+second one of his caste who has attracted our attention,
+you are naturally very much surprised. But wait till you
+hear what we have to tell you. I am confident you will
+be satisfied with our reasons for suspecting this new
+party." And he glanced at Mr. Byrd, who, seeing no
+cause for delay, proceeded to unfold before the District
+Attorney the evidence they had collected against Mr.
+Mansell.</p>
+
+<p>It was strong, telling, and seemingly conclusive, as we
+already know; and awoke in the mind of Mr. Ferris the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+greatest perplexity of his life. It was not simply that the
+facts urged against Mr. Mansell were of the same circumstantial
+character and of almost the same significance as
+those already urged against Mr. Hildreth, but that the
+association of Miss Dare's name with this new theory of
+suspicion presented difficulties, if it did not involve consequences,
+calculated to make any friend of Mr. Orcutt
+quail. And Mr. Ferris was such a friend, and knew very
+well the violent nature of the shock which this eminent
+lawyer would experience at discovering the relations held
+by this trusted woman toward a man suspected of crime.</p>
+
+<p>Then Miss Dare herself! Was this beautiful and
+cherished woman, hitherto believed by all who knew her
+to be set high above the reach of reproach, to be dragged
+down from her pedestal and submitted to the curiosity of
+the rabble, if not to its insinuations and reproach? It
+seemed hard; even to this stern, dry searcher among
+dead men's bones, it seemed both hard and bitter. And
+yet, because he was an honest man, he had no thought of
+paltering with his duty. He could only take time to
+make sure what that duty was. He accordingly refrained
+from expressing any opinion in regard to Mr. Mansell's
+culpability to the two detectives, and finally dismissed
+them without any special orders.</p>
+
+<p>But a day or two after this he sent for them again, and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Since I have seen you I have considered, with due
+carefulness, the various facts presented me in support of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+your belief that Craik Mansell is the man who assailed
+the Widow Clemmens, and have weighed them against the
+equally significant facts pointing toward Mr. Hildreth as
+the guilty party, and find but one link lacking in the
+former chain of evidence which is not lacking in the latter;
+and that is this: Mrs. Clemmens, in the one or two
+lucid moments which returned to her after the assault,
+gave utterance to an exclamation which many think was
+meant to serve as a guide in determining the person of
+her murderer. She said, 'Ring,' as Mr. Byrd here will
+doubtless remember, and then 'Hand,' as if she wished to
+fix upon the minds of those about her that the hand
+uplifted against her wore a ring. At all events, such a
+conclusion is plausible enough, and led to my making an
+experiment yesterday, which has, for ever, set the matter
+at rest in my own mind. I took my stand at the huge
+clock in her house, just in the attitude she was supposed
+to occupy when struck, and, while in this position, ordered
+my clerk to advance upon me from behind with his hands
+clasped about a stick of wood, which he was to bring
+down within an inch of my head. This was done, and
+while his arm was in the act of descending, I looked to
+see if by a quick glance from the corner of my eye I
+could detect the broad seal ring I had previously pushed
+upon his little finger. I discovered that I could; that
+indeed it was all of the man which I could distinctly see
+without turning my head completely around. The ring,
+then, is an important feature in this case, a link without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+which any chain of evidence forged for the express purpose
+of connecting a man with this murder must necessarily
+remain incomplete and consequently useless. But
+amongst the suspicious circumstances brought to bear
+against Mr. Mansell, I discern no token of a connection
+between him and any such article, while we all know that
+Mr. Hildreth not only wore a ring on the day of the
+murder, but considered the circumstance so much in his
+own disfavor, that he slipped it off his finger when he
+began to see the shadow of suspicion falling upon him."</p>
+
+<p>"You have, then, forgotten the diamond I picked up
+from the floor of Mrs. Clemmens' dining-room on the
+morning of the murder?" suggested Mr. Byrd with great
+reluctance.</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered the District Attorney, shortly. "But
+Miss Dare distinctly avowed that ring to be hers, and
+you have brought me no evidence as yet to prove her
+statement false. If you can supply such proof, or if you
+can show that Mr. Mansell had that ring on his hand
+when he entered Mrs. Clemmens' house on the fatal
+morning&mdash;another fact, which, by-the-way, rests as yet
+upon inference only&mdash;I shall consider the case against
+him as strong as that against Mr. Hildreth; otherwise,
+not."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd, with the vivid remembrance before him
+of Miss Dare's looks and actions in the scene he had
+witnessed between her and the supposed Mansell in the
+hut, smiled with secret bitterness over this attempt of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
+the District Attorney to shut his eyes to the evident
+guiltiness of this man.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris saw this smile and instantly became irritated.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not doubt any more than yourself," he resumed,
+in a changed voice, "that this young man allowed his
+mind to dwell upon the possible advantages which might
+accrue to himself if his aunt should die. He may even
+have gone so far as to meditate the commission of a crime
+to insure these advantages. But whether the crime which
+did indeed take place the next day in his aunt's house
+was the result of his meditations, or whether he found his
+own purpose forestalled by an attack made by another
+person possessing no less interest than himself in seeing
+this woman dead, is not determined by the evidence you
+bring."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you do not favor his arrest?" inquired Mr.
+Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"No. The vigorous measures which were taken in
+Mr. Hildreth's case, and the unfortunate event to which
+they have led, are terrible enough to satisfy the public
+craving after excitement for a week at least. I am not
+fond of driving men to madness myself, and unless I can
+be made to see that my duty demands a complete transferal
+of my suspicions from Hildreth to Mansell, I can
+advise nothing more than a close but secret surveillance
+of the latter's movements until the action of the Grand
+Jury determines whether the evidence against Mr.
+Hildreth is sufficient to hold him for trial."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd, who had such solid, if private and uncommunicable,
+reasons for believing in the guilt of Craik
+Mansell, was somewhat taken aback at this unlooked-for
+decision of Mr. Ferris, and, remembering the temptation
+which a man like Hickory must feel to make his cause
+good at all hazards, cast a sharp look toward that blunt-spoken
+detective, in some doubt as to whether he could
+be relied upon to keep his promise in the face of this
+manifest disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>But Hickory had given his word, and Hickory remained
+firm; and Mr. Byrd, somewhat relieved in his own
+mind, was about to utter his acquiescence in the District
+Attorney's views, when a momentary interruption
+occurred, which gave him an opportunity to exchange
+a few words aside with his colleague.</p>
+
+<p>"Hickory," he whispered, "what do you think of this
+objection which Mr. Ferris makes?"</p>
+
+<p>"I?" was the hurried reply. "Oh, I think there is
+something in it."</p>
+
+<p>"Something in it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Mr. Mansell is the last man to wear a ring,
+I must acknowledge. Indeed, I took some pains while in
+Buffalo to find out if he ever indulged in any such vanity,
+and was told decidedly No. As to the diamond you
+mentioned, that is certainly entirely too rich a jewel for a
+man like him to possess. I&mdash;I am a afraid the absence
+of this link in our chain of evidence is fatal.
+I shouldn't wonder if the old scent was the best,
+after all."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>"But Miss Dare&mdash;her feelings and her convictions, as
+manifested by the words she made use of in the hut?"
+objected Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! <i>she</i> thinks he is guilty, of course!"</p>
+
+<p><i>She</i> thinks! Mr. Byrd stared at his companion for a
+minute in silence. <i>She</i> thinks! Then there was a possibility,
+it seems, that it was only her thought, and that
+Mr. Mansell was not really the culpable man he had been
+brought to consider him.</p>
+
+<p>But here an exclamation, uttered by Mr. Ferris, called
+their attention back to that gentleman. He was reading
+a letter which had evidently been just brought in, and his
+expression was one of amazement, mixed with doubt. As
+they looked toward him they met his eye, that had a
+troubled and somewhat abashed expression, which convinced
+them that the communication he held in his hand
+was in some way connected with the matter under consideration.</p>
+
+<p>Surprised themselves, they unconsciously started forward,
+when, in a dry and not altogether pleased tone, the
+District Attorney observed:</p>
+
+<p>"This affair seems to be full of coincidences. You
+talk of a missing link, and it is immediately thrust under
+your nose. Read that!"</p>
+
+<p>And he pushed toward them the following epistle,
+roughly scrawled on a sheet of common writing-paper:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>If Mr. Ferris is anxious for justice, and can believe that suspicion
+does not always attach itself to the guilty, let him, or some one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+whose business it is, inquire of Miss Imogene Dare, of this town, how
+she came to claim as her own the ring that was picked up on the floor
+of Mrs. Clemmens' house.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Well!" cried Mr. Byrd, glancing at Hickory, "what
+are we to think of this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Looks like the work of old Sally Perkins," observed
+the other, pointing out the lack of date and signature.</p>
+
+<p>"So it does," acquiesced Mr. Byrd, in a relieved tone.
+"The miserable old wretch is growing impatient."</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Ferris, with a gloomy frown, shortly said:</p>
+
+<p>"The language is not that of an ignorant old creature
+like Sally Perkins, whatever the writing may be. Besides,
+how could she have known about the ring? The persons
+who were present at the time it was picked up are not of
+the gossiping order."</p>
+
+<p>"Who, then, do you think wrote this?" inquired Mr.
+Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I wish you to find out," declared the
+District Attorney.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hickory at once took it in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait," said he, "I have an idea." And he carried
+the letter to one side, where he stood examining it for
+several minutes. When he came back he looked tolerably
+excited and somewhat pleased. "I believe I can tell you
+who wrote it," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Who?" inquired the District Attorney.</p>
+
+<p>For reply the detective placed his finger upon a name
+that was written in the letter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>"Imogene Dare?" exclaimed Mr. Ferris, astonished.</p>
+
+<p>"She herself," proclaimed the self-satisfied detective.</p>
+
+<p>"What makes you think that?" the District Attorney
+slowly asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I have seen her writing, and studied her signature,
+and, ably as she has disguised her hand in the
+rest of the letter, it betrays itself in her name. See here."
+And Hickory took from his pocket-book a small slip of
+paper containing her autograph, and submitted it to the
+test of comparison.</p>
+
+<p>The similarity between the two signatures was evident,
+and both Mr. Byrd and Mr. Ferris were obliged to allow
+the detective might be right, though the admission opened
+up suggestions of the most formidable character.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a turn for which I am not prepared," declared
+the District Attorney.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a turn for which <i>we</i> are not prepared," repeated
+Mr. Byrd, with a controlling look at Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us, then, defer further consideration of the matter
+till I have had an opportunity to see Miss Dare," suggested
+Mr. Ferris.</p>
+
+<p>And the two detectives were very glad to acquiesce in
+this, for they were as much astonished as he at this action
+of Miss Dare, though, with their better knowledge of her
+feelings, they found it comparatively easy to understand
+how her remorse and the great anxiety she doubtless felt
+for Mr. Hildreth had sufficed to drive her to such an
+extreme and desperate measure.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XX.</h2>
+
+<h3>A CRISIS.</h3>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left' valign='top'><i>Queen.</i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='left' valign='top'>Alas, how is it with you?<br />
+That you do bend your eye on vacancy,<br />
+And with the incorporeal air do hold discourse?<br />
+
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*
+<br />
+Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,<br />
+Starts up and stands on end.<br />
+
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*
+
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Whereon do you look?</span><br /></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left' valign='top'><i>Hamlet.</i></td><td align='left' valign='top'>On him! On him! Look you how pale he glares!<br />
+His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones,<br />
+Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;<br />
+Lest, with this piteous action, you convert<br />
+My stern effects! then what I have to do<br />
+Will want true color; tears, perchance, for blood.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Hamlet.</span><br /><br /><br />
+</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THAT my readers may understand even better than
+Byrd and Hickory how it was that Imogene came
+to write this letter, I must ask them to consider certain
+incidents that had occurred in a quarter far removed
+from the eye of the detectives.</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt's mind had never been at rest concerning
+the peculiar attitude assumed by Imogene Dare at the
+time of Mrs. Clemmens' murder. Time and thought had
+not made it any more possible for him to believe now
+than then that she knew any thing of the matter beyond
+what appeared to the general eye: but he could not
+forget the ring. It haunted him. Fifty times a day he
+asked himself what she had meant by claiming as her own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
+a jewel which had been picked up from the floor of a
+strange house at a time so dreadful, and which, in despite
+of her explanations to him, he found it impossible to
+believe was hers or ever could have been hers? He was
+even tempted to ask her; but he never did. The words
+would not come. Though they faltered again and again
+upon his lips, he could not give utterance to them; no,
+though with every passing day he felt that the bond uniting
+her to him was growing weaker and weaker, and that
+if something did not soon intervene to establish confidence
+between them, he would presently lose all hope
+of the treasure for the possession of which he was now
+ready to barter away half the remaining years of his life.</p>
+
+<p>Her increasing reticence, and the almost stony look of
+misery that now confronted him without let or hindrance
+from her wide gray eyes, were not calculated to reassure
+him or make his future prospects look any brighter. Her
+pain, if pain it were, or remorse, if remorse it could be,
+was not of a kind to feel the influence of time; and,
+struck with dismay, alarmed in spite of himself, if not for
+her reason at least for his own, he watched her from day
+to day, feeling that now he would give his life not merely
+to possess her, but to understand her and the secret that
+was gnawing at her heart.</p>
+
+<p>At last there came a day when he could no longer
+restrain himself. She had been seated in his presence,
+and had been handed a letter which for the moment
+seemed to thoroughly overwhelm her. We know what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
+that letter was. It was the note which had been sent as
+a decoy by the detective Hickory, but which she had no
+reason to doubt was a real communication from Craik
+Mansell, despite the strange handwriting on the envelope.
+It prayed her for an interview. It set the time and mentioned
+the place of meeting, and created for the instant
+such a turmoil in her usually steady brain that she could
+not hide it from the searching eyes that watched her.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Imogene?" inquired Mr. Orcutt, drawing
+near her with a gesture of such uncontrollable anxiety, it
+looked as if he were about to snatch the letter from her
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>For reply she rose, walked to the grate, in which a low
+wood fire was burning, and plunged the paper in among
+the coals. When it was all consumed she turned and
+faced Mr. Orcutt.</p>
+
+<p>"You must excuse me," she murmured; "but the
+letter was one which I absolutely desired no one to see."</p>
+
+<p>But he did not seem to hear her apology. He stood
+with his gaze fixed on the fire, and his hand clenched
+against his heart, as if something in the fate of that
+wretched sheet of paper reminded him of the love and
+hope that were shrivelling up before his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>She saw his look and drooped her head with a sudden
+low moan of mingled shame and suffering.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I killing <i>you?</i>" she faintly cried. "Are my
+strange, wild ways driving <i>you</i> to despair? I had not
+thought of that. I am so selfish, I had not thought of
+that!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This evidence of feeling, the first she had ever shown
+him, moved Mr. Orcutt deeply. Advancing toward her,
+with sudden passion, he took her by the hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Killing me?" he repeated. "Yes, you are killing
+me. Don't you see how fast I am growing old? Don't
+you see how the dust lies thick upon the books that used
+to be my solace and delight? I do not understand you,
+Imogene. I love you and I do not understand your
+grief, or what it is that is affecting you in this terrible
+way. Tell me. Let me know the nature of the forces
+with which I have to contend, and I can bear all the
+rest."</p>
+
+<p>This appeal, forced as it was from lips unused to
+prayer, seemed to strike her, absorbed though she was in
+her own suffering. Looking at him with real concern, she
+tried to speak, but the words faltered on her tongue.
+They came at last, however, and he heard her say:</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could weep, if only to show you I am not
+utterly devoid of womanly sympathy for an anguish I
+cannot cure. But the fountain of my tears is dried at its
+source. I do not think I can ever weep again. I am
+condemned to tread a path of misery and despair, and
+must traverse it to the end without weakness and without
+help. Do not ask me why, for I can never tell you. And
+do not detain me now, or try to make me talk, for I must
+go where I can be alone and silent."</p>
+
+<p>She was slipping away, but he caught her by the wrist
+and drew her back. His pain and perplexity had
+reached their climax.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You must speak," he cried. "I have paltered long
+enough with this matter. You must tell me what it is that
+is destroying your happiness and mine."</p>
+
+<p>But her eyes, turning toward him, seemed to echo that
+<i>must</i> in a look of disdain eloquent enough to scorn all
+help from words, and in the indomitable determination of
+her whole aspect he saw that he might slay her, but that
+he could never make her speak.</p>
+
+<p>Loosing her with a gesture of despair, he turned away.
+When he glanced back again she was gone.</p>
+
+<p>The result of this interview was naturally an increased
+doubt and anxiety on his part. He could not attend to
+his duties with any degree of precision, he was so haunted
+by uneasy surmises as to what might have been the contents
+of the letter which he had thus seen her destroy before
+his eyes. As for her words, they were like her conduct,
+an insolvable mystery, for which he had no key.</p>
+
+<p>His failure to find her at home when he returned that
+night added to his alarm, especially as he remembered
+the vivid thunderstorm that had deluged the town in the
+afternoon. Nor, though she came in very soon and
+offered both excuses and explanations for her absence,
+did he experience any appreciable relief, or feel at all
+satisfied that he was not threatened with some secret and
+terrible catastrophe. Indeed, the air of vivid and feverish
+excitement which pervaded every look of hers from
+this time, making each morning and evening distinctive
+in his memory as a season of fresh fear and renewed suspense,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
+was enough of itself to arouse this sense of an unknown,
+but surely approaching, danger. He saw she was
+on the look out for some event, he knew not what, and
+studied the papers as sedulously as she, in the hope of
+coming upon some revelation that should lay bare the
+secret of this new condition of hers. At last he thought
+he had found it. Coming home one day from the court,
+he called her into his presence, and, without pause or
+preamble, exclaimed, with almost cruel abruptness:</p>
+
+<p>"An event of possible interest to you has just taken
+place. The murderer of Mrs. Clemmens has just cut his
+throat."</p>
+
+<p>He saw before he had finished the first clause that he
+had struck at the very citadel of her terrors and her woe.
+At the end of the second sentence he knew, beyond all
+doubt now, what it was she had been fearing, if not expecting.
+Yet she said not a word, and by no movement
+betrayed that the steel had gone through and through her
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>A demon&mdash;the maddening demon of jealousy&mdash;gripped
+him for the first time with relentless force.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you have been looking for it?" he cried in a
+choked voice. "You know this man, then&mdash;knew him,
+perhaps, before the murder of Mrs. Clemmens; knew
+him, and&mdash;and, perhaps, loved him?"</p>
+
+<p>She did not reply.</p>
+
+<p>He struck his forehead with his hand, as if the moment
+was perfectly intolerable to him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Answer," he cried. "Did you know Gouverneur
+Hildreth or not?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Gouverneur Hildreth?</i>" Oh, the sharp surprise, the
+wailing anguish of her tone! Mr. Orcutt stood amazed.
+"It is not he who has made this attempt upon his life!&mdash;not
+he!" she shrieked like one appalled.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps because all other expression or emotion failed
+him, Mr. Orcutt broke forth into a loud and harrowing
+laugh. "And who else should it be?" he cried.
+"What other man stands accused of having murdered
+Widow Clemmens? You are mad, Imogene; you don't
+know what you say or what you do."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am mad," she repeated&mdash;"mad!" and leaned
+her forehead forward on the back of a high chair beside
+which she had been standing, and hid her face and struggled
+with herself for a moment, while the clock went on
+ticking, and the wretched surveyer of her sorrow stood
+looking at her bended head like a man who does not
+know whether it is he or she who is in the most danger of
+losing his reason.</p>
+
+<p>At last a word struggled forth from between her
+clasped hands.</p>
+
+<p>"When did it happen?" she gasped, without lifting
+her head. "Tell me all about it. I think I can understand."</p>
+
+<p>The noted lawyer smiled a bitter smile, and spoke for
+the first time, without pity and without mercy.</p>
+
+<p>"He has been trying for some days to effect his death.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+His arrest and the little prospect there is of his escaping
+trial seem to have maddened his gentlemanly brain.
+Fire-arms were not procurable, neither was poison nor a
+rope, but a pewter plate is enough in the hands of a
+desperate man. He broke one in two last night, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He paused, sick and horror-stricken. Her face had
+risen upon him from the back of the chair, and was staring
+upon him like that of a Medusa. Before that gaze
+the flesh crept on his bones and the breath of life refused
+to pass his lips. Gazing at her with rising horror, he saw
+her stony lips slowly part.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go on," she whispered. "I can see it all without
+the help of words." Then, in a tone that seemed to
+come from some far-off world of nightmare, she painfully
+gasped, "Is he dead?"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 355px;">
+<img src="images/ill03.jpg" width="355" height="600" alt="&quot;He paused, sick and horror-stricken. Her face had risen upon him from the back of the chair, and was staring at him like that of a Medusa.&quot;&mdash;(Page 252.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;He paused, sick and horror-stricken. Her face had risen upon him from the back of the chair, and was staring at him like that of a Medusa.&quot;&mdash;(Page 252.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt was a man who, up to the last year, had
+never known what it was to experience a real and controlling
+emotion. Life with him had meant success in
+public affairs, and a certain social pre-eminence that
+made his presence in any place the signal of admiring
+looks and respectful attentions. But let no man think
+that, because his doom delays, it will never come. Passions
+such as he had deprecated in others, and desires
+such as he had believed impossible to himself, had seized
+upon him with ungovernable power, and in this moment
+especially he felt himself yielding to their sway with no
+more power of resistance than a puppet experiences in the
+grasp of a whirlwind. Meeting that terrible eye of hers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+burning with an anxiety for a man he despised, and
+hearing that agonized question from lips whose touch he
+had never known, he experienced a sudden wild and
+almost demoniac temptation to hurl back the implacable
+"Yes" that he felt certain would strike her like a dead
+woman to the ground. But the horrid impulse passed,
+and, with a quick remembrance of the claims of honor
+upon one bearing his name and owning his history, he
+controlled himself with a giant resolution, and merely
+dropping his eyes from an anguish he dared no longer
+confront, answered, quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"No; he has hurt himself severely and has disfigured
+his good looks for life, but he will not die; or so the
+physicians think."</p>
+
+<p>A long, deep, shuddering sigh swept through the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God!" came from her lips, and then all was
+quiet again.</p>
+
+<p>He looked up in haste; he could not bear the silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene&mdash;&mdash;" he began, but instantly paused in surprise
+at the change which had taken place in her expression.
+"What do you intend to do?" was his quick
+demand. "You look as I have never seen you look
+before."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not ask me!" she returned. "I have no words
+for what I am going to do. What <i>you</i> must do is to see
+that Gouverneur Hildreth is released from prison. He
+is not guilty, mind you; he never committed this crime
+of which he is suspected, and in the shame of which suspicion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
+he has this day attempted his life. If he is kept
+in the restraint which is so humiliating to him, and if he
+dies there, it will be murder&mdash;do you hear? murder!
+And he <i>will</i> die there if he is not released; I know his
+feelings only too well."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Imogene&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! don't argue. 'Tis a matter of life and death,
+I tell you. He must be released! I know," she went on,
+hurriedly, "what it is you want to say. You think you
+cannot do this; that the evidence is all against him; that
+he went to prison of his own free will and cannot hope
+for release till his guilt or innocence has been properly
+inquired into. But I know you can effect his enlargement
+if you will. You are a lawyer, and understand all
+the crooks and turns by which a man can sometimes be
+made to evade the grasp of justice. Use your knowledge.
+Avail yourself of your influence with the authorities, and
+I&mdash;&mdash;" she paused and gave him a long, long look.</p>
+
+<p>He was at her side in an instant.</p>
+
+<p>"You would&mdash;what?" he cried, taking her hand in his
+and pressing it impulsively.</p>
+
+<p>"I would grant you whatever you ask," she murmured,
+in a weariful tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you be my wife?" he passionately inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the choked reply; "if I did not die first."</p>
+
+<p>He caught her to his breast in rapture. He knelt at
+her side and threw his arms about her waist.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall not die," he cried. "You shall live and be
+happy. Only marry me to-day."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Not till Gouverneur Hildreth be released," she interposed,
+gently.</p>
+
+<p>He started as if touched by a galvanic battery, and
+slowly rose up and coldly looked at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you love him so madly you would sell yourself for
+his sake?" he sternly demanded.</p>
+
+<p>With a quick gesture she threw back her head as though
+the indignant "No" that sprang to her lips would flash
+out whether she would or not. But she restrained herself
+in time.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot answer," she returned.</p>
+
+<p>But he was master now&mdash;master of this dominating
+spirit that had held him in check for so long a time, and
+he was not to be put off.</p>
+
+<p>"You must answer," he sternly commanded. "I have
+the right to know the extent of your feeling for this man,
+and I will. Do you <i>love</i> him, Imogene Dare? Tell me,
+or I here swear that I will do nothing for him, either now
+or at a time when he may need my assistance more than
+you know."</p>
+
+<p>This threat, uttered as he uttered it, could have but one
+effect. Turning aside, so that he should not see the
+shuddering revolt in her eyes, she mechanically whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"And what if I did? Would it be so very strange?
+Youth admires youth, Mr. Orcutt, and Mr. Hildreth is
+very handsome and very unfortunate. Do not oblige me
+to say more."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt, across whose face a dozen different emotions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
+had flitted during the utterance of these few words,
+drew back till half the distance of the room lay between
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor do I wish to hear any more," he rejoined, slowly.
+"You have said enough, quite enough. I understand
+now all the past&mdash;all your terrors and all your secret
+doubts and unaccountable behavior. The man you loved
+was in danger, and you did not know how to manage his
+release. Well, well, I am sorry for you, Imogene. I
+wish I could help you. I love you passionately, and
+would make you my wife in face of your affection for this
+man if I could do for you what you request. But it is
+impossible. Never during the whole course of my career
+has a blot rested upon my integrity as a lawyer. I am
+known as an honest man, and honest will I remain known to
+the last. Besides, I could do nothing to effect his enlargement
+if I tried. Nothing but the plainest proof that he
+is innocent, or that another man is guilty, would avail
+now to release him from the suspicion which his own admissions
+have aroused."</p>
+
+<p>"Then there is no hope?" was her slow and despairing
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>"None at present, Imogene," was his stern, almost as
+despairing, answer.</p>
+
+<p>As Mr. Orcutt sat over his lonely hearth that evening,
+a servant brought to him the following letter:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Dear Friend</span>,&mdash;It is not fit that I should remain any longer
+under your roof. I have a duty before me which separates me forever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+from the friendship and protection of honorable men and women.
+No home but such as I can provide for myself by the work of my
+own hands shall henceforth shelter the disgraced head of Imogene
+Dare. Her fate, whatever it may prove to be, she bears alone, and
+you, who have been so kind, shall never suffer from any association
+with one whose name must henceforth become the sport of the crowd,
+if not the execration of the virtuous. If your generous heart rebels
+at this, choke it relentlessly down. I shall be already gone when you
+read these lines, and nothing you could do or say would make me
+come back. Good-by, and may Heaven grant you forgetfulness of
+one whose only return to your benefactions has been to make you
+suffer almost as much as she suffers herself.</p></div>
+
+<p>As Mr. Orcutt read these last lines, District Attorney
+Ferris was unsealing the anonymous missive which has
+already been laid before my readers.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>HEART'S MARTYRDOM.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Oh that a man might know<br />
+The end of this day's business, ere it come;<br />
+But it sufficeth that the day will end,<br />
+And then the end is known!&mdash;<span class="smcap">Julius C&aelig;sar.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>MR. FERRIS' first impulse upon dismissing the
+detectives had been to carry the note he had
+received to Mr. Orcutt. But a night's careful consideration
+of the subject convinced him that the wisest course
+would be to follow the suggestions conveyed in the letter,
+and seek a direct interview with Imogene Dare.</div>
+
+<p>It was not an agreeable task for him to undertake.
+Miss Dare was a young lady whom he had always held in
+the highest esteem. He had hoped to see her the wife
+of his friend, and would have given much from his own
+private stock of hope and happiness to have kept her
+name free from the contumely which any association with
+this dreadful crime must necessarily bring upon it. But
+his position as prosecuting attorney of the county would
+not allow him to consult his feelings any further in a
+case of such serious import. The condition of Mr. Hildreth
+was, to say the least, such as demanded the most
+impartial action on the part of the public officials, and if
+through any explanation of Miss Dare the one missing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
+link in the chain of evidence against another could be
+supplied, it was certainly his duty to do all he could to
+insure it.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly at a favorable hour the next day, he made
+his appearance at Mr. Orcutt's house, and learning that
+Miss Dare had gone to Professor Darling's house for a
+few days, followed her to her new home and requested
+an interview.</p>
+
+<p>She at once responded to his call. Little did he think
+as she came into the parlor where he sat, and with even
+more than her usual calm self-possession glided down
+the length of that elegant apartment to his side, that she
+had just come from a small room on the top floor, where,
+in the position of a hired seamstress, she had been engaged
+in cutting out the wedding garments of one of the
+daughters of the house.</p>
+
+<p>Her greeting was that of a person attempting to feign
+a surprise she did not feel.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said she, "Mr. Ferris! This is an unexpected
+pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Ferris had no heart for courtesies.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," he began, without any of the preliminaries
+which might be expected of him, "I have come
+upon a disagreeable errand. I have a favor to ask. You
+are in the possession of a piece of information which it is
+highly necessary for me to share."</p>
+
+<p>"I?"</p>
+
+<p>The surprise betrayed in this single word was no more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>
+than was to be expected from a lady thus addressed,
+neither did the face she turned so steadily toward him
+alter under his searching gaze.</p>
+
+<p>"If I can tell you any thing that you wish to know,"
+she quietly declared, "I am certainly ready to do so, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Deceived by the steadiness of her tone and the straightforward
+look of her eyes, he proceeded, with a sudden
+releasement from his embarrassment, to say:</p>
+
+<p>"I shall have to recall to your mind a most painful
+incident. You remember, on the morning when we met
+at Mrs. Clemmens' house, claiming as your own a diamond
+ring which was picked up from the floor at your feet?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, was this ring really yours, or were you
+misled by its appearance into merely thinking it your
+property? My excuse for asking this is that the ring, if
+not yours, is likely to become an important factor in the
+case to which the murder of this unfortunate woman has
+led."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir&mdash;&mdash;" The pause which followed the utterance
+of this one word was but momentary, but in it what faint
+and final hope may have gone down into the depths of
+everlasting darkness God only knows. "Sir, since you
+ask me the question, I will say that in one sense of the
+term it was mine, and in another it was not. The ring
+was mine, because it had been offered to me as a gift the
+day before. The ring was not mine, because I had
+refused to take it when it was offered."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At these words, spoken with such quietness they
+seemed like the mechanical utterances of a woman in a
+trance, Mr. Ferris started to his feet. He could no
+longer doubt that evidence of an important nature lay
+before him.</p>
+
+<p>"And may I ask," he inquired, without any idea of the
+martyrdom he caused, "what was the name of the person
+who offered you this ring, and from whom you refused to
+take it?"</p>
+
+<p>"The name?" She quavered for a moment, and her
+eyes flashed up toward heaven with a look of wild appeal,
+as if the requirement of this moment was more than even
+she had strength to meet. Then a certain terrible calm
+settled upon her, blotting the last hint of feeling from her
+face, and, rising up in her turn, she met Mr. Ferris' inquiring
+eye, and slowly and distinctly replied:</p>
+
+<p>"It was Craik Mansell, sir. He is a nephew of Mrs.
+Clemmens."</p>
+
+<p>It was the name Mr. Ferris had come there to hear, yet
+it gave him a slight shock when it fell from her lips&mdash;perhaps
+because his mind was still running upon her supposed
+relations with Mr. Orcutt. But he did not show
+his feelings, however, and calmly asked:</p>
+
+<p>"And was Mr. Mansell in this town the day before the
+assault upon his aunt?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was."</p>
+
+<p>"And you had a conversation with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had."</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask where?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>For the first time she flushed; womanly shame had
+not yet vanished entirely from her stricken breast; but
+she responded as steadily as before:</p>
+
+<p>"In the woods, sir, back of Mrs. Clemmens' house.
+There were reasons"&mdash;she paused&mdash;"there were good
+reasons, which I do not feel obliged to state, why a meeting
+in such a place was not discreditable to us."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris, who had received from other sources a full
+version of the interview to which she thus alluded, experienced
+a sudden revulsion of feeling against one he
+could not but consider as a detected coquette; and, drawing
+quickly back, made a gesture such as was not often
+witnessed in those elegant apartments.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean," said he, with a sharp edge to his tone
+that passed over her dreary soul unheeded, "that you
+were lovers?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean," said she, like the automaton she surely was
+at that moment, "that he had paid me honorable addresses,
+and that I had no reason to doubt his motives or
+my own in seeking such a meeting."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare,"&mdash;all the District Attorney spoke in the
+manner of Mr. Ferris now,&mdash;"if you refused Mr. Mansell
+his ring, you must have returned it to him?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him with an anguish that bespoke her
+full appreciation of all this question implied, but unequivocally
+bowed her head.</p>
+
+<p>"It was in his possession, then," he continued, "when
+you left him on that day and returned to your home?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," her lips seemed to say, though no distinct utterance
+came from them.</p>
+
+<p>"And you did not see it again till you found it on
+the floor of Mrs. Clemmens' dining-room the morning of
+the murder?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," said he, with greater mildness, after a
+short pause, "you have answered my somewhat painful
+inquiries with a straightforwardness I cannot sufficiently
+commend. If you will now add to my gratitude by telling
+me whether you have informed any one else of the
+important facts you have just given me, I will distress you
+by no further questions."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said she, and her attitude showed that she
+could endure but little more, "I have taken no one else
+into my confidence. Such knowledge as I had to impart
+was not matter for idle gossip."</p>
+
+<p>And Mr. Ferris, being thus assured that his own surmises
+and that of Hickory were correct, bowed with the
+respect her pale face and rigid attitude seemed to demand,
+and considerately left the house.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>CRAIK MANSELL.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+Bring me unto my trial when you will.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Henry VI.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>"HE is here."</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris threw aside his cigar, and looked
+up at Mr. Byrd, who was standing before him.</p>
+
+<p>"You had no difficulty, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. He acted like a man in hourly expectation
+of some such summons. At the very first intimation of
+your desire to see him in Sibley, he rose from his desk,
+with what I thought was a meaning look at Mr. Goodman,
+and after a few preparations for departure, signified
+he was ready to take the next train."</p>
+
+<p>"And did he ask no questions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only one. He wished to know if I were a detective.
+And when I responded 'Yes,' observed with an inquiring
+look: 'I am wanted as a witness, I suppose.' A suggestion
+to which I was careful to make no reply."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris pushed aside his writing and glanced toward
+the door. "Show him in, Mr. Byrd," said he.</p>
+
+<p>A moment after Mr. Mansell entered the room.</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney had never seen this man, and was
+struck at once by the force and manliness of his appearance.
+Half-rising from his seat to greet the visitor, he
+said:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have to beg your pardon, Mr. Mansell. Feeling it
+quite necessary to see you, I took the liberty of requesting
+you to take this journey, my own time being fully
+occupied at present."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Mansell bowed&mdash;a slow, self-possessed bow,&mdash;and
+advancing to the table before which the District Attorney
+sat, laid his hand firmly upon it and said:</p>
+
+<p>"No apologies are needed." Then shortly, "What is
+it you want of me?"</p>
+
+<p>The words were almost the same as those which
+had been used by Mr. Hildreth under similar circumstances,
+but how different was their effect! The one was
+the utterance of a weak man driven to bay, the other of
+a strong one. Mr. Ferris, who was by no means of an
+impressible organization, flashed a look of somewhat uneasy
+doubt at Mr. Byrd, and hesitated slightly before
+proceeding.</p>
+
+<p>"We have sent for you in this friendly way," he remarked,
+at last, "in order to give you that opportunity
+for explaining certain matters connected with your aunt's
+sudden death which your well-known character and good
+position seem to warrant. We think you can do this. At
+all events I have accorded myself the privilege of so supposing;
+and any words you may have to say will meet
+with all due consideration. As Mrs. Clemmens' nephew,
+you, of course, desire to see her murderer brought to
+justice."</p>
+
+<p>The slightly rising inflection given to the last few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
+words made them to all intents and purposes a question,
+and Mr. Byrd, who stood near by, waited anxiously for
+the decided Yes which seemed the only possible reply under
+the circumstances, but it did not come.</p>
+
+<p>Surprised, and possibly anxious, the District Attorney
+repeated himself.</p>
+
+<p>"As her nephew," said he, "and the inheritor of
+the few savings she has left behind her, you can have but
+one wish on this subject, Mr. Mansell?"</p>
+
+<p>But this attempt succeeded no better than the first.
+Beyond a slight compression of the lips, Mr. Mansell
+gave no manifestation of having heard this remark, and
+both Mr. Ferris and the detective found themselves forced
+to wonder at the rigid honesty of a man who, whatever
+death-giving blow he may have dealt, would not allow
+himself to escape the prejudice of his accusers by assenting
+to a supposition he and they knew to be false.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris did not press the question.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Mansell," he remarked instead, "a person by the
+name of Gouverneur Hildreth is, as you must know,
+under arrest at this time, charged with the crime of having
+given the blow that led to your aunt's death. The
+evidence against him is strong, and the public generally
+have no doubt that his arrest will lead to trial, if not to
+conviction. But, unfortunately for us, however fortunately
+for him, another person has lately been found,
+against whom an equal show of evidence can be raised,
+and it is for the purpose of satisfying ourselves that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>
+it is but a show, we have requested your presence here
+to-day."</p>
+
+<p>A spasm, vivid as it was instantaneous, distorted for a
+moment the powerful features of Craik Mansell at the
+words, "another person," but it was gone before the
+sentence was completed; and when Mr. Ferris ceased, he
+looked up with the steady calmness which made his bearing
+so remarkable.</p>
+
+<p>"I am waiting to hear the name of this freshly
+suspected person," he observed.</p>
+
+<p>"Cannot you imagine?" asked the District Attorney,
+coldly, secretly disconcerted under a gaze that held his
+own with such steady persistence.</p>
+
+<p>The eyeballs of the other flashed like coals of fire.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it is my right to hear it spoken," he returned.</p>
+
+<p>This display of feeling restored Mr. Ferris to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"In a moment, sir," said he. "Meanwhile, have you
+any objections to answering a few questions I would like
+to put to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will hear them," was the steady reply.</p>
+
+<p>"You know," said the District Attorney, "you are at
+perfect liberty to answer or not, as you see fit. I have no
+desire to entrap you into any acknowledgments you may
+hereafter regret."</p>
+
+<p>"Speak," was the sole response he received.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir," said Mr. Ferris, "are you willing to tell me
+where you <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'where'">were</ins> when you first heard of the assault
+which had been made upon your aunt?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was in my place at the mill."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;pardon me if I go too far&mdash;were you also there
+the morning she was murdered?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Mansell, if you could tell us where you were at
+that time, it would be of great benefit to us, and possibly
+to yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"To myself?"</p>
+
+<p>Having shown his surprise, or, possibly, his alarm, by
+the repetition of the other's words, Craik Mansell paused
+and looked slowly around the room until he encountered
+Mr. Byrd's eye. There was a steady compassion in the
+look he met there that seemed to strike him with great
+force, for he at once replied that he was away from home,
+and stopped&mdash;his glance still fixed upon Mr. Byrd, as if,
+by the very power of his gaze, he would force the secrets
+of that detective's soul to the surface.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Mansell," pursued the District Attorney, "a
+distinct avowal on your part of the place where you were
+at that time, would be best for us both, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not already know?" inquired the other, his
+eye still upon Horace Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"We have reason to think you were in this town,"
+averred Mr. Ferris, with an emphasis calculated to recall
+the attention of his visitor to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"And may I ask," Craik Mansell quietly said, "what
+reason you can have for such a supposition? No one could
+have seen me here, for, till to-day I have not entered the
+streets of this place since my visit to my aunt three months
+ago."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It was not necessary to enter the streets of this town
+to effect a visit to Mrs. Clemmens' house, Mr. Mansell."</p>
+
+<p>"No?"</p>
+
+<p>There was the faintest hint of emotion in the intonation
+he gave to that one word, but it vanished before he
+spoke his next sentence.</p>
+
+<p>"And how," asked he, "can a person pass from Sibley
+Station to the door of my aunt's house without going
+through the streets?"</p>
+
+<p>Instead of replying, Mr. Ferris inquired:</p>
+
+<p>"Did you get out at Sibley Station, Mr. Mansell?"</p>
+
+<p>But the other, with unmoved self-possession, returned:</p>
+
+<p>"I have not said so."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Mansell," the District Attorney now observed,
+"we have no motive in deceiving or even in misleading
+you. You were in this town on the morning of your
+aunt's murder, and you were even in her house. Evidence
+which you cannot dispute proves this, and the question
+that now arises, and of whose importance we leave you to
+judge, is whether you were there prior to the visit of Mr.
+Hildreth, or after. Any proof you may have to show that
+it was before will receive its due consideration."</p>
+
+<p>A change, decided as it was involuntary, took place in
+the hitherto undisturbed countenance of Craik Mansell.
+Leaning forward, he surveyed Mr. Ferris with great earnestness.</p>
+
+<p>"I asked that man," said he, pointing with a steady
+forefinger at the somewhat abashed detective, "if I were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>
+not wanted here simply as a witness, and he did not say
+No. Now, sir," he continued, turning back with a slight
+gesture of disdain to the District Attorney, "was the man
+right in allowing me to believe such a fact, or was he not?
+I would like an answer to my question before I proceed
+further, if you please."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall have it, Mr. Mansell. If this man did not
+answer you, it was probably because he did not feel justified
+in so doing. He knew I had summoned you
+here in the hope of receiving such explanations of your
+late conduct as should satisfy me you had nothing to do
+with your aunt's murder. The claims upon my consideration,
+which are held by certain persons allied to you in
+this matter"&mdash;Mr. Ferris' look was eloquent of his real
+meaning here&mdash;"are my sole justification for this somewhat
+unusual method of dealing with a suspected
+man."</p>
+
+<p>A smile, bitter, oh, how bitter in its irony! traversed
+the firm-set lips of Craik Mansell for a moment, then he
+bowed with a show of deference to the District Attorney,
+and settling into the attitude of a man willing to plead his
+own cause, responded:</p>
+
+<p>"It would be more just, perhaps, if I first heard the
+reasons you have for suspecting me, before I attempt
+to advance arguments to prove the injustice of your suspicions."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Mr. Ferris, "you shall have them. If
+frankness on my part can do aught to avert the terrible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>
+scandal which your arrest and its consequent developments
+would cause, I am willing to sacrifice thus much to
+my friendship for Mr. Orcutt. But if I do this, I shall
+expect an equal frankness in return. The matter is too
+serious for subterfuge."</p>
+
+<p>The other merely waved his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"The reasons," proceeded Mr. Ferris, "for considering
+you a party as much open to suspicion as Mr. Hildreth,
+are several. First, we have evidence to prove
+your great desire for a sum of money equal to your aunt's
+savings, in order to introduce an invention which you
+have just patented.</p>
+
+<p>"Secondly, we can show that you left your home in
+Buffalo the day before the assault, came to Monteith, the
+next town to this, alighted at the remote station assigned
+to the use of the quarrymen, crossed the hills and
+threaded the woods till you came to a small hut back of
+your aunt's house, where you put up for the night.</p>
+
+<p>"Thirdly, evidence is not lacking to prove that while
+there you visited your aunt's once, if not twice; the last
+time on the very morning she was killed, entering the
+house in a surreptitious way by the back door, and leaving
+it in the same suspicious manner.</p>
+
+<p>"And fourthly, we can prove that you escaped from
+this place as you had come, secretly, and through a difficult
+and roundabout path over the hills.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Mansell, these facts, taken with your reticence
+concerning a visit so manifestly of importance to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>
+authorities to know, must strike even you as offering
+grounds for a suspicion as grave as that attaching to Mr.
+Hildreth."</p>
+
+<p>With a restraint marked as it was impressive, Mr.
+Mansell looked at the District Attorney for a moment,
+and then said:</p>
+
+<p>"You speak of proof. Now, what proof have you to
+give that I put up, as you call it, for a night, or even for
+an hour, in the hut which stands in the woods back of
+my aunt's house?"</p>
+
+<p>"This," was Mr. Ferris' reply. "It is known you were
+in the woods the afternoon previous to the assault upon
+your aunt, because you were seen there in company with
+a young lady with whom you were holding a tryst. Did
+you speak, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"No!" was the violent, almost disdainful, rejoinder.</p>
+
+<p>"You did not sleep at your aunt's, for her rooms contained
+not an evidence of having been opened for a
+guest, while the hut revealed more than one trace of having
+been used as a dormitory. I could even tell you
+where you cut the twigs of hemlock that served you for
+a pillow, and point to the place where you sat when you
+scribbled over the margin of the Buffalo <i>Courier</i> with a
+blue pencil, such as that I now see projecting from your
+vest pocket."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not necessary," replied the young man, heavily
+frowning. Then with another short glance at Mr. Ferris,
+he again demanded:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What is your reason for stating I visited my aunt's
+house on the morning she was murdered? Did any one
+see me do it? or does the house, like the hut, exhibit
+traces of my presence there at that particular time?"</p>
+
+<p>There was irony in his tone, and a disdain almost
+amounting to scorn in his wide-flashing blue eyes; but
+Mr. Ferris, glancing at the hand clutched about the railing
+of the desk, remarked quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"You do not wear the diamond ring you carried away
+with you from the tryst I mentioned? Can it be that the
+one which was picked up after the assault, on the floor of
+Mrs. Clemmens' dining-room, could have fallen from your
+finger, Mr. Mansell?"</p>
+
+<p>A start, the first this powerfully repressed man had
+given, showed that his armor of resistance had been
+pierced at last.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know," he quickly asked, "that I carried
+away a diamond ring from the tryst you speak of?"</p>
+
+<p>"Circumstances," returned the District Attorney,
+"prove it beyond a doubt. Miss Dare&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare!"</p>
+
+<p>Oh, the indescribable tone of this exclamation! Mr.
+Byrd shuddered as he heard it, and looked at Mr. Mansell
+with a new feeling, for which he had no name.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," repeated the District Attorney, without,
+apparently, regarding the interruption, "acknowledges
+she returned you the ring which you endeavored at that
+interview to bestow upon her."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" The word came after a moment's pause. "I
+see the case has been well worked up, and it only remains
+for me to give you such explanations as I choose to make.
+Sir," declared he, stepping forward, and bringing his
+clenched hand down upon the desk at which Mr. Ferris
+was sitting, "I did not kill my aunt. I admit that I paid
+her a visit. I admit that I stayed in the woods back of her
+house, and even slept in the hut, as you have said; but
+that was on the day previous to her murder, and not after
+it. I went to see her for the purpose of again urging the
+claims of my invention upon her. I went secretly, and
+by the roundabout way you describe, because I had
+another purpose in visiting Sibley, which made it expedient
+for me to conceal my presence in the town. I failed
+in my efforts to enlist the sympathies of my aunt in regard
+to my plans, and I failed also in compassing that
+other desire of my heart of which the ring you mention
+was a token. Both failures unnerved me, and I lay in
+that hut all night. I even lay there most of the next
+morning; but I did not see my aunt again, and I did not
+lift my hand against her life."</p>
+
+<p>There was indescribable quiet in the tone, but there
+was indescribable power also, and the look he levelled
+upon the District Attorney was unwaveringly solemn and
+hard.</p>
+
+<p>"You deny, then, that you entered the widow's house
+on the morning of the murder?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is, then, a question of veracity between you and
+Miss Dare?"</p>
+
+<p>Silence.</p>
+
+<p>"She asserts she gave you back the ring you offered
+her. If this is so, and that ring was in your possession
+after you left her on Monday evening, how came it to be
+in the widow's dining-room the next morning, if you did
+not carry it there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can only repeat my words," rejoined Mr. Mansell.</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney replied impatiently. For various
+reasons he did not wish to believe this man guilty.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not seem very anxious to assist me in my
+endeavors to reach the truth," he observed. "Cannot
+you tell me what you did with the ring after you left
+Miss Dare? Whether you put it on your finger, or
+thrust it into your pocket, or tossed it into the marsh?
+If you did not carry it to the house, some one else must
+have done so, and you ought to be able to help us in
+determining who."</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Mansell shortly responded:</p>
+
+<p>"I have nothing to say about the ring. From the
+moment Miss Dare returned it to me, as you say, it was,
+so far as I am concerned, a thing forgotten. I do not
+know as I should ever have thought of it again, if you
+had not mentioned it to me to-day. How it vanished
+from my possession only to reappear upon the scene of
+murder, some more clever conjurer than myself must
+explain."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And this is all you have to say, Mr. Mansell?"</p>
+
+<p>"This is all I have to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Byrd," suggested the District Attorney, after a long
+pause, during which the subject of his suspicions had
+stood before him as rigid and inscrutable as a statue in
+bronze, "Mr. Mansell would probably like to go to the
+hotel, unless, indeed, he desires to return immediately to
+Buffalo."</p>
+
+<p>Craik Mansell at once started forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you intend to allow me to return to Buffalo?"
+he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the District Attorney's reply.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a good man," broke involuntarily from the
+other's lips, and he impulsively reached out his hand,
+but as quickly drew it back with a flush of pride that
+greatly became him.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not say," quoth Mr. Ferris, "that I exempt you
+from surveillance. As prosecuting attorney of this district,
+my duty is to seek out and discover the man who
+murdered Mrs. Clemmens, and your explanations have
+not been as full or as satisfactory as I could wish."</p>
+
+<p>"Your men will always find me at my desk in the
+mill," said Mr. Mansell, coldly. And, with another
+short bow, he left the attorney's side and went quickly
+out.</p>
+
+<p>"That man is innocent," declared Mr. Ferris, as
+Horace Byrd leaned above him in expectation of instructions
+to keep watch over the departing visitor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The way in which he held out his hand to me spoke
+volumes."</p>
+
+<p>The detective cast a sad glance at Craik Mansell's
+retreating figure.</p>
+
+<p>"You could not convince Hickory of that fact,"
+said he.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>MR. ORCUTT.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+What is it she does now?&mdash;<span class="smcap">Macbeth.</span><br />
+<br /></div>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+My resolution's plac'd, and I have nothing<br />
+Of woman in me. Now, from head to foot<br />
+I am marble&mdash;constant.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Antony and Cleopatra.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THESE words rang in the ears of Mr. Ferris. For
+he felt himself disturbed by them. Hickory
+did not believe Mr. Mansell innocent.</div>
+
+<p>At last he sent for that detective.</p>
+
+<p>"Hickory," he asked, "why do you think Mansell,
+rather than Hildreth, committed this crime?"</p>
+
+<p>Now this query, on the part of the District Attorney,
+put Hickory into a quandary. He wished to keep his
+promise to Horace Byrd, and yet he greatly desired to
+answer his employer's question truthfully. Without any
+special sympathies of his own, he yet had an undeniable
+leaning toward justice, and justice certainly demanded
+the indictment of Mansell. He ended by compromising
+matters.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Ferris," said he, "when you went to see Miss
+Dare the other day, what did you think of her state of
+mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"That it was a very unhappy one."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you think more than that, sir? Didn't you
+think she believed Mr. Mansell guilty of this crime?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," admitted the other, with reluctance.</p>
+
+<p>"If Miss Dare is attached to Mr. Mansell, she must
+feel certain of his guilt to <i>offer</i> testimony against him.
+Her belief should go for something, sir; for much, it
+strikes me, when you consider what a woman she is."</p>
+
+<p>This conversation increased Mr. Ferris' uneasiness.
+Much as he wished to spare the feelings of Miss Dare,
+and, through her, those of his friend, Mr. Orcutt, the
+conviction of Mansell's criminality was slowly gaining
+ground in his mind. He remembered the peculiar manner
+of the latter during the interview they had held
+together; his quiet acceptance of the position of a suspected
+man, and his marked reticence in regard to the
+ring. Though the delicate nature of the interests involved
+might be sufficient to explain his behavior in the
+latter regard, his whole conduct could not be said to be
+that of a disinterested man, even if it were not necessarily
+that of a guilty one. In whatever way Mr. Ferris looked
+at it, he could come to but one conclusion, and that was,
+that justice to Hildreth called for such official attention
+to the evidence which had been collected against Mansell
+as should secure the indictment of that man against
+whom could be brought the more convincing proof of
+guilt.</p>
+
+<p>Not that Mr. Ferris meant, or in anywise considered it
+good policy, to have Mansell arrested at this time. As<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>
+the friend of Mr. Orcutt, it was manifestly advisable for
+him to present whatever evidence he possessed against
+Mansell directly to the Grand Jury. For in this way he
+would not only save the lawyer from the pain and humiliation
+of seeing the woman he so much loved called up as
+a witness against the man who had successfully rivalled
+him in her affections, but would run the chance, at least,
+of eventually preserving from open knowledge, the various
+details, if not the actual facts, which had led to this
+person being suspected of crime. For the Grand Jury is
+a body whose business it is to make secret inquisition into
+criminal offences. Its members are bound by oath to
+the privacy of their deliberations. If, therefore, they
+should find the proofs presented to them by the District
+Attorney insufficient to authorize an indictment against
+Mansell, nothing of their proceedings would transpire.
+While, on the contrary, if they decided that the evidence
+was such as to oblige them to indict Mansell instead of
+Hildreth, neither Mr. Orcutt nor Miss Dare could hold
+the District Attorney accountable for the exposures that
+must follow.</p>
+
+<p>The course, therefore, of Mr. Ferris was determined
+upon. All the evidence in his possession against both
+parties, together with the verdict of the coroner's jury,
+should go at once before the Grand Jury; Mansell, in the
+meantime, being so watched that a bench-warrant issuing
+upon the indictment would have him safely in custody at
+any moment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But this plan for saving Mr. Orcutt's feelings did not
+succeed as fully as Mr. Ferris hoped. By some means or
+other the rumor got abroad that another man than Hildreth
+had fallen under the suspicion of the authorities,
+and one day Mr. Ferris found himself stopped on the
+street by the very person he had for a week been endeavoring
+to avoid.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Orcutt!" he cried, "how do you do? I did not
+recognize you at first."</p>
+
+<p>"No?" was the sharp rejoinder. "I'm not myself
+nowadays. I have a bad cold." With which impatient
+explanation he seized Mr. Ferris by the arm and said:
+"But what is this I hear? You have your eye on another
+party suspected of being Mrs. Clemmens' murderer?"</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney bowed uneasily. He had hoped
+to escape the discussion of this subject with Mr. Orcutt.</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer observed the embarrassment his question
+had caused, and instantly turned pale, notwithstanding
+the hardihood which a long career at the bar had given
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ferris," he pursued, in a voice he strove hard to
+keep steady, "we have always been good friends, in spite
+of the many tilts we have had together before the court.
+Will you be kind enough to inform me if your suspicions
+are founded upon evidence collected by yourself, or at
+the instigation of parties professing to know more about
+this murder than they have hitherto revealed?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris could not fail to understand the true nature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>
+of this question, and out of pure friendship answered
+quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"I have allowed myself to look with suspicion upon
+this Mansell&mdash;for it is Mrs. Clemmens' nephew who is at
+present occupying our attention,&mdash;because the facts which
+have come to light in his regard are as criminating in
+their nature as those which have transpired in reference
+to Mr. Hildreth. The examination into this matter,
+which my duty requires, has been any thing but pleasant
+to me, Mr. Orcutt. The evidence of such witnesses as
+will have to be summoned before the Grand Jury, is
+of a character to bring open humiliation, if not secret
+grief, upon persons for whom I entertain the highest
+esteem."</p>
+
+<p>The pointed way in which this was said convinced
+Mr. Orcutt that his worst fears had been realized.
+Turning partly away, but not losing his hold upon
+the other's arm, he observed with what quietness he
+could:</p>
+
+<p>"You say that so strangely, I feel forced to put
+another question to you. If what I have to ask strikes
+you with any surprise, remember that my own astonishment
+and perplexity at being constrained to interrogate
+you in this way, are greater than any sensation you can
+yourself experience. What I desire to know is this.
+Among the witnesses you have collected against this
+last suspected party, there are some women, are there
+not?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney gravely bowed.</p>
+
+<p>"Ferris, is Miss Dare amongst them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Orcutt, she is."</p>
+
+<p>With a look that expressed his secret mistrust the
+lawyer gave way to a sudden burst of feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"Ferris," he wrathfully acknowledged, "I may be a
+fool, but I don't see what she can have to say on this
+subject. It is impossible she should know any thing
+about the murder; and, as for this Mansell&mdash;&mdash;" He
+made a violent gesture with his hand, as if the very idea
+of her having any acquaintance with the nephew of Mrs.
+Clemmens were simply preposterous.</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney, who saw from this how utterly
+ignorant the other was concerning Miss Dare's relations
+to the person named, felt his embarrassment increase.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Orcutt," he replied, "strange as it may appear
+to you, Miss Dare <i>has</i> testimony to give of value to the
+prosecution, or she would not be reckoned among its
+witnesses. What that testimony is, I must leave to her
+discretion to make known to you, as she doubtless will,
+if you question her with sufficient consideration. I
+never forestall matters myself, nor would you wish me to
+tell you what would more becomingly come from her
+own lips. But, Mr. Orcutt, this I can say: that if it had
+been given me to choose between the two alternatives of
+resigning my office and of pursuing an inquiry which
+obliges me to submit to the unpleasantness of a judicial
+investigation a person held in so much regard by yourself,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>
+I would have given up my office with pleasure, so
+keenly do I feel the embarrassment of my position and
+the unhappiness of yours. But any mere resignation on
+my part would have availed nothing to save Miss Dare
+from appearing before the Grand Jury. The evidence
+she has to give in this matter makes the case against
+Mansell as strong as that against Hildreth, and it would
+be the duty of any public prosecutor to recognize the
+fact and act accordingly."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt, who had by the greatest effort succeeded
+in calming himself through this harangue, flashed sarcastically
+at this last remark, and surveyed Mr. Ferris with
+a peculiar look.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure," he inquired in a slow, ironical tone,
+"that she has not succeeded in making it stronger?"</p>
+
+<p>The look, the tone, were unexpected, and greatly
+startled Mr. Ferris. Drawing nearer to his friend, he
+returned his gaze with marked earnestness.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" he asked, with secret anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>But the wary lawyer had already repented this unwise
+betrayal of his own doubts. Meeting his companion's
+eye with a calmness that amazed himself, he remarked,
+instead of answering:</p>
+
+<p>"It was through Miss Dare, then, that your attention
+was first drawn to Mrs. Clemmens' nephew?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," disclaimed Mr. Ferris, hastily. "The detectives
+already had their eyes upon him. But a hint from
+her went far toward determining me upon pursuing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>
+matter," he allowed, seeing that his friend was determined
+upon hearing the truth.</p>
+
+<p>"So then," observed the other, with a stern dryness
+that recalled his manner at the bar, "she opened a communication
+with you herself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>It was enough. Mr. Orcutt dropped the arm of Mr.
+Ferris, and, with his usual hasty bow, turned shortly
+away. The revelation which he believed himself to have
+received in this otherwise far from satisfactory interview,
+was one that he could not afford to share&mdash;that is, not
+yet; not while any hope remained that circumstances
+would so arrange themselves as to make it unnecessary
+for him to do so. If Imogene Dare, out of her insane desire
+to free Gouverneur Hildreth from the suspicion that
+oppressed him, had resorted to perjury and invented evidence
+tending to show the guilt of another party&mdash;and
+remembering her admissions at their last interview and
+the language she had used in her letter of farewell, no
+other conclusion offered itself,&mdash;what alternative was left
+him but to wait till he had seen her before he proceeded
+to an interference that would separate her from himself
+by a gulf still greater than that which already existed between
+them? To be sure, the jealousy which consumed
+him, the passionate rage that seized his whole being when
+he thought of all she dared do for the man she loved,
+or that he thought she loved, counselled him to nip this
+attempt of hers in the bud, and by means of a word to Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>
+Ferris throw such a doubt upon her veracity as a witness
+against this new party as should greatly influence the action
+of the former in the critical business he had in hand.
+But Mr. Orcutt, while a prey to unwonted passions, had
+not yet lost control of his reason, and reason told him
+that impulse was an unsafe guide for him to follow at this
+time. Thought alone&mdash;deep and concentrated thought&mdash;would
+help him out of this crisis with honor and safety.
+But thought would not come at call. In all his quick
+walk home but one mad sentence formulated itself in his
+brain, and that was: "She loves him so, she is willing to
+perjure herself for his sake!" Nor, though he entered
+his door with his usual bustling air and went through all
+the customary observances of the hour with an appearance
+of no greater abstraction and gloom than had characterized
+him ever since the departure of Miss Dare, no
+other idea obtruded itself upon his mind than this: "She
+loves him so, she is willing to perjure herself for his
+sake!"</p>
+
+<p>Even the sight of his books, his papers, and all that
+various paraphernalia of work and study which gives
+character to a lawyer's library, was insufficient to restore
+his mind to its usual condition of calm thought and accurate
+judgment. Not till the clock struck eight and he
+found himself almost without his own volition at Professor
+Darling's house, did he realize all the difficulties of
+his position and the almost intolerable nature of the
+undertaking which had been forced upon him by the
+exigencies of the situation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Miss Dare, who had refused to see him at first, came
+into his presence with an expression that showed him with
+what reluctance she had finally responded to his peremptory
+message. But in the few heavy moments he had
+been obliged to wait, he had schooled himself to expect
+coldness if not absolute rebuff. He therefore took no
+heed of the haughty air of inquiry which she turned upon
+him, but came at once to the point, saying almost before
+she had closed the door:</p>
+
+<p>"What is this you have been doing, Imogene?"</p>
+
+<p>A flush, such as glints across the face of a marble
+statue, visited for a moment the still whiteness of her set
+features, then she replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Orcutt, when I left your house I told you I had
+a wretched and unhappy duty to perform, that, when
+once accomplished, would separate us forever. I have
+done it, and the separation has come; why attempt to
+bridge it?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a sad weariness in her tone, a sad weariness
+in her face, but he seemed to recognize neither. The
+demon jealousy&mdash;that hindrance to all unselfish feeling&mdash;had
+gripped him again, and the words that came to his
+lips were at once bitter and masterful.</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene," he cried, with as much wrath in his tone
+as he had ever betrayed in her presence, "you do not
+answer my question. I ask you what you have been
+doing, and you reply, your duty. Now, what do you
+mean by duty? Tell me at once and distinctly, for I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>
+will no longer be put off by any roundabout phrases concerning
+a matter of such vital importance."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell you?" This repetition of his words had a
+world of secret anguish in it which he could not help but
+notice. She did not succumb to it, however, but continued
+in another moment: "You said to me, in the last
+conversation we held together, that Gouverneur Hildreth
+could not be released from his terrible position without a
+distinct proof of innocence or the advancement of such
+evidence against another as should turn suspicion aside
+from him into a new and more justifiable quarter. I
+could not, any more than he, give a distinct proof of his
+innocence; but I could furnish the authorities with testimony
+calculated to arouse suspicion in a fresh direction,
+and I did it. For Gouverneur Hildreth had to be saved
+at any price&mdash;<i>at any price</i>."</p>
+
+<p>The <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'desparing'">despairing</ins> emphasis she laid upon the last phrase
+went like hot steel to Mr. Orcutt's heart, and made his
+eyes blaze with almost uncontrollable passion.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Je ne vois pas la necessit&eacute;</i>," said he, in that low, restrained
+tone of bitter sarcasm which made his invective
+so dreaded by opposing counsel. "If Gouverneur Hildreth
+finds himself in an unfortunate position, he has
+only his own follies and inordinate desire for this woman's
+death to thank for it. Because you love him and compassionate
+him beyond all measure, that is no reason why
+you should perjure yourself, and throw the burden of his
+shame upon a man as innocent as Mr. Mansell."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But this tone, though it had made many a witness quail
+before it, neither awed nor intimidated her.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you do not understand," came from her white
+lips. "It is Mr. Hildreth who is perfectly innocent, and
+not&mdash;&mdash;" But here she paused. "You will excuse me
+from saying more," she said. "You, as a lawyer, ought
+to know that I should not be compelled to speak on a
+subject like this except under oath."</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene!" A change had passed over Mr. Orcutt.
+"Imogene, do you mean to affirm that you really have
+charges to make against Craik Mansell; that this evidence
+you propose to give is real, and not manufactured for the
+purpose of leading suspicion aside from Hildreth?"</p>
+
+<p>It was an insinuation against her veracity he never
+could have made, or she have listened to, a few weeks before;
+but the shield of her pride was broken between
+them, and neither he nor she seemed to give any thought
+to the reproach conveyed in these words.</p>
+
+<p>"What I have to say is the truth," she murmured.
+"I have not manufactured any thing."</p>
+
+<p>With an astonishment he took no pains to conceal, Mr.
+Orcutt anxiously surveyed her. He could not believe
+this was so, yet how could he convict her of falsehood in
+face of that suffering expression of resolve which she
+wore. His methods as a lawyer came to his relief.</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene," he slowly responded, "if, as you say, you
+are in possession of positive evidence against this Mansell,
+how comes it that you jeopardized the interests of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>
+man you loved by so long withholding your testimony?"</p>
+
+<p>But instead of the flush of confusion which he expected,
+she flashed upon him with a sudden revelation of
+feeling that made him involuntarily start.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I tell you?" she replied. "You will have to
+know some time, and why not now? I kept back the
+truth," she replied, advancing a step, but without raising
+her eyes to his, "because it is not the aspersed Hildreth
+that I love, but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Why did she pause? What was it she found so hard
+to speak? Mr. Orcutt's expression became terrible.</p>
+
+<p>"But the other," she murmured at last.</p>
+
+<p>"The other!"</p>
+
+<p>It was now her turn to start and look at him in surprise,
+if not in some fear.</p>
+
+<p>"What other?" he cried, seizing her by the hand.
+"Name him. I will have no further misunderstanding
+between us."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it necessary?" she asked, with bitterness. "Will
+Heaven spare me nothing?" Then, as she saw no relenting
+in the fixed gaze that held her own, whispered, in
+a hollow tone: "You have just spoken the name yourself&mdash;Craik
+Mansell."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>Incredulity, anger, perplexity, all the emotions that
+were seething in this man's troubled soul, spoke in that
+simple exclamation. Then silence settled upon the room,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>
+during which she gained control over herself, and he the
+semblance of it if no more. She was the first to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," said she, "that this avowal on my part
+seems almost incredible to you; but it is no more so than
+that which you so readily received from me the other day
+in reference to Gouverneur Hildreth. A woman who
+spends a month away from home makes acquaintances
+which she does not always mention when she comes
+back. I saw Mr. Mansell in Buffalo, and&mdash;&mdash;" turning,
+she confronted the lawyer with her large gray eyes, in
+which a fire burned such as he had never seen there
+before&mdash;"and grew to esteem him," she went on. "For
+the first time in my life I found myself in the presence of
+a man whose nature commanded mine. His ambition,
+his determination, his unconventional and forcible character
+woke aspirations within me such as I had never
+known myself capable of before. Life, which had
+stretched out before me with a somewhat monotonous
+outlook, changed to a panorama of varied and wonderful
+experiences, as I listened to his voice and met the glance
+of his eye; and soon, before he knew it, and certainly
+before I realized it, words of love passed between us, and
+the agony of that struggle began which has ended&mdash;&mdash; Ah,
+let me not think how, or I shall go mad!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt, who had watched her with a lover's fascination
+during all this attempted explanation, shivered
+for a moment at this last bitter cry of love and despair,
+but spoke up when he did speak, with a coldness that
+verged on severity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"So you loved another man when you came back to
+my home and listened to the words of passion which
+came from <i>my</i> lips, and the hopes of future bliss and
+happiness that welled up from <i>my</i> heart?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she whispered, "and, as you will remember, I
+tried to suppress those hopes and turn a deaf ear to those
+words, though I had but little prospect of marrying a
+man whose fortunes depended upon the success of an invention
+he could persuade no one to believe in."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you brought yourself to listen to those hopes on
+the afternoon of the murder," he suggested, ironically.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you blame me for that?" she cried, "remembering
+how you pleaded, and what a revulsion of feeling I
+was laboring under?"</p>
+
+<p>A smile bitter as the fate which loomed before him,
+and scornful as the feelings that secretly agitated his
+breast, parted Mr. Orcutt's pale lips for an instant, and
+he seemed about to give utterance to some passionate rejoinder,
+but he subdued himself with a determined effort,
+and quietly waiting till his voice was under full control,
+remarked with lawyer-like brevity at last:</p>
+
+<p>"You have not told me what evidence you have to
+give against young Mansell?"</p>
+
+<p>Her answer came with equal brevity if not equal
+quietness.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I have told Mr. Ferris; is not that enough?"</p>
+
+<p>But he did not consider it so. "Ferris is a District
+Attorney," said he, "and has demanded your confidence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>
+for the purposes of justice, while I am your friend. The
+action you have taken is peculiar, and you may need
+advice. But how can I give it or how can you receive it
+unless there is a complete understanding between us?"</p>
+
+<p>Struck in spite of herself, moved perhaps by a hope she
+had not allowed herself to contemplate before, she looked
+at him long and earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>"And do you really wish to help me?" she inquired.
+"Are you so generous as to forgive the pain, and possibly
+the humiliation, I have inflicted upon you, and lend
+me your assistance in case my testimony works its due
+effect, and he be brought to trial instead of Mr. Hildreth?"</p>
+
+<p>It was a searching and a pregnant question, for which
+Mr. Orcutt was possibly not fully prepared, but his newly
+gained control did not give way.</p>
+
+<p>"I must insist upon hearing the facts before I say any
+thing of my intentions," he averred. "Whatever they
+may be, they cannot be more startling in their character
+than those which have been urged against Hildreth."</p>
+
+<p>"But they are," she whispered. Then with a quick
+look around her, she put her mouth close to Mr. Orcutt's
+ear and breathed:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hildreth is not the only man who, unseen by the
+neighbors, visited Mrs. Clemmens' house on the morning
+of the murder. Craik Mansell was there also."</p>
+
+<p>"Craik Mansell! How do you know that? Ah," he
+pursued, with the scornful intonation of a jealous man,
+"I forgot that you are lovers."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The sneer, natural as it was, perhaps, seemed to go to
+her heart and wake its fiercest indignation.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush," cried she, towering upon him with an ominous
+flash of her proud eye. "Do not turn the knife in
+<i>that</i> wound or you will seal my lips forever." And she
+moved hastily away from his side. But in another instant
+she determinedly returned, saying: "This is no
+time for indulging in one's sensibilities. I affirm that
+Craik Mansell visited his aunt on that day, because the
+ring which was picked up on the floor of her dining-room&mdash;you
+remember the ring, Mr. Orcutt?"</p>
+
+<p>Remember it! Did he not? All his many perplexities
+in its regard crowded upon him as he made a hurried bow
+of acquiescence.</p>
+
+<p>"It belonged to him," she continued. "He had
+bought it for me, or, rather, had had the diamond reset
+for me&mdash;it had been his mother's. Only the day before,
+he had tried to put it on my finger in a meeting we had
+in the woods back of his aunt's house. But I refused to
+allow him. The prospect ahead was too dismal and unrelenting
+for us to betroth ourselves, whatever our hopes
+or wishes might be."</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you had a meeting with this man in the woods
+the day before his aunt was assaulted," echoed Mr. Orcutt,
+turning upon her with an amazement that swallowed
+up his wrath.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And he afterward visited her house?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And dropped that ring there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Starting slowly, as if the thoughts roused by this short
+statement of facts were such as demanded instant consideration,
+Mr. Orcutt walked to the other side of the
+room, where he paced up and down in silence for some
+minutes. When he returned it was the lawyer instead of
+the lover who stood before her.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, it was the simple fact of finding this gentleman's
+ring on the floor of Mrs. Clemmens' dining-room
+that makes you consider him the murderer of his aunt?"
+he asked, with a tinge of something like irony in his
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she breathed rather than answered. "That
+was a proof, of course, that he had been there, but I
+should never have thought of it as an evidence of guilt
+if the woman herself had not uttered, in our hearing
+that tell-tale exclamation of 'Ring and Hand,' and if, in
+the talk I held with Mr. Mansell the day before, he had
+not betrayed&mdash;&mdash; Why do you stop me?" she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not stop you," he hastily assured her. "I am
+too anxious to hear what you have to say. Go on, Imogene.
+What did this Mansell betray? I&mdash;I ask as a
+father might," he added, with some dignity and no little
+effort.</p>
+
+<p>But her fears had taken alarm, or her caution been
+aroused, and she merely said:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The five thousand dollars which his aunt leaves him
+is just the amount he desired to start him in life."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he wish such an amount?" Mr. Orcutt asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Very much."</p>
+
+<p>"And acknowledged it in the conversation he had with
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene," declared the lawyer, "if you do not want
+to insure Mr. Mansell's indictment, I would suggest to
+you not to lay too great stress upon any <i>talk</i> you may
+have held with him."</p>
+
+<p>But she cried with unmoved sternness, and a relentless
+crushing down of all emotion that was at once amazing
+and painful to see:</p>
+
+<p>"The innocent is to be saved from the gallows, no
+matter what the fate of the guilty may be."</p>
+
+<p>And a short but agitated silence followed which Mr.
+Orcutt broke at last by saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Are these all the facts you have to give me?"</p>
+
+<p>She started, cast him a quick look, bowed her head,
+and replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>There was something in the tone of this assertion that
+made him repeat his question.</p>
+
+<p>"Are these <i>all</i> the facts you have to give me?"</p>
+
+<p>Her answer came ringing and emphatic now.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she avowed&mdash;"all."</p>
+
+<p>With a look of relief, slowly smoothing out the deep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>
+furrows of his brow, Mr. Orcutt, for the second time,
+walked thoughtfully away in evident consultation with his
+own thoughts. This time he was gone so long, the suspense
+became almost intolerable to Imogene. Feeling
+that she could endure it no longer, she followed him at
+last, and laid her hand upon his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak," she impetuously cried. "Tell me what you
+think; what I have to expect."</p>
+
+<p>But he shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait," he returned; "wait till the Grand Jury has
+brought in a bill of indictment. It will, doubtless, be
+against one of these two men; but I must know which,
+before I can say or do any thing."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you think there can be any doubt about
+which of these two it will be?" she inquired, with sudden
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"There is always doubt," he rejoined, "about any thing
+or every thing a body of men may do. This is a very
+remarkable case, Imogene," he resumed, with increased
+sombreness; "the most remarkable one, perhaps, that
+has ever come under my observation. What the Grand
+Jury will think of it; upon which party, Mansell or Hildreth,
+the weight of their suspicion will fall, neither I nor
+Ferris, nor any other man, can prophesy with any assurance.
+The evidence against both is, in so far as we know,
+entirely circumstantial. That you believe Mr. Mansell
+to be the guilty party&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Believe!" she murmured; "I know it."</p>
+
+<p>"That you <i>believe</i> him to be the guilty party," the wary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span>
+lawyer pursued, as if he had not heard her "does not
+imply that they will believe it too. Hildreth comes of a
+bad stock, and his late attempt at suicide tells wonderfully
+against him; yet, the facts you have to give in
+Mansell's disfavor are strong also, and Heaven only
+knows what the upshot will be. However, a few weeks
+will determine all that, and then&mdash;&mdash;" Pausing, he
+looked at her, and, as he did so, the austerity and self-command
+of the lawyer vanished out of sight, and the
+passionate gleam of a fierce and overmastering love
+shone again in his eyes. "And then," he cried, "then
+we will see what Tremont Orcutt can do to bring order
+out of this chaos."</p>
+
+<p>There was so much resolve in his look, such a hint of
+promise in his tone, that she flushed with something
+almost akin to hope.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, generous&mdash;&mdash;" she began.</p>
+
+<p>But he stopped her before she could say more.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait," he repeated; "wait till we see what action
+will be taken by the Grand Jury." And taking her hand,
+he looked earnestly, if not passionately, in her face.
+"Imogene," he commenced, "if I should succeed&mdash;&mdash;"
+But there he himself stopped short with a quick recalling
+of his own words, perhaps. "No," he cried, "I will say
+no more till we see which of these two men is to be
+brought to trial." And, pressing her hand to his lips, he
+gave her one last look in which was concentrated all the
+secret passions which had been called forth by this hour,
+and hastily left the room.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>A TRUE BILL.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Come to me, friend or foe,<br />
+And tell me who is victor, York or Warwick.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Henry VI.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THE town of Sibley was in a state of excitement.
+About the court-house especially the crowd was
+great and the interest manifested intense. The Grand
+Jury was in session, and the case of the Widow Clemmens
+was before it.</div>
+
+<p>As all the proceedings of this body are private, the
+suspense of those interested in the issue was naturally
+very great. The name of the man lastly suspected of the
+crime had transpired, and both Hildreth and Mansell
+had their partisans, though the mystery surrounding the
+latter made his friends less forward in asserting his innocence
+than those of the more thoroughly understood Hildreth.
+Indeed, the ignorance felt on all sides as to the
+express reasons for associating the name of Mrs. Clemmens'
+nephew with his aunt's murder added much to the
+significance of the hour. Conjectures were plenty and
+the wonder great, but the causes why this man, or any
+other, should lie under a suspicion equal to that raised
+against Hildreth at the inquest was a mystery that none
+could solve.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But what is the curiosity of the rabble to us? Our interest
+is in a little room far removed from this scene of
+excitement, where the young daughter of Professor
+Darling kneels by the side of Imogene Dare, striving by
+caress and entreaty to win a word from her lips or a
+glance from her heavy eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene," she pleaded,&mdash;"Imogene, what is this
+terrible grief? Why did you have to go to the court-house
+this morning with papa, and why have you been
+almost dead with terror and misery ever since you got
+back? Tell me, or I shall perish of mere fright. For
+weeks now, ever since you were so good as to help me
+with my wedding-clothes, I have seen that something
+dreadful was weighing upon your mind, but this which
+you are suffering now is awful; this I cannot bear. Cannot
+you speak dear? Words will do you good."</p>
+
+<p>"Words!"</p>
+
+<p>Oh, the despair, the bitterness of that single exclamation!
+Miss Darling drew back in dismay. As if released,
+Imogene rose to her feet and surveyed the sweet and ingenuous
+countenance uplifted to her own, with a look of
+faint recognition of the womanly sympathy it conveyed.</p>
+
+<p>"Helen," she resumed, "you are happy. Don't stay
+here with me, but go where there are cheerfulness and
+hope."</p>
+
+<p>"But I cannot while you suffer so. I love you,
+Imogene. Would you drive me away from your side
+when you are so unhappy? You don't care for me as I
+do for you or you could not do it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Helen!" The deep tone made the sympathetic little
+bride-elect quiver. "Helen, some griefs are best
+borne alone. Only a few hours now and I shall know
+the worst. Leave me."</p>
+
+<p>But the gentle little creature was not to be driven away.
+She only clung the closer and pleaded the more earnestly:</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, tell me!"</p>
+
+<p>The reiteration of this request was too much for the
+pallid woman before her. Laying her two hands on the
+shoulders of this child, she drew back and looked her earnestly
+in the face.</p>
+
+<p>"Helen," she cried, "what do you know of earthly
+anguish? A petted child, the favorite of happy fortune,
+you have been kept from evil as from a blight. None of
+the annoyances of life have been allowed to enter
+your path, much less its griefs and sins. Terror with you
+is but a name, remorse an unknown sensation. Even
+your love has no depths in it such as suffering gives. Yet,
+since you do love, and love well, perhaps you can understand
+something of what a human soul can endure who
+sees its only hope and only love tottering above a gulf
+too horrible for words to describe&mdash;a gulf, too, which her
+own hand&mdash;&mdash; But no, I cannot tell you. I overrated
+my strength. I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She sank back, but the next moment started again to
+her feet: a servant had opened the door.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it!" she exclaimed; "speak, tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"Only a gentleman to see you, miss."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Only a&mdash;&mdash;" But she stopped in that vain repetition
+of the girl's simple words, and looked at her as if she
+would force from her lips the name she had not the courage
+to demand; but, failing to obtain it, turned away to
+the glass, where she quietly smoothed her hair and adjusted
+the lace at her throat, and then catching sight of
+the tear-stained face of Helen, stooped and gave her a
+kiss, after which she moved mechanically to the door and
+went down those broad flights, one after one, till she came
+to the parlor, when she went in and encountered&mdash;Mr.
+Orcutt.</p>
+
+<p>A glance at his face told her all she wanted to know.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" she gasped, "it is then&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mansell!"</p>
+
+<p>It was five minutes later. Imogene leaned against the
+window where she had withdrawn herself at the utterance
+of that one word. Mr. Orcutt stood a couple of paces
+behind her.</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene," said he, "there is a question I would like
+to have you answer."</p>
+
+<p>The feverish agitation expressed in his tone made her
+look around.</p>
+
+<p>"Put it," she mechanically replied.</p>
+
+<p>But he did not find it easy to do this, while her eyes
+rested upon him in such despair. He felt, however, that
+the doubt in his mind must be satisfied at all hazards; so
+choking down an emotion that was almost as boundless as
+her own, he ventured to ask:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Is it among the possibilities that you could ever
+again contemplate giving yourself in marriage to Craik
+Mansell, no matter what the issue of the coming trial may
+be?"</p>
+
+<p>A shudder quick and powerful as that which follows the
+withdrawal of a dart from an agonizing wound shook her
+whole frame for a moment, but she answered, steadily:</p>
+
+<p>"No; how can you ask, Mr. Orcutt?"</p>
+
+<p>A gleam of relief shot across his somewhat haggard
+features.</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said he, "it will be no treason in me to assure
+you that never has my love been greater for you than to-day.
+That to save you from the pain which you are suffering,
+I would sacrifice every thing, even my pride. If,
+therefore, there is any kindness I can show you, any deed
+I can perform for your sake, I am ready to attempt it,
+Imogene.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you&mdash;" she hesitated, but gathered courage
+as she met his eye&mdash;"would you be willing to go to him
+with a message from me?"</p>
+
+<p>His glance fell and his lips took a line that startled
+Imogene, but his answer, though given with bitterness
+was encouraging.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he returned; "even that."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," she cried, "tell him that to save the innocent,
+I had to betray the guilty, but in doing this I did not
+spare myself; that whatever his doom may be, I shall
+share it, even though it be that of death."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Imogene!"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you tell him?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>But he would not have been a man, much less a lover,
+if he could answer that question now. Seizing her by the
+arm, he looked her wildly in the face.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to kill yourself?" he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel I shall not live," she gasped, while her hand
+went involuntarily to her heart.</p>
+
+<p>He gazed at her in horror.</p>
+
+<p>"And if he is cleared?" he hoarsely ejaculated.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I shall try to endure my fate."</p>
+
+<p>He gave her another long, long look.</p>
+
+<p>"So this is the alternative you give me?" he bitterly
+exclaimed. "I must either save this man or see you
+perish. Well," he declared, after a few minutes' further
+contemplation of her face, "I will save this man&mdash;that is,
+if he will allow me to do so."</p>
+
+<p>A flash of joy such as he had not perceived on her
+countenance for weeks transformed its marble-like severity
+into something of its pristine beauty.</p>
+
+<p>"And you will take him my message also?" she cried.</p>
+
+<p>But to this he shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"If I am to approach him as a lawyer willing to undertake
+his cause, don't you see I can give him no such
+message as that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes, yes. But you can tell him Imogene Dare
+has risked her own life and happiness to save the innocent."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I will tell him whatever I can to show your pity and
+your misery."</p>
+
+<p>And she had to content herself with this. In the light
+of the new hope that was thus unexpectedly held out to
+her, it did not seem so difficult. Giving Mr. Orcutt her
+hand, she endeavored to thank him, but the reaction from
+her long suspense was too much, and, for the first time
+in her brave young life, Imogene lost consciousness and
+fainted quite away.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXV.</h2>
+
+<h3>AMONG TELESCOPES AND CHARTS.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+Tarry a little&mdash;there is something else.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Merchant of Venice.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>GOUVERNEUR HILDRETH was discharged
+and Craik Mansell committed to prison to await
+his trial.</div>
+
+<p>Horace Byrd, who no longer had any motive for remaining
+in Sibley, had completed all his preparations to
+return to New York. His valise was packed, his adieus
+made, and nothing was left for him to do but to step
+around to the station, when he bethought him of a certain
+question he had not put to Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>Seeking him out, he propounded it.</p>
+
+<p>"Hickory," said he, "have you ever discovered in the
+course of your inquiries where Miss Dare was on the
+morning of the murder?"</p>
+
+<p>The stalwart detective, who was in a very contented
+frame of mind, answered up with great cheeriness:</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't I, though! It was one of the very first
+things I made sure of. She was at Professor Darling's
+house on Summer Avenue."</p>
+
+<p>"At Professor Darling's house?" Mr. Byrd felt a
+sensation of dismay. Professor Darling's house was, as
+you remember, in almost direct communication with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span>
+Mrs. Clemmens' cottage by means of a path through the
+woods. As Mr. Byrd recalled his first experience in
+threading those woods, and remembered with what suddenness
+he had emerged from them only to find himself
+in full view of the West Side and Professor Darling's
+spacious villa, he stared uneasily at his colleague and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"It is train time, Hickory, but I cannot help that.
+Before I leave this town I must know just what she was
+doing on that morning, and whom she was with. Can
+you find out?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Can I find out?</i>"</p>
+
+<p>The hardy detective was out of the door before the
+last word of this scornful repetition had left his lips.</p>
+
+<p>He was gone an hour. When he returned he looked
+very much excited.</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" he ejaculated, breathlessly, "I have had an
+experience."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd gave him a look, saw something he did not
+like in his face, and moved uneasily in his chair.</p>
+
+<p>"You have?" he retorted. "What is it? Speak."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," the other resumed, "that the hardest
+thing I ever had to do was to keep my head down in the
+hut the other day, and deny myself a look at the woman
+who could bear herself so bravely in the midst of a scene
+so terrible. Well," he went on, "I have to-day been rewarded
+for my self-control. I have seen Miss Dare."</p>
+
+<p>Horace Byrd could scarcely restrain his impatience.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Where?" he demanded. "How? Tell a fellow,
+can't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to," protested Hickory. "Cannot you
+wait a minute? <i>I</i> had to wait forty. Well," he continued
+more pleasantly as he saw the other frown, "I
+went to Professor Darling's. There is a girl there I have
+talked to before, and I had no difficulty in seeing her or
+getting a five minutes' chat with her at the back-gate.
+Odd how such girls will talk! She told me in three
+minutes all I wanted to know. Not that it was so much,
+only&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Do get on," interrupted Mr. Byrd. "When did Miss
+Dare come to the house on the morning Mrs. Clemmens
+was murdered, and what did she do while there?"</p>
+
+<p>"She came early; by ten o'clock or so, I believe, and
+she sat, if she did sit, in an observatory they have at the
+top of the house: a place where she often used to go, I
+am told, to study astronomy with Professor Darling's
+oldest daughter."</p>
+
+<p>"And was Miss Darling with her that morning? Did
+they study together all the time she was in the house?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; that is, the girl said no one went up to the observatory
+with Miss Dare; that Miss Darling did not
+happen to be at home that day, and Miss Dare had to
+study alone. Hearing this," pursued Hickory, answering
+the look of impatience in the other's face, "I had a
+curiosity to interview the observatory, and being&mdash;well,
+not a clumsy fellow at softsoaping a girl&mdash;I at last succeeded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span>
+in prevailing upon her to take me up. Byrd, will
+you believe me when I tell you that we did it without going
+into the house?"</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean," corrected the other, "without entering the
+main part of the building. The professor's house has a
+tower, you know, at the upper angle toward the woods,
+and it is in the top of that tower he keeps his telescopes
+and all that kind of thing. The tower has a special
+staircase of its own. It is a spiral one, and opens on
+a door below that connects directly with the garden.
+We went up these stairs."</p>
+
+<p>"You dared to?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; the girl assured me every one was out of the
+house but the servants, and I believed her. We went up
+the stairs, entered the observatory&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not kept locked, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was not locked to-day&mdash;saw the room, which is a
+curious one&mdash;glanced out over the view, which is well
+worth seeing, and then&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe I stood still and asked the girl a question or
+two more. I inquired," he went on, deprecating the
+other's impatience by a wave of his nervous hand, "when
+Miss Dare came down from this place on the morning
+you remember. She answered that she couldn't quite
+tell; that she wouldn't have remembered any thing about
+it at all, only that Miss Tremaine came to the house that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span>
+morning, and wanting to see Miss Dare, ordered her to
+go up to the observatory and tell that lady to come down,
+and that she went, but to her surprise did not find Miss
+Dare there, though she was sure she had not gone home,
+or, at least, hadn't taken any of the cars that start from
+the front of the house, for she had looked at them every
+one as they went by the basement window where she was
+at work."</p>
+
+<p>"The girl said this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, standing in the door of this small room, and
+looking me straight in the eye."</p>
+
+<p>"And did you ask her nothing more? Say nothing about
+the time, Hickory, or&mdash;or inquire where she supposed
+Miss Dare to have gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I asked her all this. I am not without curiosity
+any more than you are, Mr. Byrd."</p>
+
+<p>"And she replied?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, as to the time, that it was somewhere before noon.
+Her reason for being sure of this was that Miss Tremaine
+declined to wait till another effort had been made to find
+Miss Dare, saying she had an engagement at twelve which
+she did not wish to break."</p>
+
+<p>"And the girl's notions about where Miss Dare had
+gone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Such as you expect, Byrd. She said she did not
+know any thing about it, but that Miss Dare often went
+strolling in the garden, or even in the woods when she
+came to Professor Darling's house, and that she supposed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span>
+she had gone off on some such walk at this time, for, at
+one o'clock or thereabouts, she saw her pass in the
+horse-car on her way back to the town."</p>
+
+<p>"Hickory, I wish you had not told me this just as I am
+going back to the city."</p>
+
+<p>"Wish I had not told it, or wish I had not gone to
+Professor Darling's house as you requested?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wish you had not told it. I dare not wish the other.
+But you spoke of seeing Miss Dare; how was that?
+Where did you run across her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you want to hear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"But I thought&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never mind, old boy; tell me the whole now, as
+long as you have told me any. Was she in the
+house?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you. I had asked the girl all these questions,
+as I have said, and was about to leave the observatory
+and go below when I thought I would cast another
+glance around the curious old place, and in doing so
+caught a glimpse of a huge portfolio of charts, as I
+supposed, standing upright in a rack that stretched
+across the further portion of the room. Somehow my
+heart misgave me when I saw this rack, and, scarcely
+conscious what it was I feared, I crossed the floor and
+looked behind the portfolio. Byrd, there was a woman
+crouched there&mdash;a woman whose pallid cheeks and
+burning eyes lifted to meet my own, told me only too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span>
+plainly that it was Miss Dare. I have had many experiences,"
+Hickory allowed, after a moment, "and
+some of them any thing but pleasant to myself, but I
+don't think I ever felt just as I did at that instant. I
+believe I attempted a bow&mdash;I don't remember; or, at
+least, tried to murmur some excuse, but the look that
+came into her face paralyzed me, and I stopped before
+I had gotten very far, and waited to hear what she
+would say. But she did not say much; she merely
+rose, and, turning toward me, exclaimed: 'No apologies;
+you are a detective, I suppose?' And when I
+nodded, or made some other token that she had guessed
+correctly, she merely remarked, flashing upon me, however,
+in a way I do not yet understand: 'Well, you
+have got what you desired, and now can go.' And I
+went, Byrd, went; and I felt puzzled, I don't know
+why, and a little bit sore about the heart, too, as
+if&mdash;&mdash; Well, I can't even tell what I mean by that <i>if</i>.
+The only thing I am sure of is, that Mansell's cause
+hasn't been helped by this day's job, and that if this
+lady is asked on the witness stand where she was during
+the hour every one believed her to be safely shut
+up with the telescopes and charts, we shall hear&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that she <i>was</i> shut up with them, most likely.
+Women like her are not to be easily disconcerted even on
+the witness stand."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>"HE SHALL HEAR ME!"</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+There's some ill planet reigns;<br />
+I must be patient till the heavens look<br />
+With an aspect more favorable.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Winter's Tale.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THE time is midnight, the day the same as that
+which saw this irruption of Hickory into Professor
+Darling's observatory; the scene that of Miss
+Dare's own room in the northeast tower. She is standing
+before a table with a letter in her hand and a look
+upon her face that, if seen, would have added much to
+the puzzlement of the detectives.</div>
+
+<p>The letter was from Mr. Orcutt and ran thus:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I have seen Mr. Mansell, and have engaged myself to undertake
+his defence. When I tell you that out of the hundreds of cases I
+have tried in my still short life, I have lost but a small percentage,
+you will understand what this means.</p>
+
+<p>In pursuance to your wishes, I mentioned your name to the
+prisoner with an intimation that I had a message from you to deliver.
+But he stopped me before I could utter a word. "I receive no communication
+from Miss Dare!" he declared, and, anxious as I really
+was to do your bidding, I was compelled to refrain; for his tone was
+one of hatred and his look that of ineffable scorn.</p></div>
+
+<p>This was all, but it was enough. Imogene had read
+these words over three times, and now was ready to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span>
+plunge the letter into the flame of a candle to destroy it.
+As it burned, her grief and indignation took words:</p>
+
+<p>"He is alienated, completely alienated," she gasped;
+"and I do not wonder. But," and here the full majesty
+of her nature broke forth in one grand gesture, "he shall
+hear me yet! As there is a God above, he shall hear me
+yet, even if it has to be in the open court and in the
+presence of judge and jury!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span></p>
+<h2>BOOK III.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE SCALES OF JUSTICE.</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>XXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GREAT TRIAL.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<i>Othello.</i>&mdash;What dost thou think?<br />
+<i>Iago.</i>&mdash; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Think, my lord?<br />
+<i>Othello.</i>&mdash;By heav'n, he echoes me.<br />
+As if there was some monster in his thought<br />
+Too hideous to be shown.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Othello.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>SIBLEY was in a stir. Sibley was the central point
+of interest for the whole country. The great trial
+was in progress and the curiosity of the populace knew
+no bounds.</div>
+
+<p>In a room of the hotel sat our two detectives. They
+had just come from the court-house. Both seemed inclined
+to talk, though both showed an indisposition to
+open the conversation. A hesitation lay between them;
+a certain thin vail of embarrassment that either one would
+have found it hard to explain, and yet which sufficed to
+make their intercourse a trifle uncertain in its character,
+though Hickory's look had lost none of its rude good-humor,
+and Byrd's manner was the same mixture of easy
+nonchalance and quiet self-possession it had always been.</p>
+
+<p>It was Hickory who spoke at last.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, Byrd?" was his suggestive exclamation.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Hickory?" was the quiet reply.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of the case so far?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think"&mdash;the words came somewhat slowly&mdash;"I
+think that it looks bad. Bad for the prisoner, I mean,"
+he explained the next moment with a quick flush.</p>
+
+<p>"Your sympathies are evidently with Mansell,"
+Hickory quietly remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the slow reply. "Not that I think him innocent,
+or would turn a hair's breadth from the truth to
+serve him."</p>
+
+<p>"He <i>is</i> a manly fellow," Hickory bluntly admitted,
+after a moment's puff at the pipe he was smoking.
+"Do you remember the peculiar straightforwardness of
+his look when he uttered his plea of 'Not guilty,' and the
+tone he used too, so quiet, yet so emphatic? You could
+have heard a pin drop."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," returned Mr. Byrd, with a quick contraction of
+his usually smooth brow.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you noticed," the other broke forth, after
+another puff, "a certain curious air of disdain that he
+wears?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was again the short reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what it means?" queried Hickory carelessly,
+knocking the ashes out of his pipe.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd flashed a quick askance look at his colleague
+from under his half-fallen lids, but made no
+answer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is not pride alone," resumed the rough-and-ready
+detective, half-musingly; "though he's as proud as the
+best of 'em. Neither is it any sort of make-believe, or <i>I</i>
+wouldn't be caught by it. 'Tis&mdash;'tis&mdash;what?" And
+Hickory rubbed his nose with his thoughtful forefinger,
+and looked inquiringly at Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"How should I know?" remarked the other, tossing
+his stump of a cigar into the fire. "Mr. Mansell is too
+deep a problem for me."</p>
+
+<p>"And Miss Dare too?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>And</i> Miss Dare."</p>
+
+<p>Silence followed this admission, which Hickory broke
+at last by observing:</p>
+
+<p>"The day that sees <i>her</i> on the witness stand will be interesting,
+eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not far off," declared Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"No?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think she will be called as a witness to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you noticed," began Hickory again, after another
+short interval of quiet contemplation, "that it is
+only when Miss Dare is present that Mansell wears the
+look of scorn I have just mentioned."</p>
+
+<p>"Hickory," said Mr. Byrd, wheeling directly about in
+his chair and for the first time surveying his colleague
+squarely, "I have noticed <i>this</i>. That ever since the day
+she made her first appearance in the court-room, she has
+sat with her eyes fixed earnestly upon the prisoner, and
+that he has never answered her look by so much as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>
+glance in her direction. This has but one explanation as
+I take it. He never forgets that it is through her he has
+been brought to trial for his life."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd uttered this very distinctly, and with a decided
+emphasis. But the impervious Hickory only settled himself
+farther back in his chair, and stretching his feet out
+toward the fire, remarked dryly:</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I am not much of a judge of human nature,
+but I should have said now that this Mansell was not
+a man to treat her contemptuously for that. Rage he
+might show or hatred, but this quiet ignoring of her
+presence seems a little too dignified for a criminal facing
+a person he has every reason to believe is convinced
+of his guilt."</p>
+
+<p>"Ordinary rules don't apply to this man. Neither you
+nor I can sound his nature. If he displays contempt, it
+is because he is of the sort to feel it for the woman who
+has betrayed him."</p>
+
+<p>"You make him out mean-spirited, then, as well
+as wicked?"</p>
+
+<p>"I make him out human. More than that," Mr. Byrd
+resumed, after a moment's thought, "I make him out consistent.
+A man who lets his passions sway him to the extent
+of committing a murder for the purpose of satisfying
+his love or his ambition, is not of the unselfish cast that
+would appreciate such a sacrifice as Miss Dare has made.
+This under the supposition that our reasons for believing
+him guilty are well founded. If our suppositions are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span>
+false, and the crime was not committed by him, his contempt
+needs no explanation."</p>
+
+<p>"Just so!"</p>
+
+<p>The peculiar tone in which this was uttered caused Mr.
+Byrd to flash another quick look at his colleague.
+Hickory did not seem to observe it.</p>
+
+<p>"What makes you think Miss Dare will be called
+to the witness stand to-morrow?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Well I will tell you," returned Byrd, with the sudden
+vivacity of one glad to turn the current of conversation
+into a fresh channel. "If you have followed the method
+of the prosecution as I have done, you will have noticed
+that it has advanced to its point by definite stages.
+First, witnesses were produced to prove the existence of
+motive on the part of the accused. Mr. Goodman
+was called to the witness stand, and, after him, other
+business men of Buffalo, all of whom united in unqualified
+assertions of the prisoner's frequently-expressed desire for
+a sum of money sufficient to put his invention into
+practical use. Next, the amount considered necessary
+for this purpose was ascertained and found to be just
+covered by the legacy bequeathed him by his aunt; after
+which, ample evidence was produced to show that he
+knew the extent of her small fortune, and the fact
+that she had by her will made him her heir. Motive for
+the crime being thus established, they now proceeded to
+prove that he was not without actual opportunity for perpetrating
+it. He was shown to have been in Sibley at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span>
+time of the murder. The station-master at Monteith was
+confronted with the prisoner, also old Sally Perkins.
+Then you and I came before the court with our testimony,
+and whatever doubt may have remained as to his
+having been in a position to effect his aunt's death,
+and afterward escape unnoticed by means of the path
+leading over the hills to Monteith Quarry station, was
+swept away. What remains? To connect him with the
+murder itself, by some, strong link of circumstantial evidence,
+such as the ring provides. And who is it that
+can give testimony regarding the ring?&mdash;Miss Dare."</p>
+
+<p>"Hem! Well, she will do it," was the dry remark of
+Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>"She will be obliged to do it," was the emphatic response
+of Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>And again their glances crossed in a furtive way both
+seemed ready to ignore.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of Orcutt?" Hickory next inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"He is very quiet."</p>
+
+<p>"Too quiet, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps. Folks that know him well declare they
+never before saw him conduct a case in so temperate a
+manner. He has scarcely made an effort at cross-examination,
+and, in fact, has thus far won nothing for the
+defence except that astonishing tribute to the prisoner's
+character given by Mr. Goodman."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Goodman is Mansell's friend."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I know it; but his short, decisive statements told
+upon the jury. Such a man as he made Mansell out to
+be is just the sort to create an impression on a body of
+men like them."</p>
+
+<p>"Orcutt understands a jury."</p>
+
+<p>"Orcutt understands his case. He knows he can
+make nothing by attempting to shake the evidence which
+has been presented by the prosecution; the facts are too
+clear, and the witnesses which have been called to testify
+are of too reliable a character. Whatever defence he
+contemplates, it will not rest upon a denial of any of the
+facts brought to light through our efforts, or the evidence
+of such persons as Messrs. Goodman and Harrison."</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"The question is, then, in what will it lie? Some
+strong point, I warrant you, or he would not hold himself
+and his plans so completely in reserve. But what strong
+point? I acknowledge the uncertainty troubles me."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't wonder," rejoined Hickory. "So it does
+me."</p>
+
+<p>And a constraint again fell between them that lasted
+till Hickory put his pipe in his pocket and signified his
+intention of returning to his own apartments.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CHIEF WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Oh, while you live tell truth and shame the devil!<br />
+<div class='sig'>
+&mdash;<span class="smcap">Henry IV.</span></div><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>MR. BYRD'S countenance after the departure of
+his companion was any thing but cheerful. The
+fact is, he was secretly uneasy. He dreaded the morrow.
+He dreaded the testimony of Miss Dare. He had not yet
+escaped so fully from under the dominion of her fascinations
+as to regard with equanimity this unhappy woman
+forcing herself to give testimony compromising to the
+man she loved.</div>
+
+<p>Yet when the morrow came he was among the first to
+secure a seat in the court-room. Though the scene was
+likely to be harrowing to his feelings, he had no wish to
+lose it, and, indeed, chose such a position as would give
+him the best opportunity for observing the prisoner and
+surveying the witnesses.</p>
+
+<p>He was not the only one on the look-out for the testimony
+of Miss Dare. The increased number of the spectators
+and the general air of expectation visible in more
+than one of the chief actors in this terrible drama gave
+suspicious proof of the fact; even if the deadly pallor of
+the lady herself had not revealed her own feelings in
+regard to the subject.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The entrance of the prisoner was more marked, too,
+than usual. His air and manner were emphasized, so to
+speak, and his face, when he turned it toward the jury,
+wore an iron look of resolution that would have made
+him conspicuous had he occupied a less prominent position
+than that of the dock.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dare, who had flashed her eyes toward him at the
+moment of his first appearance, dropped them again, contrary
+to her usual custom. Was it because she knew the
+moment was at hand when their glances would be obliged
+to meet?</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt, whom no movement on the part of Miss
+Dare ever escaped, leaned over and spoke to the prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Mansell," said he, "are you prepared to submit
+with composure to the ordeal of confronting Miss Dare?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the stern reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I would then advise you to look at her now," proceeded
+his counsel. "She is not turned this way, and
+you can observe her without encountering her glance. A
+quick look at this moment may save you from betraying
+any undue emotion when you see her upon the stand."</p>
+
+<p>The accused smiled with a bitterness Mr. Orcutt
+thought perfectly natural, and slowly prepared to obey.
+As he raised his eyes and allowed them to traverse the
+room until they settled upon the countenance of the
+woman he loved, this other man who, out of a still more
+absorbing passion for Imogene, was at that very moment
+doing all that lay in his power for the saving of this his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>
+openly acknowledged rival, watched him with the closest
+and most breathless attention. It was another instance
+of that peculiar fascination which a successful rival has
+for an unsuccessful one. It was as if this great lawyer's
+thoughts reverted to his love, and he asked himself:
+"What is there in this Mansell that she should prefer him
+to me?"</p>
+
+<p>And Orcutt himself, though happily unaware of the
+fact, was at that same instant under a scrutiny as narrow
+as that he bestowed upon his client. Mr. Ferris, who
+knew his secret, felt a keen interest in watching how he
+would conduct himself at this juncture. Not an expression
+of the lawyer's keen and puzzling eye but was seen
+by the District Attorney and noted, even if it was not
+understood.</p>
+
+<p>Of the three, Mr. Ferris was the first to turn away, and
+his thoughts if they could have been put into words might
+have run something like this: "That man"&mdash;meaning
+Orcutt&mdash;"is doing the noblest work one human being
+can perform for another, and yet there is something in his
+face I do not comprehend. Can it be he hopes to win
+Miss Dare by his effort to save his rival?"</p>
+
+<p>As for the thoughts of the person thus unconsciously
+subjected to the criticism of his dearest friend, let our
+knowledge of the springs that govern his action serve to
+interpret both the depth and bitterness of his curiosity;
+while the sentiments of Mansell&mdash;&mdash; But who can read
+what lurks behind the iron of that sternly composed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span>
+countenance? Not Imogene, not Orcutt, not Ferris.
+His secret, if he owns one, he keeps well, and his lids
+scarcely quiver as he drops them over the eyes that but a
+moment before reflected the grand beauty of the unfortunate
+woman for whom he so lately protested the most
+fervent love.</p>
+
+<p>The next moment the court was opened and Miss
+Dare's name was called by the District Attorney.</p>
+
+<p>With a last look at the unresponsive prisoner, Imogene
+rose, took her place on the witness stand and faced the
+jury.</p>
+
+<p>It was a memorable moment. If the curious and impressible
+crowd of spectators about her had been ignorant
+of her true relations to the accused, the deadly
+stillness and immobility of her bearing would have convinced
+them that emotion of the deepest nature lay
+behind the still, white mask she had thought fit to assume.
+That she was beautiful and confronted them from that
+common stand as from a throne, did not serve to lessen
+the impression she made.</p>
+
+<p>The officer held the Bible toward her. With a look
+that Mr. Byrd was fain to consider one of natural shrinking
+only, she laid her white hand upon it; but at the intimation
+from the officer, "The right hand, if you please,
+miss," she started and made the exchange he suggested,
+while at the same moment there rang upon her ear the
+voice of the clerk as he administered the awful adjuration
+that she should, as she believed and hoped in Eternal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span>
+mercy, tell the truth as between this man and the law and
+keep not one tittle back. The book was then lifted to her
+lips by the officer, and withdrawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Take your seat, Miss Dare," said the District Attorney.
+And the examination began.</p>
+
+<p>"Your name, if you please?"</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene Dare."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you married or single?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am single."</p>
+
+<p>"Where were you born?"</p>
+
+<p>Now this was a painful question to one of her history.
+Indeed, she showed it to be so by the flush which rose to
+her cheek and by the decided trembling of her proud lip.
+But she did not seek to evade it.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," she said, "I cannot answer you. I never heard
+any of the particulars of my birth. I was a foundling."</p>
+
+<p>The mingled gentleness and dignity with which she
+made this acknowledgment won for her the instantaneous
+sympathy of all present. Mr. Orcutt saw this, and
+the flash of indignation that had involuntarily passed
+between him and the prisoner subsided as quickly as it
+arose.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris went on.</p>
+
+<p>"Where do you live?"</p>
+
+<p>"In this town?"</p>
+
+<p>"With whom do you live?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am boarding <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'a'">at</ins> present with a woman of the name
+of Kennedy. I support myself by my needle," she hurriedly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span>
+added, as though anxious to forestall his next
+question.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing the prisoner start at this, Imogene lifted her
+head still higher. Evidently this former lover of hers
+knew little of her movements since they parted so many
+weeks ago.</p>
+
+<p>"And how long is it since you supported yourself in
+this way?" asked the District Attorney.</p>
+
+<p>"For a few weeks only. Formerly," she said, making
+a slight inclination in the direction of the prisoner's
+counsel, "I lived in the household of Mr. Orcutt, where
+I occupied the position of assistant to the lady who looks
+after his domestic affairs." And her eye met the
+lawyer's with a look of pride that made him inwardly
+cringe, though not even the jealous glance of the prisoner
+could detect that an eyelash quivered or a flicker disturbed
+the studied serenity of his gaze.</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney opened his lips as if to pursue
+this topic, but, meeting his opponent's eye, concluded to
+waive further preliminaries and proceed at once to the
+more serious part of the examination.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," said he, "will you look at the prisoner
+and tell us if you have any acquaintance with him?"</p>
+
+<p>Slowly she prepared to reply; slowly she turned her
+head and let her glance traverse that vast crowd till it
+settled upon her former lover. The look which passed
+like lightning across her face as she encountered his gaze
+fixed for the first time steadily upon her own, no one in
+that assemblage ever forgot.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she returned, quietly, but in a tone that made
+Mansell quiver and look away, despite his iron self-command;
+"I know him."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you be kind enough to say how long you have
+known him and where it was you first made his acquaintance?"</p>
+
+<p>"I met him first in Buffalo some four months since,"
+was the steady reply. "He was calling at a friend's
+house where I was staying."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you at that time know of his relation to your
+townswoman, Mrs. Clemmens?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. It was not till I had seen him several
+times that I learned he had any connections in Sibley."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, you will excuse me, but it is highly
+desirable for the court to know if the prisoner ever paid
+his addresses to you?"</p>
+
+<p>The deep, almost agonizing blush that colored her
+white cheek answered as truly as the slow "Yes," that
+struggled painfully to her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;excuse me again, Miss Dare&mdash;did he propose
+marriage to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you accept him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you refuse him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I refused to engage myself to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, will you tell us when you left Buffalo?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the nineteenth day of August last."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Did the prisoner accompany you?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did not."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon what sort of terms did you part?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good terms, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean friendly terms, or such as are held by
+a man and a woman between whom an attachment exists
+which, under favorable circumstances, may culminate in
+marriage?"</p>
+
+<p>"The latter, sir, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you receive any letters from the prisoner after
+your return to Sibley?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And did you answer them?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, may I now ask what reasons you gave
+the prisoner for declining his offer&mdash;that is, if my friend
+does not object to the question?" added the District
+Attorney, turning with courtesy toward Mr. Orcutt.</p>
+
+<p>The latter, who had started to his feet, bowed composedly
+and prepared to resume his seat.</p>
+
+<p>"I desire to put nothing in the way of your eliciting
+the whole truth concerning this matter," was his
+quiet, if somewhat constrained, response.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris at once turned back to Miss Dare.</p>
+
+<p>"You will, then, answer," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Imogene lifted her head and complied.</p>
+
+<p>"I told him," she declared, with thrilling distinctness,
+"that he was in no condition to marry. I am by nature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span>
+an ambitious woman, and, not having suffered at that
+time, thought more of my position before the world
+than of what constitutes the worth and dignity of
+a man."</p>
+
+<p>No one who heard these words could doubt they were
+addressed to the prisoner. Haughtily as she held herself,
+there was a deprecatory humility in her tone
+that neither judge nor jury could have elicited from her.
+Naturally many eyes turned in the direction of the
+prisoner. They saw two white faces before them, that of
+the accused and that of his counsel, who sat near him.
+But the pallor of the one was of scorn, and that of the
+other&mdash;&mdash; Well, no one who knew the relations of Mr.
+Orcutt to the witness could wonder that the renowned
+lawyer shrank from hearing the woman he loved confess
+her partiality for another man.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris, who understood the situation as well as any
+one, but who had passed the point where sympathy could
+interfere with his action, showed a disposition to press his
+advantage.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," he inquired, "in declining the proposals
+of the prisoner, did you state to him in so many words
+these objections you have here mentioned?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did."</p>
+
+<p>"And what answer did he give you?"</p>
+
+<p>"He replied that he was also ambitious, and hoped and
+intended to make a success in life."</p>
+
+<p>"And did he tell you how he hoped and intended
+to make a success?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He did."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, were these letters written by you?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked at the packet he held toward her, started
+as she saw the broad black ribbon that encircled it, and
+bowed her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt these are my letters," she rejoined,
+a little tremulously for her. And unbinding the packet,
+she examined its contents. "Yes," she answered, "they
+are. These letters were all written by me."</p>
+
+<p>And she handed them back with such haste that
+the ribbon which bound them remained in her fingers,
+where consciously or unconsciously she held it clutched
+all through the remaining time of her examination.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said the District Attorney, "I propose to read
+two of these letters. Does my friend wish to look at
+them before I offer them in evidence?" holding them out
+to Mr. Orcutt.</p>
+
+<p>Every eye in the court-room was fixed upon the latter's
+face, as the letters addressed to his rival by the woman he
+wished to make his wife, were tendered in this public
+manner to his inspection. Even the iron face of Mansell
+relaxed into an expression of commiseration as he turned
+and surveyed the man who, in despite of the anomalous
+position they held toward each other, was thus engaged
+in battling for his life before the eyes of the whole
+world. At that instant there was not a spectator who
+did not feel that Tremont Orcutt was the hero of the
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>He slowly turned to the prisoner:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Have you any objection to these letters being
+read?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," returned the other, in a low tone.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt turned firmly to the District Attorney:</p>
+
+<p>"You may read them if you think proper," said he.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris bowed; the letters were marked as exhibits
+by the stenographic reporter who was taking the
+minutes of testimony, and handed back to Ferris, who
+proceeded to read the following in a clear voice to
+the jury:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<div class='right'>
+"<span class="smcap">Sibley, N. Y.</span>, September 7, 1882.<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Friend</span>,&mdash;You show signs of impatience, and ask for a
+word to help you through this period of uncertainty and unrest. What
+can I say more than I have said? That I believe in you and in your
+invention, and proudly wait for the hour when you will come to
+claim me with the fruit of your labors in your hand. I am impatient
+myself, but I have more trust than you. Some one will see the value
+of your work before long, or else your aunt will interest herself in
+your success, and lend you that practical assistance which you need
+to start you in the way of fortune and fame. I cannot think you are
+going to fail. I will not allow myself to look forward to any thing
+less than success for you and happiness for myself. For the one involves
+the other, as you must know by this time, or else believe me
+to be the most heartless of coquettes.</p>
+
+<p>"Wishing to see you, but of the opinion that further meetings
+between us would be unwise till our future looks more settled, I remain,
+hopefully yours,</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+"<span class="smcap">Imogene Dare.</span>"<br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"The other letter I propose to read," continued Mr.
+Ferris, "is dated September 23d, three days before the
+widow's death.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Craik</span>,&mdash;Since you insist upon seeing me, and say that you
+have reasons of your own for not visiting me openly, I will consent to
+meet you at the trysting spot you mention, though all such underhand
+dealings are as foreign to my nature as I believe them to be to
+yours.</p>
+
+<p>"Trusting that fortune will so favor us as to make it unnecessary
+for us to meet in this way more than once, I wait in anxiety for your
+coming.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+"<span class="smcap">Imogene Dare.</span>"<br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>These letters, unfolding relations that, up to this time,
+had been barely surmised by the persons congregated
+before her, created a great impression. To those especially
+who knew her and believed her to be engaged to Mr.
+Orcutt the surprise was wellnigh thrilling. The witness
+seemed to feel this, and bestowed a short, quick glance
+upon the lawyer, that may have partially recompensed
+him for the unpleasantness of the general curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>The Prosecuting Attorney went on without pause:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," said he, "did you meet the prisoner as
+you promised?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you tell me when and where?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the afternoon of Monday, September 27th, in the
+glade back of Mrs. Clemmens' house."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, we fully realize the pain it must cost you
+to refer to these matters, but I must request you to tell us
+what passed between you at this interview?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you will ask me questions, sir, I will answer them
+with the truth the subject demands."</p>
+
+<p>The sorrowful dignity with which this was said, called
+forth a bow from the Prosecuting Attorney.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Very well," he rejoined, "did the prisoner have any
+thing to say about his prospects?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did."</p>
+
+<p>"How did he speak of them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Despondingly."</p>
+
+<p>"And what reason did he give for this?"</p>
+
+<p>"He said he had failed to interest any capitalist in his
+invention."</p>
+
+<p>"Any other reason?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"What was that?"</p>
+
+<p>"That he had just come from his aunt whom he had
+tried to persuade to advance him a sum of money to
+carry out his wishes, but that she had refused."</p>
+
+<p>"He told you that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he also tell you what path he had taken to his
+aunt's house?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Was there any thing said by him to show he did not
+take the secret path through the woods and across the
+bog to her back door?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Or that he did not return in the same way?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, did the prisoner express to you at this
+time irritation as well as regret at the result of his efforts
+to elicit money from his aunt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the evidently forced reply.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Can you remember any words that he used which
+would tend to show the condition of his mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no memory for words," she began, but flushed
+as she met the eye of the Judge, and perhaps remembered
+her oath. "I do recollect, however, one expression he
+used. He said: 'My life is worth nothing to me without
+success. If only to win you, I must put this matter
+through; and I will do it yet.'"</p>
+
+<p>She repeated this quietly, giving it no emphasis and
+scarcely any inflection, as if she hoped by her mechanical
+way of uttering it to rob it of any special meaning. But
+she did not succeed, as was shown by the compassionate
+tone in which Mr. Ferris next addressed her.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, did you express any anger yourself at the
+refusal of Mrs. Clemmens to assist the prisoner by lending
+him such moneys as he required?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; I fear I did. It seemed unreasonable to me
+then, and I was very anxious he should have that opportunity
+to make fame and fortune which I thought his
+genius merited."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," inquired the District Attorney, calling
+to his aid such words as he had heard from old Sally in
+reference to this interview, "did you make use of any
+such expression as this: 'I wish I knew Mrs. Clemmens'?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe I did."</p>
+
+<p>"And did this mean you had no acquaintance with the
+murdered woman at that time?" pursued Mr. Ferris,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span>
+half-turning to the prisoner's counsel, as if he anticipated
+the objection which that gentleman might very properly
+make to a question concerning the intention of a witness.</p>
+
+<p>And Mr. Orcutt, yielding to professional instinct, did
+indeed make a slight movement as if to rise, but became
+instantly motionless. Nothing could be more painful to
+him than to wrangle before the crowded court-room over
+these dealings between the woman he loved and the man
+he was now defending.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris turned back to the witness and awaited her
+answer. It came without hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>"It meant that, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And what did the prisoner say when you gave utterance
+to this wish?"</p>
+
+<p>"He asked me why I desired to know her."</p>
+
+<p>"And what did you reply?"</p>
+
+<p>"That if I knew her I might be able to persuade her to
+listen to his request."</p>
+
+<p>"And what answer had he for this?"</p>
+
+<p>"None but a quick shake of his head."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare; up to the time of this interview had you
+ever received any gift from the prisoner&mdash;jewelry, for instance&mdash;say,
+a ring!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he offer you such a gift then?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did."</p>
+
+<p>"What was it?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"A gold ring set with a diamond."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you receive it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. I felt that in taking a ring from him I would
+be giving an irrevocable promise, and I was not ready to
+do that."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you allow him to put it on your finger?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did."</p>
+
+<p>"And it remained there?" suggested Mr. Ferris, with
+a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"A minute, may be."</p>
+
+<p>"Which of you, then, took it off?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did."</p>
+
+<p>"And what did you say when you took it off?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not remember my words."</p>
+
+<p>Again recalling old Sally's account of this interview,
+Mr. Ferris asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Were they these: 'I cannot. Wait till to-morrow'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I believe they were."</p>
+
+<p>"And when he inquired: 'Why to-morrow?' did you
+reply: 'A night has been known to change the whole
+current of one's affairs'?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, what did you mean by those words?"</p>
+
+<p>"I object!" cried Mr. Orcutt, rising. Unseen by any
+save himself, the prisoner had made him an eloquent gesture,
+slight, but peremptory.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it is one I have a right to ask," urged the
+District Attorney.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Orcutt, who manifestly had the best of the
+argument, maintained his objection, and the Court instantly
+ruled in his favor.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris prepared to modify his question. But before
+he could speak the voice of Miss Dare was heard.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," said she, "there was no need of all this
+talk. I intended to seek an interview with Mrs. Clemmens
+and try what the effect would be of confiding to her
+my interest in her nephew."</p>
+
+<p>The dignified simplicity with which she spoke, and the
+air of quiet candor that for that one moment surrounded
+her, gave to this voluntary explanation an unexpected
+force that carried it quite home to the hearts of the jury.
+Even Mr. Orcutt could not preserve the frown with which
+he had confronted her at the first movement of her lips,
+but turned toward the prisoner with a look almost congratulatory
+in its character. But Mr. Byrd, who for reasons
+of his own kept his eyes upon that prisoner, observed
+that it met with no other return than that shadow of a
+bitter smile which now and then visited his otherwise unmoved
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris, who, in his friendship for the witness, was
+secretly rejoiced in an explanation which separated her
+from the crime of her lover, bowed in acknowledgment of
+the answer she had been pleased to give him in face of the
+ruling of the Court, and calmly proceeded:</p>
+
+<p>"And what reply did the prisoner make you when you
+uttered this remark in reference to the change that a
+single day sometimes makes in one's affairs?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Something in the way of assent."</p>
+
+<p>"Cannot you give us his words?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, can you tell us whether or not he looked
+thoughtful when you said this?"</p>
+
+<p>"He may have done so, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Did it strike you at the time that he reflected on what
+you said?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot say how it struck me at the time."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he look at you a few minutes before speaking,
+or in any way conduct himself as if he had been set
+thinking?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did not speak for a few minutes."</p>
+
+<p>"And looked at you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney paused a moment as if to let the
+results of his examination sink into the minds of the jury;
+then he went on:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, you say you returned the ring to the
+prisoner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"You say positively the ring passed from you to him;
+that you saw it in his hand after it had left yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. The ring passed from me to him, but I did
+not see it in his hand, because I did not return it to him
+that way. I dropped it into his pocket."</p>
+
+<p>At this acknowledgment, which made both the prisoner
+and his counsel look up, Mr. Byrd felt himself nudged by
+Hickory.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Did you hear that?" he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," returned the other.</p>
+
+<p>"And do you believe it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare is on oath," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh!" was Hickory's whispered exclamation.</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney alone showed no surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"You dropped it into his pocket?" he resumed. "How
+came you to do that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was weary of the strife which had followed my refusal
+to accept this token. He would not take it from me himself,
+so I restored it to him in the way I have said."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, will you tell us what pocket this was?"</p>
+
+<p>"The outside pocket on the left side of his coat," she
+returned, with a cold and careful exactness that caused the
+prisoner to drop his eyes from her face, with that faint
+but scornful twitch of the muscles about his mouth, which
+gave to his countenance now and then the proud look of
+disdain which both the detectives had noted.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," continued the Prosecuting Attorney, "did
+you see this ring again during the interview?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you detect the prisoner making any move to take
+it out of his pocket, or have you any reason to believe
+that it was taken out of the pocket on the left-hand side
+of his coat while you were with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"So that, as far as you know, it was still in his pocket
+when you parted?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, have you ever seen that ring since?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have."</p>
+
+<p>"When and where?"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw it on the morning of the murder. It was lying
+on the floor of Mrs. Clemmens' dining-room. I had gone
+to the house, in my surprise at hearing of the murderous
+assault which had been made upon her, and, while surveying
+the spot where she was struck, perceived this ring lying
+on the floor before me."</p>
+
+<p>"What made you think it was this ring which you had
+returned to the prisoner the day before?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because of its setting, and the character of the gem, I
+suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Could you see all this where it was lying on the
+floor?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was brought nearer to my eyes, sir. A gentleman
+who was standing near, picked it up and offered it to me,
+supposing it was mine. As he held it out in his open palm
+I saw it plainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, will you tell us what you did when you
+first saw this ring lying on the floor?"</p>
+
+<p>"I covered it with my foot."</p>
+
+<p>"Was that before you recognized it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot say. I placed my foot upon it instinctively."</p>
+
+<p>"How long did you keep it there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Some few minutes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What caused you to move at last?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was surprised."</p>
+
+<p>"What surprised you?"</p>
+
+<p>"A man came to the door."</p>
+
+<p>"What man."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. A stranger to me. Some one who had
+been sent on an errand connected with this affair."</p>
+
+<p>"What did he say or do to surprise you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing. It was what you said yourself after the
+man had gone."</p>
+
+<p>"And what did I say, Miss Dare?"</p>
+
+<p>She cast him a look of the faintest appeal, but answered
+quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"Something about its not being the tramp who had
+committed this crime."</p>
+
+<p>"That surprised you?"</p>
+
+<p>"That made me start."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, were you present in the house when the
+dying woman spoke the one or two exclamations which
+have been testified to in this trial?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"What was the burden of the first speech you heard?"</p>
+
+<p>"The words <i>Hand</i>, sir, and <i>Ring</i>. She repeated the
+two half a dozen times."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, what did you say to the gentleman who
+showed you the ring and asked if it were yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"I told him it was mine, and took it and placed it on
+my finger."</p>
+
+<p>"But the ring was not yours?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"My acceptance of it made it mine. In all but that
+regard it had been mine ever since Mr. Mansell offered it
+to me the day before."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris surveyed the witness for a moment before
+saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Then you considered it damaging to your lover to
+have this ring found in that apartment?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt instantly rose to object.</p>
+
+<p>"I won't press the question," said the District Attorney,
+with a wave of his hand and a slight look at the jury.</p>
+
+<p>"You ought never to have asked it?" exclaimed Mr.
+Orcutt, with the first appearance of heat he had shown.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right," Mr. Ferris coolly responded. "The
+jury could see the point without any assistance from you
+or me."</p>
+
+<p>"And the jury," returned Mr. Orcutt, with equal coolness,
+"is scarcely obliged to you for the suggestion."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we won't quarrel about it," declared Mr.
+Ferris.</p>
+
+<p>"We won't quarrel about any thing," retorted Mr. Orcutt.
+"We will try the case in a legal manner."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you got through?" inquired Mr. Ferris, nettled.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt took his seat with the simple reply:</p>
+
+<p>"Go on with the case."</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney, after a momentary pause to regain
+the thread of his examination and recover his equanimity,
+turned to the witness.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," he asked, "how long did you keep that
+ring on your finger after you left the house?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"A little while&mdash;five or ten minutes, perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"Where were you when you took it off?"</p>
+
+<p>Her voice sank just a trifle:</p>
+
+<p>"On the bridge at Warren Street."</p>
+
+<p>"What did you do with it then?"</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes which had been upon the Attorney's face, fell
+slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"I dropped it into the water," she said.</p>
+
+<p>And the character of her thoughts and suspicions at
+that time stood revealed.</p>
+
+<p>The Prosecuting Attorney allowed himself a few more
+questions.</p>
+
+<p>"When you parted with the prisoner in the woods, was
+it with any arrangement for meeting again before he returned
+to Buffalo?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Give us the final words of your conversation, if you
+please."</p>
+
+<p>"We were just parting, and I had turned to go, when
+he said: 'Is it good-by, then, Imogene?' and I answered,
+'That to-morrow must decide.' 'Shall I stay, then?'
+he inquired; to which I replied, 'Yes.'"</p>
+
+<p>'Twas a short, seemingly literal, repetition of possibly
+innocent words, but the whisper into which her voice
+sank at the final "Yes" endowed it with a thrilling effect
+for which even she was not prepared. For she shuddered
+as she realized the deathly quiet that followed its utterance,
+and cast a quick look at Mr. Orcutt that was full of
+question, if not doubt.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I was calculating upon the interview I intended to
+have with Mrs. Clemmens," she explained, turning toward
+the Judge with indescribable dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"We understand that," remarked the Prosecuting Attorney,
+kindly, and then inquired:</p>
+
+<p>"Was this the last you saw of the prisoner until to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"When did you see him again?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the following Wednesday."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the dep&ocirc;t at Syracuse."</p>
+
+<p>"How came you to be in Syracuse the day after the
+murder?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had started to go to Buffalo."</p>
+
+<p>"What purpose had you in going to Buffalo?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wished to see Mr. Mansell."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he know you were coming?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Had no communication passed between you from the
+time you parted in the woods till you came upon each
+other in the dep&ocirc;t you have just mentioned?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Had he no reason to expect to meet you there?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"With what words did you accost each other?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I have no remembrance of saying
+any thing. I was utterly dumbfounded at seeing him in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span>
+this place, and cannot say into what exclamation I may
+have been betrayed."</p>
+
+<p>"And he? Don't you remember what he said?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. I only know he started back with a look of
+great surprise. Afterward he asked if I were on my
+way to see him."</p>
+
+<p>"And what did you answer?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I made any answer. I was wondering
+if he was on his way to see me."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you put the question to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps. I cannot tell. It is all like a dream to
+me."</p>
+
+<p>If she had said horrible dream, every one there would
+have believed her.</p>
+
+<p>"You can tell us, however, if you held any conversation?"</p>
+
+<p>"We did not."</p>
+
+<p>"And you can tell us how the interview terminated?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. I turned away and took the train back
+home, which I saw standing on the track without."</p>
+
+<p>"And he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Turned away also. Where he went I cannot say."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare"&mdash;the District Attorney's voice was very
+earnest&mdash;"can you tell us which of you made the first
+movement to go?"</p>
+
+<p>"What does he mean by that?" whispered Hickory to
+Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"I think&mdash;&mdash;" she commenced and paused. Her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span>
+eyes in wandering over the throng of spectators before
+her, had settled on these two detectives, and noting the
+breathless way in which they looked at her, she seemed
+to realize that more might lie in this question than at
+first appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know," she answered at last. "It was a
+simultaneous movement, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure?" persisted Mr. Ferris. "You are on
+oath, Miss Dare? Is there no way in which you can
+make certain whether he or you took the initiatory step
+in this sudden parting after an event that so materially
+changed your mutual prospects?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. I can only say that in recalling the sensations
+of that hour, I am certain my own movement was
+not the result of any I saw him take. The instinct to
+leave the place had its birth in my own breast."</p>
+
+<p>"I told you so," commented Hickory, in the ear of
+Byrd. "She is not going to give herself away, whatever
+happens."</p>
+
+<p>"But can you positively say he did not make the first
+motion to leave?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris bowed, turned toward the opposing counsel
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"The witness is yours."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris sat down perfectly satisfied. He had dexterously
+brought out Imogene's suspicions of the prisoner's
+guilt, and knew that the jury must be influenced in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span>
+their convictions by those of the woman who, of all the
+world, ought to have believed, if she could, in the innocence
+of her lover. He did not even fear the cross-examination
+which he expected to follow. No amount
+of skill on the part of Orcutt could extract other than the
+truth, and the truth was that Imogene believed the
+prisoner to be the murderer of his aunt. He, therefore,
+surveyed the court-room with a smile, and awaited the
+somewhat slow proceedings of his opponent with equanimity.</p>
+
+<p>But, to the surprise of every one, Mr. Orcutt, after a
+short consultation with the prisoner, rose and said he had
+no questions to put to the witness.</p>
+
+<p>And Miss Dare was allowed to withdraw from the
+stand, to the great satisfaction of Mr. Ferris, who found
+himself by this move in a still better position than he had
+anticipated.</p>
+
+<p>"Byrd," whispered Hickory, as Miss Dare returned
+somewhat tremulously to her former seat among the
+witnesses&mdash;"Byrd, you could knock me over with a
+feather. I thought the defence would have no difficulty
+in riddling this woman's testimony, and they have not
+even made the effort. Can it be that Orcutt has such
+an attachment for her that he is going to let his rival
+hang?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Orcutt isn't the man to deliberately lose a case
+for any woman. He looks at Miss Dare's testimony from
+a different standpoint than you do. He believes what
+she says to be true, and you do not."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Then, all I've got to say, 'So much the worse for
+Mansell!'" was the whispered response. "He was a
+fool to trust his case to that man."</p>
+
+<p>The judge, the jury, and all the by-standers in court, it
+must be confessed, shared the opinion of Hickory&mdash;Mr.
+Orcutt was standing on slippery ground.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE OPENING OF THE DEFENCE.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+Excellent! I smell a device.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Twelfth Night.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>LATE that afternoon the prosecution rested. It had
+made out a case of great strength and seeming
+impregnability. Favorably as every one was disposed to
+regard the prisoner, the evidence against him was such
+that, to quote a man who was pretty free with his opinions
+in the lobby of the court-room: "Orcutt will have to
+wake up if he is going to clear his man in face of facts
+like these."</div>
+
+<p>The moment, therefore, when this famous lawyer and
+distinguished advocate rose to open the defence, was one
+of great interest to more than the immediate actors in the
+scene. It was felt that hitherto he had rather idled with
+his case, and curiosity was awake to his future course.
+Indeed, in the minds of many the counsel for the prisoner
+was on trial as well as his client.</p>
+
+<p>He rose with more of self-possession, quiet and reserved
+strength, than could be hoped for, and his look
+toward the Court and then to the jury tended to gain for
+him the confidence which up to this moment he seemed
+to be losing. Never a handsome man or even an imposing
+one, he had the advantage of always rising to the occasion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span>
+and whether pleading with a jury or arguing with
+opposing counsel, flashed with that unmistakable glitter
+of keen and ready intellect which, once observed in a
+man, marks him off from his less gifted fellows and makes
+him the cynosure of all eyes, however insignificant his
+height, features, or ordinary expression.</p>
+
+<p>To-day he was even cooler, more brilliant, and more
+confident in his bearing than usual. Feelings, if feelings
+he possessed&mdash;and we who have seen him at his hearth
+can have no doubt on this subject,&mdash;had been set aside
+when he rose to his feet and turned his face upon the
+expectant crowd before him. To save his client seemed the
+one predominating impulse of his soul, and, as he drew
+himself up to speak, Mr. Byrd, who was watching him with
+the utmost eagerness and anticipation, felt that, despite
+appearances, despite evidence, despite probability itself,
+this man was going to win his case.</p>
+
+<p>"May it please your Honor and Gentlemen of the Jury,"
+he began, and those who looked at him could not but
+notice how the prisoner at his side lifted his head at this
+address, till it seemed as if the words issued from his lips
+instead of from those of his counsel, "I stand before you
+to-day not to argue with my learned opponent in reference
+to the evidence which he has brought out with so much
+ingenuity. I have a simpler duty than that to perform.
+I have to show you how, in spite of this evidence, in face
+of all this accumulated testimony showing the prisoner to
+have been in possession of both motive and opportunities<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span>
+for committing this crime, he is guiltless of it; that a
+physical impossibility stands in the way of his being the
+assailant of the Widow Clemmens, and that to whomever
+or whatsoever her death may be due, it neither was nor
+could have been the result of any blow struck by the
+prisoner's hand. In other words, we dispute, not the
+facts which have led the Prosecuting Attorney of this
+district, and perhaps others also, to infer guilt on the
+part of the prisoner,"&mdash;here Mr. Orcutt cast a significant
+glance at the bench where the witnesses sat,&mdash;"but the
+inference itself. Something besides proof of motive and
+opportunity must be urged against <i>this</i> man in order to
+convict him of guilt. Nor is it sufficient to show he was
+on the scene of murder some time during the fatal morning
+when Mrs. Clemmens was attacked; you must prove
+he was there at the time the deadly blow was struck; for
+it is not with him as with so many against whom circumstantial
+evidence of guilt is brought. <i>This</i> man, gentlemen,
+has an answer for those who accuse him of crime&mdash;an
+answer, too, before which all the circumstantial evidence
+in the world cannot stand. Do you want to know
+what it is? Give me but a moment's attention and you
+shall hear."</p>
+
+<p>Expectation, which had been rising through this exordium,
+now stood at fever-point. Byrd and Hickory
+held their breaths, and even Miss Dare showed feeling
+through the icy restraint which had hitherto governed
+her secret anguish and suspense. Mr. Orcutt went on:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"First, however, as I have already said, the prisoner
+desires it to be understood that he has no intention of
+disputing the various facts which have been presented before
+you at this trial. He does not deny that he was in
+great need of money at the time of his aunt's death; that
+he came to Sibley to entreat her to advance to him certain
+sums he deemed necessary to the furtherance of his
+plans; that he came secretly and in the roundabout way
+you describe. Neither does he refuse to allow that his
+errand was also one of love, that he sought and obtained
+a private interview with the woman he wished to make his
+wife, in the place and at the time testified to; that the
+scraps of conversation which have been sworn to as having
+passed between them at this interview are true in as
+far as they go, and that he did place upon the finger of
+Miss Dare a diamond ring. Also, he admits that she took
+this ring off immediately upon receiving it, saying she
+could not accept it, at least not then, and that she entreated
+him to take it back, which he declined to do,
+though he cannot say she did not restore it in the manner
+she declares, for he remembers nothing of the ring after
+the moment he put her hand aside as she was offering it
+back to him. The prisoner also allows that he slept in
+the hut and remained in that especial region of the woods
+until near noon the next day; but, your Honor and Gentlemen
+of the Jury, what the prisoner does not allow and
+will not admit is that he struck the blow which eventually
+robbed Mrs. Clemmens of her life, and the proof which I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span>
+propose to bring forward in support of this assertion is
+this:</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Clemmens received the blow which led to her
+death at some time previously to three minutes past
+twelve o'clock on Tuesday, September 26th. This the
+prosecution has already proved. Now, what I propose to
+show is, that Mrs. Clemmens, however or whenever assailed,
+was still living and unhurt up to ten minutes before
+twelve on that same day. A witness, whom you
+must believe, saw her at that time and conversed with
+her, proving that the blow by which she came to her death
+must have occurred after that hour, that is, after ten minutes
+before noon. But, your Honor and Gentlemen of the
+Jury, the prosecution has already shown that the prisoner
+stepped on to the train at Monteith Quarry Station at
+twenty minutes past one of that same day, and has produced
+witnesses whose testimony positively proves that
+the road he took there from Mrs. Clemmens' house was
+the same he had traversed in his secret approach to it
+the day before&mdash;viz., the path through the woods; the
+only path, I may here state, that connects those two
+points with any thing like directness.</p>
+
+<p>"But, Sirs, what the prosecution has not shown you,
+and what it now devolves upon me to show, is that this
+path which the prisoner is allowed to have taken is one
+which no man could traverse without encountering great
+difficulties and many hindrances to speed. It is not
+only a narrow path filled with various encumbrances in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span>
+the way of brambles and rolling stones, but it is so
+flanked by an impenetrable undergrowth in some places,
+and by low, swampy ground in others, that no deviation
+from its course is possible, while to keep within it and
+follow its many turns and windings till it finally emerges
+upon the highway that leads to the Quarry Station would
+require many more minutes than those which elapsed
+between the time of the murder and the hour the prisoner
+made his appearance at the Quarry Station. In other
+words, I propose to introduce before you as witnesses two
+gentlemen from New York, both of whom are experts in
+all feats of pedestrianism, and who, having been over the
+road themselves, are in position to testify that the time
+necessary for a man to pass by means of this path from
+Mrs. Clemmens' house to the Quarry Station is, by a
+definite number of minutes, greater than that allowed to
+the prisoner by the evidence laid before you. If, therefore,
+you accept the testimony of the prosecution as
+true, and believe that the prisoner took the train for
+Buffalo, which he has been said to do, it follows, as a
+physical impossibility, for him to have been at Mrs.
+Clemmens' cottage, or anywhere else except on the road to
+the station, at the moment when the fatal blow was dealt.</p>
+
+<p>"Your Honor, this is our answer to the terrible charge
+which has been made against the prisoner; it is simple,
+but it is effective, and upon it, as upon a rock, we found
+our defence."</p>
+
+<p>And with a bow, Mr. Orcutt sat down, and, it being
+late in the day, the court adjourned.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXX.</h2>
+
+<h3>BYRD USES HIS PENCIL AGAIN.</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be so, I shall do that that is
+reason.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Merry Wives of Windsor.</span></p><br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>"BYRD, you look dazed."</div>
+
+<p>"I am."</p>
+
+<p>Hickory paused till they were well clear of the crowd
+that was pouring from the court-room; then he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what do you think of this as a defence?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am beginning to think it is good," was the slow,
+almost hesitating, reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Beginning to think?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. At first it seemed puerile. I had such a steadfast
+belief in Mansell's guilt, I could not give much credit
+to any argument tending to shake me loose from my convictions.
+But the longer I think of it the more vividly I
+remember the difficulties of the road he had to take in
+his flight. I have travelled it myself, you remember, and
+I don't see how he could have got over the ground in
+ninety minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Hickory's face assumed a somewhat quizzical expression.</p>
+
+<p>"Byrd," said he, "whom were you looking at during
+the time Mr. Orcutt was making his speech?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"At the speaker, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!"</p>
+
+<p>"Whom were <i>you</i> looking at?"</p>
+
+<p>"At the person who would be likely to give me some
+return for my pains."</p>
+
+<p>"The prisoner?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Whom, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare."</p>
+
+<p>Byrd shifted uneasily to the other side of his companion.</p>
+
+<p>"And what did you discover from her, Hickory?" he
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Two things. First, that she knew no more than the
+rest of us what the defence was going to be. Secondly,
+that she regarded it as a piece of great cleverness on the
+part of Orcutt, but that she didn't believe in it anymore&mdash;well,
+any more than I do."</p>
+
+<p>"Hickory!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, <i>sir!</i> Miss Dare is a smart woman, and a resolute
+one, and could have baffled the penetration of all
+concerned if she had only remembered to try. But she
+forgot that others might be more interested in making
+out what was going on in her mind at this critical moment
+than in watching the speaker or noting the effect of
+his words upon the court. In fact, she was too eager herself
+to hear what he had to say to remember her <i>r&ocirc;le</i>, I
+fancy."</p>
+
+<p>"But, I don't see&mdash;&mdash;" began Byrd.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Wait," interrupted the other. "You believe Miss
+Dare loves Craik Mansell?"</p>
+
+<p>"Most certainly," was the gloomy response.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then. If she had known what the defence
+was going to be she would have been acutely alive
+to the effect it was going to have upon the jury. That
+would have been her first thought and her only thought
+all the time Mr. Orcutt was speaking, and she would have
+sat with her eyes fixed upon the men upon whose acceptance
+or non-acceptance of the truth of this argument her
+lover's life ultimately depended. But no; her gaze, like
+yours, remained fixed upon Mr. Orcutt, and she scarcely
+breathed or stirred till he had fully revealed what his
+argument was going to be. Then&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Instead of flashing with the joy of relief which any
+devoted woman would experience who sees in this argument
+a proof of her lover's innocence, she merely dropped
+her eyes and resumed her old mask of impassiveness."</p>
+
+<p>"From all of which you gather&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That her feelings were not those of relief, but doubt.
+In other words, that the knowledge she possesses is of a
+character which laughs to scorn any such subterfuge of
+defence as Orcutt advances."</p>
+
+<p>"Hickory," ventured Byrd, after a long silence, "it is
+time we understood each other. What is your secret
+thought in relation to Miss Dare?"</p>
+
+<p>"My secret thought? Well," drawled the other, looking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span>
+away, "I think she knows more about this crime than
+she has yet chosen to reveal."</p>
+
+<p>"More than she evinced to-day in her testimony?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to know why you think so. What
+special reasons have you for drawing any such conclusions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, one reason is, that she was no more shaken by
+the plausible argument advanced by Mr. Orcutt. If her
+knowledge of the crime was limited to what she acknowledged
+in her testimony, and her conclusions as to Mansell's
+guilt were really founded upon such facts as she
+gave us in court to-day, why didn't she grasp at the possibility
+of her lover's innocence which was held out to her
+by his counsel? No facts that she had testified to, not
+even the fact of his ring having been found on the scene
+of murder, could stand before the proof that he left the
+region of Mrs. Clemmens' house before the moment of
+assault; yet, while evincing interest in the argument, and
+some confidence in it, too, as one that would be likely to
+satisfy the jury, she gave no tokens of being surprised by
+it into a reconsideration of her own conclusions, as must
+have happened if she told the truth, the whole truth, and
+nothing but the truth, when she was on the stand to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," remarked Byrd, "that you are presuming to
+understand Miss Dare after all."</p>
+
+<p>Hickory smiled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You call this woman a mystery," proceeded Byrd;
+"hint at great possibilities of acting on her part, and yet
+in a moment, as it were, profess yourself the reader of her
+inmost thoughts, and the interpreter of looks and expressions
+she has manifestly assumed to hide those
+thoughts."</p>
+
+<p>Hickory's smile broadened into a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Just so," he cried. "One's imbecility has to stop
+somewhere." Then, as he saw Byrd look grave, added:
+"I haven't a single fact at my command that isn't
+shared by you. My conclusions are different, that is all."</p>
+
+<p>Horace Byrd did not answer. Perhaps if Hickory
+could have sounded his thoughts he would have discovered
+that their conclusions were not so far apart as he
+imagined.</p>
+
+<p>"Hickory," Byrd at last demanded, "what do you propose
+to do with your conclusions?"</p>
+
+<p>"I propose to wait and see if Mr. Orcutt proves his
+case. If he don't, I have nothing more to say; but if he
+does, I think I shall call the attention of Mr. Ferris to
+one question he has omitted to ask Miss Dare."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Where she was on the morning of Mrs. Clemmens'
+murder. You remember you took some interest in that
+question yourself a while ago."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not that I think any thing will come of it, only my
+conscience will be set at rest."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Hickory,"&mdash;Byrd's face had quite altered now&mdash;"where
+do you think Miss Dare was at that time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Where do I think she was?" repeated Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will tell you. I think she was <i>not</i> in Professor
+Darling's observatory."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think she was in the glade back of Widow
+Clemmens' house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Now you ask me conundrums."</p>
+
+<p>"Hickory!" Byrd spoke almost violently, "Mr.
+Orcutt shall not prove his case."</p>
+
+<p>"No?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will make the run over the ground supposed to
+have been taken by Mansell in his flight, and show in
+my own proper person that it can be done in the time
+specified."</p>
+
+<p>Hickory's eye, which had taken a rapid survey of his
+companion's form during the utterance of the above,
+darkened, then he slowly shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"You couldn't," he rejoined laconically. "Too little
+staying power; you'd give out before you got clear of
+the woods. Better delegate the job to me."</p>
+
+<p>"To you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I'm of the make to stand long runs; besides I
+am no novice at athletic sports of any kind. More than
+one race has owed its interest to the efforts of your humble
+servant. 'Tis my pet amusement, you see, as off-hand
+drawing is yours, and is likely to be of as much use to
+me, eh?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Hickory, you are chaffing me."</p>
+
+<p>"Think so? Do you see that five-barred gate over
+there? Well, now keep your eye on the top rail and see
+if I clear it without a graze or not."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" exclaimed Mr. Byrd, "don't make a fool of
+yourself in the public street. I'll believe you if you say
+you understand such things."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I do, and what is more, I'm an adept at them.
+If I can't make that run in the time requisite to show that
+Mansell could have committed the murder, and yet arrive
+at the station the moment he did, I don't know of a
+chap who can."</p>
+
+<p>"Hickory, do you mean to say you <i>will</i> make this
+run?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"With a conscientious effort to prove that Orcutt's
+scheme of defence is false?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"When?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"While we are in court?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Byrd turned square around, gave Hickory a look and
+offered his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a good fellow," he declared, "May luck go
+with you."</p>
+
+<p>Hickory suddenly became unusually thoughtful.</p>
+
+<p>"A little while ago," he reflected, "this fellow's sympathies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span>
+were all with Mansell; now he would risk my limbs
+and neck to have the man proved guilty. He does not
+wish Miss Dare to be questioned again, I see."</p>
+
+<p>"Hickory," resumed Byrd, a few minutes later, "Orcutt
+has not rested the defence upon this one point without
+being very sure of its being unassailable."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that."</p>
+
+<p>"He has had more than one expert make that run during
+the weeks that have elapsed since the murder. It has
+been tested to the uttermost."</p>
+
+<p>"I know <i>that</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"If you succeed then in doing what none of these
+others have, it must be by dint of a better understanding
+of the route you have to take and the difficulties you will
+have to overcome. Now, do you understand the route?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think so."</p>
+
+<p>"You will have to start from the widow's door, you
+know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certain."</p>
+
+<p>"Cross the bog, enter the woods, skirt the hut&mdash;but I
+won't go into details. The best way to prove you know
+exactly what you have to do is to see if you can describe
+the route yourself. Come into my room, old fellow, and
+let us see if you can give me a sufficiently exact account
+of the ground you will have to pass over, for me to draw
+up a chart by it. An hour spent with paper and pencil
+to-night may save you from an uncertainty to-morrow
+that would lose you a good ten minutes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/diagram02b-big.png"><img src="images/diagram02b.png" width="600" height="403" alt="(Page 364)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="right">(Page 364)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Good! that's an idea; let's try it," rejoined Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>And being by this time at the hotel, they went in. In
+another moment they were shut up in Mr. Byrd's room,
+with a large sheet of foolscap before them.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," cried Horace, taking up a pencil, "begin with
+your description, and I will follow with my drawing."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," replied Hickory, setting himself forward
+in a way to watch his colleague's pencil. "I leave the
+widow's house by the dining-room door&mdash;a square for the
+house, Byrd, well down in the left-hand corner of the
+paper, and a dotted line for the path I take,&mdash;run down
+the yard to the fence, leap it, cross the bog, and make
+straight for the woods."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," commented Byrd, sketching rapidly as
+the other spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Having taken care to enter where the trees are thinnest,
+I find a path along which I rush in a bee-line till I
+come to the glade&mdash;an ellipse for the glade, Byrd, with a
+dot in it for the hut. Merely stopping to dash into the
+hut and out again&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait!" put in Byrd, pausing with his pencil in mid-air;
+"what did you want to go into the hut for?"</p>
+
+<p>"To get the bag which I propose to leave there to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Bag?"</p>
+
+
+<p>"Yes; Mansell carried a bag, didn't he? Don't you
+remember what the station-master said about the curious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span>
+portmanteau the fellow had in his hand when he came to
+the station?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Byrd, if I run that fellow to his death it must be
+fairly. A man with an awkward bag in his hand cannot
+run like a man without one. So I handicap myself in the
+same way he did, do you see?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then; I rush into the hut, pick up the bag,
+carry it out, and dash immediately into the woods at the
+opening behind the hut.&mdash;What are you doing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just putting in a few landmarks," explained Byrd,
+who had run his pencil off in an opposite direction.
+"See, that is the path to West Side which I followed in
+my first expedition through the woods&mdash;the path, too,
+which Miss Dare took when she came to the hut at the
+time of the fearful thunderstorm. And wait, let me put
+in Professor Darling's house, too, and the ridge from
+which you can see Mrs. Clemmens' cottage. It will help
+us to understand&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What?" cried Hickory, with quick suspiciousness, as
+the other paused.</p>
+
+<p>But Byrd, impatiently shaking his head, answered:</p>
+
+<p>"The whole situation, of course." Then, pointing
+hastily back to the hut, exclaimed: "So you have entered
+the woods again at this place? Very well; what then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then," resumed Hickory, "I make my way
+along the path I find there&mdash;run it at right angles to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span>
+one leading up to the glade&mdash;till I come to a stony ledge
+covered with blackberry bushes. (A very cleverly drawn
+blackberry patch that, Byrd.) Here I fear I shall have to
+pause."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because, deuce take me if I can remember where the
+path runs after that."</p>
+
+<p>"But I can. A big hemlock-tree stands just at the
+point where the woods open again. Make for that and
+you will be all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough; but it's mighty rough travelling over
+that ledge, and I shall have to go at a foot's pace. The
+stones are slippery as glass, and a fall would scarcely be
+conducive to the final success of my scheme."</p>
+
+<p>"I will make the path serpentine."</p>
+
+<p>"That will be highly expressive."</p>
+
+<p>"And now, what next?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Foresters' Road, Byrd, upon which I ought to
+come about this time. Run it due east and west&mdash;not
+that I have surveyed the ground, but it looks more
+natural so&mdash;and let the dotted line traverse it toward the
+right, for that is the direction in which I shall go."</p>
+
+<p>"It's done," said Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, description fails me now. All I know is, I
+come out on a hillside running straight down to the
+river-bank and that the highway is visible beyond,
+leading directly to the station; but the way to get to
+it&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I will show you," interposed Byrd, mapping out the
+station and the intervening river with a few quick strokes
+of his dexterous pencil. "You see this point where you
+issue from the woods? Very good; it is, as you say, on
+a hillside overlooking the river. Well, it seems unfortunate,
+but there is no way of crossing that river at this
+point. The falls above and below make it no place for
+boats, and you will have to go back along its banks for
+some little distance before you come to a bridge. But
+there is no use in hesitating or looking about for a
+shorter path. The woods just here are encumbered with
+a mass of tangled undergrowth which make them simply
+impassable except as you keep in the road, while the
+river curves so frequently and with so much abruptness&mdash;see,
+I will endeavor to give you some notion of it here&mdash;that
+you would only waste time in attempting to make
+any short cuts. But, once over the bridge&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I have only to foot it," burst in Hickory, taking up
+the sketch which the other had now completed, and
+glancing at it with a dubious eye. "Do you know,
+Byrd," he remarked in another moment, "that it strikes
+me Mansell did not take this roundabout road to the
+station?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because it <i>is</i> so roundabout, and he is such a clearheaded
+fellow. Couldn't he have got there by some
+shorter cut?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Don't you remember how Orcutt cross-examined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span>
+the station-master about the appearance which
+Mansell presented when he came upon the platform,
+and how that person was forced to acknowledge that,
+although the prisoner looked heated and exhausted, his
+clothes were neither muddied nor torn? Now, I did not
+think of it at the time, but this was done by Orcutt to
+prove that Mansell did take the road I have jotted down
+here, since any other would have carried him through
+swamps knee-deep with mud, or amongst stones and
+briers which would have put him in a state of disorder
+totally unfitting him for travel."</p>
+
+<p>"That is so," acquiesced Hickory, after a moment's
+thought. "Mansell must be kept in the path. Well,
+well, we will see to-morrow if wit and a swift foot can
+make any thing out of this problem."</p>
+
+<p>"Wit? Hickory, it <i>will</i> be wit and not a swift foot.
+Or luck, maybe I should call it, or rather providence.
+If a wagon should be going along the highway,
+now&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me alone for availing myself of it," laughed
+Hickory. "Wagon! I would jump on the back of a
+mule sooner than lose the chance of gaining a minute on
+these experts whose testimony we are to hear to-morrow.
+Don't lose confidence in old Hickory yet. He's the boy
+for this job if he isn't for any other."</p>
+
+<p>And so the matter was settled.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CHIEF WITNESS FOR THE DEFENCE.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+Your <i>If</i> is the only peace-maker; much virtue in <i>If</i>.&mdash;<span class="smcap">As You Like It.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THE crowd that congregated at the court-house the
+next morning was even greater than at any previous
+time. The opening speech of Mr. Orcutt had been
+telegraphed all over the country, and many who had not
+been specially interested in the case before felt an anxiety
+to hear how he would substantiate the defence he had
+so boldly and confidently put forth.</div>
+
+<p>To the general eye, however, the appearance of the
+court-room was much the same as on the previous day.
+Only to the close observer was it evident that the countenances
+of the several actors in this exciting drama wore a
+different expression. Mr. Byrd, who by dint of the most
+energetic effort had succeeded in procuring his old seat,
+was one of these, and as he noted the significant change,
+wished that Hickory had been at his side to note it with
+him.</p>
+
+<p>The first person he observed was, naturally, the Judge.</p>
+
+<p>Judge Evans, who has been but barely introduced to
+the reader, was a man of great moral force and discretion.
+He had occupied his present position for many years, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span>
+possessed not only the confidence but the affections of
+those who came within the sphere of his jurisdiction.
+The reason for this undoubtedly lay in his sympathetic
+nature. While never accused of weakness, he so unmistakably
+retained the feeling heart under the official ermine
+that it was by no means an uncommon thing for him
+to show more emotion in uttering a sentence than the
+man he condemned did in listening to it.</p>
+
+<p>His expression, then, upon this momentous morning
+was of great significance to Mr. Byrd. In its hopefulness
+and cheer was written the extent of the effect made upon
+the unprejudiced mind by the promised defence.</p>
+
+<p>As for Mr. Orcutt himself, no advocate could display a
+more confident air or prepare to introduce his witnesses
+with more dignity or quiet assurance. His self-possession
+was so marked, indeed, that Mr. Byrd, who felt a sympathetic
+interest in what he knew to be seething in this
+man's breast, was greatly surprised, and surveyed, with a
+feeling almost akin to awe, the lawyer who could so sink
+all personal considerations in the cause he was trying.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dare, on the contrary, was in a state of nervous
+agitation. Though no movement betrayed this, the very
+force of the restraint she put upon herself showed the
+extent of her inner excitement.</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner alone remained unchanged. Nothing
+could shake his steady soul from its composure, not the
+possibility of death or the prospect of release. He was
+absolutely imposing in his quiet presence, and Mr. Byrd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span>
+could not but admire the power of the man even while
+recoiling from his supposed guilt.</p>
+
+<p>The opening of the defence carried the minds of many
+back to the inquest. The nice question of time was gone
+into, and the moment when Mrs. Clemmens was found
+lying bleeding and insensible at the foot of her dining-room
+clock, fixed at three or four minutes past noon.
+The next point to be ascertained was when she received
+the deadly blow.</p>
+
+<p>And here the great surprise of the defence occurred.
+Mr. Orcutt rose, and in clear, firm tones said:</p>
+
+<p>"Gouverneur Hildreth, take the stand."</p>
+
+<p>Instantly, and before the witness could comply, Mr.
+Ferris was on his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Who? what?" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Gouverneur Hildreth," repeated Mr. Orcutt.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you know this gentleman has already been in
+custody upon suspicion of having committed the crime
+for which the prisoner is now being tried?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do," returned Mr. Orcutt, with imperturbable <i>sang
+froid</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"And is it your intention to save your client from the
+gallows by putting the halter around the neck of the man
+you now propose to call as a witness?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," retorted Mr. Orcutt; "<i>I</i> do not propose to put
+the halter about any man's neck. That is the proud
+privilege of my learned and respected opponent."</p>
+
+<p>With an impatient frown Mr. Ferris sat down, while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span>
+Mr. Hildreth, who had taken advantage of this short passage
+of arms between the lawyers to retain his place in
+the remote corner where he was more or less shielded
+from the curiosity of the crowd, rose, and, with a slow
+and painful movement that at once attracted attention to
+his carefully bandaged throat and the general air of
+debility which surrounded him, came hesitatingly forward
+and took his stand in face of the judge and jury.</p>
+
+<p>Necessarily a low murmur greeted him from the throng
+of interested spectators who saw in this appearance before
+them of the man who, by no more than a hair's-breadth,
+had escaped occupying the position of the
+prisoner, another of those dramatic incidents with which
+this trial seemed fairly to bristle.</p>
+
+<p>It was hushed by one look from the Judge, but not
+before it had awakened in Mr. Hildreth's weak and
+sensitive nature those old emotions of shame and rage
+whose token was a flush so deep and profuse it unconsciously
+repelled the gaze of all who beheld it. Immediately
+Mr. Byrd, who sat with bated breath, as it were, so
+intense was his excitement over the unexpected turn of
+affairs, recognized the full meaning of the situation, and
+awarded to Mr. Orcutt all the admiration which his
+skill in bringing it about undoubtedly deserved. Indeed,
+as the detective's quick glance flashed first at the
+witness, cringing in his old unfortunate way before the
+gaze of the crowd, and then at the prisoner sitting unmoved
+and quietly disdainful in his dignity and pride,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span>
+he felt that, whether Mr. Orcutt succeeded in getting
+all he wished from his witness, the mere conjunction of
+these two men before the jury, with the opportunity
+for comparison between them which it inevitably offered,
+was the master-stroke of this eminent lawyer's legal
+career.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris seemed to feel the significance of the
+moment also, for his eyes fell and his brow contracted
+with a sudden doubt that convinced Mr. Byrd that,
+mentally, he was on the point of giving up his case.</p>
+
+<p>The witness was at once sworn.</p>
+
+<p>"Orcutt believes Hildreth to be the murderer, or, at
+least, is willing that others should be impressed with this
+belief," was the comment of Byrd to himself at this
+juncture.</p>
+
+<p>He had surprised a look which had passed between
+the lawyer and Miss Dare&mdash;a look of such piercing
+sarcasm and scornful inquiry that it might well arrest the
+detective's attention and lead him to question the intentions
+of the man who could allow such an expression
+of his feelings to escape him.</p>
+
+<p>But whether the detective was correct in his inferences,
+or whether Mr. Orcutt's glance at Imogene meant no
+more than the natural emotion of a man who suddenly
+sees revealed to the woman he loves the face of him for
+whose welfare she has expressed the greatest concern and
+for whose sake, while unknown, she has consented to
+make the heaviest of sacrifices, the wary lawyer was careful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span>
+to show neither scorn nor prejudice when he turned
+toward the witness and began his interrogations.</p>
+
+<p>On the contrary, his manner was highly respectful, if
+not considerate, and his questions while put with such
+art as to keep the jury constantly alert to the anomalous
+position which the witness undoubtedly held, were of a
+nature mainly to call forth the one fact for which his
+testimony was presumably desired. This was, his presence
+in the widow's house on the morning of the murder,
+and the fact that he saw her and conversed with her and
+could swear to her being alive and unhurt up to a few
+minutes before noon. To be sure, the precise minute of
+his leaving her in this condition Mr. Orcutt failed to
+gather from the witness, but, like the coroner at the inquest,
+he succeeded in eliciting enough to show that the
+visit had been completed prior to the appearance of the
+tramp at the widow's kitchen-door, as it had been begun
+after the disappearance of the Danton children from the
+front of the widow's house.</p>
+
+<p>This fact being established and impressed upon the
+jury, Mr. Orcutt with admirable judgment cut short his
+own examination of the witness, and passed him over to
+the District Attorney, with a grim smile, suggestive of his
+late taunt, that to this gentleman belonged the special
+privilege of weaving halters for the necks of unhappy
+criminals.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris who understood his adversary's tactics only
+too well, but who in his anxiety for the truth could not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span>
+afford to let such an opportunity for reaching it slip by,
+opened his cross-examination with great vigor.</p>
+
+<p>The result could not but be favorable to the defence
+and damaging to the prosecution. The position which
+Mr. Hildreth must occupy if the prisoner was acquitted,
+was patent to all understandings, making each and every
+admission on his part tending to exculpate the latter, of
+a manifest force and significance.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris, however, was careful not to exceed his duty
+or press his inquiries beyond due bounds. The man
+they were trying was not Gouverneur Hildreth but Craik
+Mansell, and to press the witness too close, was to urge
+him into admissions seemingly so damaging to himself as,
+in the present state of affairs, to incur the risk of distracting
+attention entirely from the prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hildreth's examination being at an end, Mr.
+Orcutt proceeded with his case, by furnishing proof calculated
+to fix the moment at which Mr. Hildreth had
+made his call. This was done in much the same way as
+it was at the inquest. Mrs. Clemmens' next-door neighbor,
+Mrs. Danton, was summoned to the stand, and after
+her her two children, the testimony of the three, taken
+with Mr. Hildreth's own acknowledgments, making it
+very evident to all who listened that he could not have
+gone into Mrs. Clemmens' house before a quarter to
+twelve.</p>
+
+<p>The natural inference followed. Allowing the least
+possible time for his interview with Mrs. Clemmens, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span>
+moment at which the witness swore to having seen her
+alive and unhurt must have been as late as ten minutes
+before noon.</p>
+
+<p>Taking pains to impress this time upon the jury, Mr.
+Orcutt next proceeded to fix the moment at which the
+prisoner arrived at Monteith Quarry Station. As the
+fact of his having arrived in time to take the afternoon
+train to Buffalo had been already proved by the prosecution,
+it was manifestly necessary only to determine at
+what hour the train was due, and whether it had come in
+on time.</p>
+
+<p>The hour was ascertained, by direct consultation with
+the road's time-table, to be just twenty minutes past one,
+and the station-master having been called to the stand,
+gave it as his best knowledge and belief that the train had
+been on time.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, not being deemed explicit enough for
+the purposes of the defence, there was submitted to the
+jury a telegram bearing the date of that same day, and
+distinctly stating that the train was on time. This was
+testified to by the conductor of the train as having been
+sent by him to the superintendent of the road who was
+awaiting the cars at Monteith; and was received as evidence
+and considered as conclusively fixing the hour at
+which the prisoner arrived at the Quarry Station as
+twenty minutes past one.</p>
+
+<p>This settled, witnesses were called to testify as to the
+nature of the path by which he must have travelled from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span>
+the widow's house to the station. A chart similar to that
+Mr. Byrd had drawn, but more explicit and nice in its
+details, was submitted to the jury by an actual surveyor
+of the ground; after which, and the establishment of
+other minor details not necessary to enumerate here, a
+man of well-known proficiency in running and other
+athletic sports, was summoned to the stand.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd, who up to this moment had shared in the
+interest every where displayed in the defence, now felt
+his attention wandering. The fact is, he had heard the
+whistle of the train on which Hickory had promised to
+return to Sibley, and interesting as was the testimony
+given by the witness, he could not prevent his eyes from
+continually turning toward the door by which he expected
+Hickory to enter.</p>
+
+<p>Strange to say, Mr. Orcutt seemed to take a like interest
+in that same door, and was more than once detected
+by Byrd flashing a hurried glance in its direction, as if he,
+too, were on the look-out for some one.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the expert in running was saying:</p>
+
+<p>"It took me one hundred and twenty minutes to go
+over the ground the first time, and one hundred and
+fifteen minutes the next. I gained five minutes the second
+time, you see," he explained, "by knowing my ground
+better and by saving my strength where it was of no avail
+to attempt great speed. The last time I made the effort,
+however, I lost three minutes on my former time. The
+wood road which I had to take for some distance was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span>
+deep with mud, and my feet sank with every step. The
+shortest time, then, which I was able to make in three
+attempts, was one hundred and fifteen minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Now, as the time between the striking of the fatal blow
+and the hour at which the prisoner arrived at the Quarry
+Station was only ninety minutes, a general murmur of
+satisfaction followed this announcement. It was only
+momentary, however, for Mr. Ferris, rising to cross-examine
+the witness, curiosity prevailed over all lesser emotions,
+and an immediate silence followed without the
+intervention of the Court.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you make these three runs from Mrs. Clemmens'
+house to Monteith Quarry Station entirely on foot?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Was that necessary?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; as far as the highway, at least. The path
+through the woods is not wide enough for a horse, unless
+it be for that short distance where the Foresters' Road
+intervenes."</p>
+
+<p>"And you ran there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, twice at full speed; the third time I had the
+experience I have told you of."</p>
+
+<p>"And how long do you think it took you to go over
+that especial portion of ground?"</p>
+
+<p>"Five minutes, maybe."</p>
+
+<p>"And, supposing you had had a horse?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, <i>if</i> I had had a horse, and <i>if</i> he had been
+waiting there, all ready for me to jump on his back, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span>
+<i>if</i> he had been a good runner and used to the road, I
+think I could have gone over it in two minutes, if I had
+not first broken my neck on some of the jagged stones
+that roughen the road."</p>
+
+<p>"In other words, you could have saved three minutes
+if you had been furnished with a horse at that particular
+spot?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, <i>if</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt, whose eye had been fixed upon the door at
+this particular juncture, now looked back at the witness
+and hurriedly rose to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Has my esteemed friend any testimony on hand to
+prove that the prisoner had a horse at this place? if he
+has not, I object to these questions."</p>
+
+<p>"What testimony I have to produce will come in at its
+proper time," retorted Mr. Ferris. "Meanwhile, I think
+I have a right to put this or any other kind of similar
+question to the witness."</p>
+
+<p>The Judge acquiescing with a nod, Mr. Orcutt sat
+down.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris went on.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you meet any one on the road during any of
+these three runs which you made?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. That is, I met no one in the woods. There
+were one or two persons on the highway the last time I
+ran over it."</p>
+
+<p>"Were they riding or walking?"</p>
+
+<p>"Walking."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Here Mr. Orcutt interposed.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you say that in passing over the highway you
+ran?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you do this? Had you not been told that
+the prisoner was seen to be walking when he came down
+the road to the station?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. But I was in for time, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"And you did not make it even with that advantage?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>The second expert had the same story to tell, with a
+few variations. He had made one of his runs in five
+minutes less than the other had done, but it was by a
+great exertion that left him completely exhausted when
+he arrived at the station. It was during his cross-examination
+that Hickory at last came in.</p>
+
+<p>Horace Byrd, who had been growing very impatient
+during the last few minutes, happened to be looking at
+the door when it opened to admit this late comer. So
+was Mr. Orcutt. But Byrd did not notice this, or Hickory
+either. If they had, perhaps Hickory would have
+been more careful to hide his feelings. As it was, he no
+sooner met his colleague's eye than he gave a quick,
+despondent shake of the head in intimation that he had
+<i>failed</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd, who had anticipated a different result,
+was greatly disappointed. His countenance fell and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span>
+he cast a glance of compassion at Miss Dare, now
+flushing with a secret but slowly growing hope. The defence,
+then, was good, and she ran the risk of being interrogated
+again. It was a prospect from which Mr.
+Byrd recoiled.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Hickory got the chance, he made his way
+to the side of Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"No go," was his low but expressive salutation. "One
+hundred and five minutes is the shortest time in which I
+can get over the ground, and that by a deuced hard
+scramble of it too."</p>
+
+<p>"But that's five minutes' gain on the experts," Byrd
+whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it? Hope I could gain something on them, but
+what's five minutes' gain in an affair like this? Fifteen
+is what's wanted."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it."</p>
+
+<p>"And fifteen I cannot make, nor ten either, unless a
+pair of wings should be given me to carry me over the
+river."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure!"</p>
+
+<p>Here there was some commotion in their vicinity,
+owing to the withdrawal of the last witness from the
+stand. Hickory took advantage of the bustle to lean
+over and whisper in Byrd's ear:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know I think I have been watched to-day.
+There was a fellow concealed in Mrs. Clemmens' house,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span>
+who saw me leave it, and who, I have no doubt, took
+express note of the time I started. And there was another
+chap hanging round the station at the quarries, whom I
+am almost sure had no business there unless it was to see
+at what moment I arrived. He came back to Sibley
+when I did, but he telegraphed first, and it is my opinion
+that Orcutt&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Here he was greatly startled by hearing his name
+spoken in a loud and commanding tone of voice. Stopping
+short, he glanced up, encountered the eye of Mr.
+Orcutt fixed upon him from the other side of the court-room,
+and realized he was being summoned to the witness
+stand.</p>
+
+<p>"The deuce!" he murmured, with a look at Byrd to
+which none but an artist could do justice.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>HICKORY.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Hickory, dickory, dock!<br />
+The mouse ran up the clock!<br />
+The clock struck one,<br />
+And down he run!<br />
+Hickory, dickory, dock!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;"><span class="smcap">&mdash;Mother Goose Melodies.</span></span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>HICKORY'S face was no new one to the court. He
+had occupied a considerable portion of one day in
+giving testimony for the prosecution, and his rough manner
+and hardy face, twinkling, however, at times with an
+irrepressible humor that redeemed it and him from all
+charge of ugliness, were well known not only to the jury
+but to all the <i>habitu&eacute;s</i> of the trial. Yet, when he stepped
+upon the stand at the summons of Mr. Orcutt, every eye
+turned toward him with curiosity, so great was the surprise
+with which his name had been hailed, and so vivid
+the interest aroused in what a detective devoted to the
+cause of the prosecution might have to say in the way of
+supporting the defence.</div>
+
+<p>The first question uttered by Mr. Orcutt served to put
+them upon the right track.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you tell the court where you have been to-day,
+Mr. Hickory?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well," replied the witness in a slow and ruminating
+tone of voice, as he cast a look at Mr. Ferris, half apologetic
+and half reassuring, "I have been in a good many
+places&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You know what I mean," interrupted Mr. Orcutt.
+"Tell the court where you were between the hours of
+eleven and a quarter to one," he added, with a quick
+glance at the paper he held in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, <i>then</i>," cried Hickory, suddenly relaxing into his
+drollest self. "Well, <i>then</i>, I was all along the route from
+Sibley to Monteith Quarry Station. I don't think I was
+stationary at any one minute of the time, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"In other words&mdash;&mdash;" suggested Mr. Orcutt, severely.</p>
+
+<p>"I was trying to show myself smarter than my betters;"
+bowing with a great show of respect to the two experts
+who sat near. "<i>Or</i>, in other words still, I was trying to
+make the distance between Mrs. Clemmens' house and
+the station I have mentioned, in time sufficient to upset
+the defence, sir."</p>
+
+<p>And the look he cast at Mr. Ferris was wholly apologetic
+now.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I understand, and at whose suggestion did you
+undertake to do this, Mr. Hickory?"</p>
+
+<p>"At the suggestion of a friend of mine, who is also
+somewhat of a detective."</p>
+
+<p>"And when was this suggestion given?"</p>
+
+<p>"After your speech, sir, yesterday afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"And where?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"At the hotel, sir, where I and my friend put up."</p>
+
+<p>"Did not the counsel for the prosecution order you to
+make this attempt?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he not know you were going to make it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Who did know it?"</p>
+
+<p>"My friend."</p>
+
+<p>"No one else?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, judging from my present position, I should
+say there seems to have been some one else," the witness
+slyly retorted.</p>
+
+<p>The calmness with which Mr. Orcutt carried on this
+examination suffered a momentary disturbance.</p>
+
+<p>"You know what I mean," he returned. "Did you
+tell any one but your friend that you were going to undertake
+this run?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hickory," the lawyer now pursued, "will you tell
+us why you considered yourself qualified to succeed in an
+attempt where you had already been told regular experts
+had failed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, I don't know unless you find the solution
+in the slightly presumptive character of my disposition."</p>
+
+<p>"Had you ever run before or engaged in athletic
+sports of any kind?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I have run before."</p>
+
+<p>"And engaged in athletic sports?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hickory, have you ever run in a race with men
+of well-known reputation for speed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, I have."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever win in running such a race?"</p>
+
+<p>"Once."</p>
+
+<p>"No more?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, twice."</p>
+
+<p>The dejection with which this last assent came forth
+roused the mirth of some light-hearted, feather-headed
+people, but the officers of the court soon put a stop
+to that.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hickory, will you tell us whether on account of
+having twice beaten in a race requiring the qualifications
+of a professional runner, you considered yourself qualified
+to judge of the feasibility of any other man's making
+the distance from Mrs. Clemmens' house to Monteith
+Quarry Station in ninety minutes by your own ability or
+non-ability to do so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, I did; but a man's judgment of his own
+qualifications don't go very far, I've been told."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not ask you for any remarks, Mr. Hickory.
+This is a serious matter and demands serious treatment.
+I asked if in undertaking to make this run in ninety minutes
+you did not presume to judge of the feasibility of the
+prisoner having made it in that time, and you answered,
+'Yes.' It was enough."</p>
+
+<p>The witness bowed with an air of great innocence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Now," resumed the lawyer, "you say you made a run
+from Mrs. Clemmens' house to Monteith Quarry Station
+to-day. Before telling us in what time you did it, will
+you be kind enough to say what route you took?"</p>
+
+<p>"The one, sir, which has been pointed out by the prosecution
+as that which the prisoner undoubtedly took&mdash;the
+path through the woods and over the bridge to the highway.
+I knew no other."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you know <i>this?</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"How came you to know it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had been over it before."</p>
+
+<p>"The whole distance?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hickory, were you well enough acquainted with
+the route not to be obliged to stop at any point during
+your journey to see if you were in the right path or taking
+the most direct road to your destination?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And when you got to the river?"</p>
+
+<p>"I turned straight to the right and made for the
+bridge."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you not pause long enough to see if you could
+not cross the stream in some way?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. I don't know how to swim in my clothes
+and keep them dry, and as for my wings, I had unfortunately
+left them at home."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt frowned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"These attempts at humor," said he, "are very <i>mal
+&agrave; propos</i>, Mr. Hickory." Then, with a return to his usual
+tone: "Did you cross the bridge at a run?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And did you keep up your pace when you got to the
+highroad?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I did not."</p>
+
+<p>"You did not?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And why, may I ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was tired."</p>
+
+<p>"Tired?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>There was a droll demureness in the way Hickory said
+this which made Mr. Orcutt pause. But in another
+minute he went on.</p>
+
+<p>"And what pace do you take when you are tired?"</p>
+
+<p>"A horse's pace when I can get it," was the laughing
+reply. "A team was going by, sir, and I just jumped up
+with the driver."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you rode, then, part of the way? Was it a fast
+team, Mr. Hickory?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it wasn't one of Bonner's."</p>
+
+<p>"Did they go faster than a man could run?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, I am obliged to say they did."</p>
+
+<p>"And how long did you ride behind them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Till I got in sight of the station."</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you not go farther?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Because I had been told the prisoner was seen to
+walk up to the station, and I meant to be fair to him
+when I knew how."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you did; and do you think it was fair to him to
+steal a ride on the highway?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because no one has ever told me he didn't ride down
+the highway, at least till he came within sight of the
+station."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hickory," inquired the lawyer, severely, "are
+you in possession of any knowledge proving that he
+did?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd, who had been watching the prisoner breathlessly
+through all this, saw or thought he saw the faintest
+shadow of an odd, disdainful smile cross his sternly composed
+features at this moment. But he could not be sure.
+There was enough in the possibility, however, to make
+the detective thoughtful; but Mr. Orcutt proceeding
+rapidly with his examination, left him no time to formulate
+his sensations into words.</p>
+
+<p>"So that by taking this wagon you are certain you lost
+no time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Rather gained some?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hickory, will you now state whether you put<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span>
+forth your full speed to-day in going from Mrs. Clemmens'
+house to the Quarry Station?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not put forth any thing like my full speed, sir,"
+the witness repeated, with a twinkle in the direction of
+Byrd that fell just short of being a decided wink.</p>
+
+<p>"And why, may I ask? What restrained you from
+running as fast as you could? Sympathy for the defence?"</p>
+
+<p>The ironical suggestion conveyed in this last question
+gave Hickory an excuse for indulging in his peculiar
+humor.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; sympathy for the prosecution. I feared the
+loss of one of its most humble but valuable assistants.
+In other words, I was afraid I should break my neck."</p>
+
+<p>"And why should you have any special fears of breaking
+your neck?"</p>
+
+<p>"The path is so uneven, sir. No man could run
+for much of the way without endangering his life or at
+least his limbs."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you run when you could?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And in those places where you could not run, did you
+proceed as fast as you knew how?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; now I think it is time you told the jury
+just how many minutes it took you to go from Mrs. Clemmens'
+door to the Monteith Quarry Station."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, according to <i>my</i> watch, it took one hundred
+and five minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt glanced impressively at the jury.</p>
+
+<p>"One hundred and five minutes," he repeated. He
+then turned to the witness with his concluding questions.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hickory, were you present in the court-room just
+now when the two experts whom I have employed to
+make the run gave their testimony?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know in what time they made it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe I do. I was told by the person whom I informed
+of my failure that I had gained five minutes upon
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"And what did you reply?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I hoped I could make something on <i>them;</i> but
+that five minutes wasn't much when a clean fifteen was
+wanted," returned Hickory, with another droll look at the
+experts and an askance appeal at Byrd, which being translated
+might read: "How in the deuce could this man have
+known what I was whispering to you on the other side of
+the court-room? Is he a wizard, this Orcutt?"</p>
+
+<p>He forgot that a successful lawyer is always more or
+less of a wizard.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A LATE DISCOVERY.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+Oh, torture me no more, I will confess.&mdash;<span class="smcap">King Lear.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>WITH the cross-examination of Hickory, the defence
+rested, and the day being far advanced,
+the court adjourned.</div>
+
+<p>During the bustle occasioned by the departure of the
+prisoner, Mr. Byrd took occasion to glance at the faces
+of those most immediately concerned in the trial.</p>
+
+<p>His first look naturally fell upon Mr. Orcutt. Ah! all
+was going well with the great lawyer. Hope, if not
+triumph, beamed in his eye and breathed in every movement
+of his alert and nervous form. He was looking
+across the court-room at Imogene Dare, and his features
+wore a faint smile that indelibly impressed itself upon
+Mr. Byrd's memory. Perhaps because there was something
+really peculiar and remarkable in its expression,
+and perhaps because of the contrast it offered to his own
+feelings of secret doubt and dread.</p>
+
+<p>His next look naturally followed that of Mr. Orcutt
+and rested upon Imogene Dare. Ah! she was under
+the spell of awakening hope also. It was visible in her
+lightened brow, her calmer and less studied aspect,
+her eager and eloquently speaking gaze yet lingering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span>
+on the door through which the prisoner had departed.
+As Mr. Byrd marked this look of hers and noted all it
+revealed, he felt his emotions rise till they almost confounded
+him. But strong as they were, they deepened
+still further when, in another moment, he beheld her suddenly
+drop her eyes from the door and turn them slowly,
+reluctantly but gratefully, upon Mr. Orcutt. All the
+story of her life was in that change of look; all the story
+of her future, too, perhaps, if&mdash;&mdash; Mr. Byrd dared not
+trust himself to follow the contingency that lurked behind
+that <i>if</i>, and, to divert his mind, turned his attention
+to Mr. Ferris.</p>
+
+<p>But he found small comfort there. For the District
+Attorney was not alone. Hickory stood at his side, and
+Hickory was whispering in his ear, and Mr. Byrd,
+who knew what was weighing on his colleague's mind,
+found no difficulty in interpreting the mingled expression
+of perplexity and surprise that crossed the dark, aquiline
+features of the District Attorney as he listened with
+slightly bended head to what the detective had to say.
+That look and the deep, anxious frown which crossed his
+brow as he glanced up and encountered Imogene's eye,
+remained in Mr. Byrd's mind long after the court-room
+was empty and he had returned to his hotel. It mingled
+with the smile of strange satisfaction which he had
+detected on Mr. Orcutt's face, and awakened such a turmoil
+of contradictory images in his mind that he was glad
+when Hickory at last came in to break the spell.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Their meeting was singular, and revealed, as by a flash,
+the difference between the two men. Byrd contented
+himself with giving Hickory a look and saying nothing,
+while Hickory bestowed upon Byrd a hearty "Well, old
+fellow!" and broke out into a loud and by no means unenjoyable
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't expect to see me mounting the rostrum
+in favor of the defence, did you?" he asked, after he had
+indulged himself as long as he saw fit in the display
+of this somewhat unseasonable mirth. "Well, it was a
+surprise. But I've done it for Orcutt now!"</p>
+
+<p>"You have?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have."</p>
+
+<p>"But the prosecution has closed its case?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bah! what of that?" was the careless reply. "The
+District Attorney can get it reopened. No Court would
+refuse that."</p>
+
+<p>Horace surveyed his colleague for a moment in
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>"So Mr. Ferris was struck with the point you gave
+him?" he ventured, at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sufficiently so to be uneasy," was Hickory's
+somewhat dry response.</p>
+
+<p>The look with which Byrd answered him was eloquent.
+"And that makes you cheerful?" he inquired, with ill-concealed
+sarcasm.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it has a slight tendency that way," drawled the
+other, seemingly careless of the other's expression, if, indeed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span>
+he had noted it. "You see," he went on, with a
+meaning wink and a smile of utter unconcern, "all my
+energies just now are concentrated on getting myself even
+with that somewhat too wide-awake lawyer." And his
+smile broadened till it merged into a laugh that was rasping
+enough to Byrd's more delicate and generous sensibilities.</p>
+
+<p>"Sufficiently so to be uneasy!" Yes, that was it. From
+the minute Mr. Ferris listened to the suggestion that Miss
+Dare had not told all she knew about the murder, and
+that a question relative to where she had been at the
+time it was perpetrated would, in all probability, bring
+strange revelations to light, he had been awakened to a
+most uncomfortable sense of his position and the
+duty that was possibly required of him. To be sure, the
+time for presenting testimony to the court was passed, unless
+it was in the way of rebuttal; but how did he
+know but what Miss Dare had a fact at her command
+which would help the prosecution in overturning the
+strange, unexpected, yet simple theory of the defence?
+At all events, he felt he ought to know whether, in giving
+her testimony she had exhausted her knowledge on
+this subject, or whether, in her sympathy for the accused,
+she had kept back certain evidence which if
+presented might bring the crime more directly home to
+the prisoner. Accordingly, somewhere toward eight
+o'clock in the evening, he sought her out with the bold
+resolution of forcing her to satisfy him on this point.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He did not find his task so easy, however, when he
+came into direct contact with her stately and far from encouraging
+presence, and met the look of surprise not unmixed
+with alarm with which she greeted him. She
+looked very weary, too, and yet unnaturally excited, as if
+she had not slept for many nights, if indeed she had
+rested at all since the trial began. It struck him as cruel
+to further disturb this woman, and yet the longer he surveyed
+her, the more he studied her pale, haughty, inscrutable
+face, he became the more assured that he
+would never feel satisfied with himself if he did not give
+her an immediate opportunity to disperse at once and forever
+these freshly awakened doubts.</p>
+
+<p>His attitude or possibly his expression must have
+betrayed something of his anxiety if not of his resolve,
+for her countenance fell as she watched him, and her voice
+sounded quite unnatural as she strove to ask to what
+she was indebted for this unexpected visit.</p>
+
+<p>He did not keep her in suspense.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," said he, not without kindness, for he was
+very sorry for this woman, despite the inevitable prejudice
+which her relations to the accused had awakened,
+"I would have given much not to have been obliged to
+disturb you to-night, but my duty would not allow it.
+There is a question which I have hitherto omitted to
+ask&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He paused, shocked; she was swaying from side
+to side before his eyes, and seemed indeed about to fall.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span>
+But at the outreaching of his hand she recovered herself
+and stood erect, the noblest spectacle of a woman
+triumphing over the weakness of her body by the
+mere force of her indomitable will, that he had ever
+beheld.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down," he gently urged, pushing toward her a
+chair. "You have had a hard and dreary week of it;
+you are in need of rest."</p>
+
+<p>She did not refuse to avail herself of the chair, though,
+as he could not help but notice, she did not thereby relax
+one iota of the restraint she put upon herself.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand," she murmured; "what question?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, in all you have told the court, in all that
+you have told me, about this fatal and unhappy affair, you
+have never informed us how it was you first came
+to hear of it. You were&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I heard it on the street corner," she interrupted, with
+what seemed to him an almost feverish haste.</p>
+
+<p>"First?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, first."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, had you been in the street long? Were
+you in it at the time the murder happened, do you
+think?"</p>
+
+<p>"I in the street?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he repeated, conscious from the sudden strange
+alteration in her look that he had touched upon a point
+which, to her, was vital with some undefined interest,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span>
+possibly that to which the surmises of Hickory had supplied
+a clue. "Were you in the street, or anywhere out-of-doors
+at the time the murder occurred? It strikes me
+that it would be well for me to know."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," she cried, rising in her sudden indignation, "I
+thought the time for questions had passed. What means
+this sudden inquiry into a matter we have all considered
+exhausted, certainly as far as I am concerned."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I show you?" he cried, taking her by the hand
+and leading her toward the mirror near by, under one of
+those impulses which sometimes effect so much. "Look
+in there at your own face and you will see why I press
+this question upon you."</p>
+
+<p>Astonished, if not awed, she followed with her eyes the
+direction of his pointing finger, and anxiously surveyed
+her own image in the glass. Then, with a quick movement,
+her hands went up before her face&mdash;which till that
+moment had kept its counsel so well&mdash;and, tottering back
+against a table, she stood for a moment communing with
+herself, and possibly summoning up her courage for the
+conflict she evidently saw before her.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it you wish to know?" she faintly inquired,
+after a long period of suspense and doubt.</p>
+
+<p>"Where were you when the clock struck twelve on the
+day Mrs. Clemmens was murdered?"</p>
+
+<p>Instantly dropping her hands, she turned toward him
+with a sudden lift of her majestic figure that was as imposing
+as it was unexpected.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I was at Professor Darling's house," she declared,
+with great steadiness.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris had not expected this reply, and looked at
+her for an instant almost as if he felt inclined to repeat
+his inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you doubt my word?" she queried. "Is it possible
+you question my truth at a time like this?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Miss Dare," he gravely assured her. "After the
+great sacrifice you have publicly made in the interests of
+justice, it would be worse than presumptuous in me to
+doubt your sincerity now."</p>
+
+<p>She drew a deep breath, and straightened herself still
+more proudly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then am I to understand you are satisfied with the
+answer you have received?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if you will also add that you were in the observatory
+at Professor Darling's house," he responded quickly,
+convinced there was some mystery here, and seeing but
+one way to reach it.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then, I was," she averred, without hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>"You were!" he echoed, advancing upon her with a
+slight flush on his middle-aged cheek, that evinced how
+difficult it was for him to pursue this conversation in face
+of the haughty and repellant bearing she had assumed.
+"You will, perhaps, tell me, then, why you did not see
+and respond to the girl who came into that room at this
+very time, with a message from a lady who waited below
+to see you?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" she cried, succumbing with a suppressed
+moan to the inexorable destiny that pursued her in this
+man, "you have woven a net for me!"</p>
+
+<p>And she sank again into a chair, where she sat like one
+stunned, looking at him with a hollow gaze which filled
+his heart with compassion, but which had no power to
+shake his purpose as a District Attorney.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he acknowledged, after a moment, "I have
+woven a net for you, but only because I am anxious for
+the truth, and desirous of furthering the ends of justice.
+I am confident you know more about this crime than you
+have ever revealed, Miss Dare; that you are acquainted
+with some fact that makes you certain Mr. Mansell committed
+this murder, notwithstanding the defence advanced
+in his favor. What is this fact? It is my office to inquire.
+True," he admitted, seeing her draw back with
+denial written on every line of her white face, "you have
+a right to refuse to answer me here, but you will have no
+right to refuse to answer me to-morrow when I put the
+same question to you in the presence of judge and jury."</p>
+
+<p>"And"&mdash;her voice was so husky he could but with
+difficulty distinguish her words&mdash;"do you intend to recall
+me to the stand to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am obliged to, Miss Dare."</p>
+
+<p>"But I thought the time for examination was over;
+that the witnesses had all testified, and that nothing remained
+now but for the lawyers to sum up."</p>
+
+<p>"When in a case like this the prisoner offers a defence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span>
+not anticipated by the prosecution, the latter, of course,
+has the right to meet such defence with proof in rebuttal."</p>
+
+<p>"Proof in rebuttal? What is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Evidence to rebut or prove false the matters advanced in
+support of the defence."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>"I must do it in this case&mdash;if I can, of course."</p>
+
+<p>She did not reply.</p>
+
+<p>"And even if the testimony I desire to put in is not
+rebuttal in its character, no unbiassed judge would deny
+to counsel the privilege of reopening his case when any
+new or important fact has come to light."</p>
+
+<p>As if overwhelmed by a prospect she had not anticipated,
+she hurriedly arose and pointed down the room to
+a curtained recess.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me five minutes," she cried; "five minutes by
+myself where no one can look at me, and where I can
+think undisturbed upon what I had better do."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," he acquiesced; "you shall have them."</p>
+
+<p>She at once crossed to the small retreat.</p>
+
+<p>"Five minutes," she reiterated huskily, as she lifted
+the curtains aside; "when the clock strikes nine I will
+come out."</p>
+
+<p>"You will?" he repeated, doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I will."</p>
+
+<p>The curtains fell behind her, and for five long minutes
+Mr. Ferris paced the room alone. He was far from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span>
+easy. All was so quiet behind that curtain,&mdash;so preternaturally
+quiet. But he would not disturb her; no, he
+had promised, and she should be left to fight her battle
+alone. When nine o'clock struck, however, he started, and
+owned to himself some secret dread. Would she come
+forth or would he have to seek her in her place of seclusion?
+It seemed he would have to seek her, for the curtains
+did not stir, and by no sound from within was any
+token given that she had heard the summons. Yet he
+hesitated, and as he did so, a thought struck him. Could
+it be there was any outlet from the refuge she had
+sought? Had she taken advantage of his consideration
+to escape him? Moved by the fear, he hastily crossed
+the room. But before he could lay his <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'band'">hand</ins> upon the
+curtains, they parted, and disclosed the form of Imogene.</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/ill04.jpg" width="450" height="450" alt="&quot;The curtains parted and disclosed the form of Imogene. &#39;I am coming,&#39; she murmured, and stepped forth.&quot;&mdash;(Page 402.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;The curtains parted and disclosed the form of Imogene. &#39;I am coming,&#39; she murmured, and stepped forth.&quot;&mdash;(Page 402.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"I am coming," she murmured, and stepped forth
+more like a faintly-breathing image than a living
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>His first glance at her face convinced him she had
+taken her resolution. His second, that in taking it she
+had drifted into a state of feeling different from any he
+had observed in her before, and of a sort that to him was
+wholly inexplicable. Her words when she spoke only
+deepened this impression.</p>
+
+
+<p>"Mr. Ferris," said she, coming very near to him in
+evident dread of being overheard, "I have decided to
+tell you all. I hoped never to be obliged to do this. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span>
+thought enough had been revealed to answer your purpose.
+I&mdash;I believed Heaven would spare me this last
+trial, let me keep this last secret. It was of so strange a
+nature, so totally out of the reach of any man's surmise.
+But the finger of God is on me. It has followed this
+crime from the beginning, and there is no escape. By
+some strange means, some instinct of penetration, perhaps,
+you have discovered that I know something concerning
+this murder of which I have never told you, and
+that the hour I spent at Professor Darling's is accountable
+for this knowledge. Sir, I cannot struggle with
+Providence. I will tell you all I have hitherto hidden
+from the world if you will promise to let me know if my
+words will prove fatal, and if he&mdash;he who is on trial for
+his life&mdash;will be lost if I give to the court my last evidence
+against him?"</p>
+
+<p>"But, Miss Dare," remonstrated the District Attorney,
+"no man can tell&mdash;&mdash;" He did not finish his sentence.
+Something in the feverish gaze she fixed upon him
+stopped him. He felt that he could not palter with a
+woman in the grasp of an agony like this. So, starting
+again, he observed: "Let me hear what you have to say,
+and afterward we will consider what the effect of it may
+be; though a question of expediency should not come
+into your consideration, Miss Dare, in telling such truths
+as the law demands."</p>
+
+<p>"No?" she broke out, giving way for one instant to a
+low and terrible laugh which curdled Mr. Ferris' blood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span>
+and made him wish his duty had led him into the midst
+of any other scene than this.</p>
+
+<p>But before he could remonstrate with her, this harrowing
+expression of misery had ceased, and she was saying
+in quiet and suppressed tones:</p>
+
+<p>"The reason I did not see and respond to the girl who
+came into the observatory on the morning of Mrs. Clemmens'
+murder is, that I was so absorbed in the discoveries
+I was making behind the high rack which shuts off one
+end of the room, that any appeal to me at that time must
+have passed unnoticed. I had come to Professor Darling's
+house, according to my usual custom on Tuesday
+mornings, to study astronomy with his daughter Helen.
+I had come reluctantly, for my mind was full of the secret
+intention I had formed of visiting Mrs. Clemmens in
+the afternoon, and I had no heart for study. But finding
+Miss Darling out, I felt a drawing toward the seclusion I
+knew I should find in the observatory, and mounting to
+it, I sat down by myself to think. The rest and quiet of
+the place were soothing to me, and I sat still a long time,
+but suddenly becoming impressed with the idea that it
+was growing late, I went to the window to consult the
+town-clock. But though its face could be plainly seen
+from the observatory, its hands could not, and I was about
+to withdraw from the window when I remembered the
+telescope, which Miss Darling and I had, in a moment of
+caprice a few days before, so arranged as to command a
+view of the town. Going to it, I peered through it at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span>
+clock." Stopping, she surveyed the District Attorney with
+breathless suspense. "It was just five minutes to twelve,"
+she impressively whispered.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris felt a shock.</p>
+
+<p>"A critical moment!" he exclaimed. Then, with a
+certain intuition of what she was going to say next, inquired:
+"And what then, Miss Dare?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was struck by a desire to see if I could detect Mrs.
+Clemmens' house from where I was, and shifting the
+telescope slightly, I looked through it again, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What did you see, Miss Dare?"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw her dining-room door standing ajar and a
+man leaping headlong over the fence toward the
+bog."</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney started, looked at her with growing
+interest, and inquired:</p>
+
+<p>"Did you recognize this man, Miss Dare?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded in great agitation.</p>
+
+<p>"Who was he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Craik Mansell."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," ventured Mr. Ferris, after a moment,
+"you say this was five minutes to twelve?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," was the faint reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Five minutes later than the time designated by the
+defence as a period manifestly too late for the prisoner to
+have left Mrs. Clemmens' house and arrived at the
+Quarry Station at twenty minutes past one?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she repeated, below her breath.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney surveyed her earnestly, perceiving
+she had not only spoken the truth, but realized all
+which that truth implied, and drew back a few steps muttering
+ironically to himself:</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Orcutt! Orcutt!"</p>
+
+<p>Breathlessly she watched him, breathlessly she followed
+him step by step like some white and haunting spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"You believe, then, this fact will cost him his life?"
+came from her lips at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't ask me that, Miss Dare. You and I have no
+concern with the consequences of this evidence."</p>
+
+<p>"No concern?" she repeated, wildly. "You and I
+no concern? Ah!" she went on, with heart-piercing
+sarcasm, "I forgot that the sentiments of the heart have
+no place in judicial investigation. A criminal is but
+lawful prey, and it is every good citizen's duty to push
+him to his doom. No matter if one is bound to that
+criminal by the dearest ties which can unite two hearts;
+no matter if the trust he has bestowed upon you has been
+absolute and unquestioning, the law does not busy itself
+with that. The law says if you have a word at your
+command which can destroy this man, give utterance to
+it; and the law must be obeyed."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Miss Dare&mdash;&mdash;" the District Attorney hastily intervened,
+startled by the feverish gleam of her hitherto
+calm eye.</p>
+
+<p>But she was not to be stopped, now that her misery had
+at last found words.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You do not understand my position, perhaps," she
+continued. "You do not see that it has been my hand,
+and mine only, which, from the first, has slowly, remorselessly
+pushed this man back from the point of safety, till
+now, now, I am called upon to drag from his hand the one
+poor bending twig to which he clings, and upon which he
+relies to support him above the terrible gulf that yawns at
+his feet. You do not see&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," interposed Mr. Ferris again, anxious, if
+possible, to restore her to herself. "I see enough to pity
+you profoundly. But you must allow me to remark that
+your hand is not the only one which has been instrumental
+in hurrying this young man to his doom. The
+detectives&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," she interrupted in her turn, "can you, dare you
+say, that without my testimony he would have stood at
+any time in a really critical position?&mdash;or that he would
+stand in jeopardy of his life even now, if it were not for
+this fact I have to tell?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I knew it, I knew it!" she cried. "There will be
+no doubt concerning whose testimony it was that convicted
+him, if he is sentenced by the court for this crime.
+Ah, ah, what an enviable position is mine! What an
+honorable deed I am called upon to perform! To tell the
+truth at the expense of the life most dear to you. It is a
+Roman virtue! I shall be held up as a model to my sex.
+All the world must shower plaudits upon the woman who,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span>
+sooner than rob justice of its due, delivered her own lover
+over to the hangman."</p>
+
+<p>Pausing in her passionate burst, she turned her hot, dry
+eyes in a sort of desperation upon his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," she gurgled in his ear, "some women
+would kill themselves before they would do this deed."</p>
+
+<p>Struck to his heart in spite of himself, Mr. Ferris looked
+at her in alarm&mdash;saw her standing there with her arms
+hanging down at her sides, but with her two hands clinched
+till they looked as if carved from marble&mdash;and drew near
+to her with the simple hurried question of:</p>
+
+<p>"But you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I?" she laughed again&mdash;a low, gurgling laugh, that
+yet had a tone in it that went to the other's heart and
+awoke strange sensations there. "Oh, I shall live to respond
+to your questions. Do not fear that I shall not be
+in the court-room to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>There was something in her look and manner that
+was new. It awed him, while it woke all his latent concern.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," he began, "you can believe how painful
+all this has been to me, and how I would have spared you
+this misery if I could. But the responsibilities resting upon
+me are such&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He did not go on; why should he? She was not listening.
+To be sure, she stood before him, seemingly attentive,
+but the eyes with which she met his were fixed
+upon other objects than any which could have been apparent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span>
+to her in his face; and her form, which she had
+hitherto held upright, was shaking with long, uncontrollable
+shudders, which, to his excited imagination,
+threatened to lay her at his feet.</p>
+
+<p>He at once started toward the door for help. But she
+was alive to his movements if not to his words. Stopping
+him with a gesture, she cried:</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no! do not call for any one; I wish to be alone;
+I have <i>my</i> duty to face, you know; my testimony to prepare."
+And rousing herself she cast a peculiar look about
+the room, like one suddenly introduced into a strange place,
+and then moving slowly toward the window, threw back
+the curtain and gazed without. "Night!" she murmured,
+"night!" and after a moment added, in a deep, unearthly
+voice that thrilled irresistibly upon Mr. Ferris' ear:
+"And a heaven full of stars!"</p>
+
+<p>Her face, as she turned it upward, wore so strange a
+look, Mr. Ferris involuntarily left his position and crossed
+to her side. She was still murmuring to herself in seeming
+unconsciousness of his presence. "Stars!" she was
+repeating; "and above them God!" And the long
+shudders shook her frame again, and she dropped her
+head and seemed about to fall into her old abstraction
+when her eye encountered that of the District Attorney,
+and she hurriedly aroused herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," she exclaimed, with an ill-concealed
+irony, particularly impressive after her tone of the moment
+before, "have you any thing further to exact of me?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No," he made haste to reply; "only before I go I
+would entreat you to be calm&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And say the word I have to say to-morrow without a
+balk and without an <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'unneccessary'">unnecessary</ins> display of feeling," she
+coldly interpolated. "Thanks, Mr. Ferris, I understand
+you. But you need fear nothing from me. There will
+be no scene&mdash;at least on my part&mdash;when I rise before the
+court to give my testimony to-morrow. Since my hand
+must strike the fatal blow, it shall strike&mdash;firmly!" and
+her clenched fist fell heavily on her own breast, as if the
+blow she meditated must first strike there.</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney, more moved than he had deemed
+it possible for him to be, made her a low bow and withdrew
+slowly to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"I leave you, then, till to-morrow," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Till to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Long after he had passed out, the deep meaning which
+informed those two words haunted his memory and disturbed
+his heart. Till to-morrow! Alas, poor girl! and
+after to-morrow, what then?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>WHAT WAS HID BEHIND IMOGENE'S VEIL.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+Mark now, how a plain tale shall put you down.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Henry IV.</span><br />
+<br  /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>THE few minutes that elapsed before the formal
+opening of court the next morning were marked
+by great cheerfulness. The crisp frosty air had put everybody
+in a good-humor. Even the prisoner looked less
+sombre than before, and for the first time since the
+beginning of his trial, deigned to turn his eyes toward
+the bench where Imogene sat, with a look that, while it
+was not exactly kind, had certainly less disdain in it than
+before he saw his way to a possible acquittal on the
+theory advanced by his counsel.</div>
+
+<p>But this look, though his first, did not prove to be his
+last. Something in the attitude of the woman he gazed
+at&mdash;or was it the mystery of the heavy black veil that
+enveloped her features?&mdash;woke a strange doubt in his
+mind. Beckoning to Mr. Orcutt, he communicated with
+him in a low tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Can it be possible," asked he, "that any thing new
+could have transpired since last night to give encouragement
+to the prosecution?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The lawyer, startled, glanced hastily about him and
+shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he cried; "impossible! What could have
+transpired?"</p>
+
+<p>"Look at Mr. Ferris," whispered the prisoner, "and
+then at the witness who wears a veil."</p>
+
+<p>With an unaccountable feeling of reluctance, Mr.
+Orcutt hastily complied. His first glance at the District
+Attorney made him thoughtful. He recognized the look
+which his opponent wore; he had seen it many a time
+before this, and knew what it indicated. As for Imogene,
+who could tell what went on in that determined breast?
+The close black veil revealed nothing. Mr. Orcutt impatiently
+turned back to his client.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you alarm yourself unnecessarily," he whispered.
+"Ferris means to fight, but what of that? He
+wouldn't be fit for his position if he didn't struggle to
+the last gasp even for a failing cause."</p>
+
+<p>Yet in saying this his lip took its sternest line, and from
+the glitter of his eye and the close contraction of his brow
+it looked as if he were polishing his own weapons for the
+conflict he thus unexpectedly saw before him.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, across the court-room, another whispered
+conference was going on.</p>
+
+<p>"Hickory, where have you been ever since last night?
+I have not been able to find you anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"I was on duty; I had a bird to look after."</p>
+
+<p>"A bird?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a wild bird; one who is none too fond of its
+cage; a desperate one who might find means to force
+aside its bars and fly away."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, Hickory? What nonsense is
+this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Look at Miss Dare and perhaps you will understand."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Horace's eyes opened in secret alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that I spent the whole night in tramping up
+and down in front of her window. And a dismal task it
+was too. Her lamp burned till daylight."</p>
+
+<p>Here the court was called to order and Byrd had only
+opportunity to ask:</p>
+
+<p>"Why does she wear a veil?"</p>
+
+<p>To which the other whisperingly retorted:</p>
+
+<p>"Why did she spend the whole night in packing up her
+worldly goods and writing a letter to the Congregational
+minister to be sent after the adjournment of court to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did she do that?"</p>
+
+<p>"She did."</p>
+
+<p>"Hickory, don't <i>you</i> know&mdash;haven't you been told
+what she is expected to say or do here to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"You only guess?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't guess."</p>
+
+<p>"You fear, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fear! Well, that's a big word to a fellow like me.
+I don't know as I fear any thing; I'm curious, that is
+all."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd drew back, looked over at Imogene, and involuntarily
+shook his head. What was in the mind of
+this mysterious woman? What direful purpose or shadow
+of doom lay behind the veil that separated her from the
+curiosity and perhaps the sympathy of the surrounding
+crowd? It was in vain to question; he could only wait
+in secret anxiety for the revelations which the next few
+minutes might bring.</p>
+
+<p>The defence having rested the night before, the first
+action of the Judge on the opening of the court was to
+demand whether the prosecution had any rebuttal testimony
+to offer.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris instantly rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, will you retake the stand," said he.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately Mr. Orcutt, who up to the last moment
+had felt his case as secure as if it had indeed been
+founded on a rock, bounded to his feet, white as the
+witness herself.</p>
+
+<p>"I object!" he cried. "The witness thus recalled by
+the counsel of the prosecution has had ample opportunity
+to lay before the court all the evidence in her possession.
+I submit it to the court whether my learned opponent
+should not have exhausted his witness before he rested
+his case."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Ferris," asked the Judge, turning to the District
+Attorney, "do you recall this witness for the purpose of
+introducing fresh testimony in support of your case or
+merely to disprove the defence?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your honor," was the District Attorney's reply, "I
+ought to say in fairness to my adversary and to the court,
+that since the case was closed a fact has come to my
+knowledge of so startling and conclusive a nature that I
+feel bound to lay it before the jury. From this witness
+alone can we hope to glean this fact; and as I had no
+information on which to base a question concerning it in
+her former examination, I beg the privilege of reopening
+my case to that extent."</p>
+
+<p>"Then the evidence you desire to submit is not in rebuttal?"
+queried the Judge.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not like to say that," rejoined the District
+Attorney, adroitly. "I think it may bear directly upon
+the question whether the prisoner could catch the train
+at Monteith Quarry if he left the widow's house after the
+murder. If the evidence I am about to offer be true, he
+certainly could."</p>
+
+<p>Thoroughly alarmed now and filled with the dismay
+which a mysterious threat is always calculated to produce,
+Mr. Orcutt darted a wild look of inquiry at Imogene,
+and finding her immovable behind her thick veil,
+turned about and confronted the District Attorney with
+a most sarcastic smile upon his blanched and trembling
+lips.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Does my learned friend suppose the court will receive
+any such ambiguous explanation as this? If the
+testimony sought from this witness is by way of rebuttal,
+let him say so; but if it is not, let him be frank enough
+to admit it, that I may in turn present my objections
+to the introduction of any irrelevant evidence at this
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"The testimony I propose to present through this witness
+<i>is</i> in the way of rebuttal," returned Mr Ferris,
+severely. "The argument advanced by the defence, that
+the prisoner could not have left Mrs. Clemmens' house
+at ten minutes before twelve and arrived at Monteith
+Quarry Station at twenty minutes past one, is not a tenable
+one, and I purpose to prove it by this witness."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt's look of anxiety changed to one of mingled
+amazement and incredulity.</p>
+
+<p>"By <i>this</i> witness! You have chosen a peculiar one for
+the purpose," he ironically exclaimed, more and more
+shaken from his self-possession by the quiet bearing
+of his opponent, and the silent air of waiting which
+marked the stately figure of her whom, as he had
+hitherto believed, he thoroughly comprehended. "Your
+Honor," he continued, "I withdraw my objections; I
+should really like to hear how Miss Dare or any lady can
+give evidence on this point."</p>
+
+<p>And he sank back into his seat with a look at his
+client in which professional bravado strangely struggled
+with something even deeper than alarm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"This must be an exciting moment to the prisoner,"
+whispered Hickory to Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"So, so. But mark his control, will you? He is less
+cut up than Orcutt."</p>
+
+<p>"Look at his eyes, though. If any thing could pierce
+that veil of hers, you would think such a glance might."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, he <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'his'">is</ins> trying his influence over her at last."</p>
+
+<p>"But it is too late."</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the District Attorney had signified again to
+Miss Dare his desire that she should take the stand.
+Slowly, and like a person in a dream, she arose, unloosed
+her veil, dragged it from before her set features, and
+stepped mechanically forward to the place assigned her.
+What was there in the face thus revealed that called
+down an instantaneous silence upon the court, and made
+the momentary pause that ensued memorable in the
+minds of all present? It was not that she was so pale,
+though her close-fitting black dress, totally unrelieved by
+any suspicion of white, was of a kind to bring out
+any startling change in her complexion; nor was there
+visible in her bearing any trace of the feverish excitement
+which had characterized it the evening before;
+yet of all the eyes that were fixed upon her&mdash;and there
+were many in that crowd whose only look a moment
+before had been one of heartless curiosity&mdash;there were
+none which were not filled with compassion and more or
+less dread.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, she remained like a statue on the spot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span>
+where she had taken her stand, and her eyes, which
+in her former examination had met the court with the
+unflinching gaze of an automaton, were lowered till the
+lashes swept her cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," asked the District Attorney, as soon as
+he could recover from his own secret emotions of pity
+and regret, "will you tell us where you were at the
+hour of noon on the morning Mrs. Clemmens was
+murdered?"</p>
+
+<p>Before she could answer, before in fact her stiff and
+icy lips could part, Mr. Orcutt had risen impetuously to
+his feet, like a man bound to contend every step of the
+way with the unknown danger that menaced him.</p>
+
+<p>"I object!" he cried, in the changed voice of a
+deeply disturbed man, while those who had an interest in
+the prisoner at this juncture, could not but notice that
+he, too, showed signs of suppressed feeling, and for the
+first time since the beginning of the trial, absolutely
+found his self-command insufficient to keep down the
+rush of color that swept up to his swarthy cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"The question," continued Mr. Orcutt, "is not to
+elicit testimony in rebuttal."</p>
+
+<p>"Will my learned friend allow the witness to give her
+answer, instead of assuming what it is to be?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not," retorted his adversary. "A child could
+see that such a question is not admissible at this stage of
+the case."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure my learned friend would not wish me to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span>
+associate <i>him</i> with any such type of inexperience?"
+suggested Mr. Ferris, grimly.</p>
+
+<p>But the sarcasm, which at one time would have called
+forth a stinging retort from Mr. Orcutt, passed unheeded.
+The great lawyer was fighting for his life, for his heart's
+life, for the love and hand of Imogene&mdash;a recompense
+which at this moment her own unconsidered action, or
+the constraining power of a conscience of whose might
+he had already received such heart-rending manifestation,
+seemed about to snatch from his grasp forever. Turning
+to the Judge, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I will not delay the case by bandying words with my
+esteemed friend, but appeal at once to the Court as to
+whether the whereabouts of Miss Dare on that fatal
+morning can have any thing to do with the defence we
+have proved."</p>
+
+<p>"Your Honor," commenced the District Attorney,
+calmly following the lead of his adversary, "I am ready
+to stake my reputation on the declaration that this witness
+is in possession of a fact that overturns the whole
+fabric of the defence. If the particular question I have
+made use of, in my endeavor to elicit this fact, is displeasing
+to my friend, I will venture upon another less
+ambiguous, if more direct and perhaps leading." And
+turning again to the witness, Mr. Ferris calmly inquired:</p>
+
+<p>"Did you or did you not see the prisoner on the
+morning of the assault, at a time distinctly known by you
+to be after ten minutes to twelve?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was out. The line of attack meditated by Mr.
+Ferris was patent to everybody. A murmur of surprise
+and interest swept through the court-room, while Mr.
+Orcutt, who in spite of his vague fears was any thing but
+prepared for a thrust of this vital nature, started and
+cast short demanding looks from Imogene to Mansell, as
+if he would ask them what fact this was which through
+ignorance or presumption they had conspired to keep
+from him. The startled look which he surprised on the
+stern face of the prisoner, showed him there was every
+thing to fear in her reply, and bounding again to his feet,
+he was about to make some further attempt to stave off
+the impending calamity, when the rich voice of Imogene
+was heard saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, if you will allow me to tell my story unhindered,
+I think I shall soonest satisfy both the District
+Attorney and the counsel for the prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>And raising her eyes with a slow and heavy movement
+from the floor, she fixed them in a meaning way upon the
+latter.</p>
+
+<p>At once convinced that he had been unnecessarily
+alarmed, Mr. Orcutt sank back into his seat, and Imogene
+slowly proceeded.</p>
+
+<p>She commenced in a forced tone and with a sudden
+quick shudder that made her words come hesitatingly
+and with strange breaks: "I have been asked&mdash;two questions
+by Mr. Ferris&mdash;I prefer&mdash;to answer the first. He
+asked me&mdash;where I was at the hour Mrs. Clemmens was
+murdered."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She paused so long one had time to count her breaths
+as they came in gasps to her white lips.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no further desire to hide from you the truth.
+I was with Mrs. Clemmens in her own house."</p>
+
+<p>At this acknowledgment so astonishing, and besides so
+totally different from the one he had been led to expect,
+Mr. Ferris started as if a thunder-bolt had fallen at his
+feet.</p>
+
+<p>"In Mrs. Clemmens' house!" he repeated, amid the
+excited hum of a hundred murmuring voices. "Did you
+say, in Mrs. Clemmens' house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she returned, with a wild, ironical smile that at
+once assured Mr. Ferris of his helplessness. "I am on
+oath <i>now</i>, and I assert that on the day and at the
+hour Mrs. Clemmens was murdered, I was in her house
+and in her dining-room. I had come there secretly," she
+proceeded, with a sudden feverish fluency that robbed
+Mr. Ferris of speech, and in fact held all her auditors
+spell-bound. "I had been spending an hour or so at
+Professor Darling's, whose house in West Side is, as
+many here know, at the very end of Summer Avenue, and
+close to the woods that run along back of Mrs. Clemmens'
+cottage. I had been sitting alone in the observatory,
+which is at the top of one of the towers, but being suddenly
+seized with a desire to see the widow and make
+that promised attempt at persuading her to reconsider
+her decision in regard to the money her&mdash;her&mdash;the
+prisoner wanted, I came down, and unknown to any one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span>
+in the house, stole away to the woods and so to the
+widow's cottage. It was noon when I got there, or very
+near it, for her company, if she had had any, was gone,
+and she was engaged in setting the clock where&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Why did she pause? The District Attorney, utterly
+stupefied by his surprise, had made no sign; neither had
+Mr. Orcutt. Indeed, it looked as if the latter could
+not have moved, much less spoken, even if he had desired
+it. Thought, feeling, life itself, seemed to be at a
+standstill within him as he sat with a face like clay, waiting
+for words whose import he perhaps saw foreshadowed
+in her wild and terrible mien. But though his aspect was
+enough to stop her, it was not upon him she was gazing
+when the words tripped on her lips. It was upon the
+prisoner, on the man who up to this time had borne himself
+with such iron-like composure and reserve, but who
+now, with every sign of feeling and alarm, had started
+forward and stood surveying her, with his hand uplifted
+in the authoritative manner of a master.</p>
+
+<p>The next instant he sank back, feeling the eye of the
+Judge upon him; but the signal had been made, and
+many in that court-room looked to see Imogene falter or
+break down. But she, although fascinated, perhaps
+moved, by this hint of feeling from one who had hitherto
+met all the exigencies of the hour with a steady and firm
+composure, did not continue silent at his bidding. On
+the contrary, her purpose, whatever it was, seemed to acquire
+new force, for turning from him with a strange, unearthly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span>
+glare on her face, she fixed her glances on the
+jury and went steadily on.</p>
+
+<p>"I have said," she began, "that Mrs. Clemmens was
+winding her clock. When I came in she stepped down,
+and a short and angry colloquy commenced between us.
+She did not like my coming there. She did not appreciate
+my interest in her nephew. She made me furious,
+frenzied, mad. I&mdash;I turned away&mdash;then I came back.
+She was standing with her face lifted toward her clock, as
+though she no longer heeded or remembered my presence.
+I&mdash;I don't know what came to me; whether it
+was hatred or love that maddened my brain&mdash;but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She did not finish; she did not need to. The look she
+gave, the attitude she took, the appalling gesture which
+she made, supplied the place of language. In an instant
+Mr. Ferris, Mr. Orcutt, all the many and confused spectators
+who hung upon her words as if spell-bound, realized
+that instead of giving evidence inculpating the prisoner,
+she was giving evidence <i>accusing</i> herself; that, in other
+words, Imogene Dare, goaded to madness by the fearful
+alternative of either destroying her lover or sacrificing
+herself, had yielded to the claims of her love or her conscience,
+and in hearing of judge and jury, proclaimed
+herself to be the murderess of Mrs. Clemmens.</p>
+
+<p>The moment that followed was frightful. The prisoner,
+who was probably the only man present who foresaw her
+intention when she began to speak, had sunk back into
+his seat and covered his face with his hands long before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span>
+she reached the fatal declaration. But the spectacle presented
+by Mr. Orcutt was enough, as with eyes dilated
+and lips half parted in consternation, he stood before
+them a victim of overwhelming emotion; so overcome,
+indeed, as scarcely to be able to give vent to the one low
+and memorable cry that involuntarily left his lips as the
+full realization of what she had done smote home to his
+stricken breast.</p>
+
+<p>As for Mr. Ferris, he stood dumb, absolutely robbed of
+speech by this ghastly confession he had unwillingly
+called from his witness' lips; while slowly from end to
+end of that court-room the wave of horror spread, till
+Imogene, her cause, and that of the wretched prisoner
+himself, seemed swallowed up in one fearful tide of unreality
+and nightmare.</p>
+
+<p>The first gleam of relief came from the Judge.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," said he, in his slow, kindly way that
+nothing could impair, "do you realize the nature of the
+evidence you have given to the court?"</p>
+
+<p>Her slowly falling head and white face, from which all
+the fearful excitement was slowly ebbing in a dead despair,
+gave answer for her.</p>
+
+<p>"I fear that you are not in a condition to realize the
+effect of your words," the Judge went on. "Sympathy for
+the prisoner or the excitement of being recalled to the
+stand has unnerved or confused you. Take time, Miss
+Dare, the court will wait; reconsider your words, and
+then tell us the truth about this matter."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But Imogene, with white lips and drooped head,
+answered hurriedly:</p>
+
+<p>"I have nothing to consider. I have told, or attempted
+to tell, how Mrs. Clemmens came to her death. She
+was struck down by me; Craik Mansell there is innocent."</p>
+
+<p>At this repetition in words of what she had before
+merely intimated by a gesture, the Judge ceased his questions,
+and the horror of the multitude found vent in one
+long, low, but irrepressible murmur. Taking advantage
+of the momentary disturbance, Byrd turned to his colleague
+with the agitated inquiry:</p>
+
+<p>"Hickory, is <i>this</i> what you have had in your mind for
+the last few days?"</p>
+
+<p>"This," repeated the other, with an air of careful consideration,
+assumed, as Byrd thought, to conceal any
+emotion which he might have felt; "no, no, not really.
+I&mdash;I don't know what I thought. Not this though." And
+he fixed his eyes upon Imogene's fallen countenance,
+with an expression of mingled doubt and wonder, as
+baffling in its nature as the tone of voice he had used.</p>
+
+<p>"But," stammered Byrd, with an earnestness that almost
+partook of the nature of pleading, "she is not
+speaking the truth, of course. What we heard her say
+in the hut&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" interposed the other, with a significant gesture
+and a sudden glance toward the prisoner and his
+counsel; "watching is better than talking just now.
+Besides, Orcutt is going to speak."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was so. After a short and violent conflict with the
+almost overwhelming emotions that had crushed upon
+him with the words and actions of Imogene, the great
+lawyer had summoned up sufficient control over himself
+to reassume the duties of his position and face once more
+the expectant crowd, and the startled, if not thoroughly
+benumbed, jury.</p>
+
+<p>His first words had the well-known ring, and, like a
+puff of cool air through a heated atmosphere, at once restored
+the court-room to its usual condition of formality
+and restraint.</p>
+
+<p>"This is not evidence, but the raving of frenzy," he
+said, in impassioned tones. "The witness has been tortured
+by the demands of the prosecution, till she is no
+longer responsible for her words." And turning toward
+the District Attorney, who, at the first sound of his adversary's
+voice, had roused himself from the stupor into
+which he had been thrown by the fearful and unexpected
+turn which Imogene's confession had taken, he continued:
+"If my learned friend is not lost to all feelings
+of humanity, he will withdraw from the stand a witness
+laboring under a mental aberration of so serious a
+nature."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris was an irritable man, but he was touched
+with sympathy for his friend, reeling under so heavy a
+blow. He therefore forbore to notice this taunt save by
+a low bow, but turned at once to the Judge.</p>
+
+<p>"Your Honor," said he, "I desire to be understood by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span>
+the Court, that the statement which has just been made
+in your hearing by this witness, is as much of a surprise
+to me as to any one in this court-room. The fact which
+I proposed to elicit from her testimony was of an entirely
+different nature. In the conversation which we held last
+night&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Orcutt, vacillating between his powerful concern
+for Imogene, and his duty to his client, would not
+allow the other to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>"I object," said he, "to any attempt at influencing
+the jury by the statement of any conversation which may
+have passed between the District Attorney and the witness.
+From its effects we may judge something of its
+nature, but with its details we have nothing to do."</p>
+
+<p>And raising his voice till it filled the room like a clarion,
+Mr. Orcutt said:</p>
+
+<p>"The moment is too serious for wrangling. A spectacle,
+the most terrible that can be presented to the eyes
+of man, is before you. A young, beautiful, and hitherto
+honored woman, caught in the jaws of a cruel fate and
+urged on by the emotions of her sex, which turn ever
+toward self-sacrifice, has, in a moment of mistaken zeal
+or frantic terror, allowed herself to utter words which
+sound like a criminal confession. May it please your
+Honor and Gentlemen of the Jury, this is an act to awaken
+compassion in the breast of every true man. Neither my
+client nor myself can regard it in any other light. Though
+his case were ten times more critical than it is, and condemnation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span>
+awaited him at your hands instead of a triumphant
+acquittal, he is not the man I believe him, if he
+would consent to accept a deliverance founded upon
+utterances so manifestly frenzied and devoid of truth.
+I therefore repeat the objection I have before urged. I
+ask your Honor now to strike out all this testimony as
+irrelevant in rebuttal, and I beg our learned friend to
+close an examination as unprofitable to his own cause as to
+mine."</p>
+
+<p>"I agree with my friend," returned Mr. Ferris, "that
+the moment is one unfit for controversy. If it please the
+Court, therefore, I will withdraw the witness, though by
+so doing I am forced to yield all hope of eliciting the important
+fact I had relied upon to rebut the defence."</p>
+
+<p>And obedient to the bow of acquiescence he received
+from the Judge, the District Attorney turned to Miss
+Dare and considerately requested her to leave the stand.</p>
+
+<p>But she, roused by the sound of her name perhaps,
+looked up, and meeting the eye of the Judge, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, your Honor, but I do not desire to leave
+the stand till I have made clear to all who hear me that it
+is I, not the prisoner, who am responsible for Mrs. Clemmens'
+death. The agony which I have been forced to
+undergo in giving testimony against him, has earned me
+the right to say the words that prove his innocence and
+my own guilt."</p>
+
+<p>"But," said the Judge, "we do not consider you in any
+condition to give testimony in court to-day, even against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span>
+yourself. If what you say is true, you shall have ample
+opportunities hereafter to confirm and establish your
+statements, for you must know, Miss Dare, that no confession
+of this nature will be considered sufficient without
+testimony corroborative of its truth."</p>
+
+<p>"But, your Honor," she returned, with a dreadful calmness,
+"I have corroborative testimony." And amid the
+startled looks of all present, she raised her hand and
+pointed with steady forefinger at the astounded and by-no-means
+gratified Hickory. "Let that man be recalled,"
+she cried, "and asked to repeat the conversation he had
+with a young servant-girl called Roxana, in Professor
+Darling's observatory some ten weeks ago."</p>
+
+<p>The suddenness of her action, the calm assurance with
+which it was made, together with the intention it evinced
+of summoning actual evidence to substantiate her confession,
+almost took away the breath of the assembled
+multitude. Even Mr. Orcutt seemed shaken by it, and
+stood looking from the outstretched hand of this woman
+he so adored, to the abashed countenance of the rough
+detective, with a wonder that for the first time betrayed
+the presence of alarm. Indeed, to him as to others, the
+moment was fuller of horror than when she made her first
+self-accusation, for what at that time partook of the
+vagueness of a dream, seemed to be acquiring the substance
+of an awful reality.</p>
+
+<p>Imogene alone remained unmoved. Still with her eyes
+fixed on Hickory, she continued:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He has not told you all he knows about this matter,
+any more than I. If my word needs corroboration, look
+to him."</p>
+
+<p>And taking advantage of the sensation which this last
+appeal occasioned, she waited where she was for the
+Judge to speak, with all the calmness of one who has
+nothing more to fear or hope for in this world.</p>
+
+<p>But the Judge sat aghast at this spectacle of youth and
+beauty insisting upon its own guilt, and neither Mr. Ferris
+nor Mr. Orcutt having words for this emergency, a
+silence, deep as the feeling which had been aroused,
+gradually settled over the whole court. It was fast becoming
+oppressive, when suddenly a voice, low but firm,
+and endowed with a strange power to awake and hold the
+attention, was heard speaking in that quarter of the room
+whence Mr. Orcutt's commanding tones had so often
+issued. It was an unknown voice, and for a minute a
+doubt seemed to rest upon the assembled crowd as to
+whom it belonged.</p>
+
+<p>But the change that had come into Imogene's face, as
+well as the character of the words that were uttered, soon
+convinced them it was the prisoner himself. With a start,
+every one turned in the direction of the dock. The
+sight that met their eyes seemed a fit culmination of the
+scene through which they had just passed. Erect, noble,
+as commanding in appearance and address as the woman
+who still held her place on the witness stand, Craik Mansell
+faced the judge and jury with a quiet, resolute, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span>
+courteous assurance, that seemed at once to rob him of
+the character of a criminal, and set him on a par with the
+able and honorable men by whom he was surrounded.
+Yet his words were not those of a belied man, nor was
+his plea one of innocence.</p>
+
+<p>"I ask pardon," he was saying, "for addressing the
+court directly; first of all, the pardon of my counsel,
+whose ability has never been so conspicuous as in this
+case, and whose just resentment, if he were less magnanimous
+and noble, I feel I am now about to incur."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt turned to him a look of surprise and
+severity, but the prisoner saw nothing but the face of
+the Judge, and continued:</p>
+
+<p>"I would have remained silent if the disposition which
+your Honor and the District Attorney proposed to make
+of this last testimony were not in danger of reconsideration
+from the appeal which the witness has just made.
+I believe, with you, that her testimony should be disregarded.
+I intend, if I have the power, that it shall be
+<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'disegarded'">disregarded</ins>."</p>
+
+<p>The Judge held up his hand, as if to warn the prisoner
+and was about to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"I entreat that I may be heard," said Mansell, with
+the utmost calmness. "I beg the Court not to imagine
+that I am about to imitate the witness in any sudden or
+ill-considered attempt at a confession. All I intend is
+that her self-accusation shall not derive strength or
+importance from any doubts of my guilt which may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span>
+spring from the defence which has been interposed in
+my behalf."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt, who, from the moment the prisoner began
+to speak, had given evidences of a great indecision as to
+whether he should allow his client to continue or not,
+started at these words, so unmistakably pointing toward
+a demolishment of his whole case, and hurriedly rose.
+But a glance at Imogene seemed to awaken a new train
+of thought, and he as hurriedly reseated himself.</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner, seeing he had nothing to fear from his
+counsel's interference, and meeting with no rebuke from
+the Judge, went calmly on:</p>
+
+<p>"Yesterday I felt differently in regard to this matter.
+If I could be saved from my fate by a defence seemingly
+so impregnable, I was willing to be so saved, but to-day
+I would be a coward and a disgrace to my sex if, in face
+of the generous action of this woman, I allowed a falsehood
+of whatever description to place her in peril, or to
+stand between me and the doom that probably awaits
+me. Sir," he continued, turning for the first time to
+Mr. Orcutt, with a gesture of profound respect, "you
+had been told that the path from Mrs. Clemmens' house
+to the bridge, and so on to Monteith Quarry Station,
+could not be traversed in ninety minutes, and you believed
+it. You were not wrong. It cannot be gone over
+in that time. But I now say to your Honor and to the
+jury, that the distance from my aunt's house to the
+Quarry Station can be made in that number of minutes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span>
+if a way can be found to cross the river without going
+around by the bridge. I know," he proceeded, as a
+torrent of muttered exclamations rose on his ear, foremost
+among which was that of the much-discomfited
+Hickory, "that to many of you, to all of you, perhaps,
+all means for doing this seem to be lacking to the chance
+wayfarer, but if there were a lumberman here, he would
+tell you that the logs which are frequently floated down
+this stream to the station afford an easy means of passage
+to one accustomed to ride them, as I have been
+when a lad, during the year I spent in the Maine woods.
+At all events, it was upon a log that happened to be
+lodged against the banks, and which I pushed out into
+the stream by means of the 'pivy' or long spiked pole
+which I found lying in the grass at its side, that I crossed
+the river on that fatal day; and if the detective, who has
+already made such an effort to controvert the defence,
+will risk an attempt at this expedient for cutting short
+his route, I have no doubt he will be able to show
+you that a man can pass from Mrs. Clemmens' house
+to the station at Monteith Quarry, not only in ninety
+minutes, but in less, if the exigencies of the case seem to
+demand it. I did it."</p>
+
+<p>And without a glance at Imogene, but with an air
+almost lofty in its pride and manly assertion, the prisoner
+sank back into his seat, and resumed once more his quiet
+and unshaken demeanor.</p>
+
+<p>This last change in the kaleidoscope of events, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span>
+had been shifting before their eyes for the last half
+hour, was too much for the continued equanimity of
+a crowd already worked up into a state of feverish
+excitement. It had become apparent that by stripping
+away his defence, Mansell left himself naked to the law.
+In this excitement of the jury, consequent upon the
+self-accusation of Imogene, the prisoner's admission
+might prove directly fatal to him. He was on trial
+for this crime; public justice demanded blood for
+blood, and public excitement clamored for a victim.
+It was dangerous to toy with a feeling but one degree
+removed from the sentiment of a mob. The jury might
+not stop to sympathize with the self-abnegation of these
+two persons willing to die for each other. They might
+say: "The way is clear as to the prisoner at least; he
+has confessed his defence is false; the guilty interpose
+false defences; we are acquit before God and men if we
+convict him out of his own mouth."</p>
+
+<p>The crowd in the court-room was saying all this and
+more, each man to his neighbor. A clamor of voices
+next to impossible to suppress rose over the whole room,
+and not even the efforts of the officers of the court,
+exerted to their full power in the maintenance of order,
+could have hushed the storm, had not the spectators
+become mute with expectation at seeing Mr. Ferris and
+Mr. Orcutt, summoned by a sign from the Judge, advance
+to the front of the bench and engage in an earnest conference
+with the Court. A few minutes afterward the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span>
+Judge turned to the jury and announced that the disclosures
+of the morning demanded a careful consideration
+by the prosecution, that an adjournment was undoubtedly
+indispensable, and that the jury should refrain from any
+discussion of the case, even among themselves, until it was
+finally given them under the charge of the Court. The
+jury expressed their concurrence by an almost unanimous
+gesture of assent, and the crier proclaimed an adjournment
+until the next day at ten o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>Imogene, still sitting in the witness chair, saw the
+prisoner led forth by the jailer without being able to
+gather, in the whirl of the moment, any indication that her
+dreadful sacrifice&mdash;for she had made wreck of her life in
+the eyes of the world whether her confession were true or
+false&mdash;had accomplished any thing save to drive the man
+she loved to the verge of that doom from which she had
+sought to deliver him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXXV.</h2>
+
+<h3>PRO AND CON.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem2'>
+<i>Hamlet.</i>&mdash;Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?<br />
+<i>Polonius.</i>&mdash;By the mass, and 'tis like a camel indeed.<br />
+<i>Hamlet.</i>&mdash;Methinks it is like a weasel.<br />
+<i>Polonius.</i>&mdash;It is back'd like a weasel.    &nbsp;  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &mdash;<span class="smcap">Hamlet.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>SHORTLY after the adjournment of court, Mr.
+Ferris summoned the two detectives to his office.</div>
+
+<p>"We have a serious question before us to decide," said
+he. "Are we to go on with the prosecution or are we to
+stop? I should like to hear your views on the subject."</p>
+
+<p>Hickory was, as usual, the first to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"I should say, stop," he cried. "This fresh applicant
+for the honor of having slain the Widow Clemmens
+deserves a hearing at least."</p>
+
+<p>"But," hurriedly interposed Byrd, "you don't give any
+credit to her story now, even if you did before the
+prisoner spoke? You know she did not commit the crime
+herself, whatever she may choose to declare in her
+anxiety to shield the prisoner. I hope, sir," he proceeded,
+glancing at the District Attorney, "that <i>you</i> have
+no doubts as to Miss Dare's innocence?"</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Ferris, instead of answering, turned to Hickory
+and said:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare, in summoning you to confirm her statement,
+relied, I suppose, upon the fact of your having
+been told by Professor Darling's servant-maid that she&mdash;that
+is, Miss Dare&mdash;was gone from the observatory when
+the girl came for her on the morning of the murder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"A strong corroborative fact, if true?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"But is it true? In the explanation which Miss Dare
+gave me last night of this affair, she uttered statements
+essentially different from those she made in court to-day.
+She then told me she <i>was</i> in the observatory when the
+girl came for her; that she was looking through a telescope
+which was behind a high rack filled with charts;
+and that&mdash;&mdash; Why do you start?"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't start," protested Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," returned Mr. Ferris.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, if I did make such a fool of myself, it was
+because so far her story is plausible enough. She was in
+that very position when <i>I</i> visited the observatory, you
+remember, and she was so effectually concealed I didn't
+see her or know she was there, till I looked behind the
+rack."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good!" interjected Mr. Ferris. "And that,"
+he resumed, "she did not answer the girl or make known
+her presence, because at the moment the girl came in she
+was deeply interested in watching something that was
+going on in the town."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"In the town!" repeated Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; the telescope was lowered so as to command a
+view of the town, and she had taken advantage of its
+position (as she assured me last night) to consult the
+church clock."</p>
+
+<p>"The church clock!" echoed Byrd once more. "And
+what time did she say it was?" breathlessly cried both
+detectives.</p>
+
+<p>"Five minutes to twelve."</p>
+
+<p>"A critical moment," ejaculated Byrd. "And what
+was it she saw going on in the town at that especial
+time?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you," returned the District Attorney, impressively.
+"She said&mdash;and I believed her last night and
+so recalled her to the stand this morning&mdash;that she saw
+Craik Mansell fleeing toward the swamp from Mrs.
+Clemmens' dining-room door."</p>
+
+<p>Both men looked up astonished.</p>
+
+<p>"That was what she told me last night. To-day she
+comes into court with this contradictory story of herself
+being the assailant and sole cause of Mrs. Clemmens'
+death."</p>
+
+<p>"But all that is frenzy," protested Byrd. "She probably
+saw from your manner that the prisoner was lost if
+she gave this fact to the court, and her mind became disordered.
+She evidently loves this Mansell, and as for
+me, I pity her."</p>
+
+<p>"So do I," assented the District Attorney; "still&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible," Byrd interrupted, with feeling, as Mr.
+Ferris hesitated, "that you do doubt her innocence?
+After the acknowledgments made by the prisoner too?"</p>
+
+<p>Rising from his seat, Mr. Ferris began slowly to pace
+the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like each of you," said he, without answering
+the appeal of Byrd, "to tell me why I should credit
+what she told me in conversation last night rather than
+what she uttered upon oath in the court-room to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me speak first," rejoined Byrd, glancing at Hickory.
+And, rising also, he took his stand against the
+mantel-shelf where he could partially hide his face from
+those he addressed. "Sir," he proceeded, after a moment,
+"both Hickory and myself know Miss Dare to be
+innocent of this murder. A circumstance which we have
+hitherto kept secret, but which in justice to Miss Dare I
+think we are now bound to make known, has revealed to
+us the true criminal. Hickory, tell Mr. Ferris of the deception
+you practised upon Miss Dare in the hut."</p>
+
+<p>The surprised, but secretly gratified, detective at once
+complied. <i>He</i> saw no reason for keeping quiet about
+that day's work. He told how, by means of a letter purporting
+to come from Mansell, he had decoyed Imogene
+to an interview in the hut, where, under the supposition
+she was addressing her lover, she had betrayed her conviction
+of his guilt, and advised him to confess it.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris listened with surprise and great interest.</p>
+
+<p>"That seems to settle the question," he said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But it was now Hickory's turn to shake his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," he remonstrated. "I have sometimes
+thought she saw through the trick and turned it to her
+own advantage."</p>
+
+<p>"How to her own advantage?"</p>
+
+<p>"To talk in such a way as to make us think Mansell
+was guilty."</p>
+
+<p>"Stuff!" said Byrd; "that woman?"</p>
+
+<p>"More unaccountable things have happened," was the
+weak reply of Hickory, his habitual state of suspicion
+leading him more than once into similar freaks of folly.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said Mr. Byrd, confidingly, to the District Attorney,
+"let us run over this matter from the beginning.
+Starting with the supposition that the explanation she
+gave you last night was the true one, let us see if the
+whole affair does not hang together in a way to satisfy us
+all as to where the real guilt lies. To begin, then, with
+the meeting in the woods&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait," interrupted Hickory; "there is going to be an
+argument here; so suppose you give your summary of
+events from the lady's standpoint, as that seems to be the
+one which interests you most."</p>
+
+<p>"I was about to do so," Horace assured him, heedless
+of the rough fellow's good-natured taunt. "To make my
+point, it is absolutely necessary for us to transfer ourselves
+into her position and view matters as they gradually unfolded
+themselves before her eyes. First, then, as I have
+before suggested, let us consider the interview held by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span>
+this man and woman in the woods. Miss Dare, as we
+must remember, was not engaged to Mr. Mansell; she
+only loved him. Their engagement, to say nothing of
+their marriage, depended upon his success in life&mdash;a success
+which to them seemed to hang solely upon the decision
+of Mrs. Clemmens concerning the small capital he
+desired her to advance him. But in the interview which
+Mansell had held with his aunt previous to the meeting
+between the lovers, Mrs. Clemmens had refused to loan
+him this money, and Miss Dare, whose feelings we are
+endeavoring to follow, found herself beset by the entreaties
+of a man who, having failed in his plans for future
+fortune, feared the loss of her love as well. What was the
+natural consequence? Rebellion against the widow's decision,
+of course,&mdash;a rebellion which she showed by the
+violent gesture which she made;&mdash;and then a determination
+to struggle for her happiness, as she evinced when,
+with most unhappy ambiguity of expression, she begged
+him to wait till the next day before pressing his ring upon
+her acceptance, because, as she said:</p>
+
+<p>"'A night has been known to change the whole current
+of a person's affairs.'</p>
+
+<p>"To her, engrossed with the one idea of making a personal
+effort to alter Mrs. Clemmens' mind on the money
+question, these words seemed innocent enough. But the
+look with which he received them, and the pause that
+followed, undoubtedly impressed her, and prepared the
+way for the interest she manifested when, upon looking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span>
+through the telescope the next day, she saw him flying in
+that extraordinary way from his aunt's cottage toward the
+woods. Not that she then thought of his having committed
+a crime. As I trace her mental experience, she
+did not come to that conclusion till it was forced upon
+her. I do not know, and so cannot say, how she first
+heard of the murder&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"She was told of it on the street-corner," interpolated
+Mr. Ferris.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well, then, fresh from this vision of her lover
+hasting from his aunt's door to hide himself in the woods
+beyond, she came into town and was greeted by the announcement
+that Mrs. Clemmens had just been assaulted
+by a tramp in her own house. I know this was the way
+in which the news was told her, from the expression of
+her face as she entered the house. I was standing at the
+gate, you remember, when she came up, and her look had
+in it determination and horror, but no special fear. In
+fact, the words she dropped show the character of her
+thoughts at that time. She distinctly murmured in my
+hearing: 'No good can come of it, none.' As if her mind
+were dwelling upon the advantages which might accrue to
+her lover from his aunt's death, and weighing them
+against the foul means by which that person's end had
+been hastened. Yet I will not say but she may have been
+influenced in the course which she took by some doubt or
+apprehension of her own. The fact that she came to the
+house at all, and, having come, insisted upon knowing all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span>
+the details of the assault, seem to prove she was not without
+a desire to satisfy herself that suspicion rightfully
+attached itself to the tramp. But not until she saw her
+lover's ring on the floor (the ring which she had with her
+own hand dropped into the pocket of his coat the day
+before) and heard that the tramp had justified himself
+and was no longer considered the assailant, did her true
+fear and horror come. Then, indeed, all the past rose up
+before her, and, believing her lover guilty of this crime,
+she laid claim to the jewel as the first and only alternative
+that offered by which she might stand between him
+and the consequences of his guilt. Her subsequent agitation
+when the dying woman made use of the exclamation
+that indissolubly connected the crime with a ring, speaks
+for itself. Nor was her departure from the house any too
+hurried or involuntary, when you consider that the vengeance
+invoked by the widow, was, in Miss Dare's opinion,
+called down upon one to whom she had nearly
+plighted her troth. What is the next act in the drama?
+The scene in the Syracuse depot. Let me see if I cannot
+explain it. A woman who has once allowed herself to
+suspect the man she loves of a murderous deed, cannot
+rest till she has either convinced herself that her suspicions
+are false, or until she has gained such knowledge of
+the truth as makes her feel justified in her seeming treason.
+A woman of Miss Dare's generous nature especially.
+What does she do, then? With the courage that characterizes
+all her movements, she determines upon seeing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span>
+him, and from his own lips, perhaps, win a confession of
+guilt or innocence. Conceiving that his flight was directed
+toward the Quarry Station, and thence to Buffalo, she
+embraced the first opportunity to follow him to the latter
+place. As I have told you, her ticket was bought for
+Buffalo, and to Buffalo she evidently intended going.
+But chancing to leave the cars at Syracuse, she was
+startled by encountering in the depot the very man
+with whom she had been associating thoughts of guilt.
+Shocked and thrown off her guard by the unexpectedness
+of the occurrence, she betrays her shrinking and her
+horror. 'Were you coming to see me?' she asks, and
+recoils, while he, conscious at the first glimpse of her face
+that his guilt has cost him her love, starts back also,
+uttering, in his shame and despair, words that were similar
+to hers, 'Were you coming to see me?'"</p>
+
+<p>"Convinced without further speech, that her worst
+fears had foundation in fact, she turns back toward her
+home. The man she loved had committed a crime. That
+it was partly for her sake only increased her horror
+sevenfold. She felt as if she were guilty also, and, with
+sudden remorse, remembered how, instead of curbing his
+wrath the day before she had inflamed it by her words,
+if not given direction to it by her violent gestures. That
+fact, and the self-blame it produced, probably is the cause
+why her love did not vanish with her hopes. Though he
+was stained by guilt, she felt that it was the guilt of a
+strong nature driven from its bearings by the conjunction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span>
+of two violent passions,&mdash;ambition and love; and she
+being passionate and ambitious herself, remained attached
+to the man while she recoiled from his crime.</p>
+
+<p>"This being so, she could not, as a woman, wish him
+to suffer the penalty of his wickedness. Though lost to
+her, he must not be lost to the world. So, with the
+heroism natural to such a nature, she shut the secret up
+in her own breast, and faced her friends with courage,
+wishing, if not hoping, that the matter would remain the
+mystery it promised to be when she stood with us in the
+presence of the dying woman.</p>
+
+<p>"But this was not to be, for suddenly, in the midst of
+her complacency, fell the startling announcement that
+another man&mdash;an innocent man&mdash;one, too, of her lover's
+own standing, if not hopes, had by a curious conjunction
+of events so laid himself open to the suspicion of the
+authorities as to be actually under arrest for this crime.
+'Twas a danger she had not foreseen, a result for which
+she was not prepared.</p>
+
+<p>"Startled and confounded she let a few days go by in
+struggle and indecision, possibly hoping, with the blind
+trust of her sex, that Mr. Hildreth would be released
+without her interference. But Mr. Hildreth was not released,
+and her anxiety was fast becoming unendurable,
+when that decoy letter sent by Hickory reached her,
+awakening in her breast for the first time, perhaps, the
+hope that Mansell would show himself to be a true man
+in this extremity, and by a public confession of guilt release<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[446]</a></span>
+her from the task of herself supplying the information
+which would lead to his commitment.</p>
+
+<p>"And, perhaps, if it had really fallen to the lot of
+Mansell to confront her in the hut and listen to her
+words of adjuration and appeal, he might have been induced
+to consent to her wishes. But a detective sat
+there instead of her lover, and the poor woman lived to
+see the days go by without any movement being made to
+save Mr. Hildreth. At last&mdash;was it the result of the
+attempt made by this man upon his life?&mdash;she put an end
+to the struggle by acting for herself. Moved by a sense
+of duty, despite her love, she sent the letter which drew
+attention to her lover, and paved the way for that trial
+which has occupied our attention for so many days. But&mdash;mark
+this, for I think it is the only explanation of her
+whole conduct&mdash;the sense of justice that upheld her in this
+duty was mingled with the hope that her lover would
+escape conviction if he did not trial. The one fact
+which told the most against him&mdash;I allude to his flight
+from his aunt's door on the morning of the murder, as
+observed by her through the telescope&mdash;was as yet a
+secret in her own breast, and there she meant it to
+remain unless it was drawn forth by actual question. But
+it was not a fact likely to be made the subject of question,
+and drawing hope from that consideration, she prepared
+herself for the ordeal before her, determined, as I
+actually believe, to answer with truth all the inquiries
+that were put to her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[447]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But in an unexpected hour she learned that the detectives
+were anxious to know where she was during the
+time of the murder. She heard Hickory question Professor
+Darling's servant-girl, as to whether she was still
+in the observatory, and at once feared that her secret was
+discovered. Feared, I say&mdash;I conjecture this,&mdash;but what
+I do not conjecture is that with the fear, or doubt, or
+whatever emotion it was she cherished, a revelation came
+of the story she might tell if worst came to worst, and
+she found herself forced to declare what she saw when
+the clock stood at five minutes to twelve on that fatal
+day. Think of your conversation with the girl Roxana,"
+he went on to Hickory, "and then think of that woman
+crouching behind the rack, listening to your words, and
+see if you can draw any other conclusion from the expression
+of her face than that of triumph at seeing a way
+to deliver her lover at the sacrifice of herself."</p>
+
+<p>As Byrd waited for a reply, Hickory reluctantly acknowledged:</p>
+
+<p>"Her look was a puzzler, that I will allow. She seemed
+glad&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There," cried Byrd, "you say she seemed glad; that
+is enough. Had she had the weight of this crime upon
+her conscience, she would have betrayed a different emotion
+from that. I pray you to consider the situation,"
+he proceeded, turning to the District Attorney, "for on
+it hangs your conviction of her innocence. First, imagine
+her guilty. What would her feelings be, as, hiding unseen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span>
+in that secret corner, she hears a detective's voice inquiring
+where she was when the fatal blow was struck, and
+hears the answer given that she was not where she was
+supposed to be, but in the woods&mdash;the woods which she
+and every one know lead so directly to Mrs. Clemmens'
+house, she could without the least difficulty hasten there
+and back in the hour she was observed to be missing?
+Would she show gladness or triumph even of a wild or
+delirious order? No, even Hickory cannot say she
+would. Now, on the contrary, see her as I do, crouched
+there in the very place before the telescope which she
+occupied when the girl came to the observatory before,
+but unseen now as she was unseen then, and watch the
+change that takes place in her countenance as she hears
+question and answer and realizes what confirmation she
+would receive from this girl if she ever thought fit to declare
+that she was not in the observatory when the girl
+sought her there on the day of the murder. That by this
+act she would bring execration if not death upon herself,
+she does not stop to consider. Her mind is full of what
+she can do for her lover, and she does not think of herself.</p>
+
+<p>"But an enthusiasm like this is too frenzied to last.
+As time passes by and Craik Mansell is brought to trial,
+she begins to hope she may be spared this sacrifice. She
+therefore responds with perfect truth when summoned to
+the stand to give evidence, and does not waver, though
+question after question is asked her, whose answers cannot
+fail to show the state of her mind in regard to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span>
+prisoner's guilt. Life and honor are sweet even to one
+in her condition; and if her lover could be saved without
+falsehood it was her natural instinct to avoid it.</p>
+
+<p>"And it looked as if he would be saved. A defence
+both skilful and ingenious had been advanced for him by
+his counsel&mdash;a defence which only the one fact so securely
+locked in her bosom could controvert. You can imagine,
+then, the horror and alarm which must have seized her
+when, in the very hour of hope, you approached her with
+the demand which proved that her confidence in her
+power to keep silence had been premature, and that the
+alternative was yet to be submitted to her of destroying
+her lover or sacrificing herself. Yet, because a great
+nature does not succumb without a struggle, she tried even
+now the effect of the truth upon you, and told you the one
+fact she considered so detrimental to the safety of her
+lover.</p>
+
+<p>"The result was fatal. Though I cannot presume to
+say what passed between you, I can imagine how the
+change in your countenance warned her of the doom she
+would bring upon Mansell if she went into court with the
+same story she told you. Nor do I find it difficult to
+imagine how, in one of her history and temperament, a
+night of continuous brooding over this one topic should
+have culminated in the act which startled us so profoundly
+in the court-room this morning. Love, misery, devotion
+are not mere names to her, and the greatness which sustained
+her through the ordeal of denouncing her lover in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span>
+order that an innocent man might be relieved from suspicion,
+was the same that made it possible for her to
+denounce herself that she might redeem the life she had
+thus deliberately jeopardized.</p>
+
+<p>"That she did this with a certain calmness and dignity
+proves it to have been the result of design. A murderess
+forced by conscience into confession would not have gone
+into the details of her crime, but blurted out her guilt,
+and left the details to be drawn from her by question.
+Only the woman anxious to tell her story with the plausibility
+necessary to insure its belief would have planned
+and carried on her confession as she did.</p>
+
+<p>"The action of the prisoner, in face of this proof of
+devotion, though it might have been foreseen by a man,
+was evidently not foreseen by her. To me, who watched
+her closely at the time, her face wore a strange look of
+mingled satisfaction and despair,&mdash;satisfaction in having
+awakened his manhood, despair at having failed in saving
+him. But it is not necessary for me to dilate on this
+point. If I have been successful in presenting before you
+the true condition of her mind during this struggle, you
+will see for yourself what her feelings must be now that
+her lover has himself confessed to a fact, to hide which
+she made the greatest sacrifice of which mortal is capable."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris, who, during this lengthy and exhaustive
+harangue, had sat with brooding countenance and an
+anxious mien, roused himself as the other ceased, and
+glanced with a smile at Hickory.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[451]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well," said he, "that's good reasoning; now let us
+hear how you will go to work to demolish it."</p>
+
+<p>The cleared brow, the playful tone of the District
+Attorney showed the relieved state of his mind. Byrd's
+arguments had evidently convinced him of the innocence
+of Imogene Dare.</p>
+
+<p>Hickory, seeing it, shook his head with a gloomy air.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said he, "I can't demolish it. If I could tell
+why Mansell fled from Widow Clemmens' house at five
+minutes to twelve I might be able to do so, but that fact
+stumps me. It is an act consistent with guilt. It may
+be consistent with innocence, but, as we don't know all
+the facts, we can't say so. But this I do know, that my
+convictions with regard to that man have undergone a
+change. I now as firmly believe in his innocence as
+I once did in his guilt."</p>
+
+<p>"What has produced the change?" asked Mr. Ferris.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Hickory, "it all lies in this. From the
+day I heard Miss Dare accuse him so confidently in the
+hut, I believed him guilty; from the moment he withdrew
+his defence, I believed him innocent."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris and Mr. Byrd looked at him astonished.
+He at once brought down his fist in vigorous assertion on
+the table.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you," said he, "that Craik Mansell is innocent.
+The truth is, he believes Miss Dare guilty, and so stands
+his trial, hoping to save her."</p>
+
+<p>"And be hung for her crime?" asked Mr. Ferris.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No; he thinks his innocence will save him, in spite
+of the evidence on which we got him indicted."</p>
+
+<p>But the District Attorney protested at this.</p>
+
+<p>"That can't be," said he; "Mansell has withdrawn the
+only defence he had."</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," asserted Hickory, "that very thing
+only proves my theory true. He is still determined to
+save Miss Dare by every thing short of a confession
+of his own guilt. He won't lie. That man is innocent."</p>
+
+<p>"And Miss Dare is guilty?" said Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I make it clear to you in the way it has become
+clear to Mr. Mansell?"</p>
+
+<p>As Byrd only answered by a toss of his head,
+Hickory put his elbows on the table, and checking off
+every sentence with the forefinger of his right hand,
+which he pointed at Mr. Ferris' shirt-stud, as if to instil
+from its point conviction into that gentleman's bosom, he
+proceeded with the utmost composure as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"To commence, then, with the scene in the woods.
+He meets her. She is as angry at his aunt as he is.
+What does she do? She strikes the tree with her hand,
+and tells him to wait till to-morrow, since a night has
+been known to change the whole current of a person's
+affairs. Now tell me what does that mean? Murder?
+If so, she was the one to originate it. He can't forget
+that. It has stamped itself upon Mansell's memory, and
+when, after the assassination of Mrs. Clemmens, he recalls
+those words, he is convinced that she has slain Mrs.
+Clemmens to help him."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But, Mr. Hickory," objected Mr. Ferris, "this assumes
+that Mr. Mansell is innocent, whereas we have
+exceedingly cogent proof that he is the guilty party.
+There is the circumstance of his leaving Widow Clemmens'
+house at five minutes to twelve."</p>
+
+<p>To which Hickory, with a twinkle in his eye, replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I won't discuss that; it hasn't been proved, you
+know. Miss Dare told you she saw him do this, but she
+wouldn't swear to it. Nothing is to be taken for granted
+against my man."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you think Miss Dare spoke falsely?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't say that. I believe that whatever he did
+could be explained if we knew as much about it as
+he does. But I'm not called upon to explain any
+thing which has not appeared in the evidence against
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, we'll take the evidence. There is his
+ring, found on the scene of murder."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," rejoined Hickory. "Dropped there, as he
+must suppose, by Miss Dare, because he didn't know she
+had secretly restored it to his pocket."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't see the force of the evidence," said he.
+"As she <i>had</i> restored it to his pocket, he must have been
+the one to drop it there."</p>
+
+<p>"I am willing to admit he dropped it there, not that
+he killed Mrs. Clemmens. I am now speaking of his
+suspicions as to the assassin. When the betrothal ring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span>
+was found there, he suspects Miss Dare of the crime, and
+nothing has occurred to change his suspicions."</p>
+
+<p>"But," said the District Attorney, "how does your
+client, Mr. Mansell, get over this difficulty; that Miss
+Dare, who has committed a murder to put five thousand
+dollars into his pocket, immediately afterward turns
+round and accuses him of the crime&mdash;nay more, furnishes
+evidence against him!"</p>
+
+<p>"You can't expect the same consistency from a woman
+as from a man. They can nerve themselves up one
+moment to any deed of desperation, and take every pains
+the next to conceal it by a lie."</p>
+
+<p>"Men will do the same; then why not Mansell?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am showing you why I know that Mansell believes
+Miss Dare guilty of a murder. To continue, then. What
+does he do when he hears that his aunt has been murdered?
+He scratches out the face of Miss Dare in a
+photograph; he ties up her letters with a black ribbon as
+if she were dead and gone to him. Then the scene in
+the Syracuse depot! The rule of three works both ways,
+Mr. Byrd, and if she left her home to solve <i>her</i> doubts,
+what shall be said of him? The recoil, too&mdash;was it less
+on his part than hers? And, if she had cause to gather
+guilt from his manner, had he not as much cause to
+gather it from hers? If his mind was full of suspicion
+when he met her, it became conviction before he left;
+and, bearing that fact in your mind, watch how he henceforth
+conducted himself. He does not come to Sibley;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span>
+the woman he fears to encounter is there. He hears of
+Mr. Hildreth's arrest, reads of the discoveries which led
+to it, and keeps silent. So would any other man have
+done in his place, at least till he saw whether this arrest
+was likely to end in trial. But he cannot forget he had
+been in Sibley on the fatal day, or that there may be
+some one who saw his interview with Miss Dare. When
+Byrd comes to him, therefore, and tells him he is wanted
+in Sibley, his first question is, 'Am I wanted as a witness?'
+and, even you have acknowledged, Mr. Ferris,
+that he seemed surprised to find himself accused of the
+crime. But, accused, he takes his course and keeps to it.
+Brought to trial, he remembers the curious way in which
+he crossed the river, and thus cut short the road to the
+station; and, seeing in it great opportunities for a successful
+defence, chooses Mr. Orcutt for his counsel, and
+trusts the secret to him. The trial goes on; acquittal
+seems certain, when suddenly she is recalled to the
+stand, and he hears words which make him think she is
+going to betray him by some falsehood, when, instead of
+following the lead of the prosecution, she launches into a
+personal confession. What does he do? Why, rise and
+hold up his hand in a command for her to stop. But she
+does not heed, and the rest follows as a matter of course.
+The life she throws away he will not accept. He is
+innocent, but his defence is false! He says so, and
+leaves the jury to decide on the verdict. There can be
+no doubt," Hickory finally concluded, "that some of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span>
+these circumstances are consistent only with his belief
+that Miss Dare is a murderess: such, for instance, as his
+scratching out her face in the picture. Others favor the
+theory in a less degree, but this is what I want to impress
+upon both your minds," he declared, turning first to Mr.
+Ferris and then to Mr. Byrd: "<i>If any fact, no matter how
+slight, leads us to the conviction that Craik Mansell, at any
+time after the murder, entertained the belief that Miss Dare
+committed it, his innocence follows as a matter of course.
+For the guilty could never entertain a belief in the guilt of
+any other person.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mr. Ferris, "I admit that, but we have got
+to see into Mr. Mansell's mind before we can tell what
+his belief really was."</p>
+
+<p>"No," was Hickory's reply; "let us look at his actions.
+I say that that defaced picture is conclusive. One day
+he loves that woman and wants her to marry him; the
+next, he defaces her picture. Why? She had not offended
+him. Not a word, not a line, passes between them to
+cause him to commit this act. But he does hear of his
+aunt's murder, and he does recall her sinister promise:
+'Wait; there is no telling what a day will bring forth.'
+I say that no other cause for his act is shown except his
+conviction that she is a murderess."</p>
+
+<p>"But," persisted Mr. Ferris, "his leaving the house, as
+he acknowledges he did, by this unfrequented and circuitous
+road?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have said before that I cannot explain his presence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[457]</a></span>
+there, or his flight. All I am now called upon to show
+is, some fact inconsistent with any thing except a belief in
+this young woman's guilt. I claim I have shown it, and,
+as you admit, Mr. Ferris, if I show <i>that</i>, he is innocent."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Byrd, speaking for the first time; "but we
+have heard of people manufacturing evidence in their own
+behalf."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Byrd," replied Hickory, "you don't seriously
+mean to attack my position with that suggestion. How
+could a man dream of manufacturing evidence of such a
+character? A murderer manufactures evidence to throw
+suspicion on other people. No fool could suppose that
+scratching out the face of a girl in a photograph and locking
+it up in his own desk, would tend to bring her to the
+scaffold, or save him from it."</p>
+
+<p>"And, yet," rejoined Byrd, "that very act acquits him
+in your eyes. All that is necessary is to give him credit
+for being smart enough to foresee that it would have such
+a tendency in the eyes of any person who discovered the
+picture."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said Hickory, "he would also have to foresee
+that she would accuse herself of murder when he was on
+trial for it, and that he would thereupon withdraw his
+defence. Byrd, you are foreseeing too much. My friend
+Mansell possesses no such power of looking into the
+future as that."</p>
+
+<p>"Your friend Mansell!" repeated Mr. Ferris, with a
+smile. "If you were on his jury, I suppose your bias in
+his favor would lead you to acquit him of this crime?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[458]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I should declare him 'Not guilty,' and stick to it, if I
+had to be locked up for a year."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris sank into an attitude of profound thought.
+Horace Byrd, impressed by this, looked at him anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Have your convictions been shaken by Hickory's ingenious
+theory?" he ventured to inquire at last.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris abstractedly replied:</p>
+
+<p>"This is no time for me to state my convictions. It is
+enough that you comprehend my perplexity." And, relapsing
+into his former condition, he remained for a
+moment wrapped in silence, then he said: "Byrd, how
+comes it that the humpback who excited so much attention
+on the day of the murder was never found?"</p>
+
+<p>Byrd, astonished, surveyed the District Attorney with a
+doubtful look that gradually changed into one of quiet
+satisfaction as he realized the significance of this recurrence
+to old theories and suspicions. His answer, however,
+was slightly embarrassed in tone, though frank
+enough to remind one of Hickory's blunt-spoken admissions.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said he, "I suppose the main reason is that I
+made no attempt to find him."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think that you were wise in that, Mr. Byrd?"
+inquired Mr. Ferris, with some severity.</p>
+
+<p>Horace laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I can find him for you to-day, if you want him," he
+declared.</p>
+
+<p>"You can? You know him, then?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[459]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Very well. Mr. Ferris," he courteously remarked,
+"I perhaps should have explained to you at the time,
+that I recognized this person and knew him to be an
+honest man; but the habits of secrecy in our profession
+are so fostered by the lives we lead, that we sometimes
+hold our tongue when it would be better for us to speak.
+The humpback who talked with us on the court-house
+steps the morning Mrs. Clemmens was murdered, was not
+what he seemed, sir. He was a detective; a detective in
+disguise; a man with whom I never presume to meddle&mdash;in
+other words, our famous Mr. Gryce."</p>
+
+<p>"Gryce!&mdash;that man!" exclaimed Mr. Ferris, astounded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. He was in disguise, probably for some
+purpose of his own, but I knew his eye. Gryce's eye
+isn't to be mistaken by any one who has much to
+do with him."</p>
+
+<p>"And that famous detective was actually on the spot
+at the time this murder was discovered, and you let him
+go without warning me of his presence?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," returned Mr. Byrd, "neither you nor I nor any
+one at that time could foresee what a serious and complicated
+case this was going to be. Besides, he did not linger
+in this vicinity, but took the cars only a few minutes after
+he parted from us. I did not think he wanted to be
+dragged into this affair unless it was necessary. He had
+important matters of his own to look after. However, if
+suspicion had continued to follow him, I should have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[460]</a></span>
+notified him of the fact, and let him speak for himself.
+But it vanished so quickly in the light of other developments,
+I just let the matter drop."</p>
+
+<p>The impatient frown with which Mr. Ferris received
+this acknowledgment showed he was not pleased.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you made a mistake," said he. Then, after
+a minute's thought, added: "You have seen Gryce
+since?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; several times."</p>
+
+<p>"And he acknowledged himself to have been the
+humpback?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"You must have had some conversation with him,
+then, about this murder? He was too nearly concerned
+in it not to take some interest in the affair?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; Gryce takes an interest in all murder
+cases."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, what did he have to say about this one?
+He gave an opinion, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. Gryce never gives an opinion without
+study, and we detectives have no time to study up an
+affair not our own. If you want to know what Gryce
+thinks about a crime, you have got to put the case into
+his hands."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris paused and seemed to ruminate. Seeing
+this, Mr. Byrd flushed and cast a side glance at Hickory,
+who returned him an expressive shrug.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Ferris," ventured the former, "if you wish to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[461]</a></span>
+consult with Mr. Gryce on this matter, do not hesitate
+because of us. Both Hickory and myself acknowledge
+we are more or less baffled by this case, and Gryce's
+judgment is a good thing to have in a perplexity."</p>
+
+<p>"You think so?" queried the District Attorney.</p>
+
+<p>"I do," said Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris glanced at Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, have the old man here if you want him," was
+that detective's blunt reply. "I have nothing to say
+against your getting all the light you can on this
+affair."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good," returned Mr. Ferris. "You may give
+me his address before you go."</p>
+
+<p>"His address for to-night is Utica," observed Byrd.
+"He could be here before morning, if you wanted
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"I am in no such hurry as that," returned Mr. Ferris,
+and he sank again into thought.</p>
+
+<p>The detectives took advantage of his abstraction to
+utter a few private condolences in each other's ears.</p>
+
+<p>"So it seems we are to be laid on the shelf," whispered
+Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, for which let us be thankful," answered Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Are you getting tired of the affair?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>A humorous twinkle shone for a minute in Hickory's
+eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh!" said he, "it's just getting interesting."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[462]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Opinions differ," quoth Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Not much," retorted Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>Something in the way he said this made Byrd look
+at him more intently. He instantly changed his tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Old fellow," said he, "you don't believe Miss Dare
+committed this crime any more than I do."</p>
+
+<p>A sly twinkle answered him from the detective's half-shut
+eye.</p>
+
+<p>"All that talk of having seen through your disguise in
+the hut is just nonsense on your part to cover up your
+real notion about it. What is that notion, Hickory?
+Come, out with it; let us understand each other thoroughly
+at last."</p>
+
+<p>"Do I understand you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You shall, when you tell me just what your convictions
+are in this matter."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then," replied Hickory, with a short glance at
+Mr. Ferris, "I believe (it's hard as pulling teeth to own
+it) that neither of them did it: that she thought him
+guilty and he thought her so, but that in reality the crime
+lies at the door of some third party totally disconnected
+with either of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Such as Gouverneur Hildreth?" whispered Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Sueh'">Such</ins>&mdash;as&mdash;Gouverneur Hildreth," drawled Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>The two detectives eyed each other, smiled, and
+turned with relieved countenances toward the District
+Attorney. He was looking at them with great earnestness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[463]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That is your joint opinion?" he remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"It is mine," cried Hickory, bringing his fist down on
+the table with a vim that made every individual article on
+it jump.</p>
+
+<p>"It is and it is not mine," acquiesced Byrd, as the eye
+of Mr. Ferris turned in his direction. "Mr. Mansell
+may be innocent&mdash;indeed, after hearing Hickory's explanation
+of his conduct, I am ready to believe he is&mdash;but
+to say that Gouverneur Hildreth is guilty comes
+hard to me after the long struggle I have maintained in
+favor of his innocence. Yet, what other conclusion remains
+after an impartial view of the subject? None.
+Then why should I shrink from acknowledging I was at
+fault, or hesitate to admit a defeat where so many causes
+combined to mislead me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Which means you agree with Hickory?" ventured
+the District Attorney.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd slowly bowed.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris continued for a moment looking alternately
+from one to the other; then he observed:</p>
+
+<p>"When two such men unite in an opinion, it is at least
+worthy of consideration." And, rising, he took on an
+aspect of sudden determination. "Whatever may be the
+truth in regard to this matter," said he, "one duty is
+clear. Miss Dare, as you inform me, has been&mdash;with but
+little idea of the consequences, I am sure&mdash;allowed to remain
+under the impression that the interview which she
+held in the hut was with her lover. As her belief in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[464]</a></span>
+prisoner's guilt doubtless rests upon the admissions which
+were at that time made in her hearing, it is palpable that
+a grave injustice has been done both to her and to him
+by leaving this mistake of hers uncorrected. I therefore
+consider it due to Miss Dare, as well as to the prisoner,
+to undeceive her on this score before another hour has
+passed over our heads. I must therefore request you,
+Mr. Byrd, to bring the lady here. You will find her still
+in the court-house, I think, as she requested leave to
+remain in the room below till the crowd had left the
+streets."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Byrd, who, in the new light which had been
+thrown on the affair by his own and Hickory's suppositions,
+could not but see the justice of this, rose with
+alacrity to obey.</p>
+
+<p>"I will bring her if she is in the building," he declared,
+hurriedly leaving the room.</p>
+
+<p>"And if she is not," Mr. Ferris remarked, with a glance
+at the consciously rebuked Hickory, "we shall have to
+follow her to her home, that is all. I am determined to
+see this woman's mind cleared of all misapprehensions
+before I take another step in the way of my duty.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[465]</a></span>"</p>
+
+<h2>XXXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>A MISTAKE RECTIFIED.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+If circumstances lead me, I will find<br />
+Where truth is hid, though it were hid, indeed,<br />
+Within the centre.  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;  &mdash;<span class="smcap">Hamlet.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>IF Mr. Ferris, in seeking this interview with Miss
+Dare, had been influenced by any hope of finding
+her in an unsettled and hesitating state of mind, he was
+effectually undeceived, when, after a few minutes' absence,
+Mr. Byrd returned with her to his presence. Though her
+physical strength was nearly exhausted, and she looked
+quite pale and worn, there was a steady gleam in her eye,
+which spoke of an unshaken purpose.</div>
+
+<p>Seeing it, and noting the forced humility with which
+she awaited his bidding at the threshold, the District
+Attorney, for the first time perhaps, realized the power
+of this great, if perverted, nature, and advancing with
+real kindness to the door, he greeted her with as much
+deference as he ever showed to ladies, and gravely
+pushed toward her a chair.</p>
+
+<p>She did not take it. On the contrary, she drew back
+a step, and looked at him in some doubt, but a sudden
+glimpse of Hickory's sturdy figure in the corner seemed
+to reassure her, and merely stopping to acknowledge Mr.
+Ferris' courtesy by a bow, she glided forward and took
+her stand by the chair he had provided.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[466]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A short and, on his part, somewhat embarrassing
+pause followed. It was broken by her.</p>
+
+<p>"You sent for me," she suggested. "You perhaps
+want some explanation of my conduct, or some assurance
+that the confession I made before the court to-day was
+true?"</p>
+
+<p>If Mr. Ferris had needed any further proof than he had
+already received that Imogene Dare, in presenting herself
+before the world as a criminal, had been actuated by a
+spirit of devotion to the prisoner, he would have found it
+in the fervor and unconscious dignity with which she
+uttered these few words. But he needed no such proof.
+Giving her, therefore, a look full of grave significance, he
+replied:</p>
+
+<p>"No, Miss Dare. After my experience of the ease
+with which you can contradict yourself in matters of the
+most serious import, you will pardon me if I say that the
+truth or falsehood of your words must be arrived at by
+some other means than any you yourself can offer. My
+business with you at this time is of an entirely different
+nature. Instead of listening to further confessions from
+you, it has become my duty to offer one myself. Not on
+my own behalf," he made haste to explain, as she looked
+up, startled, "but on account of these men, who, in their
+anxiety to find out who murdered Mrs. Clemmens, made
+use of means and resorted to deceptions which, if their
+superiors had been consulted, would not have been countenanced
+for a moment."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[467]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand," she murmured, looking at the
+two detectives with a wonder that suddenly merged into
+alarm as she noticed the embarrassment of the one and
+the decided discomfiture of the other.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris at once resumed:</p>
+
+<p>"In the weeks that have elapsed since the commission
+of this crime, it has been my lot to subject you to much
+mental misery, Miss Dare. Provided by yourself with a
+possible clue to the murder, I have probed the matter
+with an unsparing hand. Heedless of the pain I was inflicting,
+or the desperation to which I was driving you, I
+asked you questions and pressed you for facts as long as
+there seemed questions to ask or facts to be gained. My
+duty and the claims of my position demanded this, and
+for it I can make no excuse, notwithstanding the unhappy
+results that have ensued. But, Miss Dare, whatever
+anxiety I may have shown in procuring the conviction of
+a man I believed to be a criminal, I have never wished to
+win my case at the expense of justice and right; and had
+I been told before you came to the stand that you had
+been made the victim of a deception calculated to influence
+your judgment, I should have hastened to set you
+right with the same anxiety as I do now."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir&mdash;sir&mdash;&mdash;" she began.</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Ferris would not listen.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," he proceeded with all the gravity of conviction,
+"you have uttered a deliberate perjury in the
+court-room to-day. You said that you alone were responsible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[468]</a></span>
+for the murder of Mrs. Clemmens, whereas you
+not only did not commit the crime yourself but were not
+even an accessory to it. Wait!" he commanded, as she
+flashed upon him a look full of denial, "I would rather
+you did not speak. The motive for this calumny you uttered
+upon yourself lies in a fact which may be modified
+by what I have to reveal. Hear me, then, before you
+stain yourself still further by a falsehood you will not
+only be unable to maintain, but which you may no longer
+see reason for insisting upon. Hickory, turn around so
+Miss Dare can see your face. Miss Dare, when you saw
+fit to call upon this man to upbear you in the extraordinary
+statements you made to-day, did you realize that in
+doing this you appealed to the one person best qualified
+to prove the falsehood of what you had said? I see you
+did not; yet it is so. He if no other can testify that a few
+weeks ago, no idea of taking this crime upon your own
+shoulders had ever crossed your mind; that, on the contrary,
+your whole heart was filled with sorrow for the supposed
+guilt of another, and plans for inducing that
+other to make a confession of his guilt before the
+world."</p>
+
+<p>"This man!" was her startled exclamation. "It is
+not possible; I do not know him; he does not know me.
+I never talked with him but once in my life, and that was
+to say words I am not only willing but anxious for him
+to repeat."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," the District Attorney pursued, "when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[469]</a></span>
+you say this you show how completely you have
+been deceived. The conversation to which you allude
+is not the only one which has passed between you two.
+Though you did not know it, you held a talk with
+this man at a time in which you so completely discovered
+the secrets of your heart, you can never hope
+to deceive us or the world by any story of personal
+guilt which you may see fit to manufacture."</p>
+
+<p>"I reveal my heart to this man!" she repeated, in
+a maze of doubt and terror that left her almost unable
+to stand. "You are playing with my misery, Mr.
+Ferris."</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney took a different tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," he asked, "do you remember a certain
+interview you held with a gentleman in the hut
+back of Mrs. Clemmens' house, a short time after the
+murder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did this man overhear my words that day?" she
+murmured, reaching out her hand to steady herself by
+the back of the chair near which she was standing.</p>
+
+<p>"Your words that day were addressed to this man."</p>
+
+<p>"To him!" she repeated, staggering back.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, to him, disguised as Craik Mansell. With an
+unjustifiable zeal to know the truth, he had taken this
+plan for surprising your secret thoughts, and he succeeded,
+Miss Dare, remember that, even if he did you and
+your lover the cruel wrong of leaving you undisturbed in
+the impression that Mr. Mansell had admitted his guilt in
+your presence."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[470]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But Imogene, throwing out her hands, cried impetuously:</p>
+
+<p>"It is not so; you are mocking me. This man never
+could deceive me like that!"</p>
+
+<p>But even as she spoke she recoiled, for Hickory, with
+ready art, had thrown his arms and head forward on the
+table before which he sat, in the attitude and with much
+the same appearance he had preserved on the day she
+had come upon him in the hut. Though he had no assistance
+from disguise and all the accessories were lacking
+which had helped forward the illusion on the former
+occasion, there was still a sufficient resemblance between
+this bowed figure and the one that had so impressed itself
+upon her memory as that of her wretched and remorseful
+lover, that she stood rooted to the ground in her surprise
+and dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"You see how it was done, do you not?" inquired
+Mr. Ferris. Then, as he saw she did not heed, added:
+"I hope you remember what passed between you two on
+that day?"</p>
+
+<p>As if struck by a thought which altered the whole atmosphere
+of her hopes and feelings, she took a step forward
+with a power and vigor that recalled to mind the
+Imogene of old.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," she exclaimed, "let that man turn around and
+face me!"</p>
+
+<p>Hickory at once rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," she demanded, surveying him with a look<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[471]</a></span>
+it took all his well-known hardihood to sustain unmoved,
+"was it all false&mdash;all a trick from the beginning to the
+end? I received a letter&mdash;was that written by your hand
+too? Are you capable of forgery as well as of other
+deceptions?"</p>
+
+<p>The detective, who knew no other way to escape from
+his embarrassment, uttered a short laugh. But finding a
+reply was expected of him, answered with well-simulated
+indifference:</p>
+
+<p>"No, only the address on the envelope was mine; the
+letter was one which Mr. Mansell had written but never
+sent. I found it in his waste-paper basket in Buffalo."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! and you could make use of that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know it was a mean trick," he acknowledged, dropping
+his eyes from her face. "But things do look different
+when you are in the thick of 'em than when you
+take a stand and observe them from the outside. I&mdash;I
+was ashamed of it long ago, Miss Dare"&mdash;this was a lie;
+Hickory never was really ashamed of it&mdash;"and would
+have told you about it, but I thought 'mum' was the
+word after a scene like that."</p>
+
+<p>She did not seem to hear him.</p>
+
+<p>"Then Mr. Mansell did not send me the letter inviting
+me to meet him in the hut on a certain day, some few
+weeks after Mrs. Clemmens was murdered?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor know that such a letter had been sent?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[472]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Nor come, as I supposed he did, to Sibley? nor admit
+what I supposed he admitted in my hearing? nor
+listen, as I supposed he did, to the insinuations I made
+use of in the hut?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>Imbued with sudden purpose and energy, she turned
+upon the District Attorney.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what a revelation to come to me now!" she
+murmured.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris bowed.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right," he assented; "it should have come
+to you before. But I can only repeat what I have previously
+said, that if I had known of this deception myself,
+you would have been notified of it previous to going
+upon the stand. For your belief in the prisoner's guilt
+has necessarily had its effect upon the jury, and I cannot
+but see how much that belief must have been strengthened,
+if it was not actually induced, by the interview
+which we have just been considering."</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes took on fresh light; she looked at Mr. Ferris
+as if she would read his soul.</p>
+
+<p>"Can it be possible&mdash;&mdash;" she breathed, but stopped as
+suddenly as she began. The District Attorney was not
+the man from whom she could hope to obtain any opinion
+in reference to the prisoner's innocence.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris, noting her hesitation and understanding it
+too, perhaps, moved toward her with a certain kindly dignity,
+saying:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[473]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I should be glad to utter words that would give you
+some comfort, Miss Dare, but in the present state of affairs
+I do not feel as if I could go farther than bid you
+trust in the justice and wisdom of those who have this
+matter in charge. As for your own wretched and uncalled-for
+action in court to-day, it was a madness which
+I hope will be speedily forgotten, or, if not forgotten, laid
+to a despair almost too heavy for mortal strength to
+endure."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," she murmured; but her look, the poise
+of her head, the color that quivered through the pallor of
+her cheek, showed she was not thinking of herself.
+Doubt, the first which had visited her since she became
+convinced that Craik Mansell was the destroyer of his
+aunt's life, had cast a momentary gleam over her thoughts,
+and she was conscious of but one wish, and that was to
+understand the feelings of the men before her.</p>
+
+<p>But she soon saw the hopelessness of this, and, sinking
+back again into her old distress as she realized how
+much reason she still had for believing Craik Mansell
+guilty, she threw a hurried look toward the door as if
+anxious to escape from the eyes and ears of men interested,
+as she knew, in gleaning her every thought and
+sounding her every impulse.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris at once comprehended her intention, and
+courteously advanced.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you wish to return home?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"If a carriage can be obtained."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[474]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"There can be no difficulty about that," he answered;
+and he gave Hickory a look, and whispered a word
+to Mr. Byrd, that sent them both speedily from the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>When he was left alone with her, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Before you leave my presence, Miss Dare, I wish to
+urge upon you the necessity of patience. Any sudden
+or violent act on your part now would result in no good,
+and lead to much evil. Let me, then, pray you to
+remain quiet in your home, confident that Mr. Orcutt
+and myself will do all in our power to insure justice and
+make the truth evident."</p>
+
+<p>She bowed, but did not speak; while her impatient
+eye, resting feverishly on the door, told of her anxiety
+to depart.</p>
+
+<p>"She will need watching," commented Mr. Ferris to
+himself, and he, too, waited impatiently for the detectives'
+return. When they came in he gave Imogene to
+their charge, but the look he cast Byrd contained a
+hint which led that gentleman to take his hat when
+he went below to put Miss Dare into her carriage.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[475]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>UNDER THE GREAT TREE.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">We but teach</span><br />
+Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return<br />
+To plague the inventor. This even-handed justice<br />
+Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice<br />
+To our own lips. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &mdash;<span class="smcap">Macbeth.</span><br />
+<br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>IMOGENE went to her home. Confused, disordered,
+the prey of a thousand hopes and a thousand fears,
+she sought for solitude and found it within the four walls
+of the small room which was now her only refuge.</div>
+
+<p>The two detectives who had followed her to the house&mdash;the
+one in the carriage, the other on foot&mdash;met, as the
+street-door closed upon her retreating form, and consulted
+together as to their future course.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Ferris thinks we ought to keep watch over the
+house, to make sure she does not leave it again," announced
+Mr. Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Does he? Well, then, I am the man for that job,"
+quoth Hickory. "I was on this very same beat last
+night."</p>
+
+<p>"Good reason why you should rest and give me a
+turn at the business," declared the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you want it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am willing to take it," said Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, after nine o'clock you shall."</p>
+
+<p>"Why after nine?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[476]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Because if she's bent on skylarking, she'll leave the
+house before then," laughed the other.</p>
+
+<p>"And you want to be here if she goes out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, <i>rather!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>They compromised matters by both remaining, Byrd
+within view of the house and Hickory on a corner within
+hail. Neither expected much from this effort at surveillance,
+there seeming to be no good reason why she
+should venture forth into the streets again that night.
+But the watchfulness of the true detective mind is unceasing.</p>
+
+<p>Several hours passed. The peace of evening had come
+at last to the troubled town. In the streets, especially,
+its gentle influence was felt, and regions which had seethed
+all day with a restless and impatient throng were fast settling
+into their usual quiet and solitary condition. A new
+moon hung in the west, and to Mr. Byrd, pacing the walk
+in front of Imogene's door, it seemed as if he had never
+seen the town look more lovely or less like the abode of
+violence and crime. All was so quiet, especially in the
+house opposite him, he was fast becoming convinced that
+further precautions were needless, and that Imogene had
+no intention of stirring abroad again, when the window
+where her light burned suddenly became dark, and he
+perceived the street door cautiously open, and her tall,
+vailed figure emerge and pass rapidly up the street.
+Merely stopping to give the signal to Hickory, he hastened
+after her with rapid but cautious steps.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[477]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She went like one bound on no uncertain errand.
+Though many of the walks were heavily shaded, and the
+light of the lamps was not brilliant, she speeded on from
+corner to corner, threading the business streets with
+rapidity, and emerging upon the large and handsome
+avenue that led up toward the eastern district of the town
+before Hickory could overtake Byrd, and find sufficient
+breath to ask:</p>
+
+<p>"Where is she bound for? Who lives up this way?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," answered Byrd, lowering his voice in
+the fear of startling her into a knowledge of their presence.
+"It may be she is going to Miss Tremaine's; the
+High School is somewhere in this direction."</p>
+
+<p>But even as they spoke, the gliding figure before them
+turned into another street, and before they knew it, they
+were on the car-track leading out to Somerset Park.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! I know now," whispered Hickory. "It is
+Orcutt she is after." And pressing the arm of Byrd in
+his enthusiasm, he speeded after her with renewed zeal.</p>
+
+<p>Byrd, seeing no reason to dispute a fact that was every
+moment becoming more evident, hurried forward also,
+and after a long and breathless walk&mdash;for she seemed to
+be urged onward by flying feet&mdash;they found themselves
+within sight of the grand old trees that guarded the
+entrance to the lawyer's somewhat spacious grounds.</p>
+
+<p>"What are we going to do now?" asked Byrd, stopping,
+as they heard the gate click behind her.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait and watch," said Hickory. "She has not led<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[478]</a></span>
+us this wild-goose chase for nothing." And leaping the
+hedge, he began creeping up toward the house, leaving
+his companion to follow or not, as he saw fit.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Imogene had passed up the walk and
+paused before the front door. But a single look at it
+seemed to satisfy her, for, moving hurriedly away, she
+flitted around the corner of the house and stopped just
+before the long windows whose brightly illumined sashes
+proclaimed that the master of the house was still in his
+library.</p>
+
+<p>She seemed to feel relieved at this sight. Pausing, she
+leaned against the frame of a trellis-work near by to
+gather up her courage or regain her breath before proceeding
+to make her presence known to the lawyer. As
+she thus leaned, the peal of the church clock was heard,
+striking the hour of nine. She started, possibly at finding
+it so late, and bending forward, looked at the windows
+before her with an anxious eye that soon caught sight of
+a small opening left by the curtains having been drawn
+together by a too hasty or a too careless hand, and
+recognizing the opportunity it afforded for a glimpse into
+the room before her, stepped with a light tread upon the
+piazza and quietly peered within.</p>
+
+<p>The sight she saw never left her memory.</p>
+
+<p>Seated before a deadened fire, she beheld Mr. Orcutt.
+He was neither writing nor reading, nor, in the true sense
+of the word, thinking. The papers he had evidently
+taken from his desk, lay at his side undisturbed, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[479]</a></span>
+from one end of the room to the other, solitude, suffering,
+and despair seemed to fill the atmosphere and weigh upon
+its dreary occupant, till the single lamp which shone
+beside him burned dimmer and dimmer, like a life going
+out or a purpose vanishing in the gloom of a stealthily
+approaching destiny.</p>
+
+<p>Imogene, who had come to this place thus secretly and
+at this late hour of the day with the sole intent of procuring
+the advice of this man concerning the deception
+which had been practised upon her before the trial, felt
+her heart die within her as she surveyed this rigid figure
+and realized all it implied. Though his position was
+such she could not see his face, there was that in his
+attitude which bespoke hopelessness and an utter weariness
+of life, and as ash after ash fell from the grate, she
+imagined how the gloom deepened on the brow which till
+this hour had confronted the world with such undeviating
+courage and confidence.</p>
+
+<p>It was therefore a powerful shock to her when, in
+another moment, he looked up, and, without moving his
+body, turned his head slowly around in such a way as to
+afford her a glimpse of his face. For, in all her memory
+of it&mdash;and she had seen it distorted by many and various
+emotions during the last few weeks&mdash;she had never beheld
+it wear such a look as now. It gave her a new idea of
+the man; it filled her with dismay, and sent the life-blood
+from her cheeks. It fascinated her, as the glimpse of any
+evil thing fascinates, and held her spell-bound long after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[480]</a></span>
+he had turned back again to his silent contemplation of
+the fire and its ever-drifting ashes. It was as if a vail
+had been rent before her eyes, disclosing to her a living
+soul writhing in secret struggle with its own worst passions;
+and horrified at the revelation, more than horrified
+at the remembrance that it was her own action of
+the morning which had occasioned this change in one she
+had long reverenced, if not loved, she sank helplessly
+upon her knees and pressed her face to the window in a
+prayer for courage to sustain this new woe and latest, if
+not heaviest, disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>It came while she was kneeling&mdash;came in the breath of
+the cold night wind, perhaps; for, rising up, she turned
+her forehead gratefully to the breeze, and drew in long
+draughts of it before she lifted her hand and knocked
+upon the window.</p>
+
+<p>The sharp, shrill sound made by her fingers on the
+pane reassured her as much as it startled him. Gathering
+up her long cloak, which had fallen apart in her last
+hurried movement, she waited with growing self-possession
+for his appearance at the window.</p>
+
+<p>He came almost immediately&mdash;came with his usual
+hasty step and with much of his usual expression on his
+well-disciplined features. Flinging aside the curtains, he
+cried impatiently: "Who is there?" But at sight of the
+tall figure of Imogene standing upright and firm on the
+piazza without, he drew back with a gesture of dismay,
+which was almost forbidding in its character.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[481]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She saw it, but did not pause. Pushing up the window,
+she stepped into the room; then, as he did not offer to
+help her, turned and shut the window behind her and
+carefully arranged the curtains. He meantime stood
+watching her with eyes in whose fierce light burned equal
+love and equal anger.</p>
+
+<p>When all was completed, she faced him. Instantly a
+cry broke from his lips:</p>
+
+<p>"You here!" he exclaimed, as if her presence were
+more than he could meet or stand. But in another moment
+the forlornness of her position seemed to strike him,
+and he advanced toward her, saying in a voice husky
+with passion: "Wretched woman, what have you done?
+Was it not enough that for weeks, months now, you
+have played with my love and misery as with toys, that
+you should rise up at the last minute and crush me before
+the whole world with a story, mad as it is false, of yourself
+being a criminal and the destroyer of the woman for
+whose death your miserable lover is being tried? Had
+you no consideration, no pity, if not for yourself, ruined
+by this day's work, for me, who have sacrificed every thing,
+done every thing the most devoted man or lawyer could
+do to save this fellow and win you for my wife?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said she, meeting the burning anger of his look
+with the coldness of a set despair, as if in the doubt
+awakened by his changed demeanor she sought to probe
+his mind for its hidden secret, "I did what any other
+woman would have done in my place. When we are
+pushed to the wall we tell the truth."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[482]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The truth!" Was that his laugh that rang startlingly
+through the room? "The truth! You told the truth!
+Imogene, Imogene, is any such farce necessary with
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>Her lips, which had opened, closed again, and she did
+not answer for a moment; then she asked:</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know that what I said was not the
+truth?"</p>
+
+<p>"How do I know?" He paused as if to get his
+breath. "How do I know?" he repeated, calling up all
+his self-control to sustain her gaze unmoved. "Do you
+think I have lost my reason, Imogene, that you put
+me such a question as that? How do I know you are
+innocent? Recall your own words and acts since the
+day we met at Mrs. Clemmens' house, and tell me how it
+would be possible for me to think any thing else of
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>But her purpose did not relax, neither did she falter as
+she returned:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Orcutt, will you tell me what has ever been said
+by me or what you have ever known me to do that would
+make it certain I did not commit this crime myself?"</p>
+
+<p>His indignation was too much for his courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene," he commanded, "be silent! I will not
+listen to any further arguments of this sort. Isn't it
+enough that you have destroyed my happiness, that you
+should seek to sport with my good-sense? I say you are
+innocent as a babe unborn, not only of the crime itself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[483]</a></span>
+but of any complicity in it. Every word you have spoken,
+every action you have taken, since the day of Mrs. Clemmens'
+death, proves you to be the victim of a fixed
+conviction totally at war with the statement you were
+pleased to make to-day. Only your belief in the guilt of
+another and your&mdash;your&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped, choked. The thought of his rival maddened
+him.</p>
+
+<p>She immediately seized the opportunity to say:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Orcutt, I cannot argue about what I have done.
+It is over and cannot be remedied. It is true I have
+destroyed myself, but this is no time to think of that.
+All I can think of or mourn over now is that, by
+destroying myself, I have not succeeded in saving Craik
+Mansell."</p>
+
+<p>If her purpose was to probe the lawyer's soul for
+the deadly wound that had turned all his sympathies
+to gall, she was successful at last. Turning upon her
+with a look in which despair and anger were strangely
+mingled, he cried:</p>
+
+<p>"And me, Imogene&mdash;have you no thought for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said she, "any thought from one disgraced as I
+am now, would be an insult to one of your character and
+position."</p>
+
+<p>It was true. In the eyes of the world Tremont
+Orcutt and Imogene Dare henceforth stood as far apart
+as the poles. Realizing it only too well, he uttered a
+half-inarticulate exclamation, and trod restlessly to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[484]</a></span>
+other end of the room. When he came back, it was
+with more of the lawyer's aspect and less of the baffled
+lover's.</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene," he said, "what could have induced you
+to resort to an expedient so dreadful? Had you lost
+confidence in me? Had I not told you I would save
+this man from his threatened fate?"</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot do every thing," she replied. "There
+are limits even to a power like yours. I knew that
+Craik was lost if I gave to the court the testimony which
+Mr. Ferris expected from me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, then," he cried, seizing with his usual quickness
+at the admission which had thus unconsciously, perhaps,
+slipped from her, "you acknowledge you uttered a perjury
+to save yourself from making declarations you
+believed to be hurtful to the prisoner?"</p>
+
+<p>A faint smile crossed her lips, and her whole aspect
+suddenly changed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said; "I have no motive for hiding it
+from you now. I perjured myself to escape destroying
+Craik Mansell. I was scarcely the mistress of my own
+actions. I had suffered so much I was ready to do any
+thing to save the man I had so relentlessly pushed to his
+doom. I forgot that God does not prosper a lie."</p>
+
+<p>The jealous gleam which answered her from the lawyer's
+eyes was a revelation.</p>
+
+<p>"You regret, then," he said, "that you tossed my
+happiness away with a breath of your perjured lips?"</p>
+
+<p>"I regret I did not tell the truth and trust God."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[485]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At this answer, uttered with the simplicity of a penitent
+spirit, Mr. Orcutt unconsciously drew back.</p>
+
+<p>"And, may I ask, what has caused this sudden
+regret?" he inquired, in a tone not far removed from
+mockery; "the generous action of the prisoner in relieving
+you from your self-imposed burden of guilt by an
+acknowledgment that struck at the foundation of the
+defence I had so carefully prepared?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," was her short reply; "that could but afford me
+joy. Of whatever sin he may be guilty, he is at least
+free from the reproach of accepting deliverance at the
+expense of a woman. I am sorry I said what I did
+to-day, because a revelation has since been made to
+me, which proves I could never have sustained myself
+in the position I took, and that it was mere suicidal
+folly in me to attempt to save Craik Mansell by such
+means."</p>
+
+<p>"A revelation?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." And, forgetting all else in the purpose which
+had actuated her in seeking this interview, Imogene drew
+nearer to the lawyer and earnestly said: "There have
+been some persons&mdash;I have perceived it&mdash;who have wondered
+at my deep conviction of Craik Mansell's guilt.
+But the reasons I had justified it. They were great,
+greater than any one knew, greater even than <i>you</i> knew.
+His mother&mdash;were she living&mdash;must have thought as I
+did, had she been placed beside me and seen what I
+have seen, and heard what I have heard from the time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[486]</a></span>
+of Mrs. Clemmens' death. Not only were all the facts
+brought against him in the trial known to me, but I saw
+him&mdash;saw him with my own eyes, running from Mrs.
+Clemmens' dining-room door at the very time we suppose
+the murder to have been committed; that is, at five
+minutes before noon on the fatal day."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!" exclaimed Mr. Orcutt, in his astonishment.
+"You are playing with my credulity, Imogene."</p>
+
+<p>But she went on, letting her voice fall in awe of the
+lawyer's startled look.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she persisted; "I was in Professor Darling's
+observatory. I was looking through a telescope, which
+had been pointed toward the town. Mrs. Clemmens
+was much in my mind at the time, and I took the notion
+to glance at her house, when I saw what I have described
+to you. I could not help remembering the time," she
+added, "for I had looked at the clock but a moment
+before."</p>
+
+<p>"And it was five minutes before noon?" broke again
+from the lawyer's lips, in what was almost an awe-struck
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>Troubled at an astonishment which seemed to partake
+of the nature of alarm, she silently bowed her head.</p>
+
+<p>"And you were looking at him&mdash;actually looking at
+him&mdash;that very moment through a telescope perched a
+mile or so away?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she bowed again.</p>
+
+<p>Turning his face aside, Mr. Orcutt walked to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[487]</a></span>
+hearth and began kicking the burnt-out logs with his
+restless foot. As he did so, Imogene heard him mutter
+between his set teeth:</p>
+
+<p>"It is almost enough to make one believe in a God!"</p>
+
+<p>Struck, horrified, she glided anxiously to his side.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not you believe in a God?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He was silent.</p>
+
+<p>Amazed, almost frightened, for she had never heard
+him breathe a word of scepticism before,&mdash;though, to be
+sure, he had never mentioned the name of the Deity in
+her presence,&mdash;she stood looking at him like one who had
+received a blow; then she said:</p>
+
+<p>"I believe in God. It is my punishment that I do. It
+is He who wills blood for blood; who dooms the guilty
+to a merited death. Oh, if He only would accept the
+sacrifice I so willingly offer!&mdash;take the life I so little
+value, and give me in return&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mansell's?" completed the lawyer, turning upon her
+in a burst of fury he no longer had power to suppress.
+"Is that your cry&mdash;always and forever your cry? You
+drive me too far, Imogene. This mad and senseless
+passion for a man who no longer loves you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Spare me!" rose from her trembling lips. "Let me
+forget that."</p>
+
+<p>But the great lawyer only laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You make it worth my while to save you the bitterness
+of such a remembrance," he cried. Then, as she
+remained silent, he changed his tone to one of careless
+inquiry, and asked:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[488]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Was it to tell this story of the prisoner having fled
+from his aunt's house that you came here to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>Recalled to the purpose of the hour, she answered,
+hurriedly:</p>
+
+<p>"Not entirely; that story was what Mr. Ferris expected
+me to testify to in court this morning. You see
+for yourself in what a position it would have put the
+prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>"And the revelation you have received?" the lawyer
+coldly urged.</p>
+
+<p>"Was of a deception that has been practised upon me&mdash;a
+base deception by which I was led to think long ago
+that Craik Mansell had admitted his guilt and only
+trusted to the excellence of his defence to escape punishment."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand," said Mr. Orcutt. "Who
+could have practised such deception upon you?"</p>
+
+<p>"The detectives," she murmured; "that rough, heartless
+fellow they call Hickory." And, in a burst of indignation,
+she told how she had been practised upon, and
+what the results had been upon her belief, if not upon
+the testimony which grew out of that belief.</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer listened with a strange apathy. What
+would once have aroused his fiercest indignation and
+fired him to an exertion of his keenest powers, fell on
+him now like the tedious repetition of an old and worn-out
+tale. He scarcely looked up when she was done;
+and despair&mdash;the first, perhaps, she had ever really felt&mdash;began<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[489]</a></span>
+to close in around her as she saw how deep a gulf
+she had dug between this man and herself by the inconsiderate
+act which had robbed him of all hope of ever
+making her his wife. Moved by this feeling, she suddenly
+asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Have you lost all interest in your client, Mr. Orcutt?
+Have you no wish or hope remaining of seeing him
+acquitted of this crime?"</p>
+
+<p>"My client," responded the lawyer, with bitter emphasis,
+"has taken his case into his own hands. It
+would be presumptuous in me to attempt any thing further
+in his favor."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Orcutt!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" he scornfully laughed, with a quick yielding
+to his passion as startling as it was unexpected, "you
+thought you could play with me as you would; use my
+skill and ignore the love that prompted it. You are a
+clever woman, Imogene, but you went too far when you
+considered my forbearance unlimited."</p>
+
+<p>"And you forsake Craik Mansell, in the hour of his
+extremity?"</p>
+
+<p>"Craik Mansell has forsaken me."</p>
+
+<p>This was true; for her sake her lover had thrown his
+defence to the winds and rendered the assistance of his
+counsel unavailable. Seeing her droop her head abashed,
+Mr. Orcutt dryly proceeded.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know what may take place in court to-morrow,"
+said he. "It is difficult to determine what will be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[490]</a></span>
+the outcome of so complicated a case. The District
+Attorney, in consideration of the deception which has
+been practised upon you, may refuse to prosecute any
+further; or, if the case goes on and the jury is called
+upon for a verdict, they may or may not be moved by its
+peculiar aspects to acquit a man of such generous dispositions.
+If they are, I shall do nothing to hinder an
+acquittal; but ask for no more active measures on my
+part. I cannot plead for the lover of the woman who has
+disgraced me."</p>
+
+<p>This decision, from one she had trusted so implicitly,
+seemed to crush her.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," she murmured, "if you did not believe him
+guilty you would not leave him thus to his fate."</p>
+
+<p>He gave her a short, side-long glance, half-mocking,
+half-pitiful.</p>
+
+<p>"If," she pursued, "you had felt even a passing gleam
+of doubt, such as came to me when I discovered that he
+had never really admitted his guilt, you would let no
+mere mistake on the part of a woman turn you from your
+duty as counsellor for a man on trial for his life."</p>
+
+<p>His glance lost its pity and became wholly mocking.</p>
+
+<p>"And do <i>you</i> cherish but passing gleams?" he sarcastically
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>She started back.</p>
+
+<p>"I laugh at the inconsistency of women," he cried.
+"You have sacrificed every thing, even risked your life
+for a man you really believe guilty of crime; yet if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[491]</a></span>
+another man similarly stained asked you for your compassion
+only, you would fly from him as from a pestilence."</p>
+
+<p>But no words he could utter of this sort were able to
+raise any emotion in her now.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Orcutt," she demanded, "do <i>you</i> believe Craik
+Mansell innocent?"</p>
+
+<p>His old mocking smile came back.</p>
+
+<p>"Have I conducted his case as if I believed him
+guilty?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; but you are his lawyer; you are bound not
+to let your real thoughts appear. But in your secret
+heart you did not, could not, believe he was free from a
+crime to which he is linked by so many criminating circumstances?"</p>
+
+<p>But his strange smile remaining unchanged, she seemed
+to waken to a sudden doubt, and leaping impetuously to
+his side, laid her hand on his arm and exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir, if you have ever cherished one hope of his
+innocence, no matter how faint or small, tell me of it, even
+if this last disclosure has convinced you of its folly!"</p>
+
+<p>Giving her an icy look, he drew his arm slowly from
+her grasp and replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Mansell has never been considered guilty by
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Never?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never."</p>
+
+<p>"Not even now?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[492]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Not even now."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed as if she could not believe his words.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet you know all there is against him; all that I
+do now!"</p>
+
+<p>"I know he visited his aunt's house at or after the time
+she was murdered, but that is no proof he killed her,
+Miss Dare."</p>
+
+<p>"No," she admitted with slow conviction, "no. But
+why did he fly in that wild way when he left it? Why did
+he go straight to Buffalo and not wait to give me the interview
+he promised?"</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I tell you?" Mr. Orcutt inquired, with a
+dangerous sneer on his lips. "Do you wish to know why
+this man&mdash;the man you have so loved&mdash;the man for
+whom you would die this moment, has conducted himself
+with such marked discretion?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," came like a breath from between Imogene's
+parted lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the lawyer, dropping his words with cruel
+clearness, "Mr. Mansell has a great faith in women. He
+has such faith in you, Imogene Dare, he thinks you are
+all you declare yourself to be; that in the hour you stood
+up before the court and called yourself a murderer, you
+spoke but the truth; that&mdash;&mdash;" He stopped; even his
+scornful <i>aplomb</i> would not allow him to go on in the face
+of the look she wore.</p>
+
+<p>"Say&mdash;say those words again!" she gasped. "Let me
+hear them once more. He thinks what?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[493]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That you are what you proclaimed yourself to be this
+day, the actual assailant and murderer of Mrs. Clemmens.
+He has thought so all along, Miss Dare, why, I do not
+know. Whether he saw any thing or heard any thing in
+that house from which you saw him fly so abruptly, or
+whether he relied solely upon the testimony of the ring,
+which you must remember he never acknowledged having
+received back from you, I only know that from the
+minute he heard of his aunt's death, his suspicions flew
+to you, and that, in despite of such suggestions as I felt
+it judicious to make, they have never suffered shock or
+been turned from their course from that day to this.
+<i>Such</i> honor," concluded Mr. Orcutt, with dry sarcasm,
+"does the man you love show to the woman who has
+sacrificed for his sake all that the world holds dear."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I cannot believe it. You are mocking me," came
+inarticulately from her lips, while she drew back, step by
+step, till half the room lay between them.</p>
+
+<p>"Mocking you? Miss Dare, he has shown his feelings
+so palpably, I have often trembled lest the whole
+court should see and understand them."</p>
+
+<p>"You have trembled"&mdash;she could scarcely speak, the
+rush of her emotion was so great&mdash;"<i>you</i> have trembled
+lest the whole court should see he suspected me of this
+crime?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," she cried, "you must have been convinced,&mdash;Ah!"
+she hurriedly interposed, with a sudden look of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[494]</a></span>
+distrust, "you are not amusing yourself with me, are you,
+Mr. Orcutt? So many traps have been laid for me from
+time to time, I dare not trust the truth of my best friend.
+Swear you believe Craik Mansell to have thought this of
+me! Swear you have seen this dark thing lying in his
+soul, or I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will confront him myself with the question, if I have
+to tear down the walls of the prison to reach him. His
+mind I must and will know."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then, you do. I have told you," declared
+Mr. Orcutt. "Swearing would not make it any more
+true."</p>
+
+<p>Lifting her face to heaven, she suddenly fell on her
+knees.</p>
+
+<p>"O God!" she murmured, "help me to bear this
+great joy!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Joy!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>The icy tone, the fierce surprise it expressed, started
+her at once to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she murmured, "joy! Don't you see that if he
+thinks me guilty, he <i>must</i> be innocent? I am willing to
+perish and fall from the ranks of good men and honorable
+women to be sure of a fact like this!"</p>
+
+<p>"Imogene, Imogene, would you drive me mad?"</p>
+
+<p>She did not seem to hear.</p>
+
+<p>"Craik, are you guiltless, then?" she was saying. "Is
+the past all a dream! Are we two nothing but victims of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[495]</a></span>
+dread and awful circumstances? Oh, we will see; life
+is not ended yet!" And with a burst of hope that
+seemed to transfigure her into another woman, she turned
+toward the lawyer with the cry: "If he is innocent, he
+can be saved. Nothing that has been done by him or
+me can hurt him if this be so. God who watches over
+this crime has His eye on the guilty one. Though his
+sin be hidden under a mountain of deceit, it will yet
+come forth. Guilt like his cannot remain hidden."</p>
+
+<p>"You did not think this when you faced the court this
+morning with perjury on your lips," came in slow, ironical
+tones from her companion.</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven sometimes accepts a sacrifice," she returned.
+"But who will sacrifice himself for a man who could let
+the trial of one he knew to be innocent go on unhindered?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who, indeed!" came in almost stifled tones from the
+lawyer's lips.</p>
+
+<p>"If a stranger and not Craik Mansell slew Mrs. Clemmens,"
+she went on, "and nothing but an incomprehensible
+train of coincidences unites him and me to this act
+of violence, then may God remember the words of the
+widow, and in His almighty power call down such a
+doom&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She ended with a gasp. Mr. Orcutt, with a sudden
+movement, had laid his hand upon her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" he said, "let no curses issue from <i>your</i>
+mouth. The guilty can perish without that."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[496]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Releasing herself from him in alarm, she drew back,
+her eyes slowly dilating as she noted the dead whiteness
+that had settled over his face, and taken even the hue of
+life from his nervously trembling lip.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Orcutt," she whispered, with a solemnity which
+made them heedless that the lamp which had been burning
+lower and lower in its socket was giving out its last
+fitful rays, "if Craik Mansell did not kill the Widow
+Clemmens who then did?"</p>
+
+<p>Her question&mdash;or was it her look and tone?&mdash;seemed
+to transfix Mr. Orcutt. But it was only for a moment.
+Turning with a slight gesture to the table at his side, he
+fumbled with his papers, still oblivious of the flaring
+lamp, saying slowly:</p>
+
+<p>"I have always supposed Gouverneur Hildreth to be
+the true author of this crime."</p>
+
+<p>"Gouverneur Hildreth?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Orcutt bowed.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not agree with you," she returned, moving
+slowly toward the window. "I am no reader of human
+hearts, as all my past history shows, but something&mdash;is it
+the voice of God in my breast?&mdash;tells me that Gouverneur
+Hildreth is as innocent as Craik Mansell, and that the
+true murderer of Mrs. Clemmens&mdash;&mdash;" Her words
+ended in a shriek. The light, which for so long a time
+had been flickering to its end, had given one startling
+flare in which the face of the man before her had flashed
+on her view in a ghastly flame that seemed to separate it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[497]</a></span>
+from all surrounding objects, then as suddenly gone out,
+leaving the room in total darkness.</p>
+
+<p>In the silence that followed, a quick sound as of rushing
+feet was heard, then the window was pushed up
+and the night air came moaning in. Imogene had fled.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Horace Byrd had not followed Hickory in his rush
+toward the house. He had preferred to await results under
+the great tree which, standing just inside the gate,
+cast its mysterious and far-reaching shadow widely over
+the wintry lawn. He was, therefore, alone during most
+of the interview which Miss Dare held with Mr. Orcutt in
+the library, and, being alone, felt himself a prey to his
+sensations and the weirdness of the situation in which he
+found himself.</p>
+
+<p>Though no longer a victim to the passion with which
+Miss Dare had at first inspired him, he was by no means
+without feeling for this grand if somewhat misguided woman,
+and his emotions, as he stood there awaiting the issue
+of her last desperate attempt to aid the prisoner, were
+strong enough to make any solitude welcome, though
+this solitude for some reason held an influence which was
+any thing but enlivening, if it was not actually depressing,
+to one of his ready sensibilities.</p>
+
+<p>The tree under which he had taken his stand was, as I
+have intimated, an old one. It had stood there from
+time immemorial, and was, as I have heard it since said,
+at once the pride of Mr. Orcutt's heart and the chief ornament<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[498]</a></span>
+of his grounds. Though devoid of foliage at the
+time, its vast and symmetrical canopy of interlacing
+branches had caught Mr. Byrd's attention from the first
+moment of his entrance beneath it, and, preoccupied
+as he was, he could not prevent his thoughts from reverting
+now and then with a curious sensation of awe to
+the immensity of those great limbs which branched above
+him. His imagination was so powerfully affected at last,
+he had a notion of leaving the spot and seeking a
+nearer look-out in the belt of evergreens that hid the
+crouching form of Hickory; but a spell seemed to
+emanate from the huge trunk against which he leaned
+that restrained him when he sought to go, and noticing
+almost at the same moment that the path which Miss
+Dare would have to take in her departure ran directly
+under this tree, he yielded to the apathy of the moment
+and remained where he was.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after he was visited by Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>"I can see nothing and hear nothing," was that individual's
+hurried salutation. "She and Mr. Orcutt are
+evidently still in the library, but I cannot get a clue
+to what is going on. I shall keep up my watch, however,
+for I want to catch a glimpse of her face as she
+steps from the window." And he was off again before
+Byrd could reply.</p>
+
+<p>But the next instant he was back, panting and breathless.</p>
+
+<p>"The light is out in the library," he cried; "we shall
+see her no more to-night."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[499]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But scarcely had the words left his lips when a faint
+sound was heard from the region of the piazza, and looking
+eagerly up the path, they saw the form of Miss Dare
+coming hurriedly toward them.</p>
+
+<p>To slip around into the deepest shadow cast by the
+tree was but the work of a moment. Meantime, the
+moon shone brightly on the walk down which she was
+speeding, and as, in the agitation of her departure, she
+had forgotten to draw down her veil, they succeeded in
+obtaining a view of her face. It was pale, and wore an
+expression of fear, while her feet hasted as though she
+were only filled with thoughts of escape.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing this, the two detectives held their breaths, preparing
+to follow her as soon as she had passed the tree.
+But she did not pass the tree. Just as she got within
+reach of its shadow, a commanding voice was heard calling
+upon her to stop, and Mr. Orcutt came hurrying, in his
+turn, down the path.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot let you go thus," he cried, pausing beside
+her on the walk directly under the tree. "If you command
+me to save Craik Mansell I must do it. What you
+wish must be done, Imogene."</p>
+
+<p>"My wishes should not be needed to lead you to do your
+duty by the man you believe to be innocent of the charge
+for which he is being tried," was her earnest and strangely
+cold reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not," he muttered, bitterly; "but&mdash;ah, Imogene,"
+he suddenly broke forth, in a way to startle these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[500]</a></span>
+two detectives, who, however suspicious they had been of
+his passion, had never before had the opportunity of seeing
+him under its control, "what have you made of me
+with your bewildering graces and indomitable soul? Before
+I knew you, life was a round of honorable duties and
+serene pleasures. I lived in my profession, and found
+my greatest delight in its exercise. But now&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What now?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I seem"&mdash;he said, and the hard, cold selfishness that
+underlay all his actions, however generous they may have
+been in appearance, was apparent in his words and tones,&mdash;"I
+seem to forget every thing, even my standing and
+fame as a lawyer, in the one fear that, although lost to
+me, you will yet live to give yourself to another."</p>
+
+<p>"If you fear that I shall ever be so weak as to give myself
+to Craik Mansell," was her steady reply, "you have
+only to recall the promise I made you when you undertook
+his case."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said he, "but that was when you yourself believed
+him guilty."</p>
+
+<p>"I know," she returned; "but if he were not good
+enough for me then, I am not good enough for him now.
+Do you forget that I am blotted with a stain that can
+never be effaced? When I stood up in court to-day and
+denounced myself as guilty of crime, I signed away all my
+chances of future happiness."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause; Mr. Orcutt seemed to be thinking.
+From the position occupied by the two detectives his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[501]</a></span>
+shadow could be seen oscillating to and fro on the lawn,
+then, amid the hush of night&mdash;a deathly hush&mdash;undisturbed,
+as Mr. Byrd afterward remarked, by so much as
+the cracking of a twig, his voice rose quiet, yet vaguely
+sinister, in the words:</p>
+
+<p>"You have conquered. If any man suffers for this
+crime it shall not be Craik Mansell, but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The sentence was never finished. Before the words
+could leave his mouth a sudden strange and splitting
+sound was heard above their heads, then a terrifying rush
+took place, and a great limb lay upon the walk where but
+a moment before the beautiful form of Imogene Dare
+lifted itself by the side of the eminent lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>When a full sense of the terrible nature of the calamity
+which had just occurred swept across the minds of the
+benumbed detectives, Mr. Byrd, recalling the words and
+attitude of Imogene in face of a similar, if less fatal, catastrophe
+at the hut, exclaimed under his breath:</p>
+
+<p>"It is the vengeance of Heaven! Imogene Dare must
+have been more guilty than we believed."</p>
+
+<p>But when, after a superhuman exertion of strength,
+and the assistance of many hands, the limb was at length
+raised, it was found that, although both had been prostrated
+by its weight, only one remained stretched and
+senseless upon the ground, and that was not Imogene
+Dare, but the great lawyer, Mr. Orcutt.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[502]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XXXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>UNEXPECTED WORDS.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem2'>
+It will have blood: they say, blood will have blood.<br />
+Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;<br />
+Augurs and understood relations have,<br />
+By magot-pies and choughs and rooks, brought forth<br />
+The secret'st man of blood.<br />
+
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; *&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; *&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; *&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; *&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; *<br />
+
+Foul whisperings are abroad; unnatural deeds<br />
+Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds<br />
+To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &mdash;<span class="smcap">Macbeth.</span><br />
+<br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>"MR. ORCUTT dead?"</div>
+
+<p>"Dying, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"How, when, where?"</p>
+
+<p>"In his own house, sir. He has been struck down by
+a falling limb."</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney, who had been roused from
+his bed to hear these evil tidings, looked at the perturbed
+face of the messenger before him&mdash;who was none
+other than Mr. Byrd&mdash;and with difficulty restrained his
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"I sympathize with your horror and surprise," exclaimed
+the detective, respectfully. Then, with a
+strange mixture of embarrassment and agitation, added:
+"It is considered absolutely necessary that you come
+to the house. He may yet speak&mdash;and&mdash;and&mdash;you will
+find Miss Dare there," he concluded, with a peculiarly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[503]</a></span>
+hesitating glance and a rapid movement toward the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris, who, as we know, cherished a strong
+feeling of friendship for Mr. Orcutt, stared uneasily at
+the departing form of the detective.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you say?" he repeated. "Miss Dare
+there, in Mr. Orcutt's house?"</p>
+
+<p>The short "Yes," and the celerity with which Mr.
+Byrd vanished, gave him the appearance of one anxious
+to escape further inquiries.</p>
+
+<p>Astonished, as well as greatly distressed, the District
+Attorney made speedy preparations for following him,
+and soon was in the street. He found it all alive
+with eager citizens, who, notwithstanding the lateness
+of the hour, were rushing hither and thither in search
+of particulars concerning this sudden calamity; and upon
+reaching the house itself, found it wellnigh surrounded
+by an agitated throng of neighbors and friends.</p>
+
+<p>Simply pausing at the gate to cast one glance at the
+tree and its fallen limb, he made his way to the front
+door. It was immediately opened. Dr. Tredwell, whose
+face it was a shock to encounter in this place, stood
+before him, and farther back a group of such favored
+friends as had been allowed to enter the house. Something
+in the look of the coroner, as he silently reached
+forth his hand in salutation, added to the mysterious
+impression which had been made upon Mr. Ferris by
+the manner, if not words, of Mr. Byrd. Feeling that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[504]</a></span>
+he was losing his self-command, the District Attorney
+grasped the hand that was held out to him, and huskily
+inquired if Mr. Orcutt was still alive.</p>
+
+<p>The coroner, who had been standing before him with
+a troubled brow and lowered eyes, gravely bowed, and
+quietly leading the way, ushered him forward to Mr.
+Orcutt's bedroom door. There he paused and looked as
+if he would like to speak, but hastily changing his mind,
+opened the door and motioned the District Attorney in.
+As he did so, he cast a meaning and solemn look toward
+the bed, then drew back, watching with evident anxiety
+what the effect of the scene before him would have upon
+this new witness.</p>
+
+<p>A stupefying one it seemed, for Mr. Ferris, pausing in
+his approach, looked at the cluster of persons about the
+bed, and then drew his hand across his eyes like a man
+in a maze. Suddenly he turned upon Dr. Tredwell with
+the same strange look he had himself seen in the eyes of
+Byrd, and said, almost as if the words were forced from
+his lips:</p>
+
+<p>"This is no new sight to us, doctor; we have been
+spectators of a scene like this before."</p>
+
+<p>That was it. As nearly as the alteration in circumstances
+and surroundings would allow, the spectacle
+before him was the same as that which he had encountered
+months before in a small cottage at the other end of
+the town. On the bed a pallid, senseless, but slowly
+breathing form, whose features, stamped with the approach<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[505]</a></span>
+of death, stared at them with marble-like rigidity from beneath
+the heavy bandages which proclaimed the injury to
+be one to the head. At his side the doctor&mdash;the same
+one who had been called in to attend Mrs. Clemmens&mdash;wearing,
+as he did then, a look of sombre anticipation
+which Mr. Ferris expected every instant to see culminate
+in the solemn gesture which he had used at the widow's
+bedside before she spoke. Even the group of women
+who clustered about the foot of the couch wore much the
+same expression as those who waited for movement on
+the part of Mrs. Clemmens; and had it not been for the
+sight of Imogene Dare sitting immovable and watchful
+on the farther side of the bed, he might almost have
+imagined he was transported back to the old scene, and
+that all this new horror under which he was laboring was
+a dream from which he would speedily be awakened.</p>
+
+<p>But Imogene's face, her look, her air of patient waiting,
+were not to be mistaken. Attention once really attracted
+to her, it was not possible for it to wander
+elsewhere. Even the face of the dying man and the
+countenance of the watchful physician paled in interest
+before that fixed look which, never wavering,
+never altering, studied the marble visage before her, for
+the first faint signs of reawakening consciousness. Even
+his sister, who, if weak of mind, was most certainly of a
+loving disposition, seemed to feel the force of the tie that
+bound Imogene to that pillow; and, though she hovered
+nearer and nearer the beloved form as the weariful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[506]</a></span>
+moments sped by, did not presume to interpose her grief
+or her assistance between the burning eye of Imogene
+and the immovable form of her stricken brother.</p>
+
+<p>The hush that lay upon the room was unbroken save
+by the agitated breaths of all present.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there no hope?" whispered Mr. Ferris to Dr.
+Tredwell, as, seeing no immediate prospect of change,
+they sought for seats at the other side of the room.</p>
+
+<p>"No; the wound is strangely like that which Mrs.
+Clemmens received. He will rouse, probably, but he will
+not live. Our only comfort is that in this case it is not a
+murder."</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney made a gesture in the direction
+of Imogene.</p>
+
+<p>"How came she to be here?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Tredwell rose and drew him from the room.</p>
+
+<p>"It needs some explanation," he said; and began to
+relate to him how Mr. Orcutt was escorting Miss Dare to
+the gate when the bough fell which seemed likely to rob
+him of his life.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris, through whose mind those old words of the
+widow were running in a way that could only be accounted
+for by the memories which the scene within had
+awakened&mdash;"May the vengeance of Heaven light upon
+the head of him who has brought me to this pass! May
+the fate that has come upon me be visited upon him,
+measure for measure, blow for blow, death for death!"&mdash;turned
+with impressive gravity and asked if Miss Dare
+had not been hurt.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[507]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But Dr. Tredwell shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"She is not even bruised," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet was on his arm?"</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly, though I very much doubt it."</p>
+
+<p>"She was standing at his side," uttered the quiet voice
+of Mr. Byrd in their ear; "and disappeared when he did,
+under the falling branch. She must have been bruised,
+though she says not. I do not think she is in a condition
+to feel her injuries."</p>
+
+<p>"You were present, then," observed Mr. Ferris, with a
+meaning glance at the detective.</p>
+
+<p>"I was present," he returned, with a look the District
+Attorney did not find it difficult to understand.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any thing you ought to tell me?" Mr. Ferris
+inquired, when a moment or so later the coroner had
+been drawn away by a friend.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know," said Byrd. "Of the conversation
+that passed between Miss Dare and Mr. Orcutt, but a
+short portion came to our ears. It is her manner, her
+actions, that have astonished us, and made us anxious to
+have you upon the spot." And he told with what an expression
+of fear she had fled from her interview with Mr.
+Orcutt in the library, and then gave, as nearly as he
+could, an account of what had passed between them before
+the falling of the fatal limb. Finally he said:
+"Hickory and I expected to find her lying crushed and
+bleeding beneath, but instead of that, no sooner was the
+bough lifted than she sprang to her knees, and seeing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[508]</a></span>
+Mr. Orcutt lying before her insensible, bent over him
+with that same expression of breathless awe and expectation
+which you see in her now. It looks as if she were
+waiting for him to rouse and finish the sentence that was
+cut short by this catastrophe."</p>
+
+<p>"And what was that sentence?"</p>
+
+<p>"As near as I can recollect, it was this: 'If any man
+suffers for this crime it shall not be Craik Mansell, but&mdash;&mdash;'
+He did not have time to say whom."</p>
+
+<p>"My poor friend!" ejaculated Mr. Ferris, "cut down
+in the exercise of his duties! It is a mysterious providence&mdash;a
+very mysterious providence!" And crossing
+again to the sick-room, he went sadly in.</p>
+
+<p>He found the aspect unchanged. On the pillow the
+same white, immovable face; at the bedside the same
+constant and expectant watchers. Imogene especially
+seemed scarcely to have made a move in all the time of
+his absence. Like a marble image watching over a form
+of clay she sat silent, breathless, intent&mdash;a sight to draw
+all eyes and satisfy none; for her look was not one of
+grief, nor of awe, nor of hope, yet it had that within it
+which made her presence there seem a matter of right
+even to those who did not know the exact character of
+the bond which united her to the unhappy sufferer.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris, who had been only too ready to accept Mr.
+Byrd's explanation of her conduct, allowed himself to
+gaze at her unhindered.</p>
+
+<p>Overwhelmed, as he was, by the calamity which promised<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[509]</a></span>
+to rob the Bar of one of its most distinguished
+advocates, and himself of a long-tried friend, he could
+not but feel the throb of those deep interests which, in
+the estimation of this woman at least, hung upon a word
+which those dying lips might utter. And swayed by this
+feeling, he unconsciously became a third watcher, though
+for what, and in hope of what, he could scarcely have
+told, so much was he benumbed by the suddenness of
+this great catastrophe, and the extraordinary circumstances
+by which it was surrounded.</p>
+
+<p>And so one o'clock came and passed.</p>
+
+<p>It was not the last time the clock struck before a
+change came. The hour of two went by, then that of
+three, and still, to the casual eye, all remained the same.
+But ere the stroke of four was heard, Mr. Ferris, who
+had relaxed his survey of Imogene to bestow a fuller attention
+upon his friend, felt an indefinable sensation of
+dismay assail him, and rising to his feet, drew a step or
+so nearer the bed, and looked at its silent occupant with
+the air of a man who would fain shut his eyes to the
+meaning of what he sees before him. At the same
+moment Mr. Byrd, who had just come in, found himself
+attracted by the subtle difference he observed in the expression
+of Miss Dare. The expectancy in her look was
+gone, and its entire expression was that of awe. Advancing
+to the side of Mr. Ferris, he glanced down at the
+dying lawyer. He at once saw what it was that had so
+attracted and moved the District Attorney. A change<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[510]</a></span>
+had come over Mr. Orcutt's face. Though rigid still, and
+unrelieved by any signs of returning consciousness, it was
+no longer that of the man they knew, but a strange face,
+owning the same features, but distinguished now by a
+look sinister as it was unaccustomed, filling the breasts of
+those who saw it with dismay, and making any contemplation
+of his countenance more than painful to those
+who loved him. Nor did it decrease as they watched
+him. Like that charmed writing which appears on a
+blank paper when it is subjected to the heat, the subtle,
+unmistakable lines came out, moment by moment, on the
+mask of his unconscious face, till even Imogene trembled,
+and turned an appealing glance upon Mr. Ferris, as if to
+bid him note this involuntary evidence of nature against
+the purity and good intentions of the man who had
+always stood so high in the world's regard. Then, satisfied,
+perhaps, with the expression she encountered on the
+face of the District Attorney, she looked back; and the
+heavy minutes went on, only more drearily, and perhaps
+more fearfully, than before.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly&mdash;was it at a gesture of the physician, or a
+look from Imogene?&mdash;a thrill of expectation passed
+through the room, and Dr. Tredwell, Mr. Ferris, and a
+certain other gentleman who had but just entered at a
+remote corner of the apartment, came hurriedly forward
+and stood at the foot of the bed. At the same instant
+Imogene rose, and motioning them a trifle aside, with an
+air of mingled entreaty and command, bent slowly down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[511]</a></span>
+toward the injured man. A look of recognition answered
+her from the face upon the pillow, but she did not wait to
+meet it, nor pause for the word that evidently trembled
+on his momentarily conscious lip. Shutting out with her
+form the group of anxious watchers behind her, she threw
+all her soul into the regard with which she held him
+enchained; then slowly, solemnly, but with unyielding
+determination, uttered these words, which no one there
+could know were but a repetition of a question made a
+few eventful hours ago: "If Craik Mansell is not the man
+who killed Mrs. Clemmens, do you, Mr. Orcutt, tell us
+who is!" and, pausing, remained with her gaze fixed
+demandingly on that of the lawyer, undeterred by the
+smothered exclamations of those who witnessed this
+scene and missed its clue or found it only in the supposition
+that this last great shock had unsettled her mind.</p>
+
+<p>The panting sufferer just trembling on the verge of life
+thrilled all down his once alert and nervous frame, then
+searching her face for one sign of relenting, unclosed his
+rigid lips and said, with emphasis:</p>
+
+<p>"Has not Fate spoken?"</p>
+
+<p>Instantly Imogene sprang erect, and, amid the stifled
+shrieks of the women and the muttered exclamations of
+the men, pointed at the recumbent figure before them,
+saying:</p>
+
+<p>"You hear! Tremont Orcutt declares upon his death-bed
+that it is the voice of Heaven which has spoken in
+this dreadful calamity. You who were present when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[512]</a></span>
+Mrs. Clemmens breathed her imprecations on the head of
+her murderer, must know what that means."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris, who of all present, perhaps, possessed the
+greatest regard for the lawyer, gave an ejaculation of dismay
+at this, and bounding forward, lifted her away from
+the bedside he believed her to have basely desecrated.</p>
+
+<p>"Madwoman," he cried, "where will your ravings end?
+He will tell no such tale to me."</p>
+
+<p>But when he bent above the lawyer with the question
+forced from him by Miss Dare's words, he found him
+already lapsed into that strange insensibility which was
+every moment showing itself more and more to be the
+precursor of death.</p>
+
+<p>The sight seemed to rob Mr. Ferris of his last grain of
+self-command. Rising, he confronted the dazed faces of
+those about him with a severe look.</p>
+
+<p>"This charge," said he, "is akin to that which Miss
+Dare made against herself in the court yesterday morning.
+When a woman has become crazed she no longer
+knows what she says."</p>
+
+<p>But Imogene, strong in the belief that the hand of
+Heaven had pointed out the culprit for whom they had so
+long been searching, shook her head in quiet denial, and
+simply saying, "None of you know this man as I do,"
+moved quietly aside to a dim corner, where she sat down
+in calm expectation of another awakening on the part of
+the dying lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>It came soon&mdash;came before Mr. Ferris had recovered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[513]</a></span>
+himself, or Dr. Tredwell had had a chance to give any
+utterance to the emotions which this scene was calculated
+to awaken.</p>
+
+<p>Rousing as the widow had done, but seeming to see no
+one, not even the physician who bent close at his side,
+Mr. Orcutt lifted his voice again, this time in the old
+stentorian tones which he used in court, and clearly,
+firmly exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Blood will have blood!" Then in lower and more
+familiar accents, cried: "Ah, Imogene, Imogene, it was
+all for you!" And with her name on his lips, the great
+lawyer closed his eyes again, and sank for the last time
+into a state of insensibility.</p>
+
+<p>Imogene at once rose.</p>
+
+<p>"I must go," she murmured; "my duty in this place is
+done." And she attempted to cross the floor.</p>
+
+<p>But the purpose which had sustained her being at an
+end, she felt the full weight of her misery, and looking in
+the faces about her, and seeing nothing there but reprobation,
+she tottered and would have fallen had not a
+certain portly gentleman who stood near by put forth his
+arm to sustain her. Accepting the support with gratitude,
+but scarcely pausing to note from what source it came,
+she turned for an instant to Mr. Ferris.</p>
+
+<p>"I realize," said she, "with what surprise you must
+have heard the revelation which has just come from Mr.
+Orcutt's lips. So unexpected is it that you cannot yet
+believe it, but the time will come when, of all the words<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[514]</a></span>
+I have spoken, these alone will be found worthy your full
+credit: that not Craik Mansell, not Gouverneur Hildreth,
+not even unhappy Imogene Dare herself, could tell you
+so much of the real cause and manner of Mrs. Clemmens'
+death as this man who lies stricken here a victim of
+Divine justice."</p>
+
+<p>And merely stopping to cast one final look in the direction
+of the bed, she stumbled from the room. A few
+minutes later and she reached the front door; but only
+to fall against the lintel with the moan:</p>
+
+<p>"My words are true, but who will ever believe them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," exclaimed a bland and fatherly voice
+over her shoulder, "I am a man who can believe in any
+thing. Put your confidence in me, Miss Dare, and we
+will see&mdash;we will see."</p>
+
+<p>Startled by her surprise into new life, she gave one
+glance at the gentleman who had followed her to the
+door. It was the same who had offered her his arm, and
+whom she supposed to have remained behind her in Mr.
+Orcutt's room. She saw before her a large comfortable-looking
+personage of middle age, of no great pretensions
+to elegance or culture, but bearing that within his face
+which oddly enough baffled her understanding while it
+encouraged her trust. This was the more peculiar in
+that he was not looking at her, but stood with his eyes
+fixed on the fading light of the hall-lamp, which he surveyed
+with an expression of concern that almost amounted
+to pity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[515]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Sir, who are you?" she tremblingly asked.</p>
+
+<p>Dropping his eyes from the lamp, he riveted them upon
+the veil she held tightly clasped in her right hand.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will allow me the liberty of whispering in your
+ear, I will soon tell you," said he.</p>
+
+<p>She bent her weary head downward; he at once leaned
+toward her and murmured a half-dozen words that made
+her instantly start erect with new light in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"And you will help me?" she cried.</p>
+
+<p>"What else am I here for?" he answered.</p>
+
+<p>And turning toward a quiet figure which she now saw
+for the first time standing on the threshold of a small
+room near by, he said with the calmness of a master:</p>
+
+<p>"Hickory, see that no one enters or leaves the sick-room
+till I return." And offering Imogene his arm, he
+conducted her into the library, the door of which he
+shut to behind them.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[516]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>MR. GRYCE.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+What you have spoke, it may be so, perchance.<br />
+This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,<br />
+Was once thought honest.   &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;  &mdash;<span class="smcap">Macbeth.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>AN hour later, as Mr. Ferris was leaving the house in
+company with Dr. Tredwell, he felt himself
+stopped by a slight touch on his arm. Turning about he
+saw Hickory.</div>
+
+<p>"Beg pardon, sirs," said the detective, with a short
+bow, "but there's a gentleman, in the library who would
+like to see you before you go."</p>
+
+<p>They at once turned to the room indicated. But at
+sight of its well-known features&mdash;its huge cases of books,
+its large centre-table profusely littered with papers, the
+burnt-out grate, the empty arm-chair&mdash;they paused, and
+it was with difficulty they could recover themselves sufficiently
+to enter. When they did, their first glance was
+toward the gentleman they saw standing in a distant
+window, apparently perusing a book.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is it?" inquired Mr. Ferris of his companion.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot imagine," returned the other.</p>
+
+<p>Hearing voices, the gentleman advanced.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said he, "allow me to introduce myself. I am
+Mr. Gryce, of the New York Detective Service."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[517]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Gryce!" repeated the District Attorney, in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>The famous detective bowed. "I have come," said
+he, "upon a summons received by me in Utica not six
+hours ago. It was sent by a subordinate of mine interested
+in the trial now going on before the court. Horace
+Byrd is his name. I hope he is well liked here and has
+your confidence."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Byrd is well enough liked," rejoined Mr. Ferris,
+"but I gave him no orders to send for you. At what
+hour was the telegram dated?"</p>
+
+<p>"At half-past eleven; immediately after the accident
+to Mr. Orcutt."</p>
+
+<p>"I see."</p>
+
+<p>"He probably felt himself inadequate to meet this new
+emergency. He is a young man, and the affair is certainly
+a complicated one."</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney, who had been studying the
+countenance of the able detective before him, bowed
+courteously.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not displeased to see you," said he. "If you
+have been in the room above&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The other gravely bowed.</p>
+
+<p>"You know probably of the outrageous accusation
+which has just been made against our best lawyer and
+most-esteemed citizen. It is but one of many which this
+same woman has made; and while it is to be regarded as
+the ravings of lunacy, still your character and ability may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[518]</a></span>
+weigh much in lifting the opprobrium which any such
+accusation, however unfounded, is calculated to throw
+around the memory of my dying friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," returned Mr. Gryce, shifting his gaze uneasily
+from one small object to another in that dismal room, till
+all and every article it contained seemed to partake of his
+mysterious confidence, "this is a world of disappointment
+and deceit. Intellects we admired, hearts in which
+we trusted, turn out frequently to be the abodes of falsehood
+and violence. It is dreadful, but it is true."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris, struck aghast, looked at the detective with
+severe disapprobation.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible," he asked, "that you have allowed
+yourself to give any credence to the delirious utterances
+of a man suffering from a wound on the head, or to the
+frantic words of a woman who has already abused the
+ears of the court by a deliberate perjury?" While Dr.
+Tredwell, equally indignant and even more impatient,
+rapped with his knuckles on the table by which he stood,
+and cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh, pooh, the man cannot be such a fool!"</p>
+
+<p>A solemn smile crossed the features of the detective.</p>
+
+<p>"Many persons have listened to the aspersion you denounce.
+Active measures will be needed to prevent its
+going farther."</p>
+
+<p>"I have commanded silence," said Dr. Tredwell. "Respect
+for Mr. Orcutt will cause my wishes to be obeyed."</p>
+
+<p>"Does Mr. Orcutt enjoy the universal respect of the
+town?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[519]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He does," was the stern reply.</p>
+
+<p>"It behooves us, then," said Mr. Gryce, "to clear his
+memory from every doubt by a strict inquiry into his relations
+with the murdered woman."</p>
+
+<p>"They are known," returned Mr. Ferris, with grim reserve.
+"They were such as any man might hold with
+the woman at whose house he finds it convenient to take
+his daily dinner. She was to him the provider of a good
+meal."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce's eye travelled slowly toward Mr. Ferris'
+shirt stud.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," said he, "do you forget that Mr. Orcutt
+was on the scene of murder some minutes before the rest
+of you arrived? Let the attention of people once be directed
+toward him as a suspicious party, and they will be
+likely to remember this fact."</p>
+
+<p>Astounded, both men drew back.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by that remark?" they asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean," said Mr. Gryce, "that Mr. Orcutt's visit to
+Mrs. Clemmens' house on the morning of the murder will
+be apt to be recalled by persons of a suspicious tendency
+as having given him an opportunity to commit the crime."</p>
+
+<p>"People are not such fools," cried Dr. Tredwell; while
+Mr. Ferris, in a tone of mingled incredulity and anger,
+exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"And do you, a reputable detective, and, as I have
+been told, a man of excellent judgment, presume to say
+that there could be found any one in this town, or even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[520]</a></span>
+in this country, who could let his suspicions carry him
+so far as to hint that Mr. Orcutt struck this woman
+with his own hand in the minute or two that elapsed
+between his going into her house and his coming out
+again with tidings of her death?"</p>
+
+<p>"Those who remember that he had been a participator
+in the lengthy discussion which had just taken
+place on the court-house steps as to how a man might
+commit a crime without laying himself open to the risk
+of detection, might&mdash;yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris and the coroner, who, whatever their doubts
+or fears, had never for an instant seriously believed the
+dying words of Mr. Orcutt to be those of confession,
+gazed in consternation at the detective, and finally inquired:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you realize what you are saying?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce drew a deep breath, and shifted his gaze to
+the next stud in Mr. Ferris' shirt-front.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never been accused of speaking lightly," he
+remarked. Then, with quiet insistence, asked: "Where
+was Mrs. Clemmens believed to get the money she lived
+on?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not known," rejoined the District Attorney.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet she left a nice little sum behind her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Five thousand dollars," declared the coroner.</p>
+
+<p>"Strange that, in a town like this, no one should know
+where it came from?" suggested the detective.</p>
+
+<p>The two gentlemen were silent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[521]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It was a good deal to come from Mr. Orcutt in payment
+of a single meal a day!" continued Mr. Gryce.</p>
+
+<p>"No one has ever supposed it did come from Mr.
+Orcutt," remarked Mr. Ferris, with some severity.</p>
+
+<p>"But does any one know it did not?" ventured the
+detective.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Tredwell and the District Attorney looked at each
+other, but did not reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," pursued Mr. Gryce, after a moment of
+quiet waiting, "this is without exception the most
+serious moment of my life. Never in the course of my
+experience&mdash;and that includes much&mdash;have I been
+placed in a more trying position than now. To allow
+one's self to doubt, much less to question, the integrity
+of so eminent a man, seems to me only less dreadful
+than it does to you; yet, for all that, were I his friend,
+as I certainly am his admirer, I would say: 'Sift this
+matter to the bottom; let us know if this great lawyer
+has any more in favor of his innocence than the
+other gentlemen who have been publicly accused of this
+crime.'"</p>
+
+<p>"But," protested Dr. Tredwell, seeing that the District
+Attorney was too much moved to speak, "you
+forget the evidences which underlay the accusation of
+these <i>other</i> gentlemen; also that of all the persons who,
+from the day the widow was struck till now, have been
+in any way associated with suspicion, Mr. Orcutt
+is the only one who could have had no earthly motive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[522]</a></span>
+for injuring this humble woman, even if he were all he
+would have to be to first perform such a brutal deed
+and then carry out his hypocrisy to the point of using
+his skill as a criminal lawyer to defend another man
+falsely accused of the crime."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, sir," said the detective, "but I
+forget nothing. I only bring to the consideration of this
+subject a totally unprejudiced mind and an experience
+which has taught me never to omit testing the truth of
+a charge because it seems at first blush false, preposterous,
+and without visible foundation. If you will recall
+the conversation to which I have just alluded as
+having been held on the court-house steps on the morning
+Mrs. Clemmens was murdered, you will remember
+that it was the intellectual crime that was discussed&mdash;the
+crime of an intelligent man, safe in the knowledge
+that his motive for doing such a deed was a secret to
+the world."</p>
+
+<p>"My God!" exclaimed Mr. Ferris, under his breath,
+"the man seems to be in earnest!"</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," pursued Mr. Gryce, with more dignity
+than he had hitherto seen fit to assume, "it is not my
+usual practice to express myself as openly as I have done
+here to-day. In all ordinary cases I consider it expedient
+to reserve intact my suspicions and my doubts till I
+have completed my discoveries and arranged my arguments
+so as to bear out with some show of reason whatever
+statement I may feel obliged to make. But the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[523]</a></span>
+extraordinary features of this affair, and the fact that
+so many were present at the scene we have just left, have
+caused me to change my usual tactics. Though far from
+ready to say that Mr. Orcutt's words were those of confession,
+I still see much reason to doubt his innocence,
+and, feeling thus, am quite willing you should know it in
+time to prepare for the worst."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you propose making what has occurred here
+public?" asked Mr. Ferris, with emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so," was the detective's ready reply. "On the
+contrary, I was about to suggest that you did something
+more than lay a command of silence upon those who
+were present."</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney, who, as he afterward said, felt
+as if he were laboring under some oppressive nightmare,
+turned to the coroner and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Tredwell, what do you advise me to do? Terrible
+as this shock has been, and serious as is the duty it
+possibly involves, I have never allowed myself to shrink
+from doing what was right simply because it afforded
+suffering to myself or indignity to my friends. Do you
+think I am called upon to pursue this matter?"</p>
+
+<p>The coroner, troubled, anxious, and nearly as much
+overwhelmed as the District Attorney, did not immediately
+reply. Indeed, the situation was one to upset any
+man of whatever calibre. Finally he turned to Mr.
+Gryce.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Gryce," said he, "we are, as you have observed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[524]</a></span>
+friends of the dying man, and, being so, may miss our
+duty in our sympathy. What do you think ought to be
+done, in justice to him, the prisoner, and the positions
+which we both occupy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sirs," rejoined Mr. Gryce, "it is not usual,
+perhaps, for a man in my position to offer actual advice
+to gentlemen in yours; but if you wish to know what
+course I should pursue if I were in your places, I should
+say: First, require the witnesses still lingering around
+the dying man to promise that they will not divulge what
+was there said till a week has fully elapsed; next, adjourn
+the case now before the court for the same decent length
+of time; and, lastly, trust me and the two men you
+have hitherto employed, to find out if there is any thing
+in Mr. Orcutt's past history of a nature to make you
+tremble if the world hears of the words which escaped
+him on his death-bed. We shall probably need but a
+week."</p>
+
+<p>"And Miss Dare?"</p>
+
+<p>"Has already promised secrecy."</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing in all this to alarm their fears;
+every thing, on the contrary, to allay them.</p>
+
+<p>The coroner gave a nod of approval to Mr. Ferris, and
+both signified their acquiescence in the measures proposed.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce at once assumed his usual genial air.</p>
+
+<p>"You may trust me," said he, "to exercise all the
+discretion you would yourselves show under the circumstances.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[525]</a></span>
+I have no wish to see the name of such a man
+blasted by an ineffaceable stain." And he bowed as if
+about to leave the room.</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Ferris, who had observed this movement with
+an air of some uneasiness, suddenly stepped forward and
+stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to ask," said he, "whether superstition has
+had any thing to do with this readiness on your part to
+impute the worst meaning to the chance phrases which
+have fallen from the lips of our severely injured friend.
+Because his end seems in some regards to mirror that of
+the widow, have you allowed a remembrance of the
+words she made use of in the face of death to influence
+your good judgment as to the identity of Mr. Orcutt with
+her assassin?"</p>
+
+<p>The face of Mr. Gryce assumed its grimmest aspect.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think this catastrophe was necessary to draw
+my attention to Mr. Orcutt? To a man acquainted with
+the extraordinary coincidence that marked the discovery
+of Mrs. Clemmens' murder, the mystery must be that Mr.
+Orcutt has gone unsuspected for so long." And assuming
+an argumentative air, he asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Were either of you two gentlemen present at the conversation
+I have mentioned as taking place on the court-house
+steps the morning Mrs. Clemmens was murdered?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was," said the District Attorney.</p>
+
+<p>"You remember, then, the hunchback who was so free
+with his views?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[526]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Most certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"And know, perhaps, who that hunchback was?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not be surprised, then, if I recall to you the
+special incidents of that hour. A group of lawyers,
+among them Mr. Orcutt, are amusing <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'thumselves'">themselves</ins> with an
+off-hand chat concerning criminals and the clumsy way
+in which, as a rule, they plan and execute their crimes. All
+seem to agree that a murder is usually followed by detection,
+when suddenly a stranger speaks and tells them that
+the true way to make a success of the crime is to choose a
+thoroughfare for the scene of tragedy, and employ a
+weapon that has been picked up on the spot. What happens?
+Within five minutes after this piece of gratuitous
+information, or as soon as Mr. Orcutt can cross the
+street, Mrs. Clemmens is found lying in her blood, struck
+down by a stick of wood picked up from her own hearth-stone.
+Is this chance? If so, 'tis a very curious one."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't deny it," said Doctor Tredwell.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you never did deny it," quickly retorted the
+detective. "Am I not right in saying that it struck you
+so forcibly at the time as to lead you into supposing some
+collusion between the hunchback and the murderer?"</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly did," admitted the coroner.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," proceeded Mr. Gryce. "Now as there
+could have been no collusion between these parties, the
+hunchback being no other person than myself, what are
+we to think of this murder? That it was a coincidence,
+or an actual result of the hunchback's words?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[527]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Dr. Tredwell and Mr. Ferris were both silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Sirs," continued Mr. Gryce, feeling, perhaps, that
+perfect openness was necessary in order to win entire confidence,
+"I am not given to boasting or to a too-free expression
+of my opinion, but if I had been ignorant of this
+affair, and one of my men had come to me and said: 'A
+mysterious murder has just taken place, marked by this
+extraordinary feature, that it is a precise reproduction of
+a supposable case of crime which has just been discussed
+by a group of indifferent persons in the public street,' and
+then had asked me where to look for the assassin, I
+should have said: 'Search for that man who heard the
+discussion through, was among the first to leave the
+group, and was the first to show himself upon the scene
+of murder.' To be sure, when Byrd did come to me
+with this story, I was silent, for the man who fulfilled
+these conditions was Mr. Orcutt."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said Mr. Ferris, "you mean to say that you
+would have suspected Mr. Orcutt of this crime long ago
+if he had not been a man of such position and eminence?"</p>
+
+<p>"Undoubtedly," was Mr. Gryce's reply.</p>
+
+<p>If the expression was unequivocal, his air was still more
+so. Shocked and disturbed, both gentlemen fell back.
+The detective at once advanced and opened the door.</p>
+
+<p>It was time. Mr. Byrd had been tapping upon it for
+some minutes, and now hastily came in. His face told
+the nature of his errand before he spoke.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[528]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to be obliged to inform you&mdash;&mdash;" he
+began.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Orcutt is dead?" quickly interposed Mr. Ferris.</p>
+
+<p>The young detective solemnly bowed.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[529]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XL.</h2>
+
+<h3>IN THE PRISON.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+The jury passing on the prisoner's life,<br />
+May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two<br />
+Guiltier than him they try.<br />
+<div class='sig'>
+&mdash;<span class="smcap">Measure for Measure.</span><br /></div>
+<br /></div>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Such welcome and unwelcome things at once<br />
+'Tis hard to reconcile. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &mdash;<span class="smcap">Macbeth.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>MR. MANSELL sat in his cell, the prey of gloomy
+and perturbed thought. He knew Mr. Orcutt
+was dead; he had been told of it early in the morning by
+his jailer, but of the circumstances which attended that
+death he knew nothing, save that the lawyer had been
+struck by a limb falling from a tree in his own garden.</div>
+
+<p>The few moments during which the court had met for
+the purpose of re-adjournment had added but little to his
+enlightenment. A marked reserve had characterized the
+whole proceedings; and though an indefinable instinct had
+told him that in some mysterious way his cause had been
+helped rather than injured by this calamity to his counsel,
+he found no one ready to volunteer those explanations
+which his great interest in the matter certainly demanded.
+The hour, therefore, which he spent in solitude upon his
+return to prison was one of great anxiety, and it was quite a
+welcome relief when the cell door opened and the keeper
+ushered in a strange gentleman. Supposing it to be the new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[530]</a></span>
+counsel he had chosen at haphazard from a list of names that
+had been offered him, Mr. Mansell rose. But a second
+glance assured him he had made a mistake in supposing
+this person to be a lawyer, and stepping back he awaited
+his approach with mingled curiosity and reserve.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger, who seemed to be perfectly at home in
+the narrow quarters in which he found himself, advanced
+with a frank air.</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Gryce," said he, "and I am a detective.
+The District Attorney, who, as you know, has been placed
+in a very embarrassing situation by the events of the last
+two days, has accepted my services in connection with
+those of the two men already employed by him, in the
+hope that my greater experience may assist him in determining
+which, of all the persons who have been accused,
+or who have accused themselves, of murdering Mrs. Clemmens,
+is the actual perpetrator of that deed. Do you require
+any further assurance of my being in the confidence of Mr.
+Ferris than the fact that I am here, and in full liberty to
+talk with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," returned the other, after a short but close study
+of his visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then," continued the detective, with a comfortable
+air of ease, "I will speak to the point; and the
+first thing I will say is, that upon looking at the evidence
+against you, and hearing what I have heard from various
+sources since I came to town, I know you are not the man
+who killed Mrs. Clemmens. To be sure, you have declined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[531]</a></span>
+to explain certain points, but I think you can explain
+them, and if you will only inform me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," interrupted Mr. Mansell, gravely; "but
+you say you are a detective. Now, I have no information
+to give a detective."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure?" was the imperturbable query.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite," was the quick reply.</p>
+
+<p>"You are then determined upon going to the scaffold,
+whether or no?" remarked Mr. Gryce, somewhat grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if to escape it I must confide in a detective."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you do wrong," declared the other; "as I will
+immediately proceed to show you. Mr. Mansell, you
+are, of course, aware of the manner of Mr. Orcutt's
+death?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know he was struck by a falling limb."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what he was doing when this occurred?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"He was escorting Miss Dare down to the gate."</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner, whose countenance had brightened at the
+mention of his lawyer, turned a deadly white at this.</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;and was Miss Dare hurt?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>The detective shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Then why do you tell me this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because it has much to do with the occasion of my
+coming here, Mr. Mansell," proceeded Mr. Gryce, in
+that tone of completely understanding himself which he
+knew so well how to assume with men of the prisoner's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[532]</a></span>
+stamp. "I am going to speak to you without circumlocution
+or disguise. I am going to put your position before
+you just as it is. You are on trial for a murder of
+which not only yourself, but another man, was suspected.
+Why are you on trial instead of him? Because you were
+reticent in regard to certain matters which common-sense
+would say you ought to be able to explain. Why were
+you reticent? There can be but one answer. Because
+you feared to implicate another person, for whose happiness
+and honor you had more regard than for your own.
+Who was that other person? The woman who stood up
+in court yesterday and declared she had herself committed
+this crime. What is the conclusion? You believe,
+and have always believed, Miss Dare to be the
+assassin of Mrs. Clemmens."</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner, whose pallor had increased with every
+word the detective uttered, leaped to his feet at this last
+sentence.</p>
+
+<p>"You have no right to say that!" he vehemently
+asseverated. "What do you know of my thoughts or my
+beliefs? Do I carry my convictions on my sleeve? I
+am not the man to betray my ideas or feelings to the
+world."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce smiled. To be sure, this expression of silent
+complacency was directed to the grating of the
+window overhead, but it was none the less effectual on
+that account. Mr. Mansell, despite his self-command,
+began to look uneasy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[533]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Prove your words!" he cried. "Show that these
+have been my convictions!"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," returned Mr. Gryce. "Why were you
+so long silent about the ring? Because you did not wish
+to compromise Miss Dare by declaring she did not return
+it to you, as she had said. Why did you try to stop
+her in the midst of her testimony yesterday? Because
+you saw it was going to end in confession. Finally, why
+did you throw aside your defence, and instead of proclaiming
+yourself guilty, simply tell how you were able to
+reach Monteith Quarry Station in ninety minutes? Because
+you feared her guilt would be confirmed if her
+statements were investigated, and were willing to sacrifice
+every thing but the truth in order to save her."</p>
+
+<p>"You give me credit for a great deal of generosity,"
+coldly replied the prisoner. "After the evidence brought
+against me by the prosecution, I should think my guilt
+would be accepted as proved the moment I showed that
+I had not left Mrs. Clemmens' house at the time she was
+believed to be murdered."</p>
+
+<p>"And so it would," responded Mr. Gryce, "if the
+prosecution had not seen reason to believe that the moment
+of Mrs. Clemmens' death has been put too early.
+We now think she was not struck till some time after
+twelve, instead of five minutes before."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?" said Mr. Mansell, with stern self-control.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce, whose carelessly roving eye told little of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[534]</a></span>
+the close study with which he was honoring the man
+before him, nodded with grave decision.</p>
+
+<p>"You could add very much to our convictions on this
+point," he observed, "by telling what it was you saw or
+heard in Mrs. Clemmens' house at the moment you fled
+from it so abruptly."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know I fled from it abruptly?"</p>
+
+<p>"You were seen. The fact has not appeared in court,
+but a witness we might name perceived you flying from
+your aunt's door to the swamp as if your life depended
+upon the speed you made."</p>
+
+<p>"And with that fact added to all the rest you have
+against me, you say you believe me innocent?" exclaimed
+Mr. Mansell.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; for I have also said I believe Mrs. Clemmens
+not to have been assaulted till after the hour of noon.
+You fled from the door at precisely five minutes before
+it."</p>
+
+<p>The uneasiness of Mr. Mansell's face increased, till it
+amounted to agitation.</p>
+
+<p>"And may I ask," said he, "what has happened to
+make you believe she was not struck at the moment
+hitherto supposed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, now," replied the detective, "we come down to
+facts." And leaning with a confidential air toward the
+prisoner, he quietly said: "Your counsel has died, for
+one thing."</p>
+
+<p>Astonished as much by the tone as the tenor of these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[535]</a></span>
+words, Mr. Mansell drew back from his visitor in some
+distrust. Seeing it, Mr. Gryce edged still farther forward,
+and calmly continued:</p>
+
+<p>"If no one has told you the particulars of Mr. Orcutt's
+death, you probably do not know why Miss Dare was at
+his house last evening?"</p>
+
+<p>The look of the prisoner was sufficient reply.</p>
+
+<p>"She went there," resumed Mr. Gryce, with composure,
+"to tell him that her whole evidence against you
+had been given under the belief that you were guilty of
+the crime with which you had been charged; that by a
+trick of my fellow-detectives, Hickory and Byrd, she had
+been deceived into thinking you had actually admitted
+your guilt to her; and that she had only been undeceived
+after she had uttered the perjury with which she sought
+to save you yesterday morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Perjury?" escaped involuntarily from Craik Mansell's
+lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," repeated the detective, "perjury. Miss Dare
+lied when she said she had been to Mrs. Clemmens' cottage
+on the morning of the murder. She was not there,
+nor did she lift her hand against the widow's life. That
+tale she told to escape telling another which she thought
+would insure your doom."</p>
+
+<p>"You have been talking to Miss Dare?" suggested
+the prisoner, with subdued sarcasm.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been talking to my two men," was the unmoved
+retort, "to Hickory and to Byrd, and they not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[536]</a></span>
+only confirm this statement of hers in regard to the
+deception they played upon her, but say enough to show
+she could not have been guilty of the crime, because at
+that time she honestly believed you to be so."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand you," cried the prisoner, in a
+voice that, despite his marked self-control, showed the
+presence of genuine emotion.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce at once went into particulars. He was anxious
+to have Craik Mansell's mind disabused of the notion
+that Imogene had committed this crime, since upon
+that notion he believed his unfortunate reticence to rest.
+He therefore gave him a full relation of the scene in the
+hut, together with all its consequences.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Mansell listened like a man in a dream. Some
+fact in the past evidently made this story incredible to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing it, Mr. Gryce did not wait to hear his comments,
+but upon finishing his account, exclaimed, with a confident
+air:</p>
+
+<p>"Such testimony is conclusive. It is impossible to
+consider Miss Dare guilty, after an insight of this kind
+into the real state of her mind. Even she has seen the
+uselessness of persisting in her self-accusation, and, as I
+have already told you, went to Mr. Orcutt's house in
+order to explain to him her past conduct, and ask his
+advice for the future. She learned something else before
+her interview with Mr. Orcutt ended," continued the detective,
+impressively. "She learned that she had not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[537]</a></span>
+only been mistaken in supposing you had admitted your
+guilt, but that you could not have been guilty, because
+you had always believed her to be so. It has been a
+mutual case of suspicion, you see, and argues innocence
+on the part of you both. Or so it seems to the prosecution.
+How does it seem to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Would it help my cause to say?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would help your cause to tell what sent you so
+abruptly from Mrs. Clemmens' house the morning she
+was murdered."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not see how," returned the prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>The glance of Mr. Gryce settled confidentially on his
+right hand where it lay outspread upon his ample knee.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Mansell," he inquired, "have you no curiosity to
+know any details of the accident by which you have unexpectedly
+been deprived of a counsel?"</p>
+
+<p>Evidently surprised at this sudden change of subject,
+Craik replied:</p>
+
+<p>"If I had not hoped you would understand my anxiety
+and presently relieve it, I could not have shown you as
+much patience as I have."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," rejoined Mr. Gryce, altering his manner
+with a suddenness that evidently alarmed his listener.
+"Mr. Orcutt did not die immediately after he was struck
+down. He lived some hours; lived to say some words
+that have materially changed the suspicions of persons
+interested in the case he was defending."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Orcutt?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[538]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The tone was one of surprise. Mr. Gryce's little
+finger seemed to take note of it, for it tapped the leg
+beneath it in quite an emphatic manner as he continued:
+"It was in answer to a question put to him by Miss
+Dare. To the surprise of every one, she had not left
+him from the moment they were mutually relieved from
+the weight of the fallen limb, but had stood over him for
+hours, watching for him to rouse from his insensibility.
+When he did, she appealed to him in a way that showed
+she expected a reply, to tell her who it was that killed
+the Widow Clemmens."</p>
+
+<p>"And did Mr. Orcutt know?" was Mansell's half-agitated,
+half-incredulous query.</p>
+
+<p>"His answer seemed to show that he did. Mr. Mansell,
+have you ever had any doubts of Mr. Orcutt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Doubts?"</p>
+
+<p>"Doubts as to his integrity, good-heartedness, or desire
+to serve you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"You will, then, be greatly surprised," Mr. Gryce went
+on, with increased gravity, "when I tell you that Mr.
+Orcutt's reply to Miss Dare's question was such as to
+draw attention to himself as the assassin of Widow Clemmens,
+and that his words and the circumstances under
+which they were uttered have so impressed Mr. Ferris,
+that the question now agitating his mind is not, 'Is Craik
+Mansell innocent, but was his counsel, Tremont Orcutt,
+guilty?'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[539]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The excited look which had appeared on the face of
+Mansell at the beginning of this speech, changed to one
+of strong disgust.</p>
+
+<p>"This is too much!" he cried. "I am not a fool to be
+caught by any such make-believe as this! Mr. Orcutt
+thought to be an assassin? You might as well say
+that people accuse Judge Evans of killing the Widow
+Clemmens."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce, who had perhaps stretched a point when
+he so unequivocally declared his complete confidence in
+the innocence of the man before him, tapped his leg
+quite affectionately at this burst of natural indignation,
+and counted off another point in favor of the prisoner.
+His words, however, were dry as sarcasm could make
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said he, "for people know that Judge Evans
+was without the opportunity for committing this murder,
+while every one remembers how Mr. Orcutt went to the
+widow's house and came out again with tidings of her
+death."</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner's lip curled disdainfully.</p>
+
+<p>"And do you expect me to believe you regard this as
+a groundwork for suspicion? I should have given you
+credit for more penetration, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you do not think Mr. Orcutt knew what he
+was saying when, in answer to Miss Dare's appeal for him
+to tell who the murderer was, he answered: 'Blood will
+have blood!' and drew attention to his own violent
+end?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[540]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Did Mr. Orcutt say that?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, a man whose whole mind has for some
+time been engrossed with defending another man accused
+of murder, might say any thing while in a state of
+delirium."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce uttered his favorite "Humph!" and gave
+his leg another pat, but added, gravely enough: "Miss
+Dare believes his words to be those of confession."</p>
+
+<p>"You say Miss Dare once believed me to have confessed."</p>
+
+<p>"But," persisted the detective, "Miss Dare is not
+alone in her opinion. Men in whose judgment you must
+rely, find it difficult to explain the words of Mr. Orcutt
+by means of any other theory than that he is himself the
+perpetrator of that crime for which you are yourself
+being tried."</p>
+
+<p>"I find it difficult to believe that possible," quietly
+returned the prisoner. "What!" he suddenly exclaimed;
+"suspect a man of Mr. Orcutt's abilities and standing of
+a hideous crime&mdash;the very crime, too, with which his
+client is charged, and in defence of whom he has brought
+all his skill to bear! The idea is preposterous, unheard
+of!"</p>
+
+<p>"I acknowledge that," dryly assented Mr. Gryce;
+"but it has been my experience to find that it is the
+preposterous things which happen."</p>
+
+<p>For a minute the prisoner stared at the speaker incredulously;
+then he cried:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[541]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You really appear to be in earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"I was never more so in my life," was Mr. Gryce's
+rejoinder.</p>
+
+<p>Drawing back, Craik Mansell looked at the detective
+with an emotion that had almost the character of hope.
+Presently he said:</p>
+
+<p>"If you do distrust Mr. Orcutt, you must have weightier
+reasons for it than any you have given me. What are
+they? You must be willing I should know, or you would
+not have gone as far with me as you have."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right," Gryce assured him. "A case so complicated
+as this calls for unusual measures. Mr. Ferris,
+feeling the gravity of his position, allows me to take you
+into our confidence, in the hope that you will be able to
+help us out of our difficulty."</p>
+
+<p>"I help you! You'd better release me first."</p>
+
+<p>"That will come in time."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>If</i> I help you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whether you help or not, if we can satisfy ourselves
+and the world that Mr. Orcutt's words were a confession.
+You may hasten that conviction."</p>
+
+<p>"How?"</p>
+
+<p>"By clearing up the mystery of your flight from Mrs.
+Clemmens' house."</p>
+
+<p>The keen eyes of the prisoner fell; all his old distrust
+seemed on the point of returning.</p>
+
+<p>"That would not help you at all," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> should like to be the judge," said Mr. Gryce.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542">[542]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The prisoner shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"My word must go for it," said he.</p>
+
+<p>The detective had been the hero of too many such
+scenes to be easily discouraged. Bowing as if accepting
+this conclusion from the prisoner, he quietly proceeded
+with the recital he had planned. With a frankness certainly
+unusual to him, he gave the prisoner a full account
+of Mr. Orcutt's last hours, and the interview which had
+followed between himself and Miss Dare. To this he added
+his own reasons for doubting the lawyer, and, while
+admitting he saw no motive for the deed, gave it as his
+serious opinion, that the motive would be found if once he
+could get at the secret of Mr. Orcutt's real connection with
+the deceased. He was so eloquent, and so manifestly in
+earnest, Mr. Mansell's eye brightened in spite of himself,
+and when the detective ceased he looked up with an expression
+which convinced Mr. Gryce that half the battle
+was won. He accordingly said, in a tone of great
+confidence:</p>
+
+<p>"A knowledge of what went on in Mrs. Clemmens'
+house before he went to it would be of great help to us.
+With that for a start, all may be learned. I therefore put
+it to you for the last time whether it would not be best for
+you to explain yourself on this point. I am sure you will
+not regret it."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said Mansell, with undisturbed composure, "if
+your purpose is to fix this crime on Mr. Orcutt, I must
+insist upon your taking my word that I have no information
+to give you that can in any way affect him."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_543" id="Page_543">[543]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You could give us information, then, that would affect
+Miss Dare?" was the quick retort. "Now, I say," the
+astute detective declared, as the prisoner gave an almost
+imperceptible start, "that whatever your information is,
+Miss Dare is not guilty."</p>
+
+<p>"You say it!" exclaimed the prisoner. "What does
+your opinion amount to if you haven't heard the evidence
+against her?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no evidence against her but what is purely
+circumstantial."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because she is innocent. Circumstantial evidence may
+exist alike against the innocent and the guilty; real evidence
+only against the guilty. I mean to say that as I
+am firmly convinced Miss Dare once regarded you as
+guilty of this crime, I must be equally convinced she
+didn't commit it herself. This is unanswerable."</p>
+
+<p>"You have stated that before."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it; but I want you to see the force of it; because,
+once convinced with me that Miss Dare is innocent,
+you will be willing to tell all you know, even what apparently
+implicates her."</p>
+
+<p>Silence answered this remark.</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't <i>see</i> her strike the blow?"</p>
+
+<p>Mansell roused indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>"No, of course not!" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"You did not see her with your aunt that moment you
+fled from the house immediately before the murder!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_544" id="Page_544">[544]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I didn't <i>see</i> her."</p>
+
+<p>That emphasis, unconscious, perhaps, was fatal. Gryce,
+who never lost any thing, darted on this small gleam of
+advantage as a hungry pike darts upon an innocent
+minnow.</p>
+
+<p>"But you thought you heard her," he cried; "her
+voice, or her laugh, or perhaps merely the rustle of her
+dress in another room?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Mansell, "I didn't <i>hear</i> her."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not," was the instantaneous reply. "But
+something said or done by somebody&mdash;a something
+which amounts to nothing as evidence&mdash;gives you to
+understand she was there, and so you hold your tongue
+for fear of compromising her."</p>
+
+<p>"Amounts to nothing as evidence?" echoed Mansell.
+"How do you know that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because Miss Dare was not in the house with your
+aunt at that time. Miss Dare was in Professor Darling's
+observatory, a mile or so away."</p>
+
+<p>"Does she say that?"</p>
+
+<p>"We will <i>prove</i> that."</p>
+
+<p>Aroused, excited, the prisoner turned his flashing blue
+eyes on the detective.</p>
+
+<p>"I should be glad to have you," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"But you must first tell me in what room you were
+when you received this intimation of Miss Dare's presence?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was in no room; I was on the stone step outside of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_545" id="Page_545">[545]</a></span>
+the dining-room door. I did not go into the house at all
+that morning, as I believe I have already told Mr.
+Ferris."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Very</i> good! It will all be simpler than I thought.
+You came up to the house and went away again without
+coming in; ran away, I may say, taking the direction of
+the swamp."</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner did not deny it.</p>
+
+<p>"You remember all the incidents of that short flight?"</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner's lip curled.</p>
+
+<p>"Remember leaping the fence and stumbling a trifle
+when you came down?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; now tell me how could Miss Dare see you
+do that from Mrs. Clemmens' house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did Miss Dare tell you she saw me trip after I
+jumped the fence?"</p>
+
+<p>"She did."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet was in Professor Darling's observatory, a
+mile or so away?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>A satirical laugh broke from the prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>"I think," said he, "that instead of my telling you
+how she could have seen this from Mrs. Clemmens' house,
+you should tell me how she could have seen it from Professor
+Darling's observatory."</p>
+
+<p>"That is easy enough. She was looking through a
+telescope."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_546" id="Page_546">[546]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"At the moment you were turning from Mrs. Clemmens'
+door, Miss Dare, perched in the top of Professor
+Darling's house, was looking in that very direction
+through a telescope."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I would like to believe that story," said the
+prisoner, with suppressed emotion. "It would&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What?" urged the detective, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Make a new man of me," finished Mansell, with a
+momentary burst of feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, call up your memories of the way your
+aunt's house is situated. Recall the hour, and acknowledge
+that, if Miss Dare was with her, she must have been
+in the dining-room."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no doubt about that."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, how many windows has the dining-room?"</p>
+
+<p>"One."</p>
+
+<p>"How situated?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is on the same side as the door."</p>
+
+<p>"There is none, then, which looks down to that place
+where you leaped the fence?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"How account for her seeing that little incident, then,
+of your stumbling?"</p>
+
+<p>"She might have come to the door, stepped out, and
+so seen me."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! I see you have an answer for every
+thing."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_547" id="Page_547">[547]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Craik Mansell was silent.</p>
+
+<p>A look of admiration slowly spread itself over the detective's
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"We must probe the matter a little deeper," said he.
+"I see I have a hard head to deal with." And, bringing
+his glance a little nearer to the prisoner, he remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"If she had been standing there you could not have
+turned round without seeing her?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, did you see her standing there?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you turned round?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare says so."</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner struck his forehead with his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"And it <i>is</i> so," he cried. "I remember now that some
+vague desire to know the time made me turn to look
+at the church clock. Go on. Tell me more that Miss
+Dare saw."</p>
+
+<p>His manner was so changed&mdash;his eye burned so brightly&mdash;the
+detective gave himself a tap of decided self-gratulation.</p>
+
+<p>"She saw you hurry over the bog, stop at the entrance
+of the wood, take a look at your watch, and plunge with
+renewed speed into the forest."</p>
+
+<p>"It is so. It is so. And, to have seen that, she must
+have had the aid of a telescope."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she describes your appearance. She says you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_548" id="Page_548">[548]</a></span>
+had your pants turned up at the ankles, and carried your
+coat on your left arm."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Left</i> arm?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I had it on my right."</p>
+
+<p>"It was on the arm toward her, she declares. If she
+was in the observatory, it was your left side that she
+saw."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes; but the coat was over the other arm. I
+remember using my left hand in vaulting over the fence
+when I came up to the house."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a vital point," said Mr. Gryce, with a quietness
+that concealed his real anxiety and chagrin. "If the
+coat was on the arm <i>toward</i> her, the fact of its being on
+the right&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait!" exclaimed Mr. Mansell, with an air of sudden
+relief. "I recollect now that I changed it from one
+arm to the other after I vaulted the fence. It was just at
+the moment I turned to come back to the side door, and,
+as she does not pretend to have seen me till after I left
+the door, of course the coat was, as she says, on my left
+arm."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you could explain it," returned Mr. Gryce,
+with an air of easy confidence. "But what do you mean
+when you say that you changed it at the moment you
+turned to come back to the side door? Didn't you go
+at once to the dining-room door from the swamp?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I had gone to the front door on my former<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_549" id="Page_549">[549]</a></span>
+visit, and was going to it this time; but when I got to
+the corner of the house I saw the tramp coming into the
+gate, and not wishing to encounter any one, turned
+round and came back to the dining-room door."</p>
+
+<p>"I see. And it was then you heard&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What I heard," completed the prisoner, grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Mansell," said the other, "are you not sufficiently
+convinced by this time that Miss Dare was not with
+Mrs. Clemmens, but in the observatory of Professor Darling's
+house, to tell me what that was?"</p>
+
+<p>"Answer me a question and I will reply. Can the
+entrance of the woods be seen from the position which
+she declares herself to have occupied?"</p>
+
+<p>"It can. Not two hours ago I tried the experiment
+myself, using the same telescope and kneeling in the
+same place where she did. I found I could not only
+trace the spot where you paused, but could detect quite
+readily every movement of my man Hickory, whom I had
+previously placed there to go through the motions. I
+should not have come here if I had not made myself certain
+on that point."</p>
+
+<p>Yet the prisoner hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"I not only made myself sure of that," resumed Mr.
+Gryce, "but I also tried if I could see as much with my
+naked eye from Mrs. Clemmens' side door. I found I
+could not, and my sight is very good."</p>
+
+<p>"Enough," said Mansell; "hard as it is to explain, I
+must believe Miss Dare was not where I thought her."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_550" id="Page_550">[550]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Then you will tell me what you heard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; for in it may lie the key to this mystery, though
+how, I cannot see, and doubt if you can. I am all the
+more ready to do it," he pursued, "because I can now
+understand how she came to think me guilty, and, thinking
+so, conducted herself as she has done from the beginning
+of my trial. All but the fact of her denouncing
+herself yesterday; that I cannot comprehend."</p>
+
+<p>"A woman in love can do any thing," quoth Mr. Gryce.
+Then admonished by the flush of the prisoner's cheek
+that he was treading on dangerous ground, he quickly
+added: "But she will explain all that herself some day.
+Let us hear what you have to tell me."</p>
+
+<p>Craik Mansell drooped his head and his brow became
+gloomy.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said he, "it is unnecessary for me to state that
+your surmise in regard to my past convictions is true. If
+Miss Dare was not with my aunt just before the murder,
+I certainly had reasons for thinking she was. To be sure,
+I did not see her or hear her voice, but I heard my aunt
+address her distinctly and by name."</p>
+
+<p>"You did?" Mr. Gryce's interest in the tattoo he
+was playing on his knee became intense.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. It was just as I pushed the door ajar. The
+words were these: 'You think you are going to marry
+him, Imogene Dare; but I tell you you <i>never shall</i>, not
+while <i>I</i> live.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Humph!" broke involuntarily from the detective's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_551" id="Page_551">[551]</a></span>
+lips, and, though his face betrayed nothing of the shock
+this communication occasioned him, his fingers stopped
+an instant in their restless play.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Mansell saw it and cast him an anxious look. The
+detective instantly smiled with great unconcern. "Go
+on," said he, "what else did you hear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing else. In the mood in which I was this very
+plain intimation that Miss Dare had sought my aunt, had
+pleaded with her for me and failed, struck me as sufficient.
+I did not wait to hear more, but hurried away in
+a state of passion that was little short of frenzy. To
+leave the place and return to my work was now my one
+wish. When I found, then, that by running I might
+catch the train at Monteith, I ran, and so unconsciously
+laid myself open to suspicion."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," murmured the detective; "I see."</p>
+
+<p>"Not that I suspected any evil then," pursued Mr.
+Mansell, earnestly. "I was only conscious of disappointment
+and a desire to escape from my own thoughts. It
+was not till next day&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;yes," interrupted Mr. Gryce, abstractedly,
+"but your aunt's words! She said: 'You think you are
+going to marry him, Imogene Dare; but you never shall,
+not while I live.' Yet Imogene Dare was not there. Let
+us solve that problem."</p>
+
+<p>"You think you can?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think I must."</p>
+
+<p>"How? how?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_552" id="Page_552">[552]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The detective did not answer. He was buried in profound
+thought. Suddenly he exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"It is, as you say, the key-note to the tragedy. It must
+be solved." But the glance he dived deep into space
+seemed to echo that "How? how?" of the prisoner, with
+a gloomy persistence that promised little <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'sor'">for</ins> an immediate
+answer to the enigma before them. It occurred to
+Mansell to offer a suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"There is but one way <i>I</i> can explain it," said he.
+"My aunt was speaking to herself. She was deaf and
+lived alone. Such people often indulge in soliloquizing."</p>
+
+<p>The slap which Mr. Gryce gave his thigh must have
+made it tingle for a good half-hour.</p>
+
+<p>"There," he cried, "who says extraordinary measures
+are not useful at times? You've hit the very explanation.
+Of course she was speaking to herself. She was
+just the woman to do it. Imogene Dare was in her
+thoughts, so she addressed Imogene Dare. If you had
+opened the door you would have seen her standing there
+alone, venting her thoughts into empty space."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I had," said the prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce became exceedingly animated. "Well,
+that's settled," said he. "Imogene Dare was not there,
+save in Mrs. Clemmens' imagination. And now for the
+conclusion. She said: 'You think you are going to
+marry him, Imogene Dare; but you never shall, not while
+I live.' That shows her mind was running on you."</p>
+
+<p>"It shows more than that. It shows that, if Miss Dare<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_553" id="Page_553">[553]</a></span>
+was not with her then, she must have been there earlier
+in the day. For, when I left my aunt the day before, she
+was in entire ignorance of my attachment to Miss Dare,
+and the hopes it had led to."</p>
+
+<p>"Say that again," cried Gryce.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Mansell repeated himself, adding: "That would
+account for the ring being found on my aunt's dining-room
+floor&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Gryce waved that question aside.</p>
+
+<p>"What I want to make sure of is that your aunt
+had not been informed of your wishes as concerned Miss
+Dare."</p>
+
+<p>"Unless Miss Dare was there in the early morning and
+told her herself."</p>
+
+<p>"There were no neighbors to betray you?"</p>
+
+<p>"There wasn't a neighbor who knew any thing about
+the matter."</p>
+
+<p>The detective's eye brightened till it vied in brilliancy
+with the stray gleam of sunshine which had found its
+way to the cell through the narrow grating over their
+heads.</p>
+
+<p>"A clue!" he murmured; "I have received a clue,"
+and rose as if to leave.</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner, startled, rose also.</p>
+
+<p>"A clue to what?" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Gryce was not the man to answer such a
+question.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall hear soon. Enough that you have given<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_554" id="Page_554">[554]</a></span>
+me an idea that may eventually lead to the clearing up of
+this mystery, if not to your own acquittal from a false
+charge of murder."</p>
+
+<p>"And Miss Dare?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is under no charge, and never will be."</p>
+
+<p>"And Mr. Orcutt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait," said Mr. Gryce&mdash;"wait."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_555" id="Page_555">[555]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XLI.</h2>
+
+<h3>A LINK SUPPLIED.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Upon his bloody finger he doth wear<br />
+A precious ring.<br />
+
+<div class='sig'>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Titus Andronicus.</span><br /></div>
+<br />
+
+
+Make me to see it; or at the least so prove it,<br />
+That the probation bear no hinge nor loop<br />
+To hang a doubt on.<br />
+<br />
+<div class='sig'>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Othello.</span><br /></div>
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>MR. GRYCE did not believe that Imogene Dare
+had visited Mrs. Clemmens before the assault,
+or, indeed, had held any communication with her. Therefore,
+when Mansell declared that he had never told
+his aunt of the attachment between himself and this
+young lady, the astute detective at once drew the conclusion
+that the widow had never known of that attachment,
+and consequently that the words which the prisoner had
+overheard must have referred, not to himself, as he
+supposed, but to some other man, and, if to some other
+man&mdash;why to the only one with whom Miss Dare's name
+was at that time associated; in other words, to Mr.
+Orcutt!</div>
+
+<p>Now it was not easy to measure the importance of
+a conclusion like this. For whilst there would have been
+nothing peculiar in this solitary woman, with the few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_556" id="Page_556">[556]</a></span>
+thousands in the bank, boasting of her power to separate
+her nephew from the lady of his choice, there was every
+thing that was significant in her using the same language
+in regard to Miss Dare and Mr. Orcutt. Nothing but
+the existence of some unsuspected bond between herself
+and the great lawyer could have accounted, first, for her
+feeling on the subject of his marriage; and, secondly, for
+the threat of interference contained in her very emphatic
+words,&mdash;a bond which, while evidently not that of love,
+was still of a nature to give her control over his destiny,
+and make her, in spite of her lonely condition, the selfish
+and determined arbitrator of his fate.</p>
+
+<p>What was that bond? A secret shared between them?
+The knowledge on her part of some fact in Mr. Orcutt's
+past life, which, if revealed, might serve as an impediment
+to his marriage? In consideration that the great mystery
+to be solved was what motive Mr. Orcutt could have had
+for killing this woman, an answer to this question was
+manifestly of the first importance.</p>
+
+<p>But before proceeding to take any measures to insure
+one, Mr. Gryce sat down and seriously asked himself
+whether there was any known fact, circumstantial or
+otherwise, which refused to fit into the theory that
+Mr. Orcutt actually committed this crime with his own
+hand, and at the time he was seen to cross the street and
+enter Mrs. Clemmens' house. For, whereas the most
+complete chain of circumstantial evidence does not
+necessarily prove the suspected party to be guilty of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_557" id="Page_557">[557]</a></span>
+crime, the least break in it is fatal to his conviction.
+And Mr. Gryce wished to be as fair to the memory
+of Mr. Orcutt as he would have been to the living
+man.</p>
+
+<p>Beginning, therefore, with the earliest incidents of the
+fatal day, he called up, first, the letter which the widow
+had commenced but never lived to finish. It was a suggestive
+epistle. It was addressed to her most intimate
+friend, and showed in the few lines written a certain foreboding
+or apprehension of death remarkable under the
+circumstances. Mr. Gryce recalled one of its expressions.
+"There are so many," wrote she, "to whom my
+death would be more than welcome." So many! Many
+is a strong word; many means more than one, more than
+two; many means <i>three</i> at least. Now where were the
+three? Hildreth, of course, was one, Mansell might
+very properly be another, but who was the third? To
+Mr. Gryce, but one name suggested itself in reply. So
+far, then, his theory stood firm. Now what was the next
+fact known? The milkman stopped with his milk; that
+was at half-past eleven. He had to wait a few minutes,
+from which it was concluded she was up-stairs when he
+rapped. Was it at this time she was interrupted in her
+letter-writing? If so, she probably did not go back to it,
+for when Mr. Hildreth called, some fifteen minutes later,
+she was on the spot to open the door. Their interview
+was short; it was also stormy. Medicine was the last
+thing she stood in need of; besides, her mind was evidently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_558" id="Page_558">[558]</a></span>
+preoccupied. Showing him the door, she goes
+back to her work, and, being deaf, does not notice that
+he does not leave the house as she expected. Consequently
+her thoughts go on unhindered, and, her condition
+being one of anger, she mutters aloud and bitterly to
+herself as she flits from dining-room to kitchen in her
+labor of serving up her dinner. The words she made use
+of have been overheard, and here another point appears.
+For, whereas her temper must have been disturbed by
+the demand which had been made upon her the day
+before by her favorite relative and heir, her expressions
+of wrath at this moment were not levelled against him,
+but against a young lady who is said to have been a
+stranger to her, her language being: "You think you are
+going to marry him, Imogene Dare; but I tell you you
+never shall, not while I live." Her chief grievance, then,
+and the one thing uppermost in her thoughts, even at a
+time when she felt that there were many who desired her
+death, lay in this fact that a young and beautiful woman
+had manifested, as she supposed, a wish to marry Mr.
+Orcutt, the word <i>him</i> which she had used, necessarily referring
+to the lawyer, as she knew nothing of Imogene's
+passion for her nephew.</p>
+
+<p>But this is not the only point into which it is necessary
+to inquire. For to believe Mr. Orcutt guilty of this
+crime one <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'most'">must</ins> also believe that all the other persons
+who had been accused of it were truthful in the explanations
+which they gave of the events which had seemingly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_559" id="Page_559">[559]</a></span>
+connected them with it. Now, were they? Take the
+occurrences of that critical moment when the clock stood
+at five minutes to twelve. If Mr. Hildreth is to be believed,
+he was at that instant in the widow's front hall
+musing on his disappointment and arranging his plans
+for the future; the tramp, if those who profess to have
+watched him are to be believed, was on the kitchen
+portico; Craik Mansell on the dining-room door-step;
+Imogene Dare before her telescope in Professor Darling's
+observatory. Mr. Hildreth, with two doors closed between
+him and the back of the house, knew nothing of
+what was said or done there, but the tramp heard loud
+talking, and Craik Mansell the actual voice of the widow
+raised in words which were calculated to mislead him
+into thinking she was engaged in angry altercation with
+the woman he loved. What do all three do, then? Mr.
+Hildreth remains where he is; the tramp skulks away
+through the front gate; Craik Mansell rushes back to
+the woods. And Imogene Dare? She has turned her
+telescope toward Mrs. Clemmens' cottage, and, being
+on the side of the dining-room door, sees the flying form
+of Craik Mansell, and marks it till it disappears from her
+sight. Is there any thing contradictory in these various
+statements? No. Every thing, on the contrary, that is
+reconcilable.</p>
+
+<p>Let us proceed then. What happens a few minutes
+later? Mr. Hildreth, tired of seclusion and anxious to
+catch the train, opens the front door and steps out. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_560" id="Page_560">[560]</a></span>
+tramp, skulking round some other back door, does not
+see him; Imogene, with her eye on Craik Mansell, now
+vanishing into the woods, does not see him; nobody sees
+him. He goes, and the widow for a short interval is as
+much alone as she believed herself to be a minute or two
+before when three men stood, unseen by each other, at
+each of the three doors of her house. What does she do
+now?</p>
+
+<p>Why, she finishes preparing her dinner, and then,
+observing that the clock is slow, proceeds to set it right.
+Fatal task! Before she has had an opportunity to finish
+it, the front door has opened again, Mr. Orcutt has come
+in, and, tempted perhaps by her defenceless position,
+catches up a stick of wood from the fireplace and, with
+one blow, strikes her down at his feet, and rushes forth
+again with tidings of her death.</p>
+
+<p>Now, is there any thing in all <i>this</i> that is contradictory?
+No; there is only something left out. In the whole of
+this description of what went on in the widow's house,
+there has been no mention made of the ring&mdash;the ring
+which it is conceded was either in Craik Mansell's or
+Imogene Dare's possession the evening before the murder,
+and which was found on the dining-room floor within ten
+minutes after the assault took place. If Mrs. Clemmens'
+exclamations are to be taken as an attempt to describe
+her murderer, then this ring must have been on the hand
+which was raised against her, and how could that have
+been if the hand was that of Mr. Orcutt? Unimportant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_561" id="Page_561">[561]</a></span>
+as it seemed, the discovery of this ring on the floor, taken
+with the exclamations of the widow, make a break in the
+chain that is fatal to Mr. Gryce's theory. Yet does it?
+The consternation displayed by Mr. Orcutt when Imogene
+claimed the ring and put it on her finger may have
+had a deeper significance than was thought at the time.
+Was there any way in which he could have come into
+possession of it before she did? and could it have been
+that he had had it on his hand when he struck the blow?
+Mr. Gryce bent all his energies to inquire.</p>
+
+<p>First, where was the ring when the lovers parted in the
+wood the day before the murder? Evidently in Mr.
+Mansell's coat-pocket. Imogene had put it there, and
+Imogene had left it there. But Mansell did not know it
+was there, so took no pains to look after its safety. It
+accordingly slipped out; but when? Not while he slept,
+or it would have been found in the hut. Not while he
+took the path to his aunt's house, or it would have been
+found in the lane, or, at best, on the dining-room door-step.
+When, then? Mr. Gryce could think of but one
+instant, and that was when the young man threw his
+coat from one arm to the other at the corner of the house
+toward the street. If it rolled out then it would have
+been under an impetus, and, as the coat was flung from
+the right arm to the left, the ring would have flown in the
+direction of the gate and fallen, perhaps, directly on the
+walk in front of the house. If it had, its presence in the
+dining-room seemed to show it had been carried there by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_562" id="Page_562">[562]</a></span>
+Mr. Orcutt, since he was the next person who went into
+the house.</p>
+
+<p>But did it fall there? Mr. Gryce took the only available
+means to find out.</p>
+
+<p>Sending for Horace Byrd, he said to him:</p>
+
+<p>"You were on the court-house steps when Mr. Orcutt
+left and crossed over to the widow's house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Were you watching him? Could you describe his
+manner as he entered the house; how he opened the
+gate; or whether he stopped to look about him before
+going in?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," returned Byrd; "my eyes may have been on
+him, but I don't remember any thing especial that he did."</p>
+
+<p>Somewhat disappointed, Mr. Gryce went to the District
+Attorney and put to him the same question. The
+answer he received from him was different. With a
+gloomy contraction of his brow, Mr. Ferris said:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I remember his look and appearance very well.
+He stepped briskly, as he always did, and carried
+his head&mdash;&mdash; Wait!" he suddenly exclaimed, giving the
+detective a look in which excitement and decision were
+strangely blended. "You think Mr. Orcutt committed
+this crime; that he left us standing on the court-house
+steps and crossed the street to Mrs. Clemmens' house
+with the deliberate intention of killing her, and leaving
+the burden of his guilt to be shouldered by the tramp.
+Now, you have called up a memory to me that convinces<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_563" id="Page_563">[563]</a></span>
+me this could not have been. Had he had any such infernal
+design in his breast he would not have been likely
+to have stopped as he did to pick up something which he
+saw lying on the walk in front of Mrs. Clemmens' house."</p>
+
+<p>"And did Mr. Orcutt do that?" inquired Mr. Gryce,
+with admirable self-control.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I remember it now distinctly. It was just as he
+entered the gate. A man meditating a murder of this
+sort would not be likely to notice a pin lying in his path,
+much less pause to pick it up."</p>
+
+<p>"How if it were a diamond ring?"</p>
+
+<p>"A diamond ring?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Ferris," said the detective, gravely, "you have
+just supplied a very important link in the chain of evidence
+against Mr. Orcutt. The question is, how could
+the diamond ring which Miss Dare is believed to have
+dropped into Mr. Mansell's coat-pocket have been carried
+into Mrs. Clemmens' house without the agency of either
+herself or Mr. Mansell? I think you have just shown."
+And the able detective, in a few brief sentences, explained
+the situation to Mr. Ferris, together with the circumstances
+of Mansell's flight, as gleaned by him in his conversation
+with the prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney was sincerely dismayed. The
+guilt of the renowned lawyer was certainly assuming positive
+proportions. Yet, true to his friendship for Mr. Orcutt,
+he made one final effort to controvert the arguments
+of the detective, and quietly said:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_564" id="Page_564">[564]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You profess to explain how the ring might have been
+carried into Mrs. Clemmens' house, but how do you
+account for the widow having used an exclamation
+which seems to signify it was <i>on</i> the hand which she
+saw lifted against her life?"</p>
+
+<p>"By the fact that it was on that hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think that probable if the hand was Mr.
+Orcutt's?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly so. Where else would he be likely to put
+it in the preoccupied state of mind in which he was? In
+his pocket? The tramp might have done that, but not
+the gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris looked at the detective with almost an expression
+of fear.</p>
+
+<p>"And how came it to be on the floor if Mr. Orcutt put
+it on his finger?"</p>
+
+<p>"By the most natural process in the world. The ring
+made for Miss Dare's third finger was too large for
+Mr. Orcutt's little finger, and so slipped off when he
+dropped the stick of wood from his hand."</p>
+
+<p>"And he left it lying where it fell?"</p>
+
+<p>"He probably did not notice its loss. If, as I suppose,
+he had picked it up and placed it on his finger,
+mechanically, its absence at such a moment would not be
+observed. Besides, what clue could he suppose a
+diamond ring he had never seen before, and which he
+had had on his finger but an instant, would offer in
+a case like this?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_565" id="Page_565">[565]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You reason close," said the District Attorney; "too
+close," he added, as he recalled, with painful distinctness,
+the look and attitude of Mr. Orcutt at the time this
+ring was first brought into public notice, and realized that
+so might a man comport himself who, conscious of this
+ring's association with the crime he had just secretly perpetrated,
+sees it claimed and put on the finger of the woman
+he loves.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Gyrce'">Gryce</ins>, with his usual intuition, seemed to follow
+the thoughts of the District Attorney.</p>
+
+<p>"If our surmises are correct," he remarked, "it was a
+grim moment for the lawyer when, secure in his immunity
+from suspicion, he saw Miss Dare come upon the scene
+with eager inquiries concerning this murder. To you,
+who had not the clue, it looked as if he feared she was
+not as innocent as she should be; but, if you will recall
+the situation now, I think you will see that his agitation
+can only be explained by his apprehension of her
+intuitions and an alarm lest her interest sprang from some
+mysterious doubt of himself."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris shook his head with a gloomy air, but
+did not respond.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare tells me," the detective resumed, "that his
+first act upon their meeting again at his house was to
+offer himself to her in marriage. Now you, or any one
+else, would say this was to show he did not mistrust her,
+but I say it was to find out if she mistrusted him."</p>
+
+<p>Still Mr. Ferris remained silent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_566" id="Page_566">[566]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The same reasoning will apply to what followed,"
+continued Mr. Gryce. "You cannot reconcile the
+thought of his guilt with his taking the case of Mansell
+and doing all he could to secure his acquittal. But you
+will find it easier to do so when I tell you that, without
+taking into consideration any spark of sympathy which he
+might feel for the man falsely accused of his crime, he
+knew from Imogene's lips that she would not survive the
+condemnation of her lover, and that, besides this, his
+only hope of winning her for his wife lay in the gratitude
+he might awaken in her if he succeeded in saving his
+rival."</p>
+
+<p>"You are making him out a great villain," murmured
+Mr. Ferris, bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"And was not that the language of his own countenance
+as he lay dying?" inquired the detective.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris could not say No. He had himself been
+too deeply impressed by the sinister look he had observed
+on the face of his dying friend. He therefore confined
+himself to remarking, not without sarcasm:</p>
+
+<p>"And now for the motive of this hideous crime&mdash;for I
+suppose your ingenuity has discovered one before this."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be found in his love for Miss Dare," returned
+the detective; "but just how I am not prepared to-day
+to say."</p>
+
+<p>"His love for Miss Dare? What had this plain and
+homespun Mrs. Clemmens to do with his love for
+Miss Dare?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_567" id="Page_567">[567]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She was an interference."</p>
+
+<p>"How?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that, sir, is the question."</p>
+
+<p>"So then you do not know?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce was obliged to shake his head.</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney drew himself up. "Mr. Gryce,"
+said he, "the charge which has been made against this
+eminent man demands the very strongest proof in order
+to substantiate it. The motive, especially, must be shown
+to have been such as to offer a complete excuse for suspecting
+him. No trivial or imaginary reason for his
+wishing this woman out of the world will answer in his case.
+You must prove that her death was absolutely necessary to
+the success of his dearest hopes, or your reasoning will
+only awaken distrust in the minds of all who hear it.
+The fame of a man like Mr. Orcutt is not to be destroyed
+by a passing word of delirium, or a specious display of
+circumstantial evidence such as you evolve from the presence
+of the ring on the scene of murder."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it," allowed Mr. Gryce, "and that is why I
+have asked for a week."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you still believe you can find such a motive?"</p>
+
+<p>The smile which Mr. Gryce bestowed upon the favored
+object then honored by his gaze haunted the District Attorney
+for the rest of the week.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_568" id="Page_568">[568]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XLII.</h2>
+
+<h3>CONSULTATIONS.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+That he should die is worthy policy;<br />
+But yet we want a color for his death;<br />
+'Tis meet he be condemned by course of law.<br />
+
+<div class='sig'>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Henry VI.</span><br /></div>
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>MR. GRYCE was perfectly aware that the task
+before him was a difficult one. To be himself
+convinced that Mr. Orcutt had been in possession of a
+motive sufficient to account for, if not excuse, this horrible
+crime was one thing; to find out that motive and
+make it apparent to the world was another. But he was
+not discouraged. Summoning his two subordinates, he
+laid the matter before them.</div>
+
+<p>"I am convinced," said he, "that Mrs. Clemmens was
+a more important person to Mr. Orcutt than her plain appearance
+and humble manner of life would suggest. Do
+either of you know whether Mr. Orcutt's name has ever
+been associated with any private scandal, the knowledge
+of which might have given her power over him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think he was that kind of a man," said
+Byrd. "Since morning I have put myself in the way of
+such persons as I saw disposed to converse about him,
+and though I have been astonished to find how many
+there are who say they never quite liked or altogether<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_569" id="Page_569">[569]</a></span>
+trusted this famous lawyer, I have heard nothing said in
+any way derogatory to his private character. Indeed, I
+believe, as far as the ladies were concerned, he was particularly
+reserved. Though a bachelor, he showed no
+disposition to marry, and until Miss Dare appeared on
+the scene was not known to be even attentive to one of
+her sex."</p>
+
+<p>"Some one, however, I forget who, told me that for a
+short time he was sweet on a certain Miss Pratt," remarked
+Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>"Pratt? Where have I heard that name?" murmured
+Byrd to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"But nothing came of it," Hickory continued. "She
+was not over and above smart they say, and though
+pretty enough, did not hold his fancy. Some folks declare
+she was so disappointed she left town."</p>
+
+<p>"Pratt, Pratt!" repeated Byrd to himself. "Ah! I
+know now," he suddenly exclaimed. "While I stood
+around amongst the crowd, the morning Mrs. Clemmens
+was murdered, I remember overhearing some one say
+how hard she was on the Pratt girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph!" ejaculated Mr. Gryce. "The widow was
+hard on any one Mr. Orcutt chose to admire."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand it," said Byrd.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I," rejoined Mr. Gryce; "but I intend to before
+the week is out." Then abruptly: "When did Mrs.
+Clemmens come to this town?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fifteen years ago," replied Byrd.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_570" id="Page_570">[570]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And Orcutt&mdash;when did he first put in an appearance
+here?"</p>
+
+<p>"At very much the same time, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! And did they seem to be friends at that
+time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Some say Yes, some say No."</p>
+
+<p>"Where did he come from&mdash;have you learned?"</p>
+
+<p>"From some place in Nebraska, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"And she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, she came from some place in Nebraska too!"</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>same</i> place?"</p>
+
+<p>"That we must find out."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce mused for a minute; then he observed:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Orcutt was renowned in his profession. Do you
+know any thing about his career&mdash;whether he brought a
+reputation for ability with him, or whether his fame was
+entirely made in this place?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it was made here. Indeed, I have heard that
+it was in this court he pleaded his first case. Don't you
+know more about it, Hickory?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; Mr. Ferris told me this morning that Orcutt
+had not opened a law-book when he came to this town.
+That he was a country schoolmaster in some uncivilized
+district out West, and would never have been any thing
+more, perhaps, if the son of old Stephen Orcutt had not
+died, and thus made a vacancy in the law-office here
+which he was immediately sent for to fill."</p>
+
+<p>"Stephen Orcutt? He was the uncle of this man,
+wasn't he?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_571" id="Page_571">[571]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And quite a lawyer too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but nothing like Tremont B. <i>He</i> was successful
+from the start. Had a natural aptitude, I suppose&mdash;must
+have had, to pick up the profession in the way he did."</p>
+
+<p>"Boys," cried Mr. Gryce, after another short ruminative
+pause, "the secret we want to know is of long standing;
+indeed, I should not be surprised if it were connected
+with his life out West. I will tell you why I think
+so. For ten years Mrs. Clemmens has been known to
+put money in the bank regularly every week. Now,
+where did she get that money? From Mr. Orcutt, of
+course. What for? In payment for the dinner he usually
+took with her? No, in payment of her silence concerning
+a past he desired kept secret."</p>
+
+<p>"But they have been here fifteen years and she has
+only received money for ten."</p>
+
+<p>"She has only put money in the bank for ten; she
+may have been paid before that and may not. I do not
+suppose he was in a condition to be very lavish at the
+outset of his career."</p>
+
+<p>"You advise us, then, to see what we can make out of
+his early life out West?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and I will see what I can make out of hers.
+The link which connects the two will be found. Mr.
+Orcutt did not say: 'It was all for you, Imogene,' for
+nothing."</p>
+
+<p>And, dismissing the two young men, Mr. Gryce proceeded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_572" id="Page_572">[572]</a></span>
+to the house of Mr. Orcutt, where he entered
+upon an examination of such papers and documents as
+were open to his inspection, in the hope of discovering
+some allusion to the deceased lawyer's early history.
+But he was not successful. Neither did a like inspection
+of the widow's letters bring any new facts to light. The
+only result which seemed to follow these efforts was an
+increased certainty on his part that some dangerous secret
+lurked in a past that was so determinedly hidden from
+the world, and resorting to the only expedient now left to
+him, he resolved to consult Miss Firman, as being the
+only person who professed to have had any acquaintance
+with Mrs. Clemmens before she came to Sibley. To be
+sure, she had already been questioned by the coroner,
+but Mr. Gryce was a man who had always found that the
+dryest well could be made to yield a drop or two more of
+water if the bucket was dropped by a dexterous hand.
+He accordingly prepared himself for a trip to Utica.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_573" id="Page_573">[573]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XLIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>MRS. FIRMAN.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+Hark! she speaks. I will set down what comes from her....<br />
+Heaven knows what she has known.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Macbeth.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>"MISS FIRMAN, I believe?" The staid, pleasant-faced
+lady whom we know, but who is looking
+older and considerably more careworn than when we
+saw her at the coroner's inquest, rose from her chair
+in her own cozy sitting-room, and surveyed her visitor
+curiously. "I am Mr. Gryce," the genial voice went on.
+"Perhaps the name is not familiar?"</div>
+
+<p>"I never heard it before," was the short but not
+ungracious reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, let me explain," said he. "You are a
+relative of the Mrs. Clemmens who was so foully murdered
+in Sibley, are you not? Pardon me, but I see you
+are; your expression speaks for itself." How he could
+have seen her expression was a mystery to Miss Firman,
+for his eyes, if not attention, were seemingly fixed upon
+some object in quite a different portion of the room.
+"You must, therefore," he pursued, "be in a state
+of great anxiety to know who her murderer was. Now,
+I am in that same state, madam; we are, therefore,
+in sympathy, you see."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_574" id="Page_574">[574]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The respectful smile and peculiar intonation with
+which these last words were uttered, robbed them of
+their familiarity and allowed Miss Firman to perceive his
+true character.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a detective," said she, and as he did not
+deny it, she went on: "You say I must be anxious to
+know who my cousin's murderer was. Has Craik Mansell,
+then, been acquitted?"</p>
+
+<p>"A verdict has not been given," said the other. "His
+trial has been adjourned in order to give him an opportunity
+to choose a new counsel."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Firman motioned her visitor to be seated, and at
+once took a chair herself.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want with me?" she asked, with characteristic
+bluntness.</p>
+
+<p>The detective was silent. It was but for a moment,
+but in that moment he seemed to read to the bottom of
+this woman's mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said he, "I will tell you. You believe Craik
+Mansell to be innocent?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do," she returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; so do I."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me shake hands with you," was her abrupt remark.
+And without a smile she reached forth her hand,
+which he took with equal gravity.</p>
+
+<p>This ceremony over, he remarked, with a cheerful
+mien:</p>
+
+<p>"We are fortunately not in a court of law, and so can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_575" id="Page_575">[575]</a></span>
+talk freely together. Why do you think Mansell innocent?
+I am sure the evidence has not been much
+in his favor."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do <i>you</i> think him innocent?" was the brisk
+retort.</p>
+
+<p>"I have talked with him."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have talked with Miss Dare."</p>
+
+<p>A different "Ah!" this time.</p>
+
+<p>"And I was present when Mr. Orcutt breathed his
+last."</p>
+
+<p>The look she gave was like cold water on Mr. Gryce's
+secretly growing hopes.</p>
+
+<p>"What has that to do with it?" she wonderingly exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>The detective took another tone.</p>
+
+<p>"You did not know Mr. Orcutt then?" he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"I had not that honor," was the formal reply.</p>
+
+<p>"You have never, then, visited your cousin in
+Sibley?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I was there once; but that did not give me an
+acquaintance with Mr. Orcutt."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet he went almost every day to her house."</p>
+
+<p>"And he came while I was there, but <i>that</i> did not give
+me an acquaintance with him."</p>
+
+<p>"He was reserved, then, in his manners, uncommunicative,
+possibly morose?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_576" id="Page_576">[576]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He was just what I would expect such a gentleman
+to be at the table with women like my cousin
+and myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Not morose, then; only reserved."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," the short, quick bow of the amiable spinster
+seemed to assert.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce drew a deep breath. This well seemed to
+be destitute of even a drop of moisture.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you ask me about Mr. Orcutt? Has his
+death in any way affected young Mansell's prospects?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I want to find out," declared Mr.
+Gryce. Then, without giving her time for another question,
+said: "Where did Mrs. Clemmens first make the
+acquaintance of Mr. Orcutt? Wasn't it in some town
+out West?"</p>
+
+<p>"Out West? Not to my knowledge, sir. I always
+supposed she saw him first in Sibley."</p>
+
+<p>This well was certainly very dry.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you are not positive that this is so, are you?"
+pursued the patient detective. "She came from Nebraska,
+and so did he; now, why may they not have
+known each other there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know that he came from Nebraska."</p>
+
+<p>"She has never talked about him then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce drew another deep breath and let down his
+bucket again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_577" id="Page_577">[577]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I thought your cousin spent her childhood in
+Toledo?"</p>
+
+<p>"She did, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"How came she to go to Nebraska then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, she was left an orphan and had to look out for
+herself. A situation in some way opened to her in Nebraska,
+and she went there to take it."</p>
+
+<p>"A situation at what?"</p>
+
+<p>"As waitress in some hotel."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! And was she still a waitress when she
+married?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think so, but I am not sure about it or any
+thing else in connection with her at that time. The subject
+was so painful we never discussed it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why painful?"</p>
+
+<p>"She lost her husband so soon."</p>
+
+<p>"But you can tell me the name of the town in which
+this hotel was, can you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was called Swanson then, but that was fifteen
+years ago. Its name may have been changed since."</p>
+
+<p>Swanson! This was something to learn, but not much.
+Mr. Gryce returned to his first question. "You have
+not told me," said he, "why <i>you</i> believe Craik Mansell
+to be innocent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," replied she, "<i>I</i> believe Craik Mansell to be
+innocent because he is the son of his mother. I think I
+know <i>him</i> pretty well, but I am certain I knew <i>her</i>. She
+was a woman who would go through fire and water to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_578" id="Page_578">[578]</a></span>
+attain a purpose she thought right, but who would stop
+in the midst of any project the moment she felt the least
+doubt of its being just or wise. Craik has his mother's
+forehead and eyes, and no one will ever make me believe
+he has not her principles also."</p>
+
+<p>"I coincide with you, madam," remarked the attentive
+detective.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope the jury will," was her energetic response.</p>
+
+<p>He bowed and was about to attempt another question,
+when an interruption occurred. Miss Firman was called
+from the room, and Mr. Gryce found himself left for a
+few moments alone. His thoughts, as he awaited her
+return, were far from cheerful, for he saw a long and
+tedious line of inquiry opening before him in the West,
+which, if it did not end in failure, promised to exhaust
+not only a week, but possibly many months, before certainty
+of any kind could be obtained. With Miss Dare
+on the verge of a fever, and Mansell in a position calling
+for the utmost nerve and self-control, this prospect
+looked any thing but attractive to the benevolent detective;
+and, carried away by his impatience, he was about
+to give utterance to an angry ejaculation against the man
+he believed to be the author of all this mischief, when he
+suddenly heard a voice raised from some unknown quarter
+near by, saying in strange tones he was positive did
+not proceed from Miss Firman:</p>
+
+<p>"Was it Clemmens or was it Orcutt? Clemmens or
+Orcutt? I cannot remember."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_579" id="Page_579">[579]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Naturally excited and aroused, Mr. Gryce rose and
+looked about him. A door stood ajar at his back.
+Hastening toward it, he was about to lay his hand on
+the knob when Miss Firman returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I beg you," she entreated. "That is my
+mother's room, and she is not at all well."</p>
+
+<p>"I was going to her assistance," asserted the detective,
+with grave composure. "She has just uttered a
+cry."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you don't say so!" exclaimed the unsuspicious
+spinster, and hurrying forward, she threw open the door
+herself. Mr. Gryce benevolently followed. "Why, she
+is asleep," protested Miss Firman, turning on the detective
+with a suspicious look.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce, with a glance toward the bed he saw before
+him, bowed with seeming perplexity.</p>
+
+<p>"She certainly appears to be," said he, "and yet I am
+positive she spoke but an instant ago; I can even tell you
+the words she used."</p>
+
+<p>"What were they?" asked the spinster, with something
+like a look of concern.</p>
+
+<p>"She said: 'Was it Clemmens or was it Orcutt? Clemmens
+or Orcutt? I cannot remember.'"</p>
+
+<p>"You don't say so! Poor ma! She was dreaming.
+Come into the other room and I will explain."</p>
+
+<p>And leading the way back to the apartment they had
+left, she motioned him again toward a chair, and then
+said:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_580" id="Page_580">[580]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ma has always been a very hale and active woman for
+her years; but this murder seems to have shaken her. To
+speak the truth, sir, she has not been quite right in her
+mind since the day I told her of it; and I often detect
+her murmuring words similar to those you have just
+heard."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! And does she often use his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whose name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Orcutt's."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes; but not with any understanding of whom
+she is speaking."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you <i>sure?</i>" inquired Mr. Gryce, with that peculiar
+impressiveness he used on great occasions.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean," returned the detective, dryly, "that I believe
+your mother does know what she is talking about when
+she links the name of Mr. Orcutt with that of your cousin
+who was murdered. They belong together; Mr. Orcutt
+was her murderer."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Mr. Orcutt?</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" cried Mr. Gryce, "you will wake up your
+mother."</p>
+
+<p>And, adapting himself to this emergency as to all others,
+he talked with the astounded and incredulous woman
+before him till she was in a condition not only to listen to
+his explanations, but to discuss the problem of a crime so
+seemingly without motive. He then said, with easy assurance:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_581" id="Page_581">[581]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Your mother does not know that Mr. Orcutt is
+dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"She does not even know he was counsel for Craik
+Mansell in the trial now going on."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know that?" inquired Miss Firman,
+grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I do not believe you have even told her that
+Craik Mansell was on trial."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, you are a magician."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you, madam?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, I have not."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good; what <i>does</i> she know about Mr. Orcutt,
+then; and why should she connect his name with Mrs.
+Clemmens?"</p>
+
+<p>"She knows he was her boarder, and that he was the
+first one to discover she had been murdered."</p>
+
+<p>"That is not enough to account for her frequent repetition
+of his name."</p>
+
+<p>"You think not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure not. Cannot your mother have some
+memories connected with his name of which you are ignorant?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; we have lived together in this house for
+twenty-five years, and have never had a thought we have
+not shared together. Ma could not have known any
+thing about him or Mary Ann which I did not. The
+words she has just spoken sprang from mental confusion.
+She is almost like a child sometimes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_582" id="Page_582">[582]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce smiled. If the cream-jug he happened to
+be gazing at on a tray near by had been full of cream, I
+am far from certain it would not have turned sour on the
+spot.</p>
+
+<p>"I grant the mental confusion," said he; "but why
+should she confuse those two names in preference to all
+others?" And, with quiet persistence, he remarked again:
+"She may be recalling some old fact of years ago. Was
+there never a time, even while you lived here together,
+when she could have received some confidence from Mrs.
+Clemmens&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mary Ann, Mary Ann!" came in querulous accents
+from the other room, "I wish you had not told me; Emily
+would be a better one to know your secret."</p>
+
+<p>It was a startling interruption to come just at that moment
+The two surprised listeners glanced toward each
+other, and Miss Firman colored.</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds as if your surmise was true," she dryly
+observed.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us make an experiment," said he, and motioned
+her to re-enter her mother's room, which she did with a
+precipitation that showed her composure had been sorely
+shaken by these unexpected occurrences.</p>
+
+<p>He followed her without ceremony.</p>
+
+<p>The old lady lay as before in a condition between
+sleeping and waking, and did not move as they came in.
+Mr. Gryce at once withdrew out of sight, and, with finger
+on his lip, put himself in the attitude of waiting. Miss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_583" id="Page_583">[583]</a></span>
+Firman, surprised, and possibly curious, took her stand
+at the foot of the bed.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes passed thus, during which a strange
+dreariness seemed to settle upon the room; then the old
+lady spoke again, this time repeating the words he had
+first heard, but in a tone which betrayed an increased
+perplexity.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Was</i> it Clemmens or <i>was</i> it Orcutt? I wish somebody
+would tell me."</p>
+
+<p>Instantly Mr. Gryce, with his soft tread, drew near to
+the old lady's side, and, leaning over her, murmured
+gently:</p>
+
+<p>"I think it was Orcutt."</p>
+
+<p>Instantly the old lady breathed a deep sigh and moved.</p>
+
+<p>"Then her name was Mrs. Orcutt," said she, "and I
+thought you always called her Clemmens."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Firman, recoiling, stared at Mr. Gryce, on whose
+cheek a faint spot of red had appeared&mdash;a most unusual
+token of emotion with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Did she say it was Mrs. Orcutt," he pursued, in the
+even tones he had before used.</p>
+
+<p>"She said&mdash;&mdash;" But here the old lady opened her
+eyes, and, seeing her daughter standing at the foot of her
+bed, turned away with a peevish air, and restlessly pushed
+her hand under the pillow.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce at once bent nearer.</p>
+
+<p>"She said&mdash;&mdash;" he suggested, with careful gentleness.</p>
+
+<p>But the old lady made no answer. Her hand seemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_584" id="Page_584">[584]</a></span>
+to have touched some object for which she was seeking,
+and she was evidently oblivious to all else. Miss Firman
+came around and touched Mr. Gryce on the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"It is useless," said she; "she is awake now, and you
+won't hear any thing more; come!"</p>
+
+<p>And she drew the reluctant detective back again into
+the other room.</p>
+
+<p>"What does it all mean?" she asked, sinking into a
+chair.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce did not answer. He had a question of his
+own to put.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did your mother put her hand under her pillow?"
+he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, unless it was to see if her big envelope
+was there."</p>
+
+<p>"Her big envelope?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; for weeks now, ever since she took to her bed,
+she has kept a paper in a big envelope under her pillow.
+What is in it I don't know, for she never seems to hear
+me when I inquire."</p>
+
+<p>"And have you no curiosity to find out?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. Why should I? It might easily be my
+father's old letters sealed up, or, for that matter, be nothing
+more than a piece of blank paper. My mother is not
+herself, as I have said before."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like a peep at the contents of that envelope,"
+he declared.</p>
+
+<p>"You?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_585" id="Page_585">[585]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Is there any name written on the outside?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"It would not be violating any one's rights, then, if
+you opened it."</p>
+
+<p>"Only my mother's, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"You say she is not in her right mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"All the more reason why I should respect her whims
+and caprices."</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't you open it if she were dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Will it be very different then from what it is now?
+A father's letters! a blank piece of paper! What harm
+would there be in looking at them?"</p>
+
+<p>"My mother would know it if I took them away. It
+might excite and injure her."</p>
+
+<p>"Put another envelope in the place of this one, with a
+piece of paper folded up in it."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be a trick."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it; but if Craik Mansell can be saved even by
+a trick, I should think you would be willing to venture
+on one."</p>
+
+<p>"Craik Mansell? What has he got to do with the
+papers under my mother's pillow?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot say that he has any thing to do with them;
+but if he has&mdash;if, for instance, that envelope should contain,
+not a piece of blank paper, or even the letters of
+your father, but such a document, say, as a certificate of
+marriage&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_586" id="Page_586">[586]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"A certificate of marriage?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, between Mrs. Clemmens and Mr. Orcutt, it
+would not take much perspicacity to prophesy an
+acquittal for Craik Mansell."</p>
+
+<p>"Mary Ann the wife of Mr. Orcutt! Oh, that is impossible!"
+exclaimed the agitated spinster. But even
+while making this determined statement, she turned a
+look full of curiosity and excitement toward the door
+which separated them from her mother's apartment.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce smiled in his wise way.</p>
+
+<p>"Less improbable things than that have been found to
+be true in this topsy-turvy world," said he. "Mrs. Clemmens
+might very well have been Mrs. Orcutt."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really think so?" she asked; and yielding with
+sudden impetuosity to the curiosity of the moment, she
+at once dashed from his side and disappeared in her
+mother's room. Mr. Gryce's smile took on an aspect of
+triumph.</p>
+
+<p>It was some few moments before she returned, but
+when she did, her countenance was flushed with emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"I have it," she murmured, taking out a packet from
+under her apron and tearing it open with trembling
+fingers.</p>
+
+<p>A number of closely written sheets fell out.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_587" id="Page_587">[587]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XLIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE WIDOW CLEMMENS.</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Discovered</span><br />
+The secret that so long had hovered<br />
+Upon the misty verge of Truth.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Longfellow.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>"WELL, and what have you to say?" It was Mr.
+Ferris who spoke. The week which Mr.
+Gryce had demanded for his inquiries had fully elapsed,
+and the three detectives stood before him ready with
+their report.</div>
+
+<p>It was Mr. Gryce who replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said he, "our opinions have not been changed
+by the discoveries which we have made. It was Mr.
+Orcutt who killed Mrs. Clemmens, and for the reason
+already stated that she stood in the way of his marrying
+Miss Dare. Mrs. Clemmens was his wife."</p>
+
+<p>"His <i>wife?</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; and, what is more, she has been so for
+years; before either of them came to Sibley, in fact."</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney looked stunned.</p>
+
+<p>"It was while they lived West," said Byrd. "He was
+a poor school-master, and she a waitress in some hotel.
+She was pretty then, and he thought he loved her. At
+all events, he induced her to marry him, and then kept it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_588" id="Page_588">[588]</a></span>
+secret because he was afraid she would lose her place at
+the hotel, where she was getting very good wages. You
+see, he had the makings in him of a villain even then."</p>
+
+<p>"And was it a real marriage?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is a record of it," said Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>"And did he never acknowledge it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not openly," answered Byrd. "The commonness of
+the woman seemed to revolt him after he was married to
+her, and when in a month or so he received the summons
+East, which opened up before him the career of a lawyer,
+he determined to drop her and start afresh. He accordingly
+left town without notifying her, and actually succeeded
+in reaching the railway depot twenty miles away
+before he was stopped. But here, a delay occurring in
+the departure of the train, she was enabled to overtake
+him, and a stormy scene ensued. What its exact nature
+was, we, of course, cannot say, but from the results it is
+evident that he told her his prospects had changed, and
+with them his tastes and requirements; that she was not
+the woman he thought her, and that he could not and
+would not take her East with him as his wife: while she,
+on her side, displayed full as much spirit as he, and replied
+that if he could desert her like this he wasn't the
+kind of a man she could live with, and that he could go
+if he wished; only that he must acknowledge her claims
+upon him by giving her a yearly stipend, according to
+his income and success. At all events, some such compromise
+was effected, for he came East and she went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_589" id="Page_589">[589]</a></span>
+back to Swanson. She did not stay there long, however;
+for the next we know she was in Sibley, where she set up
+her own little house-keeping arrangements under his very
+eye. More than that, she prevailed upon him to visit her
+daily, and even to take a meal at her house, her sense of
+justice seeming to be satisfied if he showed her this little
+attention and gave to no other woman the place he
+denied her. It was the weakness shown in this last requirement
+that doubtless led to her death. She would
+stand any thing but a rival. He knew this, and preferred
+crime to the loss of the woman he loved."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak very knowingly," said Mr. Ferris. "May
+I ask where you received your information?"</p>
+
+<p>It was Mr. Gryce who answered.</p>
+
+<p>"From letters. Mrs. Clemmens was one of those women
+who delight in putting their feelings on paper. Fortunately
+for us, such women are not rare. See here!"
+And he pulled out before the District Attorney a pile of
+old letters in the widow's well-known handwriting.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you find these?" asked Mr. Ferris.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Mr. Gryce, "I found them in rather
+a curious place. They were in the keeping of old Mrs.
+Firman, Miss Firman's mother. Mrs. Clemmens, or,
+rather, Mrs. Orcutt, got frightened some two years ago at
+the disappearance of her marriage certificate from the
+place where she had always kept it hidden, and, thinking
+that Mr. Orcutt was planning to throw her off, she
+resolved to provide herself with a confidante capable of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_590" id="Page_590">[590]</a></span>
+standing by her in case she wished to assert her rights.
+She chose old Mrs. Firman. Why, when her daughter
+would have been so much more suitable for the purpose,
+it is hard to tell; possibly the widow's pride revolted
+from telling a woman of her own years the indignities
+she had suffered. However that may be, it was to
+the old lady she told her story and gave these letters&mdash;letters
+which, as you will see, are not written to any
+special person, but are rather the separate leaves of
+a journal which she kept to show the state of her feelings
+from time to time."</p>
+
+<p>"And this?" inquired Mr. Ferris, taking up a sheet
+of paper written in a different handwriting from the
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>"This is an attempt on the part of the old lady to put
+on paper the story which had been told her. She evidently
+thought herself too old to be entrusted with a secret
+so important, and, fearing loss of memory, or perhaps
+sudden death, took this means of explaining how she
+came into possession of her cousin's letters. 'T was a
+wise precaution. Without it we would have missed the
+clue to the widow's journal. For the old lady's brain
+gave way when she heard of the widow's death, and had
+it not been for a special stroke of good-luck on my
+part, we might have remained some time longer in
+ignorance of what very valuable papers she secretly held
+in her possession."</p>
+
+<p>"I will read the letters," said Mr. Ferris.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_591" id="Page_591">[591]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Seeing from his look that he only waited their departure
+to do so, Mr. Gryce and his <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'surbordinates'">subordinates</ins> arose.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you will find them satisfactory," drawled
+Hickory.</p>
+
+<p>"If you do not," said Mr. Gryce, "then give a look at
+this telegram. It is from Swanson, and notifies us that a
+record of a marriage between Benjamin Orcutt&mdash;Mr.
+Orcutt's middle name was Benjamin&mdash;and Mary Mansell
+can be found in the old town books."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Ferris took the telegram, the shade of sorrow settling
+heavier and heavier on his brow.</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said he, "I have got to accept your conclusions.
+Well, there are those among the living who
+will be greatly relieved by these discoveries. I will try
+and think of that."</p>
+
+<p>Yet, after the detectives were gone, and he sat down in
+solitude before these evidences of his friend's perfidy, it
+was many long and dreary moments before he could summon
+up courage to peruse them. But when he did, he
+found in them all that Mr. Gryce had promised. As my
+readers may feel some interest to know how the seeming
+widow bore the daily trial of her life, I will give a few
+extracts from these letters. The first bears date of fourteen
+years back, and was written after she came to
+Sibley:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">November 8, 1867.</span>&mdash;In the same town! Within a
+stone's throw of the court-house, where, they tell me, his
+business will soon take him almost every day! Isn't it
+a triumph? and am I not to be congratulated upon my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_592" id="Page_592">[592]</a></span>
+bravery in coming here? He hasn't seen me yet, but I
+have seen <i>him</i>. I crept out of the house at nightfall on
+purpose. He was sauntering down the street and he
+looked&mdash;it makes my blood boil to think of it&mdash;he looked
+<i>happy</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">November 10, 1867.</span>&mdash;Clemmens, Clemmens&mdash;that
+is my name, and I have taken the title of widow.
+What a fate for a woman with a husband in the next
+street! He saw <i>me</i> to-day. I met him in the open
+square, and I looked him right in the face. How he did
+quail! It just does me good to think of it! Perk and
+haughty as he is, he grew as white as a sheet when he saw
+me, and though he tried to put on airs and carry it off
+with a high hand, he failed, just as I knew he would
+when he came to meet me on even ground. Oh, I'll
+have my way now, and if I choose to stay in this place
+where I can keep my eye on him, he won't dare to say
+No. The only thing I fear is that he will do me a secret
+mischief some day. His look was just murderous when
+he left me."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">February 24, 1868.</span>&mdash;Can I stand it? I ask myself
+that question every morning when I get up. Can I stand
+it? To sit all alone in my little narrow room and know
+that he is going about as gay as you please with people
+who wouldn't look at me twice. It's awful hard; but
+it would be worse still to be where I couldn't see what
+he was up to. Then I should imagine all sorts of things.
+No, I will just grit my teeth and bear it. I'll get used
+to it after a while."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">October 7, 1868.</span>&mdash;If he says he never loved me he
+lies. He did, or why did he marry me? I never asked
+him to. He teased me into it, saying my saucy ways had
+bewitched him. A month after, it was common ways,
+rude ways, such ways as he wouldn't have in a wife.
+That's the kind of man he is."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">May 11, 1869.</span>&mdash;One thing I will say of him. He
+don't pay no heed to women. He's too busy, I guess.
+He don't seem to think of any thing but to get along,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_593" id="Page_593">[593]</a></span>
+and he does get along remarkable. I'm awful proud of
+him. He's taken to defending criminals lately. They
+almost all get off."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">October 5, 1870.</span>&mdash;He pays me but a pittance. How
+can I look like any thing, or hold my head up with the
+ladies here if I cannot get enough together to buy me a
+new fall hat. I <i>will</i> not go to church looking like a
+farmer's wife, if I haven't any education or any manners.
+I'm as good as anybody here if they but knew it,
+and deserve to dress as well. He <i>must</i> give me more
+money."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">November 2, 1870.</span>&mdash;No, he sha'n't give me a
+cent more. If I can't go to church I will stay at home.
+He sha'n't say I stood in his way of becoming a
+great man. He <i>is</i> too good for me. I saw it to-day
+when he got up in the court to speak. I was there
+with a thick veil over my face, for I was determined
+to know whether he was as smart as folks say or not.
+And he just is! Oh, how beautiful he did look, and
+how everybody held their breaths while he was speaking!
+I felt like jumping up and saying: 'This is my
+husband; we were married three years ago.' Wouldn't
+I have raised a rumpus if I had! I guess the poor
+man he was pleading for would not have been remembered
+very long after that. My husband! the thought
+makes me laugh. No other woman can call him that,
+anyhow. He is mine, <i>mine</i>, <i>mine</i>, and I mean he shall
+stay so."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">January 9, 1871.</span>&mdash;I feel awful blue to-night. I
+have been thinking about those Hildreths. How they
+would like to have me dead! And so would Tremont,
+though he don't say nothing. I like to call him Tremont;
+it makes me feel as if he belonged to me. What if that
+wicked Gouverneur Hildreth should know I lived so much
+alone? I don't believe he would stop at killing me! And
+my husband! He is equal to telling him I have no protector.
+Oh, what a dreadful wickedness it is in me to put
+that down on paper! It isn't so&mdash;it isn't so; my husband<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_594" id="Page_594">[594]</a></span>
+wouldn't do me any harm if he could. If ever I'm found
+dead in my bed, it will be the work of that Toledo man
+and of nobody else."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">March 2, 1872.</span>&mdash;I hope I am going to have some
+comfort now. Tremont has begun to pay me more
+money. He <i>had</i> to. He isn't a poor man any more,
+and when he moves into his big house, I am going to move
+into a certain little cottage I have found, just around the
+corner. If I can't have no other pleasures, I will at least
+have a kitchen I can call my own, and a parlor too.
+What if there don't no company come to it; they would
+if they <i>knew</i>. I've just heard from Adelaide; she says
+Craik is getting to be a big boy, and is so smart."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">June 10, 1872.</span>&mdash;What's the use of having a home? I
+declare I feel just like breaking down and crying. I don't
+want company: if women folks, they're always talking
+about their husbands and children; and if men, they're
+always saying: 'My wife's this, and my wife's that.'
+But I do want <i>him</i>. It's my right; what if I couldn't
+say three words to him that was agreeable, I could look
+at him and think: 'This splendid gentleman is my husband,
+I ain't so much alone in the world as folks think.'
+I'll put on my bonnet and run down the street. Perhaps
+I'll see him sitting in the club-house window!"</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Evening.</span>&mdash;I hate him. He has a hard, cruel, wicked
+heart. When I got to the club-house window he was sitting
+there, so I just went walking by, and he saw me and
+came out and hustled me away with terrible words, saying
+he wouldn't have me hanging round where he was; that
+I had promised not to bother him, and that I must keep my
+word, or he would see me&mdash;he didn't say where, but it's
+easy enough to guess. So&mdash;so! he thinks he'll put an
+end to my coming to see him, does he? Well, perhaps he
+can; but if he does, he shall pay for it by coming to see
+me. I'll not sit day in and day out alone without the
+glimpse of a face I love, not while I have a husband in
+the same town with me. He shall come, if it is only for
+a moment each day, or I'll dare every thing and tell the
+world I am his wife."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_595" id="Page_595">[595]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">June 16, 1872.</span>&mdash;He had to consent! Meek as I
+have been, he knows it won't do to rouse me too much.
+So to-day he came in to dinner, and he had to acknowledge
+it was a good one. Oh, how I did feel when I saw
+his face on the other side of the table! I didn't know
+whether I hated him or loved him. But I am sure now I
+hated him, for he scarcely spoke to me all the time he was
+eating, and when he was through, he went away just as a
+stranger would have done. He means to act like a boarder,
+and, goodness me, he's welcome to if he isn't going to
+act like a husband! The hard, selfish&mdash;&mdash; Oh, oh, I
+love him!"</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">August 5, 1872.</span>&mdash;It is no use; I'll never be a
+happy woman. Tremont has been in so regularly to dinner
+lately, and shown me such a kind face, I thought I
+would venture upon a little familiarity. It was only to lay
+my hand upon his arm, but it made him very angry, and I
+thought he would strike me. Am I then actually hateful
+to him? or is he so proud he cannot bear the thought of
+my having the right to touch him? I looked in the glass
+when he went out. I <i>am</i> plain and homespun, that's a
+fact. Even my red cheeks are gone, and the dimples
+which once took his fancy. I shall never lay the tip of
+a finger on him again."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">February 13, 1873.</span>&mdash;What shall I cook for him
+to-day? Some thing that he likes. It is my only pleasure,
+to see how he does enjoy my meals. I should think
+they would choke him; they do me sometimes. But men
+are made of iron&mdash;ambitious men, anyhow. Little they
+care what suffering they cause, so long as they have a
+good time and get all the praises they want. <i>He</i> gets them
+more and more every day. He will soon be as far above
+me as if I had married the President himself. Oh, sometimes
+when I think of it and remember he is my own husband,
+I just feel as if some awful fate was preparing for
+him or me!"</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">June 7, 1873.</span>&mdash;Would he send for me if he was
+dying? No. He hates me; he hates me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_596" id="Page_596">[596]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">September 8, 1874.</span>&mdash;Craik was here to-day; he is
+just going North to earn a few dollars in the logging business.
+What a keen eye he has for a boy of his years! I
+shouldn't wonder if he made a powerful smart man some
+day. If he's only good, too, and kind to his women-folks,
+I sha'n't mind. But a smart man who is all
+for himself is an awful trial to those who love him.
+Don't I know? Haven't I suffered? Craik must never
+be like him."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">December 21, 1875.</span>&mdash;One thousand dollars. That's
+a nice little sum to have put away in the bank. So
+much I get out of my husband's fame, anyhow. I
+think I will make my will, for I want Craik to have what
+I leave. He's a fine lad."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">February 19, 1876.</span>&mdash;I was thinking the other day,
+suppose I did die suddenly. It would be dreadful to
+have the name of Clemmens put on my tombstone! But
+it would be. Tremont would never let the truth be
+known, if he had to rifle my dead body for my marriage
+certificate. What shall I do, then? Tell anybody who
+I am? It seems just as if I couldn't. Either the whole
+world must know it, or just himself and me alone. Oh, I
+wish I had never been born!"</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">June 17, 1876.</span>&mdash;Why wasn't I made handsome
+and fine and nice? Think where I would be if I was!
+I'd be in that big house of his, curtesying to all the
+grand folks as go there. I went to see it last night. It
+was dark as pitch in the streets, and I went into the gate
+and all around the house. I walked upon the piazza too,
+and rubbed my hand along the window-ledges and up
+and down the doors. It's mighty nice, all of it, and
+there sha'n't lie a square inch on that whole ground that
+my foot sha'n't go over. I wish I could get inside the
+house once."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">July 1, 1876.</span>&mdash;I have done it. I went to see Mr.
+Orcutt's sister. I had a right. Isn't he away, and
+isn't he my boarder, and didn't I want to know when
+he was coming home? She's a soft, good-natured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_597" id="Page_597">[597]</a></span>
+piece, and let me peek into the library without saying a
+word. What a room it is! I just felt like I'd been
+struck when I saw it and spied his chair setting there
+and all those books heaped around and the fine things on
+the mantel-shelf and the pictures on the walls. What
+would I do in such a place as that? I could keep it
+clean, but so could any gal he might hire. Oh, me! Oh,
+me! I wish he'd given me a chance. Perhaps if he had
+loved me I might have learned to be quiet and nice like
+that silly sister of his."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">January 12, 1877.</span>&mdash;Some women would take a
+heap of delight in having folks know they were the
+wife of a great man, but I find lots of pleasure in being
+so without folks knowing it. If I lived in his big house
+and was called Mrs. Orcutt, why, he would have nothing
+to be afraid of and might do as he pleased; but
+now he has to do what <i>I</i> please. Sometimes, when I sit
+down of an evening in my little sitting-room to sew, I
+think how this famous man whom everybody is afraid of
+has to come and go just as humble me wants him to;
+and it makes me hug myself with pride. It's as if I
+had a string tied round his little finger, which I can pull
+now and then. I don't pull it much; but I do sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">March 30, 1877.</span>&mdash;Gouverneur Hildreth is dead. I
+shall never be his victim, at any rate. Shall I ever be the
+victim of anybody? I don't feel as if I cared now. For
+one kiss I would sell my life and die happy.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a young Gouverneur, but it will be years
+before he will be old enough to make me afraid of
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">November 16, 1878.</span>&mdash;I should think that Tremont
+would be lonely in that big house of his. If he
+had a heart he would. They say he reads all the time.
+How can folks pore so over books? I can't. I'd
+rather sit in my chair and think. What story in all the
+books is equal to mine?"</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">April 23, 1879.</span>&mdash;I am growing very settled in my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_598" id="Page_598">[598]</a></span>
+ways. Now that Tremont comes in almost every day,
+I'm satisfied not to see any other company. My house
+affairs keep me busy too. I like to have it all nice for
+him. I believe I could almost be happy if he'd only
+smile once in a while when he meets my eye. But he
+never does. Oh, well, we all have our crosses, and he's
+a very great man."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">January 18, 1880.</span>&mdash;He went to a ball last night.
+What does it mean? He never seemed to care for
+things like that. Is there any girl he is after?"</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">February 6, 1880.</span>&mdash;Oh, he has been riding with
+a lady, has he? It was in the next town, and he thought
+I wouldn't hear. But there's little he does that I don't
+know about; let him make himself sure of that. I even
+know her name; it is Selina Pratt. If he goes with her
+again, look out for a disturbance. I'll not stand his
+making love to another woman."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">May 26, 1880.</span>&mdash;My marriage certificate is missing.
+Can it be that Tremont has taken it? I have looked all
+through the desk where I have kept it for so many years,
+but I cannot find it. He was left alone in the house a
+few minutes the other day. Could he have taken the
+chance to rob me of the only proof I have that we are
+man and wife? If he has he is a villain at heart, and is
+capable of doing any thing, even of marrying this Pratt
+girl who he <i>has</i> taken riding again. The worst is that I
+dare not accuse him of having my certificate; for if he
+didn't take it and should find out it is gone, he'd throw
+me off just as quick as if he had. What shall I do then?
+Something. He shall <i>never</i> marry another woman while
+I live."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">May 30, 1880.</span>&mdash;The Pratt girl is gone. If he
+cared for her it was only for a week, like an old love I
+could mention. I think I feel safe again, only I am convinced
+some one ought to know my secret besides myself.
+Shall it be Emily? No. I'd rather tell her mother."</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">June 9th, 1880.</span>&mdash;I am going to Utica. I shall take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_599" id="Page_599">[599]</a></span>
+these letters with me. Perhaps I shall leave them. For
+the last time, then, let me say 'I am the lawful wife of
+Tremont Benjamin Orcutt, the lawyer, who lives in Sibley,
+New York.' We were married in Swanson, Nevada,
+on the 3d of July, 1867, by a travelling minister, named
+George Sinclair.</p>
+
+<div class='sig'>
+"<span class="smcap">Mary Ann Orcutt</span>, Sibley, N. Y."<br />
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_600" id="Page_600">[600]</a></span></p>
+<h2>XLV.</h2>
+
+<h3>MR. GRYCE SAYS GOOD-BYE.</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+There still are many rainbows in your sky.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Byron.</span><br />
+<br /><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='cap'>"HELEN?"</div>
+
+<p>"Yes, Imogene."</p>
+
+<p>"What noise is that? The people seem to be shouting
+down the street. What does it mean?"</p>
+
+<p>Helen Richmond&mdash;whom we better know as Helen
+Darling&mdash;looked at the worn, fever-flushed countenance
+of her friend, and for a moment was silent; then she
+whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"I have not dared to tell you before, you seemed so
+ill; but I can tell you now, because joyful news never
+hurts. The people shout because the long and tedious
+trial of an innocent man has come to an end. Craik
+Mansell was acquitted from the charge of murder this
+morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Acquitted! O Helen!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dear. Since you have been ill, very strange
+and solemn revelations have come to light. Mr. Orcutt&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" cried Imogene, rising up in the great arm-chair
+in which she was half-sitting and half-reclining.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_601" id="Page_601">[601]</a></span>
+"I know what you are going to say. I was with Mr.
+Orcutt when he died. I heard him myself declare that
+fate had spoken in his death. I believe Mr. Orcutt to
+have been the murderer of Mrs. Clemmens, Helen."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there can be no doubt about that," was the
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>"It has been proved then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Moved to the depths of her being, Imogene covered
+her face with her hands. Presently she murmured:</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand it. Why should such a great
+man as he have desired the death of a woman like her?
+He said it was all for my sake. What did he mean,
+Helen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know?" questioned the other, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"How should I? It is the mystery of mysteries to
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, then you did not suspect that she was his
+wife?"</p>
+
+<p>"His wife!" Imogene rose in horror.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," repeated the little bride with decision. "She
+was his lawfully wedded wife. They were married as
+long ago as when we were little children."</p>
+
+<p>"Married! And he dared to approach me with words
+of love! Dared to offer himself to me as a husband
+while his hands were still wet with the life-blood of his
+wife! O the horror of it! The amazing wickedness
+and presumption of it!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_602" id="Page_602">[602]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He is dead," whispered the gentle little lady at her
+side.</p>
+
+<p>With a sigh of suppressed feeling, Imogene sank back.</p>
+
+<p>"I must not think of him," she cried. "I am not
+strong enough. I must think only of Craik. He has
+been acquitted, you say&mdash;acquitted."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and the whole town is rejoicing."</p>
+
+<p>A smile, exquisite as it was rare, swept like a sunbeam
+over Imogene's lips.</p>
+
+<p>"And I rejoice with the rest," she cried. Then, as if
+she felt all speech to be a mockery, she remained for a
+long time silent, gazing with ever-deepening expression
+into the space before her, till Helen did not know
+whether the awe she felt creeping over her sprang from
+admiration of her companion's suddenly awakened beauty
+or from a recognition of the depths of that companion's
+emotions. At last Imogene spoke:</p>
+
+<p>"How came Mr. Mansell to be <i>acquitted?</i> Mr. Gryce
+did not tell me to look for any such reinstatement as
+that. The most he bade me expect was that Mr. Ferris
+would decline to prosecute Mr. Mansell any further, in
+which event he would be discharged."</p>
+
+<p>"I know," said Helen, "but Mr. Mansell was not satisfied
+with that. He demanded a verdict from the jury.
+So Mr. Ferris, with great generosity, asked the Judge to
+recommend the jury to bring in a verdict of acquittal,
+and when the Judge hesitated to do this, the foreman of
+the jury himself rose, and intimated that he thought the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_603" id="Page_603">[603]</a></span>
+jury were ready with their verdict. The Judge took advantage
+of this, and the result was a triumphant acquittal."</p>
+
+<p>"O Helen, Helen!"</p>
+
+<p>"That was just an hour ago," cried the little lady,
+brightly, "but the people are not through shouting yet.
+There has been a great excitement in town these last few
+days."</p>
+
+<p>"And I knew nothing of it!" exclaimed Imogene.
+Suddenly she looked at Helen. "How did you hear
+about what took place in the court-room to-day?" she
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Byrd told me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Mr. Byrd?"</p>
+
+<p>"He came to leave a good-bye for you. He goes
+home this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to have seen Mr. Byrd," said Imogene.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you?" queried the little lady, quietly shaking
+her head. "I don't know; I think it is just as well you
+did not see him," said she.</p>
+
+<p>But she made no such demur when a little while later
+Mr. Gryce was announced. The fatherly old gentleman
+had evidently been in that house before, and Mrs. Richmond
+was not the woman to withstand a man like him.</p>
+
+<p>He came immediately into the room where Imogene
+was sitting. Evidently he thought as Helen did, that
+good news never hurts.</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" he cried, taking her trembling hand in his,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_604" id="Page_604">[604]</a></span>
+with his most expressive smile. "What did I tell you?
+Didn't I say that if you would only trust me all would
+come right? And it has, don't you see? Right as a
+trivet."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she returned; "and I never can find words
+with which to express my gratitude. You have saved
+two lives, Mr. Gryce: his&mdash;and mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh! pooh!" cried the detective, good-humoredly.
+"You mustn't think too much of any thing I have done.
+It was the falling limb that did the business. If Mr.
+Orcutt's conscience had not been awakened by the stroke
+of death, I don't know where we should have been to-day.
+Affairs were beginning to look pretty dark for
+Mansell."</p>
+
+<p>Imogene shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>"But I haven't come here to call up unpleasant memories,"
+he continued. "I have come to wish you joy and
+a happy convalescence." And leaning toward her, he
+said, with a complete change of voice: "You know, I
+suppose, why Mr. Mansell presumed to think <i>you</i> guilty
+of this crime?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she murmured, wearily; "unless it was because
+the ring he believed me to have retained was found on
+the scene of murder."</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!" cried Mr. Gryce, "he had a much better
+reason than that."</p>
+
+<p>And with the air of one who wishes to clear up all misunderstandings,
+he told her the words which her lover<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_605" id="Page_605">[605]</a></span>
+had overheard Mrs. Clemmens say when he came up to
+her dining-room door.</p>
+
+<p>The effect on Imogene was very great. Hoping to
+hide it, she turned away her face, showing in this struggle
+with herself something of the strength of her old days.
+Mr. Gryce watched her with interest.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very strange," was her first remark. "I had
+such reasons for thinking him guilty; he such good
+cause for thinking me so. What wonder we doubted
+each other. And yet I can never forgive myself for
+doubting him; I can sooner forgive him for doubting
+me. If you see him&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"If <i>I</i> see him?" interrupted the detective, with a
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said she. "If you see him tell him that Imogene
+Dare thanks him for his noble conduct toward one
+he believed to be stained by so despicable a crime, and
+assure him that I think he was much more justified in his
+suspicions than I was in mine, for there were weaknesses
+in my character which he had ample opportunities for
+observing, while all that I knew of him was to his credit."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Dare," suggested the detective, "couldn't you
+tell him this much better yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not have the opportunity," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"And why?" he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Mansell and I have met for the last time. A
+woman who has stained herself by such declarations as
+I made use of in court the last time I was called to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_606" id="Page_606">[606]</a></span>
+stand has created a barrier between herself and all earthly
+friendship. Even he for whom I perjured myself so
+basely cannot overleap the gulf I dug between us two
+that day."</p>
+
+<p>"But that is hard," said Mr. Gryce.</p>
+
+<p>"My life <i>is</i> hard," she answered.</p>
+
+<p>The wise old man, who had seen so much of life and
+who knew the human heart so well, smiled, but did not
+reply. He turned instead to another subject.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he declared, "the great case is over! Sibley,
+satisfied with having made its mark in the world, will now
+rest in peace. I quit the place with some reluctance myself.
+'Tis a mighty pretty spot to do business in."</p>
+
+<p>"You are going?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Immediately," was the reply. "We detectives don't
+have much time to rest." Then, as he saw how deep a
+shadow lay upon her brow, added, confidentially: "Miss
+Dare, we all have occasions for great regret. Look at
+me now. Honest as I hold myself to be, I cannot blind
+myself to the fact that I am the possible instigator of this
+crime. If I had not shown Mr. Orcutt how a man like
+himself might perpetrate a murder without rousing suspicion,
+he might never have summoned up courage to
+attempt it. For a detective with a conscience, that is a
+hard thought to bear."</p>
+
+<p>"But you were ignorant of what you were doing," she
+protested. "You had no idea there was any one present
+who was meditating crime."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_607" id="Page_607">[607]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"True; but a detective shouldn't be ignorant. He
+ought to know men; he has opportunity enough to learn
+them. But I won't be caught again. Never in any company,
+not if it is composed of the highest dignitaries in
+the land, will I ever tell again how a crime of any
+kind can be perpetrated without risk. One always runs
+the chance of encountering an Orcutt."</p>
+
+<p>Imogene turned pale. "Do not speak of him," she
+cried. "I want to forget that such a man ever lived."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gryce smiled again.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the best thing you can do," said he. "Begin a
+new life, my child; begin a new life."</p>
+
+<p>And with this fatherly advice, he said good-bye, and she
+saw his wise, kind face no more.</p>
+
+<p>The hour that followed was a dreary one for Imogene.
+Her joy at knowing Craik Mansell was released could not
+blind her to the realization of her own ruined life.
+Indeed she seemed to feel it now as never before; and as
+the slow minutes passed, and she saw in fancy the strong
+figure of Mansell surrounded by congratulating admirers
+and friends, the full loneliness of her position swept over
+her, and she knew not whether to be thankful or not to
+the fever for having spared her blighted and dishonored
+life.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Richmond, seeing her so absorbed, made no
+attempt at consolation. She only listened, and when a
+step was heard, arose and went out, leaving the door
+open behind her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_608" id="Page_608">[608]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And Imogene mused on, sinking deeper and deeper
+into melancholy, till the tears, which for so long a time had
+been dried at their source, welled up to her eyes and fell
+slowly down her cheeks. Their touch seemed to rouse
+her. Starting erect, she looked quickly around as if to
+see if anybody was observing her. But the room seems
+quite empty, and she is about to sink back again with a
+sigh when her eyes fall on the door-way and she becomes
+transfixed. A sturdy form is standing there! A manly,
+eager form in whose beaming eyes and tender smile shine
+a love and a purpose which open out before her quite a
+different future from that which her fancy had been so
+ruthlessly picturing.</p>
+
+
+<h4>THE END.</h4>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_609" id="Page_609">[609]</a></span></p>
+<h2>PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.</h2>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>THE LEAVENWORTH CASE.</b> A Lawyer's Story.
+By <span class="smcap">Anna Katherine Green</span>. 16mo, paper, 60 cents;
+cloth, $1.00.</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"In one respect at least, 'The Leavenworth Case' is the peer of Gaboriau's
+best efforts&mdash;the wonderful skill with which the author draws the
+reader, now this way, now that, in the search for the perpetrator of the
+mysterious crime with which the story begins, and deludes him until he
+reaches almost the last page."&mdash;<i>New Haven Palladium.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Wilkie Collins, in his best period, never invented a more ingeniously
+constructed plot, nor held the reader in such suspense until the final denouement.
+The most blas&eacute; novel-reader will be unable to put aside 'The Leavenworth
+Case' until he has read the last sentence and mastered the mystery
+which has baffled him from the beginning."&mdash;<i>N. Y. Express.</i></p>
+
+<p>"She has proved herself as well able to write an interesting story of
+mysterious crime as any man living."&mdash;<i>The Academy, (London.)</i></p>
+
+<p>"She has worked up a <i>cause cel&egrave;bre</i> with a fertility of device and ingenuity
+of treatment hardly second to Wilkie Collins or Edgar Allen Poe."&mdash;<i>Christian
+Union.</i></p>
+
+<p>"We have read no story for a long time which has had so much of the
+Wilkie Collins, and Edgar Allen Poe flavor of reality in the telling."&mdash;<i>Congregationalist.</i></p>
+
+<p>"We do not propose to give the plot of the work, however, but merely to
+say that it is one of the most ingenious of the kind we have ever read."&mdash;<i>Buffalo
+Express.</i></p>
+
+<p>"This is the sort of book to be eagerly read and thoroughly enjoyed."&mdash;<i>St.
+Paul Pioneer.</i></p>
+
+<p>"A new novel by a new writer, which enchains our attention from the
+very first sentence of the first page, is a pleasant surprise. * * * Told
+with a force and power that indicate great dramatic talent in the writer."&mdash;<i>St.
+Louis Post.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Its interest is undoubted and it is thoroughly well sustained."&mdash;<i>N. Y.
+Evening Post.</i></p>
+
+<p>"The story is developed with great skill and shows ingenuity of the highest
+order."&mdash;<i>Troy Times.</i></p>
+
+<p>"A story of mystery and crime and is here narrated with an artistic skill
+which inevitably holds the interest of the reader, even to the point of the
+highest tension, to the close of the last chapter. * * * A real marvel of
+fiction."&mdash;<i>Davenport Gazette.</i></p><br /></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_610" id="Page_610">[610]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE.</b> By <span class="smcap">Anna Katharine Green</span>.
+16mo, paper, 50 cents, cloth, $1.00.</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The plot is marked with striking originality, and the story is narrated with a
+vigor and power rarely met in modern novels. It is deeply interesting from beginning
+to end, and holds the reader entranced from the moment the first page is read until
+the last sentence is reached. It is, in fact, a revelation in American romance-writing,
+and we heartily commend it to the public."&mdash;<i>Baltimore Gazette.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Catches the fancy and chains the interest of the reader to such a degree that
+he is unwilling to lay it down until every page is devoured."&mdash;<i>Toledo Journal.</i></p>
+
+<p>"The author has chosen a department of fiction where only the best writers
+succeed, but she has shown herself capable of sustaining her role with wonderful
+vigor."&mdash;<i>Boston Evening Traveller.</i></p>
+
+<p>"It is an ingenious plot, admirably worked up, and told so straightforward
+as to be wholly pleasing."&mdash;<i>Chicago Inter-Ocean.</i></p>
+
+<p>"One of the best police detective stories written in America."&mdash;<i>Hartford
+Courant.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Wilkie Collins would not be ashamed of the construction of this story. * * *
+It keeps the reader's close attention from first to last."&mdash;<i>N. Y. Evening Post.</i></p>
+
+<p>"A most ingenious and absorbingly interesting story. The readers are held
+spell-bound till the last page."&mdash;<i>Cincinnati Commercial.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Ingenious in construction, powerful in dramatic interest, and artistic in development."&mdash;<i>Boston
+Gazette.</i></p>
+
+<p>"A most intensely interesting work of fiction. The story is developed with
+skill, and the work written in a strong, powerful style."&mdash;<i>Augusta (Me.) Farmer.</i></p>
+
+<p>"The plot is new and sparkling, and the story is carried to its denouement
+with an ingenuity and brightness of manner that makes it impossible to lay the volume
+down until completed. * * * It is a marvel of fiction."&mdash;<i>Columbus Sunday
+Capital.</i></p>
+
+<p>"The plot is very ingenious. * * * The interest in the tale is remarkably
+well sustained until its conclusion, and the mystery which envelopes the principal
+character is concealed with a great deal of artistic skill. * * * Shows a spirit of
+patient research that speaks well for the industry of the writer, and an analytical
+faculty rarely seen in a woman."&mdash;<i>Boston Courier.</i></p><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>X. Y. Z.</b> A Detective Story. By <span class="smcap">Anna Katharine Green</span>. 16mo,
+paper, 25 cents.</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Well written and extremely exciting and captivating. * * * She is a
+perfect genius in the construction of a plot."&mdash;<i>N. Y. Commercial Advertiser.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Will keep the sleepiest reader wide-awake from title to finis."&mdash;<i>Boston
+Transcript.</i></p>
+
+<p>"An extremely interesting story, * * * the development of the plot is
+kept well in hand, and the denouement is as dramatic as any that could be desired."&mdash;<i>Albany
+Argus.</i></p><br /></div>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'><b>THE DEFENCE OF THE BRIDE</b>, and Other Poems. By
+<span class="smcap">Anna Katharine Green</span>. Sq. 16mo, flex. cloth, $1.00.</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Written with a spirit and force that are impressive."&mdash;<i>Congregationalist.</i></p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_611" id="Page_611">[611]</a></span></p>
+<h3>PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.</h3>
+
+
+<h2>BAYARD TAYLOR'S NOVELS.</h2>
+
+<div class='hang1'>
+I. <b>Hannah Thurston.</b> <span class="smcap">A Story of American Life</span> 12mo. Household edition,        $1.50<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"If Bayard Taylor has not placed himself, as we are half inclined to suspect,
+in the front rank of novelists, he has produced a very remarkable book&mdash;a
+really original story, admirably told, crowded with life-like characters
+full of delicate and subtle sympathies, with ideas the most opposite to his
+own, and lighted up throughout with that playful humor which suggests always
+wisdom rather than mere fun."&mdash;<i>London Spectator.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>
+II. <b>John Godfrey's Fortunes.</b> <span class="smcap">Related by Himself</span> 12mo. Household edition,           $1.50<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'John Godfrey's Fortunes,' without being melodramatic or morbid, is
+one of the most fascinating novels which we have ever read. Its portraiture
+of American social life, though not flattering, is eminently truthful; its delineation
+of character is delicate and natural; its English, though sometimes
+careless, is singularly grateful and pleasant."&mdash;<i>Cleveland Leader.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>
+III. <b>The Story of Kennett.</b> 12mo. Household edition,        $1.50<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Mr. Bayard Taylor's book is <i>delightful and refreshing reading</i>, and
+great rest after the crowded artistic effects and the conventional interests of
+even the better kind of English novels."&mdash;<i>London Spectator.</i></p>
+
+<p>"As a picture of rural life, we think this novel of Mr. Taylor's excels any
+of his previous productions."&mdash;<i>N. Y. Evening Post.</i></p>
+
+<p>"A tale of absorbing interest."&mdash;<i>Syracuse Standard.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<div class='hang1'>
+IV. <b>Joseph and his Friend.</b> <span class="smcap">A Story of Pennsylvania</span> 12mo. Household edition,              $1.50<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"In Bayard Taylor's happiest vein."&mdash;<i>Buffalo Express.</i></p>
+
+<p>"By far the best novel of the season."&mdash;<i>Cleveland Leader.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class='hang1'>
+V. <b>Beauty and the Beast</b> and <b>Tales of Home</b>. 12mo Household edition,                     $1.50<br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</div>
+<h3>Bayard Taylor's Complete Works.</h3>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Bayard Taylor's Complete Works">
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Complete Works of Bayard Taylor.</b> In sixteen volumes. Household edition,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>$24.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><b>The Travels</b>, separate, eleven volumes. Household edition,</td><td align='right'>$16.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Novels, separate, five volumes, boards. Cedarcroft edition,</td><td align='right'>$6.25</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
+<p>The original text had page v before pages iii and iv. This was rearranged in this edition. The List of
+Illustrations now follows the Table of Contents.</p>
+<p>The text uses both "vail" and "veil," "depot" and "dep&ocirc;t."</p>
+<p>Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.</p>
+
+<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAND AND RING***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 31681-h.txt or 31681-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/1/6/8/31681">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/6/8/31681</a></p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Hand and Ring, by Anna Katharine Green
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Hand and Ring
+
+
+Author: Anna Katharine Green
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 17, 2010  [eBook #31681]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAND AND RING***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Emmy, and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
+generously made available by Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/toronto)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 31681-h.htm or 31681-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31681/31681-h/31681-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31681/31681-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/handring00greeuoft
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).
+
+
+
+
+
+HAND AND RING
+
+by
+
+ANNA KATHARINE GREEN
+
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+   =The Leavenworth Case.= A LAWYER'S STORY. 16mo, cloth,
+      $1.00; paper, 50 cents; 4to, paper                     20
+
+   =A Strange Disappearance.= 16mo, cloth, $1.00; paper      50
+
+   =The Sword of Damocles.= 16mo, cloth, $1.00; paper        50
+
+   =X. Y. Z.= A DETECTIVE STORY. 16mo, paper                 25
+
+   =The Defence of the Bride, and other Poems.= Square,
+      8vo., flexible cloth                                 1 00
+
+
+          G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, PUBLISHERS,
+          NEW YORK AND LONDON.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: "'Look out,' cried the detective, 'or you will get
+yourself into trouble,' and he tightened his grip on the old creature's
+arm."--(Page 43.) (_Frontispiece_.)]
+
+
+
+HAND AND RING
+
+by
+
+ANNA KATHARINE GREEN
+
+Author of "The Leavenworth Case", "The Sword of Damocles", "The
+Defense of the Bride" Etc., Etc.
+
+
+          "For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
+          with most miraculous organ."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+G. P. Putnam's Sons
+New York: 27 & 29 West 23d Street
+London: 25 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden
+1883
+
+Copyright by
+Anna Katharine Green
+1883
+
+Press of
+G. P. Putnam's Sons
+New York
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  _BOOK I._
+
+  THE GENTLEMAN FROM TOLEDO.
+
+  CHAPTER                                             PAGE
+
+      I. A Startling Coincidence                         1
+     II. An Appeal to Heaven                            17
+    III. The Unfinished Letter                          31
+     IV. Imogene                                        49
+      V. Horace Byrd                                    67
+     VI. The Skill of an Artist                         85
+    VII. Miss Firman                                    95
+   VIII. The Thick-set Man                             115
+     IX. Close Calculations                            128
+      X. The Final Test                                146
+     XI. Decision                                      162
+
+
+  _BOOK II._
+
+  THE WEAVING OF A WEB.
+
+    XII. The Spider                                    168
+   XIII. The Fly                                       175
+    XIV. A Last Attempt                                189
+     XV. The End of a Tortuous Path                    199
+    XVI. Storm                                         205
+   XVII. A Surprise                                    213
+  XVIII. A Brace of Detectives                         214
+    XIX. Mr. Ferris                                    233
+     XX. A Crisis                                      245
+    XXI. A Heart's Martyrdom                           258
+   XXII. Craik Mansell                                 264
+  XXIII. Mr. Orcutt                                    278
+   XXIV. A True Bill                                   299
+    XXV. Among Telescopes and Charts                   306
+   XXVI. "He Shall Hear Me!"                           313
+
+
+  _BOOK III._
+
+  THE SCALES OF JUSTICE.
+
+    XXVII. The Great Trial                             315
+   XXVIII. The Chief Witness for the Prosecution       322
+     XXIX. The Opening of the Defence                  350
+      XXX. Byrd Uses his Pencil Again                  356
+     XXXI. The Chief Witness for the Defence           369
+    XXXII. Hickory                                     383
+   XXXIII. A Late Discovery                            392
+    XXXIV. What Was Hid Behind Imogene's Veil          411
+     XXXV. Pro and Con                                 436
+    XXXVI. A Mistake Rectified                         465
+   XXXVII. Under the Great Tree                        475
+  XXXVIII. Unexpected Words                            502
+    XXXIX. Mr. Gryce                                   516
+       XL. In the Prison                               529
+      XLI. A Link Supplied                             555
+     XLII. Consultations                               568
+    XLIII. Mrs. Firman                                 573
+     XLIV. The Widow Clemmens                          587
+      XLV. Mr. Gryce Says Good-bye                     600
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+  "'Look out,' cried the detective, 'or you will get yourself
+      into trouble,' and he tightened his grip on the old
+      creature's arm."                                    _Frontispiece_
+
+  "Taking her hand in his, he looked at her long and
+      searchingly. 'Imogene,' he exclaimed, 'there is
+      something weighing on your heart.'"                           58
+
+  "He paused, sick and horror-stricken. Her face had risen
+      upon him from the back of the chair, and was staring
+      at him like that of a Medusa."                               252
+
+  Diagram                                                          364
+
+  "The curtains parted and disclosed the form of Imogene.
+      'I am coming,' she murmured, and stepped forth."             402
+
+          NOTE.--A portion of these illustrations originally
+          appeared in _Frank Leslie's Illustrated
+          Newspaper_, and have been used in this volume
+          through the courtesy of Mrs. Leslie.
+
+
+
+
+HAND AND RING.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I.
+
+THE GENTLEMAN FROM TOLEDO.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+A STARTLING COINCIDENCE.
+
+          By the pricking of my thumbs,
+          Something wicked this way comes.
+                                --MACBETH.
+
+
+THE town clock of Sibley had just struck twelve. Court had adjourned,
+and Judge Evans, with one or two of the leading lawyers of the county,
+stood in the door-way of the court-house discussing in a friendly way
+the eccentricities of criminals as developed in the case then before the
+court. Mr. Lord had just ventured the assertion that crime as a fine art
+was happily confined to France; to which District Attorney Ferris had
+replied:
+
+"And why? Because atheism has not yet acquired such a hold upon our
+upper classes that gentlemen think it possible to meddle with such
+matters. It is only when a student, a doctor, a lawyer, determines to
+put aside from his path the secret stumbling-block to his desires or
+his ambition that the true intellectual crime is developed. That brute
+whom you see slouching along over the way is the type of the average
+criminal of the day."
+
+And he indicated with a nod a sturdy, ill-favored man, who, with pack on
+his back, was just emerging from a grassy lane that opened out from the
+street directly opposite the court-house.
+
+"Such men are often seen in the dock," remarked Mr. Orcutt, of more than
+local reputation as a criminal lawyer. "And often escape the penalty of
+their crimes," he added, watching, with a curious glance, the lowering
+brow and furtive look of the man who, upon perceiving the attention he
+had attracted, increased his pace till he almost broke into a run.
+
+"Looks as if he had been up to mischief," observed Judge Evans.
+
+"Rather as if he had heard the sentence which was passed upon the last
+tramp who paid his respects to this town," corrected Mr. Lord.
+
+"Revenons a nos moutons," resumed the District Attorney. "Crime, as an
+investment, does not pay in this country. The regular burglar leads a
+dog's life of it; and when you come to the murderer, how few escape
+suspicion if they do the gallows. I do not know of a case where a murder
+for money has been really successful in this region."
+
+"Then you must have some pretty cute detective work going on here,"
+remarked a young man who had not before spoken.
+
+"No, no--nothing to brag of. But the brutes are so clumsy--that is the
+word, clumsy. They don't know how to cover up their tracks."
+
+"The smart ones don't make tracks," interposed a rough voice near them,
+and a large, red-haired, slightly hump-backed man, who, from the looks
+of those about, was evidently a stranger in the place, shuffled forward
+from the pillar against which he had been leaning, and took up the
+thread of conversation.
+
+"I tell you," he continued, in a gruff tone somewhat out of keeping with
+the studied abstraction of his keen, gray eye, "that half the criminals
+are caught because they do make tracks and then resort to such
+extraordinary means to cover them up. The true secret of success in this
+line lies in striking your blow with a weapon picked up on the spot, and
+in choosing for the scene of your tragedy a thoroughfare where, in the
+natural course of events, other men will come and go and unconsciously
+tread out your traces, provided you have made any. This dissipates
+suspicion, or starts it in so many directions that justice is at once
+confused, if not ultimately baffled. Look at that house yonder," the
+stranger pursued, pointing to a plain dwelling on the opposite corner.
+"While we have been standing here, several persons of one kind or
+another, and among them a pretty rough-looking tramp, have gone into the
+side gate and so around to the kitchen door and back. I don't know who
+lives there, but say it is a solitary old woman above keeping help, and
+that an hour from now some one, not finding her in the house, searches
+through the garden and comes upon her lying dead behind the wood-pile,
+struck down by her own axe. On whom are you going to lay your hand in
+suspicion? On the stranger, of course--the rough-looking tramp that
+everybody thinks is ready for bloodshed at the least provocation. But
+suspicion is not conviction, and I would dare wager that no court, in
+face of a persistent denial on his part that he even saw the old woman
+when he went to her door, would bring in a verdict of murder against
+him, even though silver from her private drawer were found concealed
+upon his person. The chance that he spoke the truth, and that she was
+not in the house when he entered, and that his crime had been merely one
+of burglary or theft, would be enough to save him from the hangman."
+
+"That is true," assented Mr. Lord, "unless all the other persons who had
+been seen to go into the yard were not only reputable men, but were
+willing to testify to having seen the woman alive up to the time he
+invaded her premises."
+
+But the hump-backed stranger had already lounged away.
+
+"What do you think about this, Mr. Byrd?" inquired the District
+Attorney, turning to the young man before alluded to. "You are an expert
+in these matters, or ought to be. What would you give for the tramp's
+chances if the detectives took him in hand?"
+
+"I, sir?" was the response. "I am so comparatively young and
+inexperienced in such affairs, that I scarcely dare presume to express
+an opinion. But I have heard it said by Mr. Gryce, who you know stands
+foremost among the detectives of New York, that the only case of murder
+in which he utterly failed to get any clue to work upon, was that of a
+Jew who was knocked down in his own shop in broad daylight. But this
+will not appear so strange when you learn the full particulars. The
+store was situated between two alley-ways in Harlem. It had an entrance
+back and an entrance front. Both were in constant use. The man was found
+behind his counter, having evidently been hit on the head by a
+slung-shot while reaching for a box of hosiery. But though a succession
+of people were constantly passing by both doors, there was for that very
+reason no one to tell which of all the men who were observed to enter
+the shop, came out again with blood upon his conscience. Nor were the
+circumstances of the Jew's life such as to assist justice. The most
+careful investigation failed to disclose the existence of any enemy, nor
+was he found to possess in this country, at least, any relative who
+could have hoped to be benefited by the few dollars he had saved from a
+late bankruptcy. The only conclusion to be drawn is that the man was
+secretly in the way of some one and was as secretly put out of it, but
+for what purpose or by whose hand, time has never disclosed."
+
+"There is one, however, who knows both," affirmed Judge Evans,
+impressively.
+
+"The man himself?"
+
+"God!"
+
+The solemnity with which this was uttered caused a silence, during which
+Mr. Orcutt looked at his watch.
+
+"I must go to dinner," he announced, withdrawing, with a slight nod,
+across the street.
+
+The rest stood for a few minutes abstractedly contemplating his
+retreating figure, as with an energetic pace all his own he passed down
+the little street that opened opposite to where they stood, and entered
+the unpretending cottage of a widow lady, with whom he was in the habit
+of taking his mid-day meal whenever he had a case before the court.
+
+A lull was over the whole village, and the few remaining persons on the
+court-house steps were about to separate, when Mr. Lord uttered an
+exclamation and pointed to the cottage into which they had just seen Mr.
+Orcutt disappear. Immediately all eyes looked that way and saw the
+lawyer standing on the stoop, having evidently issued with the utmost
+precipitation from the house.
+
+"He is making signs," cried Mr. Lord to Mr. Ferris; and scarcely knowing
+what they feared, both gentlemen crossed the way and hurried down the
+street toward their friend, who, with unusual tokens of disturbance in
+his manner, ran forward to meet them.
+
+"A murder!" he excitedly exclaimed, as soon as he came within speaking
+distance. "A strange and startling coincidence. Mrs. Clemmens has been
+struck on the head, and is lying covered with blood at the foot of her
+dining-room table."
+
+Mr. Lord and the District Attorney stared at each other in a maze of
+surprise and horror easily to be comprehended, and then they rushed
+forward.
+
+"Wait a moment," the latter suddenly cried, stopping short and looking
+back. "Where is the fellow who talked so learnedly about murder and the
+best way of making a success of it. He must be found at once. I don't
+believe in coincidences." And he beckoned to the person they had called
+Byrd, who with very pardonable curiosity was hurrying their way. "Go
+find Hunt, the constable," he cried; "tell him to stop and retain the
+humpback. A woman here has been found murdered, and that fellow must
+have known something about it."
+
+The young man stared, flushed with sudden intelligence, and darted off.
+Mr. Ferris turned, found Mr. Orcutt still at his side, and drew him
+forward to rejoin Mr. Lord, who by this time was at the door of the
+cottage.
+
+They all went in together, Mr. Ferris, who was of an adventurous
+disposition, leading the way. The room into which they first stepped was
+empty. It was evidently the widow's sitting-room, and was in perfect
+order, with the exception of Mr. Orcutt's hat, which lay on the
+centre-table where he had laid it on entering. Neat, without being
+prim, the entire aspect of the place was one of comfort, ease, and
+modest luxury. For, though the Widow Clemmens lived alone and without
+help, she was by no means an indigent person, as a single glance at her
+house would show. The door leading into the farther room was open, and
+toward this they hastened, led by the glitter of the fine old china
+service which loaded the dining-table.
+
+"She is there," said Mr. Orcutt, pointing to the other side of the room.
+
+They immediately passed behind the table, and there, sure enough, lay
+the prostrate figure of the widow, her head bleeding, her arms extended,
+one hand grasping her watch, which she had loosened from her belt, the
+other stretched toward a stick of firewood, that, from the mark of blood
+upon its side, had evidently been used to fell her to the floor. She was
+motionless as stone, and was, to all appearance, dead.
+
+"Sickening, sickening!--horrible!" exclaimed Mr. Lord, recoiling upon
+the District Attorney with a gesture, as if he would put the frightful
+object out of his sight. "What motive could any one have for killing
+such an inoffensive woman? The deviltry of man is beyond belief!"
+
+"And after what we have heard, inexplicable," asserted Mr. Ferris. "To
+be told of a supposable case of murder one minute, and then to see it
+exemplified in this dreadful way the next, is an experience of no common
+order. I own I am overcome by it." And he flung open a door that
+communicated with the lane and let the outside air sweep in.
+
+"That door was unlocked," remarked Mr. Lord, glancing at Mr. Orcutt, who
+stood with severe, set face, looking down at the outstretched form
+which, for several years now, had so often sat opposite to him at his
+noonday meal.
+
+With a start the latter looked up. "What did you say? The door unlocked?
+There is nothing strange in that. She never locked her doors, though she
+was so very deaf I often advised her to." And he allowed his eyes to run
+over the wide stretch of low, uncultivated ground before him, that, in
+the opinion of many persons, was such a decided blot upon the town.
+"There is no one in sight," he reluctantly admitted.
+
+"No," responded the other. "The ground is unfavorable for escape. It is
+marshy and covered with snake grass. A man could make his way, however,
+between the hillocks into those woods yonder, if he were driven by fear
+or understood the path well. What is the matter, Orcutt?"
+
+"Nothing," affirmed the latter,--"nothing, I thought I heard a groan."
+
+"You heard me make an exclamation," spoke up Mr. Ferris, who by this
+time had sufficiently overcome his emotion to lift the head of the
+prostrate woman and look in her face. "This woman is not dead."
+
+"What!" they both cried, bounding forward.
+
+"See, she breathes," continued the former, pointing to her slowly
+laboring chest. "The villain, whoever he was, did not do his work well;
+she may be able to tell us something yet."
+
+"I do not think so," murmured Mr. Orcutt. "Such a blow as that must have
+destroyed her faculties, if not her life. It was of cruel force."
+
+"However that may be, she ought to be taken care of now," cried Mr.
+Ferris. "I wish Dr. Tredwell was here."
+
+"I will go for him," signified the other.
+
+But it was not necessary. Scarcely had the lawyer turned to execute this
+mission, when a sudden murmur was heard at the door, and a dozen or so
+citizens burst into the house, among them the very person named. Being
+coroner as well as physician, he at once assumed authority. The widow
+was carried into her room, which was on the same floor, and a brother
+practitioner sent for, who took his place at her head and waited for any
+sign of returning consciousness. The crowd, remanded to the yard, spent
+their time alternately in furtive questionings of each other's
+countenances, and in eager look-out for the expected return of the
+strange young man who had been sent after the incomprehensible humpback
+of whom all had heard. The coroner, closeted with the District Attorney
+in the dining-room, busied himself in noting certain evident facts.
+
+"I am, perhaps, forestalling my duties in interfering before the woman
+is dead," intimated the former. "But it is only a matter of a few hours,
+and any facts we can glean in the interim must be of value to a proper
+conduct of the inquiry I shall be called upon to hold. I shall therefore
+make the same note of the position of affairs as I would do if she were
+dead; and to begin with, I wish you to observe that she was hit while
+setting the clock." And he pointed to the open door of the huge
+old-fashioned timepiece which occupied that corner of the room in which
+she had been found. "She had not even finished her task," he next
+remarked, "for the clock is still ten minutes slow, while her watch is
+just right, as you will see by comparing it with your own. She was
+attacked from behind, and to all appearances unexpectedly. Had she
+turned, her forehead would have been struck, while, as all can see, it
+is the back of her head that has suffered, and that from a right-hand
+blow. Her deafness was undoubtedly the cause of her immobility under the
+approach of such an assailant. She did not hear his step, and, being so
+busily engaged, saw nothing of the cruel hand uplifted to destroy her. I
+doubt if she even knew what happened. The mystery is that any one could
+have sufficiently desired her death to engage in such a cold-blooded
+butchery. If plunder were wanted, why was not her watch taken from her?
+And see, here is a pile of small change lying beside her plate on the
+table,--a thing a tramp would make for at once."
+
+"It was not a thief that struck her."
+
+"Well, well, we don't know. I have my own theory," admitted the coroner;
+"but, of course, it will not do for me to mention it here. The stick was
+taken from that pile laid ready on the hearth," he went on. "Odd,
+significantly odd, that in all its essential details this affair should
+tally so completely with the supposable case of crime given a moment
+before by the deformed wretch you tell me about."
+
+"Not if that man was a madman and the assailant," suggested the District
+Attorney.
+
+"True, but I do not think he was mad--not from what you have told me.
+But let us see what the commotion is. Some one has evidently arrived."
+
+It was Mr. Byrd, who had entered by the front door, and deaf to the low
+murmur of the impatient crowd without, stood waiting in silent patience
+for an opportunity to report to the District Attorney the results of his
+efforts.
+
+Mr. Ferris at once welcomed him.
+
+"What have you done? Did you find the constable or succeed in laying
+hands on that scamp of a humpback?"
+
+Mr. Byrd, who, to explain at once, was a young and intelligent
+detective, who had been brought from New York for purposes connected
+with the case then before the court, glanced carefully in the direction
+of the coroner and quietly replied:
+
+"The hump-backed scamp, as you call him, has disappeared. Whether he
+will be found or not I cannot say. Hunt is on his track, and will report
+to you in an hour. The tramp whom you saw slinking out of this street
+while we stood on the court-house steps is doubtless the man whom you
+most want, and him we have captured."
+
+"You have?" repeated Mr. Ferris, eying, with good-natured irony, the
+young man's gentlemanly but rather indifferent face. "And what makes you
+think it is the tramp who is the guilty one in this case? Because that
+ingenious stranger saw fit to make him such a prominent figure in his
+suppositions?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the detective, flushing with a momentary
+embarrassment he however speedily overcame; "I do not found my opinions
+upon any man's remarks. I only---- Excuse me," said he, with a quiet air
+of self-control that was not without its effect upon the sensible man he
+was addressing. "If you will tell me how, where, and under what
+circumstances this poor murdered woman was found, perhaps I shall be
+better able to explain my reasons for believing in the tramp as the
+guilty party; though the belief, even of a detective, goes for but
+little in matters of this kind, as you and these other gentlemen very
+well know."
+
+"Step here, then," signified Mr. Ferris, who, accompanied by the
+coroner, had already passed around the table. "Do you see that clock?
+She was winding it when she was struck, and fell almost at its foot.
+The weapon which did the execution lies over there; it is a stick of
+firewood, as you see, and was caught up from that pile on the hearth.
+Now recall what that humpback said about choosing a thoroughfare for a
+murder (and this house is a thoroughfare), and the peculiar stress which
+he laid upon the choice of a weapon, and tell me why you think he is
+innocent of this immediate and most remarkable exemplification of his
+revolting theory?"
+
+"Let me first ask," ventured the other, with a remaining tinge of
+embarrassment coloring his cheek, "if you have reason to think this
+woman had been lying long where she was found, or was she struck soon
+before the discovery?"
+
+"Soon. The dinner was still smoking in the kitchen, where it had been
+dished up ready for serving."
+
+"Then," declared the detective with sudden confidence, "a single word
+will satisfy you that the humpback was not the man who delivered this
+stroke. To lay that woman low at the foot of this clock would require
+the presence of the assailant in the room. Now, the humpback was not
+here this morning, but in the court-room. I know this, for I saw him
+there."
+
+"You did? You are sure of that?" cried, in a breath, both his hearers,
+somewhat taken aback by this revelation.
+
+"Yes. He sat down by the door. I noticed him particularly."
+
+"Humph! that is odd," quoth Mr. Ferris, with the testiness of an
+irritable man who sees himself contradicted in a publicly expressed
+theory.
+
+"Very odd," repeated the coroner; "so odd, I am inclined to think he did
+not sit there every moment of the time. It is but a step from the
+court-house here; he might well have taken the trip and returned while
+you wiped your eye-glasses or was otherwise engaged."
+
+Mr. Byrd did not see fit to answer this.
+
+"The tramp is an ugly-looking customer," he remarked, in what was almost
+a careless tone of voice.
+
+Mr. Ferris covered with his hand the pile of loose change that was yet
+lying on the table, and shortly observed:
+
+"A tramp to commit such a crime must be actuated either by rage or
+cupidity; that you will acknowledge. Now the fellow who struck this
+woman could not have been excited by any sudden anger, for the whole
+position of her body when found proves that she had not even turned to
+face the intruder, much less engaged in an altercation with him. Yet how
+could it have been money he was after, when a tempting bit like this
+remained undisturbed upon the table?"
+
+And Mr. Ferris, with a sudden gesture, disclosed to view the pile of
+silver coin he had been concealing.
+
+The young detective shook his head but lost none of his seeming
+indifference. "That is one of the little anomalies of criminal
+experience that we were talking about this morning," he remarked.
+"Perhaps the fellow was frightened and lost his head, or perhaps he
+really heard some one at the door, and was obliged to escape without
+reaping any of the fruits of his crime."
+
+"Perhaps and perhaps," retorted Mr. Ferris, who was a quick man, and
+who, once settled in a belief, was not to be easily shaken out of it.
+
+"However that may be," continued Mr. Byrd, without seeming to notice the
+irritating interruption, "I still think that the tramp, rather than the
+humpback, will be the man to occupy your future attention."
+
+And with a deprecatory bow to both gentlemen, he drew back and quietly
+left the room.
+
+Mr. Ferris at once recovered from his momentary loss of temper.
+
+"I suppose the young man is right," he acknowledged; "but, if so, what
+an encouragement we have received this morning to a belief in
+clairvoyance." And with less irony and more conviction, he added: "The
+humpback _must_ have known something about the murder."
+
+And the coroner bowed; common-sense undoubtedly agreeing with this
+assumption.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN.
+
+          Her step was royal--queen-like.--LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+IT was now half-past one. An hour and a half had elapsed since the widow
+had been laid upon her bed, and to all appearance no change had taken
+place in her condition. Within the room where she lay were collected the
+doctor and one or two neighbors of the female sex, who watched every
+breath she drew, and stood ready to notice the slightest change in the
+stony face that, dim with the shadow of death, stared upon them from the
+unruffled pillows. In the sitting-room Lawyer Orcutt conversed in a
+subdued voice with Mr. Ferris, in regard to such incidents of the
+widow's life as had come under his notice in the years of their daily
+companionship, while the crowd about the gate vented their interest in
+loud exclamations of wrath against the tramp who had been found, and the
+unknown humpback who had not. Our story leads us into the crowd in
+front.
+
+"I don't think she'll ever come to," said one, who from his dusty coat
+might have been a miller. "Blows like that haven't much let-up about
+them."
+
+"Doctor says she will die before morning," put in a pert young miss,
+anxious to have her voice heard.
+
+"Then it will be murder and no mistake, and that brute of a tramp will
+hang as high as Haman."
+
+"Don't condemn a man before you've had a chance to hear what he has to
+say for himself," cried another in a strictly judicial tone. "How do you
+know as he came to this house at all?"
+
+"Miss Perkins says he did, and Mrs. Phillips too; they saw him go into
+the gate."
+
+"And what else did they see? I warrant he wasn't the only beggar that
+was roaming round this morning."
+
+"No; there was a tin peddler in the street, for I saw him my own self,
+and Mrs. Clemmens standing in the door flourishing her broom at him. She
+was mighty short with such folks. Wouldn't wonder if some of the unholy
+wretches killed her out of spite. They're a wicked lot, the whole of
+them."
+
+"Widow Clemmens had a quick temper, but she had a mighty good heart
+notwithstanding. See how kind she was to them Hubbells."
+
+"And how hard she was to that Pratt girl."
+
+"Well, I know, but----" And so on and so on, in a hum and a buzz about
+the head of Mr. Byrd, who, engaged in thought seemingly far removed from
+the subject in hand, stood leaning against the fence, careless and
+_insouciant_. Suddenly there was a lull, then a short cry, then a
+woman's voice rose clear, ringing, and commanding, and Mr. Byrd caught
+the following words:
+
+"What is this I hear? Mrs. Clemmens dead? Struck down by some wandering
+tramp? Murdered and in her own house?"
+
+In an instant, every eye, including Mr. Byrd's, was fixed upon the
+speaker. The crowd parted, and the young girl, who had spoken from the
+street, came into the gate. She was a remarkable-looking person. Tall,
+large, and majestic in every proportion of an unusually noble figure,
+she was of a make and possessed a bearing to attract attention had she
+borne a less striking and beautiful countenance. As it was, the glance
+lingered but a moment on the grand curves and lithe loveliness of that
+matchless figure, and passed at once to the face. Once there, it did not
+soon wander; for though its beauty was incontestable, the something that
+lay behind that beauty was more incontestable still, and held you, in
+spite of yourself, long after you had become acquainted with the broad
+white brow, the clear, deep, changing gray eye, the straight but
+characteristic nose, and the ruddy, nervous lip. You felt that, young
+and beautiful as she was, and charming as she might be, she was also one
+of nature's unsolvable mysteries--a woman whom you might study, obey,
+adore, but whom you could never hope to understand; a Sphinx without an
+Oedipus. She was dressed in dark green, and held her gloves in her
+hand. Her appearance was that of one who had been profoundly startled.
+
+"Why don't some one answer me?" she asked, after an instant's pause,
+seemingly unconscious that, alike to those who knew her and to those
+who did not, her air and manner were such as to naturally impose
+silence. "Must I go into the house in order to find out if this good
+woman is dead or not?"
+
+"Shure she isn't dead yet," spoke up a brawny butcher-boy, bolder than
+the rest. "But she's sore hurt, miss, and the doctors say as how there
+is no hope."
+
+A change impossible to understand passed over the girl's face. Had she
+been less vigorous of body, she would have staggered. As it was, she
+stood still, rigidly still, and seemed to summon up her faculties, till
+the very clinch of her fingers spoke of the strong control she was
+putting upon herself.
+
+"It is dreadful, dreadful!" she murmured, this time in a whisper, and as
+if to some rising protest in her own soul. "No good can come of it,
+none." Then, as if awakening to the scene about her, shook her head and
+cried to those nearest: "It was a tramp who did it, I suppose; at least,
+I am told so."
+
+"A tramp has been took up, miss, on suspicion, as they call it."
+
+"If a tramp has been taken up on suspicion, then he was the one who
+assailed her, of course." And pushing on through the crowd that fell
+back still more awe-struck than before, she went into the house.
+
+The murmur that followed her was subdued but universal. It made no
+impression on Mr. Byrd. He had leaned forward to watch the girl's
+retreating form, but, finding his view intercepted by the wrinkled
+profile of an old crone who had leaned forward too, had drawn
+impatiently back. Something in that crone's aged face made him address
+her.
+
+"You know the lady?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes," was the cautious reply, given, however, with a leer he found not
+altogether pleasant.
+
+"She is a relative of the injured woman, or a friend, perhaps?"
+
+The old woman's face looked frightful.
+
+"No," she muttered grimly; "they are strangers."
+
+At this unexpected response Mr. Byrd made a perceptible start forward.
+The old woman's hand fell at once on his arm.
+
+"Stay!" she hoarsely whispered. "By strangers I mean they don't visit
+each other. The town is too small for any of us to be strangers."
+
+Mr. Byrd nodded and escaped her clutch.
+
+"This is worth seeing through," he murmured, with the first gleam of
+interest he had shown in the affair. And, hurrying forward, he succeeded
+in following the lady into the house.
+
+The sight he met there did not tend to allay his newborn interest. There
+she stood in the centre of the sitting-room, tall, resolute, and
+commanding, her eyes fixed on the door of the room that contained the
+still breathing sufferer, Mr. Orcutt's eyes fixed upon her. It seemed as
+if she had asked one question and been answered; there had not been time
+for more.
+
+"I do not know what to say in apology for my intrusion," she remarked.
+"But the death, or almost the death, of a person of whom we have all
+heard, seems to me so terrible that----"
+
+But here Mr. Orcutt interrupted gently, almost tenderly, but with a
+fatherly authority which Mr. Byrd expected to see her respect.
+
+"Imogene," he observed, "this is no place for you; the horror of the
+event has made you forget yourself; go home and trust me to tell you on
+my return all that it is advisable for you to know."
+
+But she did not even meet his glance with her steady eyes. "Thank you,"
+she protested; "but I cannot go till I have seen the place where this
+woman fell and the weapon with which she was struck. I want to see it
+all. Mr. Ferris, will you show me?" And without giving any reason for
+this extraordinary request, she stood waiting with that air of conscious
+authority which is sometimes given by great beauty when united to a
+distinguished personal presence.
+
+The District Attorney, taken aback, moved toward the dining-room door.
+"I will consult with the coroner," said he.
+
+But she waited for no man's leave. Following close behind him, she
+entered upon the scene of the tragedy.
+
+"Where was the poor woman hit?" she inquired.
+
+They told her; they showed her all she desired and asked her no
+questions. She awed them, all but Mr. Orcutt--him she both astonished
+and alarmed.
+
+"And a tramp did all this?" she finally exclaimed, in the odd, musing
+tone she had used once before, while her eye fell thoughtfully to the
+floor. Suddenly she started, or so Mr. Byrd fondly imagined, and moved a
+pace, setting her foot carefully down upon a certain spot in the carpet
+beneath her.
+
+"She has spied something," he thought, and watched to see if she would
+stoop.
+
+But no, she held herself still more erectly than before, and seemed, by
+her rather desultory inquiries, to be striving to engage the attention
+of the others from herself.
+
+"There is some one surely tapping at this door," she intimated, pointing
+to the one that opened into the lane.
+
+Dr. Tredwell moved to see.
+
+"Is there not?" she repeated, glancing at Mr. Ferris.
+
+He, too, turned to see.
+
+But there was still an eye regarding her from behind the sitting-room
+door, and, perceiving it, she impatiently ceased her efforts. She was
+not mistaken about the tapping. A man was at the door whom both
+gentlemen seemed to know.
+
+"I come from the tavern where they are holding this tramp in custody,"
+announced the new-comer in a voice too low to penetrate into the room.
+"He is frightened almost out of his wits. Seems to think he was taken up
+for theft, and makes no bones of saying that he did take a spoon or two
+from a house where he was let in for a bite. He gave up the spoons and
+expects to go to jail, but seems to have no idea that any worse
+suspicion is hanging over him. Those that stand around think he is
+innocent of the murder."
+
+"Humph! well, we will see," ejaculated Mr. Ferris; and, turning back, he
+met, with a certain sort of complacence, the eyes of the young lady who
+had been somewhat impatiently awaiting his reappearance. "It seems there
+are doubts, after all, about the tramp being the assailant."
+
+The start she gave was sudden and involuntary. She took a step forward
+and then paused as if hesitating. Instantly, Mr. Byrd, who had not
+forgotten the small object she had been covering with her foot,
+sauntered leisurely forward, and, spying a ring on the floor where she
+had been standing, unconcernedly picked it up.
+
+She did not seem to notice him. Looking at Mr. Ferris with eyes whose
+startled, if not alarmed, expression she did not succeed in hiding from
+the detective, she inquired, in a stifled voice:
+
+"What do you mean? What has this man been telling you? You say it was
+not the tramp. Who, then, was it?"
+
+"That is a question we cannot answer," rejoined Mr. Ferris, astonished
+at her heat, while Lawyer Orcutt, moving forward, attempted once more to
+recall her to herself.
+
+"Imogene," he pleaded,--"Imogene, calm yourself. This is not a matter of
+so much importance to you that you need agitate yourself so violently in
+regard to it. Come home, I beseech you, and leave the affairs of
+justice to the attention of those whose duty it is to look after them."
+
+But beyond acknowledging his well-meant interference by a deprecatory
+glance, she stood immovable, looking from Dr. Tredwell to Mr. Ferris,
+and back again to Dr. Tredwell, as if she sought in their faces some
+confirmation of a hideous doubt or fear that had arisen in her own mind.
+Suddenly she felt a touch on her arm.
+
+"Excuse me, madam, but is this yours?" inquired a smooth and careless
+voice over her shoulder.
+
+As though awakening from a dream she turned; they all turned. Mr. Byrd
+was holding out in his open palm a ring blazing with a diamond of no
+mean lustre or value.
+
+The sight of such a jewel, presented at such a moment, completed the
+astonishment of her friends. Pressing forward, they stared at the costly
+ornament and then at her, Mr. Orcutt's face especially assuming a
+startled expression of mingled surprise and apprehension, that soon
+attracted the attention of the others, and led to an interchange of
+looks that denoted a mutual but not unpleasant understanding.
+
+"I found it at your feet," explained the detective, still carelessly,
+but with just that delicate shade of respect in his voice necessary to
+express a gentleman's sense of presumption in thus addressing a strange
+and beautiful young lady.
+
+The tone, if not the explanation, seemed to calm her, as powerful
+natures are calmed in the stress of a sudden crisis.
+
+"Thank you," she returned, not without signs of great sweetness in her
+look and manner. "Yes, it is mine," she added slowly, reaching out her
+hand and taking the ring. "I must have dropped it without knowing it."
+And meeting the eye of Mr. Orcutt fixed upon her with that startled look
+of inquiry already alluded to, she flushed, but placed the jewel
+nonchalantly on her finger.
+
+This cool appropriation of something he had no reason to believe hers,
+startled the youthful detective immeasurably. He had not expected such a
+_denouement_ to the little drama he had prepared with such quiet
+assurance, and, though with the quick self-control that distinguished
+him he forbore to show his surprise, he none the less felt baffled and
+ill at ease, all the more that the two gentlemen present, who appeared
+to be the most disinterested in their regard for this young lady, seemed
+to accept this act on her part as genuine, and therefore not to be
+questioned.
+
+"It is a clue that is lost," thought he. "I have made a mess of my first
+unassisted efforts at real detective work." And, inwardly disgusted with
+himself, he drew back into the other room and took up his stand at a
+remote window.
+
+The slight stir he made in crossing the room seemed to break a spell and
+restore the minds of all present to their proper balance. Mr. Orcutt
+threw off the shadow that had momentarily disturbed his quiet and
+assured mien, and advancing once more, held out his arm with even more
+kindness than before, saying impressively:
+
+"Now you will surely consent to accompany me home. You cannot mean to
+remain here any longer, can you, Imogene?"
+
+But before she could reply, before her hand could lay itself on his arm,
+a sudden hush like that of awe passed solemnly through the room, and the
+physician, who had been set to watch over the dying gasps of the poor
+sufferer within, appeared on the threshold of the bedroom door, holding
+up his hand with a look that at once commanded attention and awoke the
+most painful expectancy in the hearts of all who beheld him:
+
+"She stirs; she moves her lips," he announced, and again paused,
+listening.
+
+Immediately there was a sound from the dimness behind him, a low sound,
+inarticulate at first, but presently growing loud enough and plain
+enough to be heard in the utmost recesses of the furthermost room on
+that floor.
+
+"Hand! ring!" was the burden of the short ejaculation they heard. "Ring!
+hand!" till a sudden gasp cut short the fearful iteration, and all was
+silent again.
+
+"Great heavens!" came in an awe-struck whisper from Mr. Ferris, as he
+pressed hastily toward the place from which these words had issued.
+
+But the physician at once stopped and silenced him.
+
+"She may speak again," he suggested. "Wait."
+
+But, though they listened breathlessly, and with ever-growing suspense,
+no further break occurred in the deep silence, and soon the doctor
+announced:
+
+"She has sunk back into her old state; she may rouse again, and she may
+not."
+
+As though released from some painful tension, the coroner, the District
+Attorney, and the detective all looked up. They found Miss Dare standing
+by the open window, with her face turned to the landscape, and Mr.
+Orcutt gazing at her with an expression of perplexity that had almost
+the appearance of dismay. This look passed instantly from the lawyer's
+countenance as he met the eyes of his friends, but Mr. Byrd, who was
+still smarting under a sense of his late defeat, could not but wonder
+what that gentleman had seen in Miss Dare, during the period of their
+late preoccupation, to call up such an expression to his usually keen
+and composed face.
+
+The clinch of her white hand on the window-sill told nothing; but when
+in a few moments later she turned toward them again, Mr. Byrd saw, or
+thought he saw, the last lingering remains of a great horror fading out
+of her eyes, and was not surprised when she walked up to Mr. Orcutt and
+said, somewhat hoarsely: "I wish to go home now. This place is a
+terrible one to be in."
+
+Mr. Orcutt, who was only too glad to comply with her request, again
+offered her his arm. But anxious as they evidently were to quit the
+house, they were not allowed to do so without experiencing another
+shock. Just as they were passing the door of the room where the wounded
+woman lay, the physician in attendance again appeared before them with
+that silently uplifted hand.
+
+"Hush!" said he; "she stirs again. I think she is going to speak."
+
+And once more that terrible suspense held each and every one enthralled:
+once more that faint, inarticulate murmur eddied through the house,
+growing gradually into speech that this time took a form that curdled
+the blood of the listeners, and made Mr. Orcutt and the young woman at
+his side drop apart from each other as though a dividing sword had
+passed between them.
+
+"May the vengeance of Heaven light upon the head of him who has brought
+me to this pass," were the words that now rose ringing and clear from
+that bed of death. "May the fate that has come upon me be visited upon
+him, measure for measure, blow for blow, death for death."
+
+Strange and awe-inspiring words, that drew a pall over that house and
+made the dullest person there gasp for breath. In the silence that
+followed--a silence that could be felt--the white faces of lawyer and
+physician, coroner and detective, turned and confronted each other. But
+the young lady who lingered in their midst looked at no one, turned to
+no one. Shuddering and white, she stood gazing before her as if she
+already beheld that retributive hand descending upon the head of the
+guilty; then, as she awoke to the silence of those around her, gave a
+quick start and flashed forward to the door and so out into the street
+before Mr. Orcutt could rouse himself sufficiently from the stupor of
+the moment to follow her.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+THE UNFINISHED LETTER.
+
+          Faith, thou hast some crotchets in thy head now.
+                                    --MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
+
+
+"WOULD there be any indiscretion in my asking who that young lady is?"
+inquired Mr. Byrd of Mr. Ferris, as, after ascertaining that the
+stricken sufferer still breathed, they stood together in a distant
+corner of the dining-room.
+
+"No," returned the other, in a low tone, with a glance in the direction
+of the lawyer, who was just re-entering the house, after an unsuccessful
+effort to rejoin the person of whom they were speaking. "She is a Miss
+Dare, a young lady much admired in this town, and believed by many to be
+on the verge of matrimony with----" He nodded toward Mr. Orcutt, and
+discreetly forbore to finish the sentence.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed the youthful detective, "I understand." And he cast a
+look of suddenly awakened interest at the man who, up to this time, he
+had merely regarded as a more than usually acute criminal lawyer.
+
+He saw a small, fair, alert man, of some forty years of age, of a good
+carriage, easy manner, and refined cast of countenance, overshadowed now
+by a secret anxiety he vainly tried to conceal. He was not as handsome
+as Coroner Tredwell, nor as well built as Mr. Ferris, yet he was,
+without doubt, the most striking-looking man in the room, and, to the
+masculine eyes of the detective, seemed at first glance to be a person
+to win the admiration, if not the affection, of women.
+
+"She appears to take a great interest in this affair," he ventured
+again, looking back at Mr. Ferris.
+
+"Yes, that is woman's way," replied the other, lightly, without any hint
+of secret feeling or curiosity. "Besides, she is an inscrutable girl,
+always surprising you by her emotions--or by her lack of them," he
+added, dismissing the topic with a wave of his hand.
+
+"Which is also woman's way," remarked Mr. Byrd, retiring into his shell,
+from which he had momentarily thrust his head.
+
+"Does it not strike you that there are rather more persons present than
+are necessary for the purposes of justice?" asked the lawyer, now coming
+forward with a look of rather pointed significance at the youthful
+stranger.
+
+Mr. Ferris at once spoke up. "Mr. Orcutt," said he, "let me introduce to
+you Mr. Byrd, of New York. He is a member of the police force, and has
+been rendering me assistance in the case just adjourned."
+
+"A detective!" repeated the other, eying the young man with a critical
+eye. "It is a pity, sir," he finally observed, "that your present duties
+will not allow you to render service to justice in this case of
+mysterious assault." And with a bow of more kindness than Mr. Byrd had
+reason to look for, he went slowly back to his former place near the
+door that hid the suffering woman from sight.
+
+However kindly expressed, Mr. Byrd felt that he had received his
+dismissal, and was about to withdraw, when the coroner, who had been
+absent from their midst for the last few minutes, approached them from
+the foot of the stairs, and tapped the detective on the arm.
+
+"I want you," said he.
+
+Mr. Byrd bowed, and with a glance toward the District Attorney, who
+returned him a nod of approval, went quickly out with the coroner.
+
+"I hear you are a detective," observed the latter, taking him up stairs
+into a room which he carefully locked behind them. "A detective on the
+spot in a case like this is valuable; are you willing to assume the
+duties of your profession and act for justice in this matter?"
+
+"Dr. Tredwell," returned the young man, instantly conscious of a vague,
+inward shrinking from meddling further in the affair, "I am not at
+present master of my proceedings. To say nothing of the obedience I owe
+my superiors at home, I am just now engaged in assisting Mr. Ferris in
+the somewhat pressing matter now before the court, and do not know
+whether it would meet with his approval to have me mix up matters in
+this way."
+
+"Mr. Ferris is a reasonable man," said the coroner. "If his consent is
+all that is necessary----"
+
+"But it is not, sir. I must have orders from New York."
+
+"Oh, as to that, I will telegraph at once."
+
+But still the young man hesitated, lounging in his easy way against the
+table by which he had taken his stand.
+
+"Dr. Tredwell," he suggested, "you must have men in this town amply able
+to manage such a matter as this. A woman struck in broad daylight and a
+man already taken up on suspicion! 'Tis simple, surely; intricate
+measures are not wanted here."
+
+"So you still think it is the tramp that struck her?" quoth the coroner,
+a trifle baffled by the other's careless manner.
+
+"I still think it was not the man who sat in court all the morning and
+held me fascinated by his eye."
+
+"Ah, he held you fascinated, did he?" repeated the other, a trifle
+suspiciously.
+
+"Well, that is," Mr. Byrd allowed, with the least perceptible loss of
+his easy bearing, "he made me look at him more than once. A wandering
+eye always attracts me, and his wandered constantly."
+
+"Humph! and you are sure he was in the court every minute of the
+morning?"
+
+"There must be other witnesses who can testify to that," answered the
+detective, with the perceptible irritation of one weary of a subject
+which he feels he has already amply discussed.
+
+"Well," declared the other, dropping his eyes from the young man's
+countenance to a sheet of paper he was holding in his hand, "whatever
+_role_ this humpback has played in the tragedy now occupying us, whether
+he be a wizard, a secret accomplice, a fool who cannot keep his own
+secret, or a traitor who cannot preserve that of his tools, this affair,
+as you call it, is not likely to prove the simple matter you seem to
+consider it. The victim, if not her townsfolk, knew she possessed an
+enemy, and this half-finished letter which I have found on her table,
+raises the question whether a common tramp, with no motive but that of
+theft or brutal revenge, was the one to meditate the fatal blow, even if
+he were the one to deal it."
+
+A perceptible light flickered into the eyes of Mr. Byrd, and he glanced
+with a new but unmistakable interest at the letter, though he failed to
+put out his hand for it, even though the coroner held it toward him.
+
+"Thank you," said he; "but if I do not take the case, it would be better
+for me not to meddle any further with it."
+
+"But you are going to take it," insisted the other, with temper, his
+anxiety to secure this man's services increasing with the opposition he
+so unaccountably received. "The officers at the detective bureau in New
+York are not going to send another man up here when there is already one
+on the spot. And a man from New York I am determined to have. A crime
+like this shall not go unpunished in this town, whatever it may do in a
+great city like yours. We don't have so many murder cases that we need
+to stint ourselves in the luxury of professional assistance."
+
+"But," protested the young man, still determined to hold back, whatever
+arguments might be employed or inducements offered him, "how do you know
+I am the man for your work? We have many sorts and kinds of detectives
+in our bureau. Some for one kind of business, some for another; the
+following up of a criminal is not mine."
+
+"What, then, is yours?" asked the coroner, not yielding a jot of his
+determination.
+
+The detective was silent.
+
+"Read the letter," persisted Dr. Tredwell, shrewdly conscious that if
+once the young man's professional instinct was aroused, all the puerile
+objections which influenced him would immediately vanish.
+
+There was no resisting that air of command. Taking the letter in his
+hand, the young man read:
+
+          "DEAR EMILY:--I don't know why I sit down to write
+          to you to-day. I have plenty to do, and morning is
+          no time for indulging in sentimentalities; but I
+          feel strangely lonely and strangely anxious.
+          Nothing goes just to my mind, and somehow the many
+          causes for secret fear which I have always had,
+          assume an undue prominence in my mind. It is
+          always so when I am not quite well. In vain I
+          reason with myself, saying that respectable people
+          do not lightly enter into crime. But there are so
+          many to whom my death would be more than welcome,
+          that I constantly see myself in the act of
+          being----"
+
+"Struck, shot, murdered," suggested Dr. Tredwell, perceiving the young
+man's eye lingering over the broken sentence.
+
+"The words are not there," remonstrated Mr. Byrd; but the tone of his
+voice showed that his professional complacency had been disturbed at
+last.
+
+The other did not answer, but waited with the wisdom of the trapper who
+sees the quarry nosing round the toils.
+
+"There is evidently some family mystery," the young man continued,
+glancing again at the letter. "But," he remarked, "Mr. Orcutt is a good
+friend of hers, and can probably tell us what it all means."
+
+"Very likely," the other admitted, "if we choose to ask him."
+
+Quick as lightning the young man's glance flashed to the coroner's face.
+
+"You would rather not put the question to him?" he inquired.
+
+"No. As he is the lawyer who, in all probability, will be employed by
+the criminal in this case, I am sure he would rather not be mixed up in
+any preliminary investigation of the affair."
+
+The young man's eye did not waver. He appeared to take a secret resolve.
+
+"Has it not struck you," he insinuated, "that Mr. Orcutt might have
+other reasons for not wishing to give any expression of opinion in
+regard to it?"
+
+The surprise in the coroner's eye was his best answer.
+
+"No," he rejoined.
+
+Mr. Byrd at once resumed all his old nonchalance.
+
+"The young lady who was here appeared to show such agitated interest in
+this horrible crime, I thought that, in kindness to her, he might wish
+to keep out of the affair as much as possible."
+
+"Miss Dare? Bless your heart, she would not restrict him in any way. Her
+interest in the matter is purely one of curiosity. It has been carried,
+perhaps, to a somewhat unusual length for a woman of her position and
+breeding. But that is all, I assure you. Miss Dare's eccentricities are
+well known in this town."
+
+"Then the diamond ring was really hers?" Mr. Byrd was about to inquire,
+but stopped; something in his memory of this beautiful woman made it
+impossible for him to disturb the confidence of the coroner in her
+behalf, at least while his own doubts were so vague and shadowy.
+
+The coroner, however, observed the young detective's hesitation, and
+smiled.
+
+"Are you thinking of Miss Dare as having any thing to do with this
+shocking affair?" he asked.
+
+Mr. Byrd shook his head, but could not hide the flush that stole up over
+his forehead.
+
+The coroner actually laughed, a low, soft, decorous laugh, but none the
+less one of decided amusement. "Your line is not in the direction of
+spotting criminals, I must allow," said he. "Why, Miss Dare is not only
+as irreproachable a young lady as we have in this town, but she is a
+perfect stranger to this woman and all her concerns. I doubt if she even
+knew her name till to-day."
+
+A laugh is often more potent than argument. The face of the detective
+lighted up, and he looked very manly and very handsome as he returned
+the letter to the coroner, saying, with a sweep of his hand as if he
+tossed an unworthy doubt away forever:
+
+"Well, I do not wish to appear obstinate. If this woman dies, and the
+inquest fails to reveal who her assailant is, I will apply to New York
+for leave to work up the case; that is, if you continue to desire my
+assistance. Meanwhile----"
+
+"You will keep your eyes open," intimated the coroner, taking back the
+letter and putting it carefully away in his breast-pocket. "And now,
+mum!"
+
+Mr. Byrd bowed, and they went together down the stairs.
+
+It was by this time made certain that the dying woman was destined to
+linger on for some hours. She was completely unconscious, and her breath
+barely lifted the clothes that lay over the slowly laboring breast; but
+such vitality as there was held its own with scarcely perceptible
+change, and the doctor thought it might be midnight before the solemn
+struggle would end. "In the meantime, expect nothing," he exclaimed;
+"she has said her last word. What remains will be a mere sinking into
+the eternal sleep."
+
+This being so, Mr. Orcutt and Mr. Ferris decided to leave. Mr. Byrd saw
+them safely out, and proceeded to take one or two private observations
+of his own. They consisted mostly in noting the precise position of the
+various doors in reference to the hearth where the stick was picked up,
+and the clock where the victim was attacked. Or, so the coroner gathered
+from the direction which Mr. Byrd's eye took in its travels over the
+scene of action, and the diagram which he hastily drew on the back of an
+envelope. The table was noticed, too, and an inventory of its articles
+taken, after which he opened the side-door and looked carefully out into
+the lane.
+
+To observe him now with his quick eye flashing from spot to spot, his
+head lifted, and a visible air of determination infused through his
+whole bearing, you would scarcely recognize the easy, gracefully
+indolent youth who, but a little while before, lounged against the
+tables and chairs, and met the most penetrating eye with the sleepy gaze
+of a totally uninterested man. Dr. Tredwell, alert to the change, tapped
+the letter in his pocket complacently. "I have roused up a weasel," he
+mentally decided, and congratulated himself accordingly.
+
+It was two o'clock when Mr. Byrd went forth to join Mr. Ferris in the
+court-room. As he stepped from the door, he encountered, to all
+appearance, just the same crowd that had encumbered its entrance a half
+hour before. Even the old crone had not moved from her former position,
+and seeing him, fairly pounced upon him with question after question,
+all of which he parried with a nonchalant dexterity that drew shout
+after shout from those who stood by, and, finally, as he thought, won
+him the victory, for, with an angry shake of the head, she ceased her
+importunities, and presently let him pass. He hastened to improve the
+chance to gain for himself the refuge of the streets; and, having done
+this, stood for an instant parleying with a trembling young girl, whose
+real distress and anxiety seemed to merit some attention. Fatal delay.
+In that instant the old woman had got in front of him, and when he
+arrived at the head of the street he found her there.
+
+"Now," said she, with full-blown triumph in her venomous eyes, "perhaps
+you will tell me something! You think I am a mumbling old woman who
+don't know what she is bothering herself about. But I tell you I've not
+kept my eyes and ears open for seventy-five years in this wicked world
+without knowing a bit of the devil's own work when I see it." Here her
+face grew quite hideous, and her eyes gleamed with an aspect of gloating
+over the evil she alluded to, that quite sickened the young man,
+accustomed though he was to the worst phases of moral depravity. Leaning
+forward, she peered inquiringly in his face. "What has _she_ to do with
+it?" she suddenly asked, emphasizing the pronoun with an expressive
+leer.
+
+"She?" he repeated, starting back.
+
+"Yes, she; the pretty young lady, the pert and haughty Miss Dare, that
+had but to speak to make the whole crowd stand back. What had she to do
+with it, I say? Something, or she wouldn't be here!"
+
+"I don't know what you are talking about," he replied, conscious of a
+strange and unaccountable dismay at thus hearing his own passing doubt
+put into words by this vile and repellent being. "Miss Dare is a
+stranger. She has nothing to do either with this affair or the poor
+woman who has suffered by it. Her interest is purely one of sympathy."
+
+"Hi! and you call yourself a smart one, I dare say." And the old
+creature ironically chuckled. "Well, well, well, what fools men are!
+They see a pretty face, and blind themselves to what is written on it as
+plain as black writing on a white wall. They call it sympathy, and never
+stop to ask why she, of all the soft-hearted gals in the town, should be
+the only one to burst into that house like an avenging spirit! But it's
+all right," she went on, in a bitterly satirical tone. "A crime like
+this can't be covered up, however much you may try; and sooner or later
+we will all know whether this young lady has had any thing to do with
+Mrs. Clemmens' murder or not."
+
+"Stop!" cried Mr. Byrd, struck in spite of himself by the look of
+meaning with which she said these last words. "Do you know any thing
+against Miss Dare which other folks do not? If you do, speak, and let me
+hear at once what it is. But--" he felt very angry, though he could not
+for the moment tell why--"if you are only talking to gratify your
+spite, and have nothing to tell me except the fact that Miss Dare
+appeared shocked and anxious when she came from the widow's house just
+now, look out what use you make of her name, or you will get yourself
+into trouble. Mr. Orcutt and Mr. Ferris are not men to let you go
+babbling round town about a young lady of estimable character." And he
+tightened the grip he had taken upon her arm and looked at her
+threateningly.
+
+The effect was instantaneous. Slipping from his grasp, she gazed at him
+with a sinister expression and edged slowly away.
+
+"I know any thing?" she repeated. "What should I know? I only say the
+young lady's face tells a very strange story. If you are too dull or too
+obstinate to read it, it's nothing to me." And with another leer and a
+quick look up and down the street, as if she half feared to encounter
+one or both of the two lawyers whose names he had mentioned, she marched
+quickly away, wagging her head and looking back as she went, as much as
+to say: "You have hushed me up for this time, young man, but don't
+congratulate yourself too much. I have still a tongue in my head, and
+the day may come when I can use it without any fear of being stopped by
+you."
+
+Mr. Byrd, who was not very well pleased with himself or the way he had
+managed this interview, watched her till she was out of sight, and then
+turned thoughtfully toward the court-house. The fact was, he felt both
+agitated and confused. In the first place, he was disconcerted at
+discovering the extent of the impression that had evidently been made
+upon him by the beauty of Miss Dare, since nothing short of a deep,
+unconscious admiration for her personal attributes, and a strong and
+secret dread of having his lately acquired confidence in her again
+disturbed, could have led him to treat the insinuations of this babbling
+old wretch in such a cavalier manner. Any other detective would have
+seized with avidity upon the opportunity of hearing what she had to say
+on such a subject, and would not only have cajoled her into confidence,
+but encouraged her to talk until she had given utterance to all that was
+on her mind. But in the stress of a feeling to which he was not anxious
+to give a name, he had forgotten that he was a detective, and remembered
+only that he was a man; and the consequence was that he had frightened
+the old creature, and cut short words that it was possibly his business
+to hear. In the second place, he felt himself in a quandary as regarded
+Miss Dare. If, as was more than possible, she was really the innocent
+woman the coroner considered her, and the insinuations, if not threats,
+to which he had been listening were simply the result of a wicked old
+woman's privately nurtured hatred, how could he reconcile it to his duty
+as a man, or even as a detective, to let the day pass without warning
+her, or the eminent lawyer who honored her with his regard, of the
+danger in which she stood from this creature's venomous tongue.
+
+As he sat in court that afternoon, with his eye upon Mr. Orcutt, beneath
+whose ordinary aspect of quiet, sarcastic attention he thought he could
+detect the secret workings of a deep, personal perplexity, if not of
+actual alarm, he asked himself what he would wish done if he were that
+man, and a scandal of a debasing character threatened the peace of one
+allied to him by the most endearing ties. "Would I wish to be informed
+of it?" he queried. "I most certainly should," was his inward reply.
+
+And so it was that, after the adjournment of court, he approached Mr.
+Orcutt, and leading him respectfully aside, said, with visible
+reluctance:
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir, but a fact has come to my knowledge to-day with
+which I think you ought to be made acquainted. It is in reference to the
+young lady who was with us at Mrs. Clemmens' house this morning. Did you
+know, sir, that she had an enemy in this town?"
+
+Mr. Orcutt, whose thoughts had been very much with that young lady since
+she left him so unceremoniously a few hours before, started and looked
+at Mr. Byrd with surprise which was not without its element of distrust.
+
+"An enemy?" he repeated. "An enemy? What do you mean?"
+
+"What I say, Mr. Orcutt. As I came out of Mrs. Clemmens' house this
+afternoon, an old hag whose name I do not know, but whom you will
+probably have no difficulty in recognizing, seized me by the arm and
+made me the recipient of insinuations and threats against Miss Dare,
+which, however foolish and unfounded, betrayed an animosity and a desire
+to injure her that is worthy your attention."
+
+"You are very kind," returned Mr. Orcutt, with increased astonishment
+and a visible constraint, "but I do not understand you. What
+insinuations or threats could this woman have to make against a young
+lady of Miss Dare's position and character?"
+
+"It is difficult for me to tell you," acknowledged Mr. Byrd; "but the
+vicious old creature presumed to say that Miss Dare must have had a
+special and secret interest in this murder, or she would not have gone
+as she did to that house. Of course," pursued the detective, discreetly
+dropping his eyes from the lawyer's face, "I did what I could to show
+her the folly of her suspicions, and tried to make her see the trouble
+she would bring upon herself if she persisted in expressing them; but I
+fear I only succeeded in quieting her for the moment, and that she will
+soon be attacking others with this foolish story."
+
+Mr. Orcutt who, whatever his own doubts or apprehensions, could not fail
+to be totally unprepared for a communication of this kind, gave
+utterance to a fierce and bitter exclamation, and fixed upon the
+detective his keen and piercing eye.
+
+"Tell me just what she said," he demanded.
+
+"I will try to do so," returned Mr. Byrd. And calling to his aid a very
+excellent memory, he gave a _verbatim_ account of the conversation that
+had passed between him and the old woman. Mr. Orcutt listened, as he
+always did, without interruption or outward demonstration; but when the
+recital was over and Mr. Byrd ventured to look at him once more, he
+noticed that he was very pale and greatly changed in expression. Being
+himself in a position to understand somewhat of the other's emotion, he
+regained by an effort the air of polite nonchalance that became him so
+well, and quickly suggested: "Miss Dare will, of course, be able to
+explain herself."
+
+The lawyer flashed upon him a quick glance.
+
+"I hope you have no doubts on the subject," he said; then, as the
+detective's eye fell a trifle before his, paused and looked at him with
+the self-possession gained in fifteen years of practice in the criminal
+courts, and said: "I am Miss Dare's best friend. I know her well, and
+can truly say that not only is her character above reproach, but that I
+am acquainted with no circumstances that could in any way connect her
+with this crime. Nevertheless, the incidents of the day have been such
+as to make it desirable for her to explain herself, and this, as you
+say, she will probably have no difficulty in doing. If you will,
+therefore, wait till to-morrow before taking any one else into your
+confidence, I promise you to see Miss Dare myself, and, from her own
+lips, learn the cause of her peculiar interest in this affair.
+Meanwhile, let me request you to put a curb upon your imagination, and
+not allow it to soar too high into the regions of idle speculation."
+
+And he held out his hand to the detective with a smile whose vain
+attempt at unconcern affected Mr. Byrd more than a violent outbreak
+would have done. It betrayed so unmistakably that his own secret doubts
+were not without an echo in the breast of this eminent lawyer.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+IMOGENE.
+
+          You are a riddle, solve you who can.--KNOWLES.
+
+
+MR. ORCUTT was a man who for many years had turned a deaf ear and a cold
+eye to the various attractions and beguilements of woman. Either from
+natural coldness of disposition, or for some other latent cause,
+traceable, perhaps, to some fact in his past history, and not to be
+inquired into by gossiping neighbors and so-called friends, he had
+resisted, even to the point of disdain, both the blandishments of
+acknowledged belles, and the more timid but no less pleasing charms of
+the shy country misses that he met upon his travels.
+
+But one day all this was changed. Imogene Dare entered his home,
+awakening a light in the dim old place that melted his heart and made a
+man out of what was usually considered a well-ordered machine.
+
+She had been a foundling. Yes, this beautiful, disdainful, almost
+commanding woman, had in the beginning been that most unfortunate of
+beings--a child without a name. But though this fact may have influenced
+the course of her early days, it gradually disappeared from notice as
+she grew up and developed, till in Sibley, at least, it became wellnigh
+a fact forgotten. Her beauty, as well as the imposing traits of her
+character, was the cause. There are some persons so gifted with natural
+force that, once brought in contact with them, you forget their
+antecedents, and, indeed, every thing but themselves. Either their
+beauty overawes you or they, by conversation or bearing, so completely
+satisfy you of their right to your respect, that indifference takes the
+place of curiosity, and you yield your regard as if you have already
+yielded your admiration, without question and without stint.
+
+The early years of her life were passed in the house of a poor widow, to
+whom the appearance of this child on her door-step one fine day had been
+nothing more nor less than a veritable godsend. First, because she was
+herself alone in the world, and needed the mingled companionship and
+care which a little one invariably gives; and, secondly, because
+Imogene, from the very first, had been a noticeable child, who early
+attracted the attention of the neighbors, and led to many a substantial
+evidence of favor from them, as well as from the strangers who passed
+their gate or frequented their church. Insensibly to herself, and
+without help of circumstances or rearing, the girl was a magnet toward
+which all good things insensibly tended; and the widow saw this, and,
+while reaping the reward, stinted neither her affection nor her
+gratitude.
+
+When Imogene was eleven, this protector of her infancy died. But another
+home instantly offered. A wealthy couple of much kindness, if little
+culture, adopted her as their child, and gave her every benefit in life
+save education. This never having possessed themselves, they openly
+undervalued. But she was not to be kept down by the force of any
+circumstances, whether favorable or otherwise. All the graces of manner
+and refinements of thought which properly belong to the station she had
+now attained, but which, in the long struggle after wealth, had escaped
+the honest couple that befriended her, became by degrees her own,
+tempering without destroying her individuality, any more than the new
+life of restraint that now governed her physical powers, was able to
+weaken or subdue that rare and splendid physique which had been her
+fairest birthright.
+
+In the lap of luxury, therefore, and in full possession of means to come
+and go and conform herself to the genteel world and its fashions, she
+passed the next four years; but scarcely had she attained the age of
+fifteen, when bankruptcy, followed by death, again robbed her of her
+home and set her once more adrift upon the world.
+
+This time she looked to no one for assistance. Refusing all offers, many
+of them those of honorable marriage, she sought for work, and after a
+short delay found it in the household of Mr. Orcutt. The aged sister who
+governed his home and attended to all its domestic details, hired her as
+a sort of assistant, rightly judging that the able young body and the
+alert hand would bring into the household economy just that life and
+interest which her own failing strength had now for some time refused
+to supply.
+
+That the girl was a beauty and something more, who could not from the
+nature of things be kept in that subordinate position, she either failed
+to see, or, seeing, was pleased to disregard. She never sought to impose
+restraint upon the girl any more than she did upon her brother, when in
+the course of events she saw that his eye was at last attracted and his
+imagination fired by the noble specimen of girlhood that made its daily
+appearance at his own board.
+
+That she had introduced a dangerous element into that quiet home, that
+ere long would devastate its sacred precincts, and endanger, if not
+destroy, its safety and honor, she had no reason to suspect. What was
+there in youth, beauty, and womanly power that one should shrink from
+their embodiment and tremble as if an evil instead of a good had entered
+that hitherto undisturbed household? Nothing, if they had been all. But
+alas for her, and alas for him--they were not all! Mixed with the youth,
+beauty, and power was a something else not to be so readily
+understood--a something, too, which, without offering explanation to the
+fascinated mind that studied her, made the beauty unique, the youth a
+charm, and the power a controlling force. She was not to be sounded.
+Going and coming, smiling and frowning, in movement or at rest, she was
+always a mystery; the depths of her being remaining still in hiding,
+however calmly she spoke or however graciously she turned upon you the
+light of her deep gray eyes.
+
+Mr. Orcutt loved her. From the first vision he had of her face and form
+dominating according to their nature at his board and fireside, he had
+given up his will into her unconscious keeping. She was so precisely
+what all other women he had known were not. At first so distant, so
+self-contained, so unapproachable in her pride; then as her passion grew
+for books, so teachable, so industrious, so willing to listen to his
+explanations and arguments; and lastly----
+
+But that did not come at once. A long struggle took place between those
+hours when he used to encourage her to come into his study and sit at
+his side, and read from his books, and the more dangerous time still,
+when he followed her into the drawing-room and sat at her side, and
+sought to read, not from books, but from her eyes, the story of his own
+future fate.
+
+For, powerful as was his passion and deeply as his heart had been
+touched, he did not yield to the thought of marriage which such a
+passion involves, without a conflict. He would make her his child, the
+heiress of his wealth, and the support of his old age; this was his
+first resolve. But it did not last; the first sight he had of her on her
+return from a visit to Buffalo, which he had insisted upon her making
+during the time of his greatest mental conflict, had assured him that
+this could never be; that he must be husband and she wife, or else
+their relations must entirely cease. Perhaps the look with which she
+met him had something to do with this. It was such a blushing,
+humble--yes, for her, really humble and beautiful--look. He could not
+withstand it. Though no one could have detected it in his manner, he
+really succumbed in that hour. Doubt and hesitation flew to the winds,
+and to make her his own became the sole aim and object of his life.
+
+He did not, however, betray his purpose at once. Neighbors and friends
+might and did suspect the state of his feelings, but to her he was
+silent. That vague something which marked her off from the rest of her
+sex, seemed to have deepened in her temporary sojourn from his side, and
+whatever it meant of good or of ill, it taught him at least to be wary.
+At last, was it with premeditation or was it in some moment of
+uncontrollable impulse, he spoke; not with definite pleading, or even
+with any very clear intimation that he desired some day to make her his
+wife, but in a way that sufficed to tear the veil from their previous
+intercourse and let her catch a glimpse, if no more, of his heart, and
+its devouring passion.
+
+He was absolutely startled at the result. She avowed that she had never
+thought of his possessing such a regard for her; and for two days shut
+herself up in her room and refused to see either him or his sister. Then
+she came down, blooming like a rose, but more distant, more quiet, and
+more inscrutable than ever. Pride, if pride she felt, was subdued under
+a general aspect of womanly dignity that for a time held all further
+avowals in check, and made all intercourse between them at once potent
+in its attraction and painful in its restraint.
+
+"She is waiting for a distinct offer of marriage," he decided.
+
+And thus matters stood, notwithstanding the general opinion of their
+friends, when the terrible event recorded in the foregoing chapters of
+this story brought her in a new light before his eyes, and raised a
+question, shocking as it was unexpected, as to whether this young girl,
+immured as he had believed her to be in his own home, had by some
+unknown and inexplicable means run upon the secret involving, if not
+explaining, the mystery of this dreadful and daring crime.
+
+Such an idea was certainly a preposterous one to entertain. He neither
+could nor would believe she knew more of this matter than any other
+disinterested person in town, and yet there had certainly been something
+in her bearing upon the scene of tragedy, that suggested a personal
+interest in the affair; nor could he deny that he himself had been
+struck by the incongruity of her behavior long before it attracted the
+attention of others.
+
+But then he had opportunities for judging of her conduct which others
+did not have. He not only had every reason to believe that the ring to
+which she had so publicly laid claim was not her own, but he had
+observed how, at the moment the dying woman had made that tell-tale
+exclamation of "_Ring_ and _Hand!_" Miss Dare had looked down at the
+jewel she had thus appropriated, with a quick horror and alarm that
+seemed to denote she had some knowledge of its owner, or some suspicion,
+at least, as to whose hand had worn it before she placed it upon her
+own.
+
+It was not, therefore, a matter of wonder that he was visibly affected
+at finding her conduct had attracted the attention of others, and one of
+those a detective, or that the walk home after his interview with Mr.
+Byrd should have been fraught with a dread to which he scarcely dared to
+give a name.
+
+The sight of Miss Dare coming down the path as he reached his own gate
+did not tend to greatly allay his apprehensions, particularly as he
+observed she was dressed in travelling costume, and carried a small
+satchel on her arm.
+
+"Imogene," he cried, as she reached him, "what is the meaning of this?
+Where are you going?"
+
+Her face, which wore a wholly unnatural and strained expression, turned
+slowly toward his.
+
+"I am going to Buffalo," she said.
+
+"To Buffalo?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+This was alarming, surely. She was going to leave the town--leave it
+suddenly, without excuse or explanation!
+
+Looking at her with eyes which, for all their intense inquiry, conveyed
+but little of the serious emotions that were agitating his mind, he
+asked, hurriedly:
+
+"What takes you to Buffalo--to-day--so suddenly?"
+
+Her answer was set and mechanical.
+
+"I have had news. One of my--my friends is not well. I must go. Do not
+detain me."
+
+And she moved quickly toward the gate.
+
+But his tremulous hand was upon it, and he made no offer to open a
+passage for her.
+
+"Pardon me," said he, "but I cannot let you go till I have had some
+conversation with you. Come with me to the house, Imogene. I will not
+detain you long."
+
+But with a sad and abstracted gesture she slowly shook her head.
+
+"It is too late," she murmured. "I shall miss the train if I stop now."
+
+"Then you must miss it," he cried, bitterly, forgetting every thing else
+in the torture of his uncertainty. "What I have to say cannot wait.
+Come!"
+
+This tone of command from one who had hitherto adapted himself to her
+every whim, seemed to strike her. Paling quickly, she for the first time
+looked at him with something like a comprehension of his feelings, and
+quietly replied:
+
+"Forgive me. I had forgotten for the moment the extent of your claims
+upon me. I will wait till to-morrow before going." And she led the way
+back to the house.
+
+When they were alone together in the library, he turned toward her with
+a look whose severity was the fruit of his condition of mind rather than
+of any natural harshness or imperiousness.
+
+"Now, Imogene," said he, "tell me why you desire to leave my house."
+
+Her face, which had assumed a mask of cold impassiveness, confronted him
+like that of a statue, but her voice, when she spoke, was sufficiently
+gentle.
+
+"Mr. Orcutt," was her answer, "I have told you. I have a call elsewhere
+which must be attended to. I do not leave your house; I merely go to
+Buffalo for a few days."
+
+But he could not believe this short statement of her intentions. In the
+light of these new fears of his, this talk of Buffalo, and a call there,
+looked to him like the merest subterfuge. Yet her gentle tone was not
+without its effect, and his voice visibly softened as he said:
+
+"You are intending, then, to return?"
+
+Her reply was prefaced by a glance of amazement.
+
+"Of course," she responded at last. "Is not this my home?"
+
+Something in the way she said this carried a ray of hope to his heart.
+Taking her hand in his, he looked at her long and searchingly.
+
+"Imogene!" he exclaimed, "there is something serious weighing upon your
+heart. What is it? Will you not make me the confidant of your troubles?
+Tell me what has made such a change in you since--since noon, and its
+dreadful event."
+
+But her expression did not soften, and her manner became even more
+reserved than before.
+
+[Illustration: "Taking her hand in his, he looked at her long and
+searchingly. 'Imogene,' he exclaimed, 'there is something weighing on
+your heart.'"--(Page 58.)]
+
+"I have not any thing to tell," said she.
+
+"Not any thing?" he repeated.
+
+"Not any thing."
+
+Dropping her hand, he communed a moment with himself. That a secret of
+possible consequence lay between them he could not doubt. That it had
+reference to and involved the crime of the morning, he was equally sure.
+But how was he to make her acknowledge it? How was he to reach her mind
+and determine its secrets without alarming her dignity or wounding her
+heart?
+
+To press her with questions seemed impossible. Even if he could have
+found words with which to formulate his fears, her firm, set face, and
+steady, unrelenting eye, assured him only too plainly that the attempt
+would be met by failure, if it did not bring upon him her scorn and
+contempt. No; some other method must be found; some way that would
+completely and at once ease his mind of a terrible weight, and yet
+involve no risk to the love that had now become the greatest necessity
+of his existence. But what way? With all his acumen and knowledge of the
+world, he could think of but one. He would ask her hand in
+marriage--aye, at this very moment--and from the tenor of her reply
+judge of the nature of her thoughts. For, looking in her face, he felt
+forced to acknowledge that whatever doubts he had ever cherished in
+reference to the character of this remarkable girl, upon one point he
+was perfectly clear, and this was, that she was at basis honorable in
+her instincts, and would never do herself or another a real injustice.
+If a distinct wrong or even a secret of an unhappy or debasing nature
+lay between them, he knew that nothing, not even the bitterest necessity
+or the most headlong passion, would ever drive her into committing the
+dishonor of marrying him.
+
+No; if with his declaration in her ears, and with his eyes fixed upon
+hers, she should give any token of her willingness to accept his
+addresses, he felt he might know, beyond doubt or cavil, that whatever
+womanish excitability may have moved her in her demonstrations that day,
+they certainly arose from no private knowledge or suspicion detrimental
+to his future peace or to hers.
+
+Bracing himself, therefore, to meet any result that might follow his
+attempt, he drew her gently toward him and determinedly addressed her.
+
+"Imogene, I told you at the gate that I had something to say to you. So
+I have; and though it may not be wholly unexpected to you, yet I doubt
+if it would have left my lips to-night if the events of the day had not
+urged me to offer you my sympathy and protection."
+
+He paused, almost sickened; at that last phrase she had grown so
+terribly white and breathless. But something in her manner,
+notwithstanding, seemed to encourage him to proceed, and smothering his
+doubts, trampling, as it were, upon his rising apprehensions, he calmed
+down his tone and went quietly on:
+
+"Imogene, I love you."
+
+She did not shrink.
+
+"Imogene, I want you for my wife. Will you listen to my prayer, and make
+my home forever happy with your presence?"
+
+Ah, now she showed feeling; now she started and drew back, putting out
+her hands as if the idea he had advanced was insupportable to her. But
+it was only for a moment. Before he could say to himself that it was all
+over, that his worst fears had been true, and that nothing but the sense
+of some impassable gulf between them could have made her recoil from him
+like this, she had dropped her hands and turned toward him with a look
+whose deep inquiry and evident struggle after an understanding of his
+claims, spoke of a mind clouded by trouble, but not alienated from
+himself by fear.
+
+She did not speak, however,--not for some few minutes, and when she did,
+her words came in short and hurried gasps.
+
+"You are kind," was what she said. "To be your--wife"--she had
+difficulty in uttering the word, but it came at last--"would be an honor
+and a protection. I appreciate both. But I am in no mood to-night to
+listen to words of love from any man. Perhaps six months hence----"
+
+But he already had her in his arms. The joy and relief he felt were so
+great he could not control himself. "Imogene," he murmured, "my
+Imogene!" And scarcely heeded her when, in a burst of subdued agony,
+she asked to be released, saying that she was ill and tired, and must be
+allowed to withdraw to her room.
+
+But a second appeal woke him from his dream. If his worst fears were
+without foundation; if her mind was pure of aught that unfitted her to
+be his wife, there was yet much that was mysterious in her conduct, and,
+consequently, much which he longed to have explained.
+
+"Imogene," he said, "I must ask you to remain a moment longer. Hard as
+it is for me to distress you, there is a question which I feel it
+necessary to put to you before you go. It is in reference to the fearful
+crime which took place to-day. Why did you take such an interest in it,
+and why has it had such an effect upon you that you look like a changed
+woman to-night?"
+
+Disengaging herself from his arms, she looked at him with the set
+composure of one driven to bay, and asked:
+
+"Is there any thing strange in my being interested in a murder
+perpetrated on a person whose name I have frequently heard mentioned in
+this house?"
+
+"No," he murmured, "no; but what led you to her home? It was not a spot
+for a young lady to be in, and any other woman would have shrunk from so
+immediate a contact with crime."
+
+Imogene's hand was on the door, but she turned back.
+
+"I am not like other women," she declared. "When I hear of any thing
+strange or mysterious, I want to understand it. I did not stop to ask
+what people would think of my conduct."
+
+"But your grief and terror, Imogene? They are real, and not to be
+disguised. Look in the glass over there, and you will yourself see what
+an effect all this has had upon you. If Mrs. Clemmens is a stranger to
+you; if you know no more of her than you have always led me to suppose,
+why should you have been so unnaturally impressed by to-day's tragedy?"
+
+It was a searching question, and her eye fell slightly, but her steady
+demeanor did not fail her.
+
+"Still," said she, "because I am not like other women. I cannot forget
+such horrors in a moment." And she advanced again to the door, upon
+which she laid her hand.
+
+Unconsciously his eye followed the movement, and rested somewhat
+inquiringly upon that hand. It was gloved, but to all appearance was
+without the ring which he had seen her put on at the widow's house.
+
+She seemed to comprehend his look. Meeting his eye with unshaken
+firmness, she resumed, in a low and constrained voice:
+
+"You are wondering about the ring that formed a portion of the scene we
+are discussing. Mr. Orcutt, I told the gentleman who handed it to me
+to-day that it was mine. That should be enough for the man who professes
+sufficient confidence in me to wish to make me his wife. But since your
+looks confess a curiosity in regard to this diamond, I will say that I
+was as much astonished as anybody to see it picked up from the floor at
+my feet. The last time I had seen it was when I dropped it, somewhat
+recklessly, into a pocket. How or when it fell out, I cannot say. As for
+the ring itself," she haughtily added, "young ladies frequently possess
+articles of whose existence their friends are unconscious."
+
+Here was an attempt at an explanation which, though meagre and far from
+satisfactory, had at least a basis in possibility. But Mr. Orcutt, as I
+have before said, was certain that the ring was lying on the floor of
+the room where it was picked up, before Imogene had made her appearance
+there, and was therefore struck with dismay at this conclusive evidence
+of her falsehood.
+
+Yet, as he said to himself, she might have some association with the
+ring, might even have an owner's claim upon it, incredible as this
+appeared, without being in the possession of such knowledge as
+definitely connected it with this crime. And led by this hope he laid
+his hand on hers as it was softly turning the knob of the door, and
+said, with emotion:
+
+"Imogene, one moment. This is a subject which I am as anxious to drop as
+you are. In your condition it is almost cruelty to urge it upon you, but
+of one thing I must be assured before you leave my presence, and that
+is, that whatever secrets you may hide in your soul, or whatever motive
+may have governed your treatment of me and my suit to-night, they do not
+spring from any real or supposed interest in this crime, which ought
+from its nature to separate you and me. I ask," he quickly added, as he
+saw her give a start of injured pride or irrepressible dismay, "not
+because I have any doubts on the subject myself, but because some of the
+persons who have unfortunately been witness to your strange and excited
+conduct to-day, have presumed to hint that nothing short of a secret
+knowledge of the crime or criminal could explain your action upon the
+scene of tragedy."
+
+And with a look which, if she had observed it, might have roused her to
+a sense of the critical position in which she stood, he paused and held
+his breath for her reply.
+
+It did not come.
+
+"Imogene?"
+
+"I hear."
+
+Cold and hard the words sounded--his hand went like lightning to his
+heart.
+
+"Are you going to answer?" he asked, at last.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What is that answer to be, Yes or No?"
+
+She turned upon him her large gray eyes. There was misery in their
+depths, but there was a haughtiness, also, which only truth could
+impart.
+
+"My answer is No!" said she.
+
+And, without another word, she glided from the room.
+
+Next morning, Mr. Byrd found three notes awaiting his perusal. The first
+was a notification from the coroner to the effect that the Widow
+Clemmens had quietly breathed her last at midnight. The second, a
+hurried line from Mr. Ferris, advising him to make use of the day in
+concluding a certain matter of theirs in the next town; and the third, a
+letter from Mr. Orcutt, couched in the following terms:
+
+          MR. BYRD: _Dear Sir_--I have seen the person named
+          between us, and I here state, upon my honor, that
+          she is in possession of no facts which it concerns
+          the authorities to know.
+
+                                         TREMONT B. ORCUTT.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+HORACE BYRD.
+
+          But now, I am cabin'd, cribbed, confin'd, bound in
+          To saucy doubts and fears.--MACBETH.
+
+
+HORACE BYRD was by birth and education a gentleman. He was the son of a
+man of small means but great expectations, and had been reared to look
+forward to the day when he should be the possessor of a large income.
+But his father dying, both means and expectations vanished into thin
+air, and at the age of twenty, young Horace found himself thrown upon
+the world without income, without business, and, what was still worse,
+without those habits of industry that serve a man in such an emergency
+better than friends and often better than money itself.
+
+He had also an invalid mother to look after, and two young sisters whom
+he loved with warm and devoted affection; and though by the kindness and
+forethought of certain relatives he was for a time spared all anxiety on
+their account, he soon found that some exertion on his part would be
+necessary to their continued subsistence, and accordingly set about the
+task of finding suitable employment, with much spirit and no little
+hope.
+
+But a long series of disappointments taught him that young men cannot
+leap at a bound into a fine salary or even a promising situation; and
+baffled in every wish, worn out with continued failures, he sank from
+one state of hope to another, till he was ready to embrace any prospect
+that would insure ease and comfort to the helpless beings he so much
+loved.
+
+It was while he was in this condition that Mr. Gryce--a somewhat famous
+police detective of New York--came upon him, and observing, as he
+thought, some signs of natural aptitude for _fine work_, as he called
+it, in this elegant but decidedly hard-pushed young gentleman, seized
+upon him with an avidity that can only be explained by this detective's
+long-cherished desire to ally to himself a man of real refinement and
+breeding; having, as he privately admitted more than once to certain
+chosen friends, a strong need of such a person to assist him in certain
+cases where great houses were to be entered and fine gentlemen if not
+fair ladies subjected to interviews of a delicate and searching nature.
+
+To join the police force and be a detective was the last contingency
+that had occurred to Horace Byrd. But men in decidedly straitened
+circumstances cannot pick and choose too nicely; and after a week of
+uncertainty and fresh disappointment, he went manfully to his mother and
+told her of the offer that had been made him. Meeting with less
+discouragement than he had expected from the broken-down and unhappy
+woman, he gave himself up to the guiding hand of Mr. Gryce, and before
+he realized it, was enrolled among the secret members of the New York
+force.
+
+He was not recognized publicly as a detective. His name was not even
+known to any but the highest officials. He was employed for special
+purposes, and it was not considered desirable that he should be seen at
+police head-quarters. But being a man of much ability and of a solid,
+reliable nature, he made his way notwithstanding, and by the time he had
+been in the service a year, was looked upon as a good-fellow and a truly
+valuable acquisition to the bureau. Indeed, he possessed more than the
+usual qualifications for his calling, strange as the fact appeared not
+only to himself but to the few friends acquainted with his secret. In
+the first place, he possessed much acuteness without betraying it. Of an
+easy bearing and a polished address, he was a man to please all and
+alarm none, yet he always knew what he was about and what you were
+about, too, unless indeed you possessed a power of dissimulation much
+beyond ordinary, when the chances were that his gentlemanly instincts
+would get in his way, making it impossible for him to believe in a guilt
+that was too hardy to betray itself, and too insensible to shame to
+blush before the touch of the inquisitor.
+
+In the second place, he liked the business. Yes, notwithstanding the
+theories of that social code to which he once paid deference,
+notwithstanding the frankness and candor of his own disposition, he
+found in this pursuit a nice adjustment of cause to effect and effect
+to cause that at once pleased and satisfied his naturally mathematical
+mind.
+
+He did not acknowledge the fact, not even to himself. On the contrary,
+he was always threatening that in another month he should look up some
+new means of livelihood, but the coming month would invariably bring a
+fresh case before his notice, and then it would be: "Well, after this
+matter is probed to the bottom," or, "When that criminal is made to
+confess his guilt," till even his little sisters caught the infection,
+and would whisper over their dolls:
+
+"Brother Horace is going to be a great man when all the bad and naughty
+people in the world are put in prison."
+
+As a rule, Mr. Byrd was not sent out of town. But, on the occasion of
+Mr. Ferris desiring a man of singular discretion to assist him in
+certain inquiries connected with the case then on trial in Sibley, there
+happened to be a deficiency of capable men in the bureau, and the
+superintendent was obliged to respond to the call by sending Mr. Byrd.
+He did not do it, however, without making the proviso that all public
+recognition of this officer, in his real capacity, was to be avoided.
+And so far the wishes of his superiors had been respected. No one
+outside of the few persons mentioned in the first chapter of this story
+suspected that the easy, affable, and somewhat distinguished-looking
+young gentleman who honored the village hotel with his patronage was a
+secret emissary of the New York police.
+
+Mr. Byrd was, of all men, then, the very one to feel the utmost
+attraction toward, and at the same time the greatest shrinking from, the
+pursuit of such investigations as were likely to ensue upon the
+discovery of the mysterious case of murder which had so unexpectedly
+been presented to his notice. As a professional, he could not fail to
+experience that quick start of the blood which always follows the
+recognition of a "big affair," while as a gentleman, he felt himself
+recoil from probing into a matter that was blackened by a possibility
+against which every instinct in his nature rebelled.
+
+It was, therefore, with oddly mingled sensations that he read Mr.
+Orcutt's letter, and found himself compelled to admit that the coroner
+had possessed a truer insight than himself into the true cause of Miss
+Dare's eccentric conduct upon the scene of the tragedy. His main
+feeling, however, was one of relief. It was such a comfort to think he
+could proceed in the case without the dread of stumbling upon a clue
+that, in some secret and unforeseen way, should connect this imposing
+woman with a revolting crime. Or so he fondly considered. But he had not
+spent five minutes at the railroad station, where, in pursuance to the
+commands of Mr. Ferris, he went to take the train for Monteith, before
+he saw reason to again change his mind. For, there among the passengers
+awaiting the New York express, he saw Miss Dare, with a travelling-bag
+upon her arm and a look on her face that, to say the least, was of most
+uncommon character in a scene of so much bustle and hurry. She was
+going away, then--going to leave Sibley and its mystery behind her! He
+was not pleased with the discovery. This sudden departure looked too
+much like escape, and gave him, notwithstanding the assurance he had
+received from Mr. Orcutt, an uneasy sense of having tampered with his
+duty as an officer of justice, in thus providing this mysterious young
+woman with a warning that could lead to a result like this.
+
+Yet, as he stood at the depot surveying Miss Dare, in the few minutes
+they both had to wait, he asked himself over and over again how any
+thought of her possessing a personal interest in the crime which had
+just taken place could retain a harbor in his mind. She looked so noble
+in her quiet aspect of solemn determination, so superior in her young,
+fresh beauty--a determination that, from the lofty look it imparted,
+must have its birth in generous emotion, even if her beauty was but the
+result of a rarely modelled frame and a health of surpassing perfection.
+He resolved he would think of her no more in that or any other
+connection; that he would follow the example of her best friend, and
+give his doubts to the wind.
+
+And yet such a burr is suspicion, that he no sooner saw a young man
+approaching her with the evident intention of speaking, than he felt an
+irresistible desire to hear what she would have to say, and, led by this
+impulse, allowed himself to saunter nearer and nearer the pair, till he
+stood almost at their backs.
+
+The first words he heard were:
+
+"How long do you expect to remain in Buffalo, Miss Dare?"
+
+To which she replied:
+
+"I have no idea whether I shall stay a week or a month."
+
+Then the whistle of the advancing train was heard, and the two pressed
+hurriedly forward.
+
+The business which had taken Mr. Byrd to Monteith kept him in that small
+town all day. But though he thus missed the opportunity of attending the
+opening of the inquest at Sibley, he did not experience the vivid
+disappointment which might have been expected, his interest in that
+matter having in some unaccountable way subsided from the moment he saw
+Imogene Dare take the cars for Buffalo.
+
+It was five o'clock when he again returned to Sibley, the hour at which
+the western train was also due. In fact, it came steaming in while he
+stood there, and, as was natural, perhaps, he paused a moment to watch
+the passengers alight. There were not many, and he was about to turn
+toward home, when he saw a lady step upon the platform whose appearance
+was so familiar that he stopped, disbelieving the evidence of his own
+senses. Miss Dare returned? Miss Dare, who but a few hours before had
+left this very depot for the purpose, as she said, of making a visit of
+more or less length in the distant city of Buffalo? It could not be. And
+yet there was no mistaking her, disguised though she was by the heavy
+veil that covered her features. She had come back, and the interest
+which Mr. Byrd had lost in Sibley and its possible mystery, revived with
+a suddenness that called up a self-conscious blush to his hardy cheek.
+
+But why had she so changed her plans? What could have occurred during
+the few hours that had elapsed since her departure, to turn her about on
+her path and drive her homeward before her journey was half completed?
+He could not imagine. True, it was not his present business to do so;
+and yet, however much he endeavored to think of other things, he found
+this question occupying his whole mind long after his return to the
+village hotel. She was such a mystery, this woman, it might easily be
+that she had never intended to go to Buffalo; that she had only spoken
+of that place as the point of her destination under the stress of her
+companion's importunities, and that the real place for which she was
+bound had been some spot very much nearer home. The fact, that her
+baggage had consisted only of a small bag that she carried on her arm,
+would lend probability to this idea, yet, such was the generous
+character of the young detective, he hesitated to give credit to this
+suspicion, and indeed took every pains to disabuse himself of it by
+inquiring of the ticket-agent, whether it was true, as he had heard,
+that Miss Dare had left town on that day for a visit to her friends in
+Buffalo.
+
+He received for his reply that she had bought a ticket for that place,
+though she evidently had not used it, a fact which seemed at least to
+prove she was honest in the expression of her intentions that morning,
+whatever alteration may have taken place in her plans during the course
+of her journey.
+
+Mr. Byrd did not enjoy his supper that night, and was heartily glad
+when, in a few moments after its completion, Mr. Ferris came in for a
+chat and a cigar.
+
+They had many things to discuss. First, their own case now drawing to a
+successful close; next, the murder of the day before; and lastly, the
+few facts which had been elicited in regard to that murder, in the
+inquiry which had that day been begun before the coroner.
+
+Of the latter Mr. Ferris spoke with much interest. He had attended the
+inquest himself, and, though he had not much to communicate--the time
+having been mainly taken up in selecting and swearing in a jury--a few
+witnesses had been examined and certain conclusions reached, which
+certainly added greatly to the impression already made upon the public
+mind, that an affair of great importance had arisen; an affair, too,
+promising more in the way of mystery than the simple nature of its
+earlier manifestations gave them reason to suppose.
+
+In the first place, the widow had evidently been assaulted with a
+deliberate purpose and a serious intent to slay.
+
+Secondly, no immediate testimony was forthcoming calculated to point
+with unerring certainty to the guilty party.
+
+To be sure, the tramp and the hunchback still offered possibilities of
+suspicion; but even they were slight, the former having been seen to
+leave the widow's house without entering, and the latter having been
+proved beyond a question to have come into town on the morning train and
+to have gone at once to court where he remained till the time they all
+saw him disappear down the street.
+
+That the last-mentioned individual may have had some guilty knowledge of
+the crime was possible enough. The fact of his having wiped himself out
+so completely as to elude all search, was suspicious in itself, but if
+he was connected with the assault it must have been simply as an
+accomplice employed to distract public attention from the real criminal;
+and in a case like this, the interest naturally centres with the actual
+perpetrator; and the question was now and must be: Who was the man who,
+in broad daylight, dared to enter a house situated like this in a
+thickly populated street, and kill with a blow an inoffensive woman?
+
+"I cannot imagine," declared Mr. Ferris, as his communication reached
+this point. "It looks as if she had an enemy, but what enemy could such
+a person as she possess--a woman who always did her own work, attended
+to her own affairs, and made it an especial rule of her life never to
+meddle with those of anybody else?"
+
+"Was she such a woman?" inquired Mr. Byrd, to whom as yet no knowledge
+had come of the widow's life, habits, or character.
+
+"Yes. In all the years I have been in this town I have never heard of
+her visiting any one or encouraging any one to visit her. Had it not
+been for Mr. Orcutt, she would have lived the life of a recluse. As it
+was, she was the most methodical person in her ways that I ever knew. At
+just such an hour she rose; at just such an hour put on her kettle,
+cooked her meal, washed her dishes, and sat herself down to her sewing
+or whatever work it was she had to do. The dinner was the only meal that
+waited, and that, Mr. Orcutt says, was always ready and done to a turn
+at whatever moment he chose to present himself."
+
+"Had she no intimates, no relatives?" asked Mr. Byrd, remembering that
+fragment of a letter he had read--a letter which certainly contradicted
+this assertion in regard to her even and quiet life.
+
+"None that I am aware of," was the response. "Wait, I believe I have
+been told she has a nephew somewhere--a sister's son, for whom she had
+some regard and to whom she intended to leave her money."
+
+"She had money, then?"
+
+"Some five thousand, maybe. Reports differ about such matters."
+
+"And this nephew, where does he live?"
+
+"I cannot tell you. I don't know as any one can. My remembrances in
+regard to him are of the vaguest character."
+
+"Five thousand dollars is regarded as no mean sum in a town like this,"
+quoth Mr. Byrd, carelessly.
+
+"I know it. She is called quite rich by many. How she got her money no
+one knows; for when she first came here she was so poor she had to eat
+and sleep all in one room. Mr. Orcutt paid her something for his daily
+dinner, of course, but that could not have enabled her to put ten
+dollars in the bank as she has done every week for the last ten years.
+And to all appearances she has done nothing else for her living. You
+see, we have paid attention to her affairs, if she has paid none to
+ours."
+
+Mr. Byrd again remembered that scrap of a letter which had been shown
+him by the coroner, and thought to himself that their knowledge was in
+all probability less than they supposed.
+
+"Who was that horrid crone I saw shouldering herself through the crowd
+that collected around the gate yesterday?" was his remark, however. "Do
+you remember a wizen, toothless old wretch, whose eye has more of the
+Evil One in it than that of many a young thief you see locked up in the
+county jails?"
+
+"No; that is, I wonder if you mean Sally Perkins. She is old enough and
+ugly enough to answer your description; and, now I think of it, she
+_has_ a way of leering at you as you go by that is slightly suggestive
+of a somewhat bitter knowledge of the world. What makes you ask about
+her?"
+
+"Because she attracted my attention, I suppose. You must remember that I
+don't know any of these people, and that an especially vicious-looking
+person like her would be apt to awaken my curiosity."
+
+"I see, I see; but, in this case, I doubt if it leads to much. Old Sally
+is a hard one, no doubt. But I don't believe she ever contemplated a
+murder, much less accomplished it. It would take too much courage, to
+say nothing of strength. It was a man's hand struck that blow, Mr.
+Byrd."
+
+"Yes," was the quick reply--a reply given somewhat too quickly, perhaps,
+for it made Mr. Ferris look up inquiringly at the young man.
+
+"You take considerable interest in the affair," he remarked, shortly.
+"Well, I do not wonder. Even my old blood has been somewhat fired by its
+peculiar features. I foresee that your detective instinct will soon lead
+you to risk a run at the game."
+
+"Ah, then, you see no objection to my trying for the scent, if the
+coroner persists in demanding it?" inquired Mr. Byrd, as he followed the
+other to the door.
+
+"On the contrary," was the polite response.
+
+And Mr. Byrd found himself satisfied on that score.
+
+Mr. Ferris had no sooner left the room than the coroner came in.
+
+"Well," cried he, with no unnecessary delay, "I want you."
+
+Mr. Byrd rose.
+
+"Have you telegraphed to New York?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, and expect an answer every minute. There will be no difficulty
+about that. The superintendent is my friend, and will not be likely to
+cross me in my expressed wish."
+
+"But----" essayed the detective.
+
+"We have no time for buts," broke in the coroner. "The inquest begins in
+earnest to-morrow, and the one witness we most want has not yet been
+found. I mean the man or the woman who can swear to seeing some one
+approach or enter the murdered woman's house between the time the
+milkman left it at half-past eleven and the hour she was found by Mr.
+Orcutt, lying upon the floor of her dining-room in a dying condition.
+That such a witness exists I have no doubt. A street in which there are
+six houses, every one of which has to be passed by the person entering
+Widow Clemmens' gate, must produce one individual, at least, who can
+swear to what I want. To be sure, all whom I have questioned so far say
+that they were either eating dinner at the time or were in the kitchen
+serving it up; but, for all that, there were plenty who saw the tramp,
+and two women, at least, who are ready to take their oath that they not
+only saw him, but watched him long enough to observe him go around to
+the Widow Clemmens' kitchen door and turn about again and come away as
+if for some reason he had changed his mind about entering. Now, if there
+were two witnesses to see all that, there must have been one somewhere
+to notice that other person, known or unknown, who went through the
+street but a few minutes before the tramp. At all events, I believe such
+a witness can be found, and I mean to have him if I call up every man,
+woman, and child who was in the lane at the time. But a little
+foreknowledge helps a coroner wonderfully, and if you will aid me by
+making judicious inquiries round about, time will be gained, and,
+perhaps, a clue obtained that will lead to a direct knowledge of the
+perpetrator of this crime."
+
+"But," inquired the detective, willing, at least, to discuss the subject
+with the coroner, "is it absolutely necessary that the murderer should
+have advanced from the street? Is there no way he could have reached the
+house from the back, and so have eluded the gaze of the neighbors round
+about?"
+
+"No; that is, there is no regular path there, only a stretch of swampy
+ground, any thing but pleasant to travel through. Of course a man with a
+deliberate purpose before him might pursue that route and subject
+himself to all its inconveniences; but I would scarcely expect it of one
+who--who chose such an hour for his assault," the coroner explained,
+with a slight stammer of embarrassment that did not escape the
+detective's notice. "Nor shall I feel ready to entertain the idea till
+it has been proved that no person, with the exception of those already
+named, was seen any time during that fatal half-hour to advance by the
+usual way to the widow's house."
+
+"Have you questioned the tramp, or in any way received from him an
+intimation of the reason why he did not go into the house after he came
+to it?"
+
+"He said he heard voices quarrelling."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"Of course he was not upon his oath, but as the statement was
+volunteered, we have some right to credit it, perhaps."
+
+"Did he say"--it was Mr. Byrd now who lost a trifle of his
+fluency--"what sort of voices he heard?"
+
+"No; he is an ignorant wretch, and is moreover thoroughly frightened. I
+don't believe he would know a cultivated from an uncultivated voice, a
+gentleman's from a quarryman's. At all events, we cannot trust to his
+discrimination."
+
+Mr. Byrd started. This was the last construction he had expected to be
+put upon his question. Flushing a trifle, he looked the coroner
+earnestly in the face. But that gentleman was too absorbed in the train
+of thought raised by his own remark to notice the look, and Mr. Byrd,
+not feeling any too well assured of his own position, forbore to utter
+the words that hovered on his tongue.
+
+"I have another commission for you," resumed the coroner, after a
+moment. "Here is a name which I wish you would look at----"
+
+But at this instant a smart tap was heard at the door, and a boy entered
+with the expected telegram from New York. Dr. Tredwell took it, and,
+after glancing at its contents with an annoyed look, folded up the paper
+he was about to hand to Mr. Byrd and put it slowly back into his pocket.
+He then referred again to the telegram.
+
+"It is not what I expected," he said, shortly, after a moment of
+perplexed thought. "It seems that the superintendent is not disposed to
+accommodate me." And he tossed over the telegram.
+
+Mr. Byrd took it and read:
+
+          "Expect a suitable man by the midnight express. He
+          will bring a letter."
+
+A flush mounted to the detective's brow.
+
+"You see, sir," he observed, "I was right when I told you I was not the
+man."
+
+"I don't know," returned the other, rising. "I have not changed my
+opinion. The man they send may be very keen and very well-up in his
+business, but I doubt if he will manage this case any better than you
+would have done," and he moved quietly toward the door.
+
+"Thank you for your too favorable opinion of my skill," said Mr. Byrd,
+as he bowed the other out. "I am sure the superintendent is right. I am
+not much accustomed to work for myself, and was none too eager to take
+the case in the first place, as you will do me the justice to remember.
+I can but feel relieved at this shifting of the responsibility upon
+shoulders more fitted to bear it."
+
+Yet, when the coroner was gone, and he sat down alone by himself to
+review the matter, he found he was in reality more disappointed than he
+cared to confess. Why, he scarcely knew. There was no lessening of the
+shrinking he had always felt from the possible developments which an
+earnest inquiry into the causes of this crime might educe. Yet, to be
+severed in this way from all professional interest in the pursuit cut
+him so deeply that, in despite of his usual good-sense and correct
+judgment, he was never nearer sending in his resignation than he was in
+that short half-hour which followed the departure of Dr. Tredwell. To
+distract his thoughts, he at last went down to the bar-room.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+THE SKILL OF AN ARTIST.
+
+          A hit, a very palpable hit.--HAMLET.
+
+
+HE found it occupied by some half-dozen men, one of whom immediately
+attracted his attention, by his high-bred air and total absorption in
+the paper he was reading. He was evidently a stranger, and, though not
+without some faint marks of a tendency to gentlemanly dissipation, was,
+to say the least, more than ordinarily good-looking, possessing a large,
+manly figure, and a fair, regular-featured face, above which shone a
+thick crop of short curly hair of a peculiarly bright blond color. He
+was sitting at a small table, drawn somewhat apart from the rest, and
+was, as I have said, engrossed with a newspaper, to the utter exclusion
+of any apparent interest in the talk that was going on at the other end
+of the room. And yet this talk was of the most animated description, and
+was seemingly of a nature to attract the attention of the most
+indifferent. At all events Mr. Byrd considered it so; and, after one
+comprehensive glance at the elegant stranger, that took in not only the
+personal characteristics I have noted, but also the frown of deep
+thought or anxious care that furrowed a naturally smooth forehead, he
+passed quietly up the room and took his stand among the group of
+loungers there assembled.
+
+Mr. Byrd was not unknown to the _habitues_ of that place, and no
+cessation took place in the conversation. They were discussing an
+occurrence slight enough in itself, but made interesting and dramatic by
+the unconscious enthusiasm of the chief speaker, a young fellow of
+indifferent personal appearance, but with a fervid flow of words and a
+knack at presenting a subject that reminded you of the actor's power,
+and made you as anxious to watch his gesticulations as to hear the words
+that accompanied them.
+
+"I tell you," he was saying, "that it was just a leaf out of a play. I
+never saw its equal off the stage. She was so handsome, so impressive in
+her trouble or anxiety, or whatever it was that agitated her, and he so
+dark, and so determined in _his_ trouble or anxiety, or whatever it was
+that agitated him. They came in at different doors, she at one side of
+the depot and he at another, and they met just where I could see them
+both, directly in the centre of the room. 'You!' was her involuntary
+cry, and she threw up her hands before her face just as if she had seen
+a ghost or a demon. An equal exclamation burst from him, but he did not
+cover his eyes, only stood and looked at her as if he were turned to
+stone. In another moment she dropped her hands. 'Were you coming to see
+_me_?' came from her lips in a whisper so fraught with secret horror and
+anguish that it curdled my blood to hear it. 'Were you coming to see
+_me_?' was his response, uttered in an equally suppressed voice and with
+an equal intensity of expression. And then, without either giving an
+answer to the other's question, they both shrank back, and, turning,
+fled with distracted looks, each by the way they had come, the two doors
+closing with a simultaneous bang that echoed through that miserable
+depot like a knell. There were not many folks in the room just at that
+minute, but I tell you those that were looked at each other as they had
+not done before and would not be likely to do again. Some unhappy
+tragedy underlies such a meeting and parting, gentlemen, and I for one
+would rather not inquire what."
+
+"But the girl--the man--didn't you see them again before you left?"
+asked an eager voice from the group.
+
+"The young lady," remarked the other, "was on the train that brought me
+here. The gentleman went the other way."
+
+"Oh!" "Ah!" and "Where did she get off?" rose in a somewhat deafening
+clamor around him.
+
+"I did not observe. She seemed greatly distressed, if not thoroughly
+overcome, and observing her pull down her veil, I thought she did not
+relish my inquiring looks, and as I could not sit within view of her and
+not watch her, I discreetly betook myself into the smoking-car, where I
+stayed till we arrived at this place."
+
+"Hum!" "Ha!" "Curious!" rose in chorus once more, and then, the general
+sympathies of the crowd being exhausted, two or three or more of the
+group sauntered up to the bar, and the rest sidled restlessly out of the
+room, leaving the enthusiastic speaker alone with Mr. Byrd.
+
+"A strange scene!" exclaimed the latter, infusing just enough of seeming
+interest into his usually nonchalant tone to excite the vanity of the
+person he addressed, and make him more than ever ready to talk. "I wish
+I had been in your place," continued Mr. Byrd, almost enthusiastically.
+"I am sure I could have made a picture of that scene that would have
+been very telling in the gazette I draw for."
+
+"Do you make pictures for papers?" the young fellow inquired, his
+respect visibly rising.
+
+"Sometimes," the imperturbable detective replied, and in so doing told
+no more than the truth. He had a rare talent for off-hand sketching, and
+not infrequently made use of it to increase the funds of the family.
+
+"Well, that is something I would like to do," acknowledged the youth,
+surveying the other over with curious eyes. "But I hav'n't a cent's
+worth of talent for it. I can see a scene in my mind now--this one for
+instance--just as plain as I can see you; all the details of it, you
+know, the way they stood, the clothes they wore, the looks on their
+faces, and all that, but when I try to put it on paper, why, I just
+can't, that's all."
+
+"Your forte lies another way," remarked Mr. Byrd. "You can present a
+scene so vividly that a person who had not seen it for himself, might
+easily put it on paper just from your description. See now!" And he
+caught up a sheet of paper from the desk and carried it to a side table.
+"Just tell me what depot this was in."
+
+The young fellow, greatly interested at once, leaned over the
+detective's shoulder and eagerly replied: "The depot at Syracuse."
+
+Mr. Byrd nodded and made a few strokes with his pencil on the paper
+before him.
+
+"How was the lady dressed?" he next asked.
+
+"In blue; dark blue cloth, fitting like a glove. Fine figure, you know,
+very tall and unusually large, but perfect, I assure you, perfect. Yes,
+that is very like it," he went on watching the quick, assured strokes of
+the other with growing wonder and an unbounded admiration. "You have
+caught the exact poise of the head, as I live, and--yes, a large hat
+with two feathers, sir, two feathers drooping over the side, so; a bag
+on the arm; two flounces on the skirt; a--oh! the face? Well, handsome,
+sir, very handsome; straight nose, large eyes, determined mouth, strong,
+violently agitated expression. Well, I will give up! A photograph
+couldn't have done her better justice. You are a genius, sir, a genius!"
+
+Mr. Byrd received this tribute to his skill with some confusion and a
+deep blush, which he vainly sought to hide by bending lower over his
+work.
+
+"The man, now," he suggested, with the least perceptible change in his
+voice, that, however, escaped the attention of his companion. "What was
+he like; young or old?"
+
+"Well, young--about twenty-five I should say; medium height, but very
+firmly and squarely built, with a strong face, large mustache, brilliant
+eyes, and a look--I cannot describe it, but you have caught that of the
+lady so well, you will, doubtless, succeed in getting his also."
+
+But Mr. Byrd's pencil moved with less certainty now, and it was some
+time before he could catch even the peculiarly sturdy aspect of the
+figure which made this unknown gentleman, as the young fellow declared,
+look like a modern Hercules, though he was far from being either large
+or tall. The face, too, presented difficulties he was far from
+experiencing in the case of the lady, and the young fellow at his side
+was obliged to make several suggestions such as:--"A little more hair on
+the forehead, if you please--there was quite a lock showing beneath his
+hat;" or, "A trifle less sharpness to the chin,--so;" or, "Stay, you
+have it too square now; tone it down a hair's breadth, and you will get
+it," before he received even the somewhat hesitating acknowledgment from
+the other of: "There, that is something like him!"
+
+But he had not expected to succeed very well in this part of the
+picture, and was sufficiently pleased to have gained a very correct
+notion of the style of clothing the gentleman wore, which, it is
+needless to state, was most faithfully reproduced in the sketch, even if
+the exact expression of the strong and masculine face was not.
+
+"A really remarkable bit of work," admitted the young fellow when the
+whole was completed. "And as true to the scene, too, as half the
+illustrations given in the weekly papers. Would you mind letting me have
+it as a _souvenir_?" he eagerly inquired. "I would like to show it to a
+chap who was with me at the time. The likeness to the lady is
+wonderful."
+
+But Mr. Byrd, with his most careless air, had already thrust the picture
+into his pocket, from which he refused to withdraw it, saying, with an
+easy laugh, that it might come in play with him some time, and that he
+could not afford to part with it. At which remark the young fellow
+looked disappointed and vaguely rattled some coins he had in his pocket;
+but, meeting with no encouragement from the other, forbore to press his
+request, and turned it into an invitation to join him in a social glass
+at the bar.
+
+To this slight token of appreciation Mr. Byrd did not choose to turn a
+deaf ear. So the drinks being ordered, he proceeded to clink glasses
+with the youthful stranger, taking the opportunity, at the same time, of
+glancing over to the large, well-built man whose quiet absorption in the
+paper he was reading had so attracted his attention when he first came
+in.
+
+To his surprise he found that person just as engrossed in the news as
+ever, not a feature or an eyelash appearing to have moved since the time
+he looked at him last.
+
+Mr. Byrd was so astonished at this that when he left the room a few
+minutes later he took occasion in passing the gentleman, to glance at
+the paper he was studying so industriously, and, to his surprise, found
+it to be nothing more nor less than the advertising sheet of the New
+York _Herald_.
+
+"A fellow of my own craft," was his instantaneous conclusion. But a
+moment's consideration assured him that this could not be, as no
+detective worthy the name would place so little value upon the
+understanding of those about him as to sit for a half-hour with his eyes
+upon a sheet of paper totally devoid of news, no matter what his purpose
+might be, or how great was his interest in the conversation to which he
+was secretly listening. No; this gentleman was doubtless what he seemed
+to be, a mere stranger, with something of a serious and engrossing
+nature upon his mind, or else he was an amateur, who for some reason was
+acting the part of a detective without either the skill or experience of
+one.
+
+Whichever theory might be true, this gentleman was a person who at this
+time and in this place was well worth watching: that is, if a man had
+any reason for interesting himself in the pursuit of possible clues to
+the mystery of Mrs. Clemmens' murder. But Mr. Byrd felt that he no
+longer possessed a professional right to such interest; so, leaving
+behind him this fine-looking gentleman, together with all the inevitable
+conjectures which the latter's peculiar manner had irresistibly
+awakened, he proceeded to regain his room and enter upon that
+contemplation of the picture he had just made, which was naturally
+demanded by his regard for one of the persons there depicted.
+
+It was a vigorous sketch, and the slow blush crept up and dyed Mr.
+Byrd's forehead as he gazed at it and realized the perfection of the
+likeness he had drawn of Miss Dare. Yes, that was her form, her face,
+her expression, her very self. She it was and no other who had been the
+heroine of the strange scene enacted that day in the Syracuse depot; a
+scene to which, by means of this impromptu sketch, he had now become as
+nearly a witness as any one could hope for who had not been actually
+upon the spot. Strange! And he had been so anxious to know what had
+altered the mind of this lady and sent her back to Sibley before her
+journey was half completed--had pondered so long and vainly upon the
+whys and wherefores of an action whose motive he had never expected to
+understand, but which he now saw suggested in a scene that seriously
+whetted, if it did not thoroughly satisfy, his curiosity.
+
+The moment he had chosen to portray was that in which the eyes of the
+two met and their first instinctive recoil took place. Turning his
+attention from the face of the lady and bestowing it upon that of the
+man, he perceived there the horror and shrinking which he had imprinted
+so successfully upon hers. That the expression was true, though the
+countenance was not, he had no doubt. The man, whatever his name,
+nature, calling, or history, recoiled from a meeting with Imogene Dare
+as passionately as she did from one with him. Both had started from home
+with a simultaneous intention of seeking the other, and yet, at the
+first recognition of this fact, both had started and drawn back as if
+death rather than life had confronted them in each other's faces. What
+did it mean? What secret of a deep and deadly nature could lie between
+these two, that a scene of such evident import could take place between
+them? He dared not think; he could do nothing but gaze upon the figure
+of the man he had portrayed, and wonder if he would be able to identify
+the original in case he ever met him. The face was more or less a
+failure, of course, but the form, the cut of the clothes, the manner of
+carriage, and the general aspect of strong and puissant manhood which
+distinguished the whole figure, could not be so far from correct but
+that, with a hint from surrounding circumstances, he would know the man
+himself when he saw him. At all events, he meant to imprint the possible
+portrait upon his mind in case----in case what? Pausing he asked himself
+this question with stern determination, and could find no answer.
+
+"I will burn the sketch at once, and think of it and her no more," he
+muttered, half-rising.
+
+But he did not do it. Some remembrance crossed his mind of what the
+young fellow downstairs had said about retaining it as a _souvenir_, and
+he ended in folding it up and putting it away somewhat carefully in his
+memorandum-book, with a vow that he would leave Sibley and its troublous
+mystery at the first moment of release that he could possibly obtain.
+The pang which this decision cost him convinced him that it was indeed
+high time he did so.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+MISS FIRMAN.
+
+          I confess with all humility that at times the line
+          of demarcation between truth and fiction is
+          rendered so indefinite and indistinct, that I
+          cannot always determine, with unerring certainty,
+          whether an event really happened to me, or whether
+          _I_ only dreamed it.--LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+MR. BYRD, upon waking next morning, found himself disturbed by a great
+perplexity. Were the words then ringing in his ears, real words, which
+he had overheard spoken outside of his door some time during the past
+night, or were they merely the empty utterances of a more than usually
+vivid dream?
+
+He could not tell. He could remember the very tone of voice in which he
+fancied them to have been spoken--a tone which he had no difficulty in
+recognizing as that of the landlord of the hotel; could even recall the
+faint sounds of bustle which accompanied them, as though the person
+using them had been showing another person through the hall; but beyond
+that, all was indistinct and dream-like.
+
+The words were these:
+
+"Glad to see you back, sir. This murder following so close upon your
+visit must have been a great surprise. A sad occurrence, that, sir, and
+a very mysterious one. Hope you have some information to give."
+
+"If it is a remembrance and such words were uttered outside of my door
+last night," argued the young detective to himself, "the guest who
+called them forth can be no other than the tall and florid gentleman
+whom I encountered in the bar-room. But is it a remembrance, or only a
+chimera of my own overwrought brain struggling with a subject it will
+not let drop? As Shakespeare says, 'That is the question!'"
+
+Fortunately, it was not one which it behooved him to decide. So, for the
+twentieth time, he put the subject by and resolved to think of it no
+more.
+
+But perplexities of this kind are not so easily dismissed, and more than
+once during his hurried and solitary breakfast, did he ask himself
+whether, in case the words were real, he had not found in the landlord
+of this very hotel the one witness for which the coroner was so
+diligently seeking.
+
+A surprise awaited him after breakfast, in the sudden appearance at his
+room door of the very gentleman last alluded to.
+
+"Ha, Byrd," said he, with cheerful vivacity: "here is a line from the
+superintendent which may prove interesting to you."
+
+And with a complacent smile, Dr. Tredwell handed over a letter which had
+been brought to him by the detective who had that morning arrived from
+New York.
+
+With a dim sense of foreboding which he would have found difficult to
+explain, Mr. Byrd opened the note and read the following words:
+
+          DEAR SIR,--I send with this a man fully competent
+          to conduct a case of any ordinary difficulty. I
+          acknowledge it is for our interest that you employ
+          him to the exclusion of the person mentioned in
+          your letter. But if you or that person think that
+          he can render you any real assistance by his
+          interference, he is at liberty to act in his
+          capacity of detective in as far as he can do so
+          without divulging too widely the secret of his
+          connection with the force. ---- ----.
+
+"The superintendent need not be concerned," said Mr. Byrd, returning the
+note with a constrained bow. "I shall not interfere in this matter."
+
+"You will miss a good thing, then," remarked the coroner, shortly,
+looking keenly at the young man.
+
+"I cannot help it," observed the other, with a quick sigh of impatience
+or regret. "I should have to see my duty very clearly and possess the
+very strongest reasons for interfering before I presumed to offer either
+advice or assistance after a letter of this kind."
+
+"And who knows but what such reasons may yet present themselves?"
+ventured the coroner. Then seeing the young man shake his head, made
+haste to add in the business-like tone of one preparing to take his
+leave, "At all events the matter stands open for the present; and if
+during the course of to-day's inquiry you see fit to change your mind,
+it will be easy enough for you to notify me." And without waiting for
+any further remonstrance, he gave a quick nod and passed hastily out.
+
+The state of mind in which he left Mr. Byrd was any thing but enviable.
+Not that the young man's former determination to let this matter alone
+had been in any wise shaken by the unexpected concession on the part of
+the superintendent, but that the final hint concerning the inquest had
+aroused his old interest to quite a formidable degree, and, what was
+worse, had reawakened certain feelings which since last night it had
+been his most earnest endeavor to subdue. He felt like a man pursued by
+an implacable fate, and dimly wondered whether he would be allowed to
+escape before it was too late to save himself from lasting uneasiness,
+if not lifelong regret.
+
+A final stroke of business for Mr. Ferris kept him at the court-house
+most of the morning; but his duty in that direction being at an end, he
+no longer found any excuse for neglecting the task imposed upon him by
+the coroner. He accordingly proceeded to the cottage where the inquest
+was being held, and finding each and every available room there packed
+to its uttermost by interested spectators, took up his stand on the
+outside of a curtained window, where with but a slight craning of his
+neck he could catch a very satisfactory view of the different witnesses
+as they appeared before the jury. The day was warm and he was by no
+means uncomfortable, though he could have wished that the advantages of
+his position had occasioned less envy in the breasts of the impatient
+crowd that was slowly gathering at his back; or, rather, that their
+sense of these advantages might have been expressed in some more
+pleasing way than by the various pushes he received from the more or
+less adventurous spirits who endeavored to raise themselves over his
+shoulder or insinuate themselves under his arms.
+
+The room into which he looked was the sitting-room, and it was, so far
+as he could judge in the first casual glance he threw into it, occupied
+entirely by strangers. This was a relief. Since it had become his duty
+to attend this inquiry, he wished to do so with a free mind, unhindered
+by the watchfulness of those who knew his interest in the affair, or by
+the presence of persons around whom his own imagination had
+involuntarily woven a network of suspicion that made his observation of
+them at once significant and painful.
+
+The proceedings were at a standstill when he first came upon the scene.
+
+A witness had just stepped aside, who, from the impatient shrugs of many
+persons present, had evidently added little if any thing to the
+testimony already given. Taking advantage of the moment, Mr. Byrd leaned
+forward and addressed a burly man who sat directly under him.
+
+"What have they been doing all the morning?" he asked. "Any thing
+important?"
+
+"No," was the surly reply. "A score of folks have had their say, but not
+one of them has told any thing worth listening to. Nobody has seen any
+thing, nobody knows any thing. The murderer might have risen up through
+the floor to deal his blow, and having given it, sunk back again with
+the same supernatural claptrap, for all these stupid people seem to know
+about him."
+
+The man had a loud voice, and as he made no attempt to modulate it, his
+words were heard on all sides. Naturally many heads were turned toward
+him, and more than one person looked at him with an amused smile.
+Indeed, of all the various individuals in his immediate vicinity, only
+one forbore to take any notice of his remark. This was a heavy,
+lymphatic, and somewhat abstracted-looking fellow of nondescript
+appearance, who stood stiff and straight as an exclamation point against
+the jamb of the door-way that led into the front hall.
+
+"But have no facts been obtained, no conclusions reached, that would
+serve to awaken suspicion or put justice on the right track?" pursued
+Mr. Byrd, lowering his voice in intimation for the other to do the same.
+
+But that other was of an obstinate tendency, and his reply rose full and
+loud.
+
+"No, unless it can be considered proved that it is only folly to try and
+find out who commits a crime in these days. Nothing else has come to
+light, as far as I can see, and that much we all knew before."
+
+A remark of this kind was not calculated to allay the slight inclination
+to mirth which his former observation had raised; but the coroner
+rapping with his gavel on the table at this moment, every other
+consideration was lost in the natural curiosity which every one felt as
+to who the next witness would be.
+
+But the coroner had something to say before he called for further
+testimony.
+
+"Gentlemen," he remarked, in a clear and commanding tone that at once
+secured attention and awakened interest, "we have spent the morning in
+examining the persons who live in this street, with a view to
+ascertaining, if possible, who was in conversation with Mrs. Clemmens at
+the time the tramp went up to her door."
+
+Was it a coincidence, or was there something in the words themselves
+that called forth the stir that at this moment took place among the
+people assembled directly before Mr. Byrd? It was of the slightest
+character, and was merely momentary in its duration; nevertheless, it
+attracted his attention, especially as it seemed to have its origin in a
+portion of the room shut off from his observation by the corner of the
+wall already alluded to.
+
+The coroner proceeded without pause.
+
+"The result, as you know, has not been satisfactory. No one seems to be
+able to tell us who it was that visited Mrs. Clemmens on that day. I now
+propose to open another examination of a totally different character,
+which I hope may be more conclusive in its results. Miss Firman, are you
+prepared to give your testimony?"
+
+Immediately a tall, gaunt, but pleasant-faced woman arose from the dim
+recesses of the parlor. She was dressed with decency, if not taste, and
+took her stand before the jury with a lady-like yet perfectly assured
+air that promised well for the correctness and discretion of her
+answers. The coroner at once addressed her.
+
+"Your full name, madam?"
+
+"Emily Letitia Firman, sir."
+
+"Emily!" ejaculated Mr. Byrd, to himself, with a throb of sudden
+interest. "That is the name of the murdered woman's correspondent."
+
+"Your birthplace," pursued the coroner, "and the place of your present
+residence?"
+
+"I was born in Danbury, Connecticut," was the reply, "and I am living in
+Utica, where I support my aged mother by dress-making."
+
+"How are you related to Mrs. Clemmens, the lady who was found murdered
+here two days ago?"
+
+"I am her second cousin; her grandmother and my mother were sisters."
+
+"Upon what terms have you always lived, and what can you tell us of her
+other relatives and connections?"
+
+"We have always been friends, and I can tell you all that is generally
+known of the two or three remaining persons of her blood and kindred.
+They are, first, my mother and myself, who, as I have before said, live
+in Utica, where I am connected with the dress-making establishment of
+Madame Trebelle; and, secondly, a nephew of hers, the son of a favorite
+brother, whom she has always supported, and to whom she has frequently
+avowed her intention of leaving her accumulated savings."
+
+"The name of this gentleman and his place of residence?"
+
+"His name is Mansell--Craik Mansell--and he lives in Buffalo, where he
+has a situation of some trust in the large paper manufactory of
+Harrison, Goodman, & Chamberlin."
+
+Buffalo! Mr. Byrd gave an involuntary start, and became, if possible,
+doubly attentive.
+
+The coroner's questions went on.
+
+"Do you know this young man?"
+
+"Yes, sir. He has been several times to our house in the course of the
+last five years."
+
+"What can you tell us of his nature and disposition, as well as of his
+regard for the woman who proposed to benefit him so materially by her
+will?"
+
+"Well, sir," returned Miss Firman, "it is hard to read the nature and
+feelings of any man who has much character, and Craik Mansell has a good
+deal of character. But I have always thought him a very honest and
+capable young man, who might do us credit some day, if he were allowed
+to have his own way and not be interfered with too much. As for his
+feelings toward his aunt, they were doubtless those of gratitude, though
+I have never heard him express himself in any very affectionate terms
+toward her, owing, no doubt, to a natural reticence of disposition which
+has been observable in him from childhood."
+
+"You have, however, no reason to believe he cherished any feelings of
+animosity toward his benefactress?" continued the coroner, somewhat
+carelessly, "or possessed any inordinate desire after the money she was
+expecting to leave him at her death?"
+
+"No, sir. Both having minds of their own, they frequently disagreed,
+especially on business matters; but there was never any bitterness
+between them, as far as I know, and I never heard him say any thing
+about his expectations one way or the other. He is a man of much natural
+force, of strong, if not violent, traits of character; but he has too
+keen a sense of his own dignity to intimate the existence of desires so
+discreditable to him."
+
+There was something in this reply and the impartial aspect of the lady
+delivering it that was worthy of notice, perhaps. And such it would have
+undoubtedly received from Mr. Byrd, at least, if the words she had used
+in characterizing this person had not struck him so deeply that he
+forgot to note any thing further.
+
+"A man of great natural force--of strong, if not violent traits of
+character," he kept repeating to himself. "The description, as I live,
+of the person whose picture I attempted to draw last night."
+
+And, ignoring every thing else, he waited with almost sickening
+expectation for the question that would link this nephew of Mrs.
+Clemmens either to the tragedy itself, or to that person still in the
+background, of whose secret connection with a man of this type, he had
+obtained so curious and accidental a knowledge.
+
+But it did not come. With a quiet abandonment of the by no means
+exhausted topic, which convinced Mr. Byrd that the coroner had plans and
+suspicions to which the foregoing questions had given no clue, Dr.
+Tredwell leaned slowly forward, and, after surveying the witness with a
+glance of cautious inquiry, asked in a way to concentrate the attention
+of all present:
+
+"You say that you knew the Widow Clemmens well; that you have always
+been on friendly terms with her, and are acquainted with her affairs.
+Does that mean you have been made a confidante of her troubles, her
+responsibilities, and her cares?"
+
+"Yes, sir; that is, in as far as she ever made a confidant of any one.
+Mrs. Clemmens was not of a complaining disposition, neither was she by
+nature very communicative. Only at rare times did she make mention of
+herself or her troubles: but when she did, it was invariably to me,
+sir--or so she used to say; and she was not a woman to deceive you in
+such matters."
+
+"Very well, then, you are in a position to tell us something of her
+history, and why it is she kept herself so close after she came to this
+town?"
+
+But Miss Firman uttered a vigorous disclaimer to this. "No, sir," said
+she, "I am not. Mrs. Clemmens' history was simple enough, but her
+reasons for living as she did have never been explained. She was not
+naturally a quiet woman, and, when a girl, was remarkable for her
+spirits and fondness for company."
+
+"Has she had any great sorrow since you knew her--any serious loss or
+disappointment that may have soured her disposition, and turned her, as
+it were, against the world?"
+
+"Perhaps; she felt the death of her husband very much--indeed, has never
+been quite the same since she lost him."
+
+"And when was that, if you please?"
+
+"Full fifteen years ago, sir; just before she came to this town."
+
+"Did you know Mr. Clemmens?"
+
+"No, sir; none of us knew him. They were married in some small village
+out West, where he died--well, I think she wrote--a month if not less
+after their marriage. She was inconsolable for a time, and, though she
+consented to come East, refused to take up her abode with any of her
+relatives, and so settled in this place, where she has remained ever
+since."
+
+The manner of the coroner suddenly changed to one of great
+impressiveness.
+
+"Miss Firman," he now asked, "did it ever strike you that the hermit
+life she led was due to any fear or apprehension which she may have
+secretly entertained?"
+
+"Sir?"
+
+The question was peculiar and no one wondered at the start which the
+good woman gave. But what mainly struck Mr. Byrd, and gave to the moment
+a seeming importance, was the fact that she was not alone in her
+surprise or even her expression of it; that the indefinable stir he had
+before observed had again taken place in the crowd before him, and that
+this time there was no doubt about its having been occasioned by the
+movements of a person whose elbow he could just perceive projecting
+beyond the door-way that led into the hall.
+
+But there was no time for speculation as to whom this person might be.
+The coroner's questions were every moment growing more rapid, and Miss
+Firman's answers more interesting.
+
+"I asked," here the coroner was heard to say, "whether, in your
+intercourse with Mrs. Clemmens, you have ever had reason to suppose she
+was the victim of any secret or personal apprehension that might have
+caused her to seclude herself as she did? Or let me put it in another
+way. Can you tell me whether you know of any other person besides this
+nephew of hers who is likely to be benefited by Mrs. Clemmens' death?"
+
+"Oh, sir," was the hasty and somewhat excited reply, "you mean young Mr.
+Hildreth!"
+
+The way in which this was said, together with the slight flush of
+satisfaction or surprise which rose to the coroner's brow, naturally
+awoke the slumbering excitement of the crowd and made a small sensation.
+A low murmur ran through the rooms, amid which Mr. Byrd thought he heard
+a suppressed but bitter exclamation. He could not be sure of it,
+however, and had just made up his mind that his ears had deceived him,
+when his attention was attracted by a shifting in the position of the
+sturdy, thick-set man who had been leaning against the opposite wall,
+but who now crossed and took his stand beside the jamb, on the other
+side of which sat the unknown individual toward whom so many inquiring
+glances had hitherto been directed.
+
+The quietness with which this change was made, and the slight, almost
+imperceptible, alteration in the manner of the person making it, brought
+a sudden enlightenment to Mr. Byrd, and he at once made up his mind that
+this dull, abstracted-looking nonentity leaning with such apparent
+unconcern against the wall, was the new detective who had been sent up
+that morning from New York. His curiosity in regard to the identity of
+the individual round the corner was not lessened by this.
+
+Meantime the coroner had answered the hasty exclamation of the witness,
+by disclaiming the existence of any special meaning of his own, and had
+furthermore pressed the question as to who this Mr. Hildreth was.
+
+She immediately answered: "A gentleman of Toledo, sir; a young man who
+could only come into his property by the death of Mrs. Clemmens."
+
+"How? You have not spoken of any such person as connected with her."
+
+"No," was her steady response; "nor was he so connected by any tie of
+family or friendship. Indeed, I do not know as they were ever
+acquainted, or, as for that matter, ever saw each other's faces. The
+fact to which I allude was simply the result of a will, sir, made by Mr.
+Hildreth's grandfather."
+
+"A will? Explain yourself. I do not understand."
+
+"Well, sir, I do not know much about the law, and may make a dozen
+mistakes in telling you what you wish to know; but what I understand
+about the matter is this: Mr. Hildreth, the grandfather of the gentleman
+of whom I have just spoken, having a large property, which he wanted to
+leave in bulk to his grandchildren,--their father being a very
+dissipated and reckless man,--made his will in such a way as to prevent
+its distribution among his heirs till after the death of two persons
+whom he mentioned by name. Of these two persons one was the son of his
+head clerk, a young boy, who sickened and died shortly after Mr.
+Hildreth himself, and the other my cousin, the poor murdered woman, who
+was then a little girl visiting the family. I do not know how she came
+to be chosen by him for this purpose, unless it was that she was
+particularly round and ruddy as a child, and looked as if she might live
+for many years."
+
+"And the Hildreths? What of them during these years?"
+
+"Well, I cannot exactly say, as I never had any acquaintance with them
+myself. But I know that the father, whose dissipated habits were the
+cause of this peculiar will tying up the property, died some little time
+ago; also one or two of his children, but beyond that I know little,
+except that the remaining heirs are a young gentleman and one or two
+young girls, all of the worldliest and most fashionable description."
+
+The coroner, who had followed all this with the greatest interest, now
+asked if she knew the first name of the young gentleman.
+
+"Yes," said she, "I do. It is Gouverneur."
+
+The coroner gave a satisfied nod, and remarked casually, "It is not a
+common name," and then, leaning forward, selected a paper from among
+several that lay on the table before him. "Miss Firman," he inquired,
+retaining this paper in his hand, "do you know when it was that Mrs.
+Clemmens first became acquainted with the fact of her name having been
+made use of in the elder Mr. Hildreth's will?"
+
+"Oh, years ago; when she first came of age, I believe."
+
+"Was it an occasion of regret to her? Did she ever express herself as
+sorry for the position in which she stood toward this family?"
+
+"Yes, sir; she did."
+
+The coroner's face assumed a yet greater gravity, and his manner became
+more and more impressive.
+
+"Can you go a step farther and say that she ever acknowledged herself to
+have cherished apprehensions of her personal safety, during these years
+of weary waiting on the part of the naturally impatient heirs?"
+
+A distressed look crossed the amiable spinster's face, and she looked
+around at the jury with an expression almost deprecatory in its nature.
+
+"I scarcely know what answer to give," she hesitatingly declared. "It is
+a good deal to say that she was apprehensive; but I cannot help
+remembering that she once told me her peace of mind had left her since
+she knew there were persons in the world to whom her death would be a
+matter of rejoicing. 'It makes me feel as if I were keeping people out
+of their rights,' she remarked at the same time. 'And, though it is not
+my fault, I should not be surprised if some day I had to suffer for
+it.'"
+
+"Was there ever any communication made to Mrs. Clemmens by persons
+cognizant of the relation in which she stood to these Hildreths?--or any
+facts or gossip detailed to her concerning them, that would seem to give
+color to her fears and supply her with any actual grounds for her
+apprehensions?"
+
+"No; only such tales as came to her of their expensive ways of living
+and somewhat headlong rush into all fashionable freaks and follies."
+
+"And Gouverneur Hildreth? Any special gossip in regard to him?"
+
+"No!"
+
+There are some noes that are equivalent to affirmations. This was one of
+them. Naturally the coroner pressed the question.
+
+"I must request you to think again," he persisted. Then, with a change
+of voice: "Are you sure you have never heard any thing specially
+derogatory to this young man, or that Mrs. Clemmens had not?"
+
+"I have friends in Toledo who speak of him as the fastest man about
+town, if that could be called derogatory. As for Mrs. Clemmens, she may
+have heard as much, and she may have heard more, I cannot say. I know
+she always frowned when his father's name was mentioned."
+
+"Miss Firman," proceeded the coroner, "in the long years in which you
+have been more or less separated from Mrs. Clemmens, you have,
+doubtless, kept up a continued if not frequent correspondence with her?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Do you think, from the commencement and general tone of this letter,
+which I found lying half finished on her desk, that it was written and
+intended for yourself?"
+
+Taking the letter from his outstretched hand, she fumbled nervously for
+her glasses, put them on, and then glanced hurriedly at the sheet,
+saying as she did so:
+
+"There can be no doubt of it. She had no other friend whom she would
+have been likely to address as 'Dear Emily.'"
+
+"Gentlemen of the Jury, you have a right to hear the words written by
+the deceased but a few hours, if not a few minutes, previous to the
+brutal assault that has led to the present inquiry. Miss Firman, as the
+letter was intended for yourself, will you be kind enough to read it
+aloud, after which you will hand it over to the jury."
+
+With a gloomy shake of her head, and a certain trembling in her voice,
+that was due, perhaps, as much to the sadness of her task as to any
+foreboding of the real nature of the words she had to read, she
+proceeded to comply:
+
+          "DEAR EMILY:--I don't know why I sit down to write
+          to you to-day. I have plenty to do, and morning is
+          no time for indulging in sentimentalities. But I
+          feel strangely lonely and strangely anxious.
+          Nothing goes just to my mind, and somehow the many
+          causes for secret fear which I have always had,
+          assume an undue prominence in my mind. It is
+          always so when I am not quite well. In vain I
+          reason with myself, saying that respectable people
+          do not lightly enter into crime. But there are so
+          many to whom my death would be more than welcome,
+          that I constantly see myself in the act of  being----
+
+"Good heavens!" ejaculated the spinster, dropping the paper from her
+hand and looking dismally around upon the assembled faces of the now
+deeply interested spectators.
+
+Seeing her dismay, a man who stood at the right of the coroner, and who
+seemed to be an officer of the law, quietly advanced, and picking up the
+paper she had let fall, handed it to the jury. The coroner meanwhile
+recalled her attention to herself.
+
+"Miss Firman," said he, "allow me to put to you one final question
+which, though it might not be called a strictly legal one, is surely
+justified by the gravity of the situation. If Mrs. Clemmens had finished
+this letter, and you in due course had received it, what conclusion
+would you have drawn from the words you have just read?"
+
+"I could have drawn but one, sir. I should have considered that the
+solitary life led by my cousin was telling upon her mind."
+
+"But these terrors of which she speaks? To what and whom would you have
+attributed them?"
+
+"I don't like to say it, and I don't know as I am justified in saying
+it, but it would have been impossible for me, under the circumstances,
+to have thought of any other source for them than the one we have
+already mentioned."
+
+"And that is?" inexorably pursued the coroner.
+
+"Mr. Gouverneur Hildreth."
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+THE THICK-SET MAN.
+
+          Springs to catch woodcocks.--HAMLET.
+
+
+IN the pause that followed, Miss Firman stepped aside, and Mr. Byrd,
+finding his attention released, stole a glance toward the hall-way and
+its nearly concealed occupant. He found the elbow in agitated movement,
+and, as he looked at it, saw it disappear and a hand project into view,
+groping for the handkerchief which was, doubtless, hidden in the hat
+which he now perceived standing on the floor in the corner of the
+door-way. He looked at that hand well. It was large, white, and
+elegantly formed, and wore a seal ring of conspicuous size upon the
+little finger. He had scarcely noticed this ring, and wondered if others
+had seen it too, when the hand plunged into the hat, and drawing out the
+kerchief, vanished with it behind the jamb that had already hidden so
+much from his view.
+
+"A fine gentleman's hand, and a fine gentleman's ring," was Mr. Byrd's
+mental comment; and he was about to glance aside, when, to his great
+astonishment, he saw the hand appear once more with the handkerchief in
+it, but without the ring which a moment since had made it such a
+conspicuous mark for his eyes.
+
+"Our fine gentleman is becoming frightened," he thought, watching the
+hand until it dropped the handkerchief back into the hat. "One does not
+take off a ring in a company like this without a good reason." And he
+threw a quick glance at the man he considered his rival in the detective
+business.
+
+But that worthy was busily engaged in stroking his chin in a feeling
+way, strongly suggestive of a Fledgerby-like interest in his absent
+whisker; and well versed as was Mr. Byrd in the ways of his
+fellow-detectives, he found it impossible to tell whether the
+significant action he had just remarked had escaped the attention of
+this man or not. Confused if not confounded, he turned back to the
+coroner, in a maze of new sensations, among which a growing hope that
+his own former suspicions had been of a wholly presumptuous character,
+rose predominant.
+
+He found that functionary preparing to make a remark.
+
+"Gentlemen," said he; "you have listened to the testimony of Mrs.
+Clemmens' most confidential friend, and heard such explanations as she
+had to give, of the special fears which Mrs. Clemmens acknowledges
+herself to have entertained in regard to her personal safety. Now, while
+duly impressing upon you the necessity of not laying too much stress
+upon the secret apprehensions of a woman living a life of loneliness and
+seclusion, I still consider it my duty to lay before you another bit of
+the widow's writing, in which----"
+
+Here he was interrupted by the appearance at his side of a man with a
+telegram in his hand. In the pause which followed his reading of the
+same, Mr. Byrd, with that sudden impulse of interference which comes
+upon us all at certain junctures, tore out a leaf from his
+memorandum-book, and wrote upon it some half dozen or so words
+indicative of the advisability of examining the proprietor of the
+Eastern Hotel as to the name and quality of the several guests
+entertained by him on the day of the murder; and having signed this
+communication with his initial letters H. B., looked about for a
+messenger to carry it to the coroner. He found one in the person of a
+small boy, who was pressing with all his might against his back, and
+having despatched him with the note, regained his old position at the
+window, and proceeded to watch, with a growing interest in the drama
+before him, the result of his interference upon the coroner.
+
+He had not long to wait. The boy had no sooner shown himself at the door
+with the note, than Dr. Tredwell laid down the telegram he was perusing
+and took this new communication. With a slight smile Mr. Byrd was not
+slow in attributing to its true source, he read the note through, then
+turned to the officer at his side and gave him some command that sent
+him from the room. He then took up the slip he was on the point of
+presenting to the jury at the time he was first interrupted, and
+continuing his remarks in reference to it, said quietly:
+
+"Gentlemen, this paper which I here pass over to you, was found by me in
+the recess of Mrs. Clemmens' desk at the time I examined it for the
+address of Miss Firman. It was in an envelope that had never been
+sealed, and was, if I may use the expression, tucked away under a pile
+of old receipts. The writing is similar to that used in the letter you
+have just read, and the signature attached to it is 'Mary Ann Clemmens.'
+Will Mr. Black of the jury read aloud the words he will there find
+written?"
+
+Mr. Black, in whose hand the paper then rested, looked up with a flush,
+and slowly, if not painfully, complied:
+
+          "I desire"--such was the language of the writing
+          before him--"that in case of any sudden or violent
+          death on my part, the authorities should inquire
+          into the possible culpability of a gentleman
+          living in Toledo, Ohio, known by the name of
+          Gouverneur Hildreth. He is a man of no principle,
+          and my distinct conviction is, that if such a
+          death should occur to me, it will be entirely due
+          to his efforts to gain possession of property
+          which cannot be at his full disposal until my
+          death.
+
+                         "MARY ANN CLEMMENS, Sibley, N. Y."
+
+"A serious charge!" quoth a juryman, breaking the universal silence
+occasioned by this communication from the dead.
+
+"I should think so," echoed the burly man in front of Mr. Byrd.
+
+But Mr. Byrd himself and the quiet man who leaned so stiffly and
+abstractedly against the wall, said nothing. Perhaps they found
+themselves sufficiently engaged in watching that half-seen elbow, which
+since the reading of this last slip of paper had ceased all movement and
+remained as stationary as though it had been paralyzed.
+
+"A charge which, as yet, is nothing but a charge," observed the coroner.
+"But evidence is not wanting," he went on, "that Mr. Hildreth is not at
+home at this present time, but is somewhere in this region, as will be
+seen by the following telegram from the superintendent of the Toledo
+police." And he held up to view, not the telegram he had just received,
+but another which he had taken from among the papers on the table before
+him:
+
+          "Party mentioned not in Toledo. Left for the East
+          on midnight train of Wednesday the 27th inst. When
+          last heard from was in Albany. He has been living
+          fast, and is well known to be in pecuniary
+          difficulties, necessitating a large and immediate
+          amount of money. Further particulars by letter.
+
+"That, gentlemen, I received last night. To-day," he continued, taking
+up the telegram that had just come in, "the following arrives:
+
+          "Fresh advices. Man you are in search of talked of
+          suicide at his club the other night. Seemed in a
+          desperate way, and said that if something did not
+          soon happen he should be a lost man. Horse-flesh
+          and unfortunate speculations have ruined him. They
+          say it will take all he will ultimately receive to
+          pay his debts.
+
+"And below:
+
+          "Suspected that he has been in your town."
+
+A crisis was approaching round the corner. This, to the skilled eyes of
+Mr. Byrd, was no longer doubtful. Even if he had not observed the
+wondering glances cast in that direction by persons who could see the
+owner of that now immovable elbow, he would have been assured that all
+was not right, by the alert expression which had now taken the place of
+the stolid and indifferent look which had hitherto characterized the
+face of the man he believed to be a detective.
+
+A panther about to spring could not have looked more threatening, and
+the wonder was, that there were no more to observe this exciting
+by-play. Yet the panther did not spring, and the inquiry went on.
+
+"The witness I now propose to call," announced the coroner, after a
+somewhat trying delay, "is the proprietor of the Eastern Hotel. Ah, here
+he is. Mr. Symonds, have you brought your register for the past week?"
+
+"Yes, sir," answered the new-comer, with a good deal of flurry in his
+manner and an embarrassed look about him, which convinced Mr. Byrd that
+the words in regard to whose origin he had been so doubtful that
+morning, had been real words and no dream.
+
+"Very well, then, submit it, if you please, to the jury, and tell us in
+the meantime whether you have entertained at your house this week any
+guest who professed to come from Toledo?"
+
+"I don't know. I don't remember any such," began the witness, in a
+stammering sort of way. "We have always a great many men from the West
+stopping at our house, but I don't recollect any special one who
+registered himself as coming from Toledo."
+
+"You, however, always expect your guests to put their names in your
+book?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+There was something in the troubled look of the man which aroused the
+suspicion of the coroner, and he was about to address him with another
+question when one of the jury, who was looking over the register, spoke
+up and asked:
+
+"Who is this Clement Smith who writes himself down here as coming from
+Toledo?"
+
+"Smith?--Smith?" repeated Symonds, going up to the juryman and looking
+over his shoulder at the book. "Oh, yes, the gentleman who came
+yesterday. He----"
+
+But at this moment a slight disturbance occurring in the other room, the
+witness paused and looked about him with that same embarrassed look
+before noted. "He is at the hotel now," he added, with an attempt at
+ease, transparent as it was futile.
+
+The disturbance to which I have alluded was of a peculiar kind. It was
+occasioned by the thick-set man making the spring which, for some
+minutes, he had evidently been meditating. It was not a tragic leap,
+however, but a decidedly comic one, and had for its end and aim the
+recovery of a handkerchief which he had taken from his pocket at the
+moment when the witness uttered the name of Smith, and, by a useless
+flourish in opening it, flirted from his hand to the floor. At least, so
+the amused throng interpreted the sudden dive which he made, and the
+heedless haste that caused him to trip over the gentleman's hat that
+stood on the floor, causing it to fall and another handkerchief to
+tumble out. But Mr. Byrd, who had a detective's insight into the whole
+matter, saw something more than appeared in the profuse apologies which
+the thick-set man made, and the hurried manner in which he gathered up
+the handkerchiefs and stood looking at them before returning one to his
+pocket and the other to its place in the gentleman's hat. Nor was Mr.
+Byrd at all astonished to observe that the stand which his
+fellow-detective took, upon resettling himself, was much nearer the
+unseen gentleman than before, or that in replacing the hat, he had taken
+pains to put it so far to one side that the gentleman would be obliged
+to rise and come around the corner in order to obtain it. The drift of
+the questions propounded to the witness at this moment opened his eyes
+too clearly for him to fail any longer to understand the situation.
+
+"Now at the hotel?" the coroner was repeating. "And came yesterday? Why,
+then, did you look so embarrassed when I mentioned his name?"
+
+"Oh--well--ah," stammered the man, "because he was there once before,
+though his name is not registered but once in the book."
+
+"He was? And on what day?"
+
+"On Tuesday," asserted the man, with the sudden decision of one who sees
+it is useless to attempt to keep silence.
+
+"The day of the murder?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And why is his name not on the book at that time if he came to your
+house and put up?"
+
+"Because he did not put up; he merely called in, as it were, and did not
+take a meal or hire a room."
+
+"How did you know, then, that he was there? Did you see him or talk to
+him?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And what did you say?"
+
+"He asked me for directions to a certain house, and I gave them."
+
+"Whose house?"
+
+"The Widow Clemmens', sir."
+
+Ah, light at last! The long-sought-for witness had been found! Coroner
+and jury brightened visibly, while the assembled crowd gave vent to a
+deep murmur, that must have sounded like a knell of doom--in one pair of
+ears, at least.
+
+"He asked you for directions to the house of Widow Clemmens. At what
+time was this?"
+
+"At about half-past eleven in the morning."
+
+The very hour!
+
+"And did he leave then?"
+
+"Yes, sir; after taking a glass of brandy."
+
+"And did you not see him again?"
+
+"Not till yesterday, sir."
+
+"Ah, and at what time did you see him yesterday?"
+
+"At bedtime, sir. He came with other arrivals on the five o'clock train;
+but I was away all the afternoon and did not see him till I went into
+the bar-room in the evening."
+
+"Well, and what passed between you then?"
+
+"Not much, sir. I asked if he was going to stay with us, and when he
+said 'Yes,' I inquired if he had registered his name. He replied 'No.'
+At which I pointed to the book, and he wrote his name down and then went
+up-stairs with me to his room."
+
+"And is that all? Did you say nothing beyond what you have mentioned?
+ask him no questions or make no allusions to the murder?"
+
+"Well, sir, I did make some attempt that way, for I was curious to know
+what took him to the Widow Clemmens' house, but he snubbed me so
+quickly, I concluded to hold my tongue and not trouble myself any
+further about the matter."
+
+"And do you mean to say you haven't told any one that an unknown man had
+been at your house on the morning of the murder inquiring after the
+widow?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I am a poor man, and believe in keeping out of all sort of
+messes. Policy demands that much of me, gentlemen."
+
+The look he received from the coroner may have convinced him that policy
+can be carried too far.
+
+"And now," said Dr. Tredwell, "what sort of a man is this Clement
+Smith?"
+
+"He is a gentleman, sir, and not at all the sort of person with whom you
+would be likely to connect any unpleasant suspicion."
+
+The coroner surveyed the hotel-keeper somewhat sternly.
+
+"We are not talking about suspicions!" he cried; then, in a different
+tone, repeated: "This gentleman, you say, is still at your house?"
+
+"Yes, sir, or was at breakfast-time. I have not seen him since."
+
+"We will have to call Mr. Smith as a witness," declared the coroner,
+turning to the officer at his side. "Go and see if you cannot bring him
+as soon as you did Mr. Symonds."
+
+But here a voice spoke up full and loud from the other room.
+
+"It is not necessary, sir. A witness you will consider more desirable
+than he is in the building." And the thick-set man showed himself for an
+instant to the coroner, then walking back, deliberately laid his hand on
+the elbow which for so long a time had been the centre of Mr. Byrd's
+wondering conjectures.
+
+In an instant the fine, gentlemanly figure of the stranger, whom he had
+seen the night before in the bar-room, appeared with a bound from beyond
+the jamb, and pausing excitedly before the man, now fully discovered to
+all around as a detective, asked him, in shaking tones of suppressed
+terror or rage, what it was he meant.
+
+"I will tell you," was the ready assurance, "if you will step out here
+in view of the coroner and jury."
+
+With a glance that for some reason disturbed Mr. Byrd in his newly
+acquired complacency, the gentleman stalked hurriedly forward and took
+his stand in the door-way leading into the room occupied by the persons
+mentioned.
+
+"Now," he cried, "what have you to say?"
+
+But the detective, who had advanced behind him, still refrained from
+replying, though he gave a quick look at the coroner, which led that
+functionary to glance at the hotel-keeper and instantly ask:
+
+"You know this gentleman?"
+
+"It is Mr. Clement Smith."
+
+A flush so violent and profuse, that even Mr. Byrd could see it from his
+stand outside the window, inundated for an instant the face and neck of
+the gentleman, but was followed by no words, though the detective at his
+side waited for an instant before saying:
+
+"I think you are mistaken; I should call him now Mr. Gouverneur
+Hildreth!"
+
+With a start and a face grown as suddenly white as it had but an instant
+before been red, the gentleman turned and surveyed the detective from
+head to foot, saying, in a tone of mock politeness:
+
+"And why, if you please? I have never been introduced to you that I
+remember."
+
+"No," rejoined the detective, taking from his pocket the handkerchief
+which he had previously put there, and presenting it to the other with
+a bow, "but I have read the monogram upon your handkerchief and it
+happens to be----"
+
+"Enough!" interrupted the other, in a stern if not disdainful voice. "I
+see I have been the victim of espionage." And stepping into the other
+room, he walked haughtily up to the coroner and exclaimed: "I am
+Gouverneur Hildreth, and I come from Toledo. Now, what is it you have to
+say to me?"
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+CLOSE CALCULATIONS.
+
+
+                                    Truth alone,
+          Truth tangible and palpable; such truth
+          As may be weighed and measured; truth deduced
+          By logical conclusion--close, severe--
+          From premises incontrovertible.--MOULTRIE.
+
+
+THE excitement induced by the foregoing announcement had, in a degree,
+subsided. The coroner, who appeared to be as much startled as any one at
+the result of the day's proceedings, had manifested his desire of
+putting certain questions to the young man, and had begun by such
+inquiries into his antecedents, and his connection with Mrs. Clemmens,
+as elicited the most complete corroboration of all Miss Firman's
+statements.
+
+An investigation into his motives for coming East at this time next
+followed, in the course of which he acknowledged that he undertook the
+journey solely for the purpose of seeing Mrs. Clemmens. And when asked
+why he wished to see her at this time, admitted, with some manifestation
+of shame, that he desired to see for himself whether she was really in
+as strong and healthy a condition as he had always been told; his
+pecuniary embarrassments being such that he could not prevent his mind
+from dwelling upon possibilities which, under any other circumstances,
+he would have been ashamed to consider.
+
+"And did you see Mrs. Clemmens?" the coroner inquired.
+
+"Yes, sir; I did."
+
+"When?"
+
+"On Tuesday, sir; about noon."
+
+The answer was given almost with bravado, and the silence among the
+various auditors became intense.
+
+"You admit, then, that you were in the widow's house the morning she was
+murdered, and that you had an interview with her a few minutes before
+the fatal blow was struck?"
+
+"I do."
+
+There was doggedness in the tone, and doggedness in the look that
+accompanied it. The coroner moved a little forward in his chair and
+uttered his next question with deep gravity.
+
+"Did you approach the widow's house by the road and enter into it by
+means of the front door overlooking the lane?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"And did you meet no one in the lane, or see no one at the windows of
+any of the houses as you came by?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"How long did you stay in this house, and what was the result of the
+interview which you had with Mrs. Clemmens?"
+
+"I stayed, perhaps, ten minutes, and I learned nothing from Mrs.
+Clemmens, save that she was well and hearty, and likely to live out her
+threescore years and ten for all hint that her conversation or
+appearance gave me."
+
+He spoke almost with a tone of resentment; his eyes glowed darkly, and a
+thrill of horror sped through the room as if they felt that the murderer
+himself stood before them.
+
+"You will tell me what was said in this interview, if you please, and
+whether the widow knew who you were; and, if so, whether any words of
+anger passed between you?"
+
+The face of the young man burned, and he looked at the coroner and then
+at the jurymen, as if he would like to challenge the whole crew, but the
+color that showed in his face was the flush of shame, or, so thought Mr.
+Byrd, and in his reply, when he gave it, there was a bitterness of
+self-scorn that reminded the detective more of the mortification of a
+gentleman caught in an act of meanness than the secret alarm of a man
+who had been beguiled into committing a dastardly crime.
+
+"Mrs. Clemmens was evidently a woman of some spirit," said he, forcing
+out his words with sullen desperation. "She may have used sharp
+language; I believe indeed she did; but she did not know who I was,
+for--for I pretended to be a seller of patent medicine, warranted to
+cure all ills, and she told me she had no ills, and--and--Do you want a
+man to disgrace himself in your presence?" he suddenly flashed out,
+cringing under the gaze of the many curious and unsympathetic eyes fixed
+upon him.
+
+But the coroner, with a sudden assumption of severity, pardonable,
+perhaps, in a man with a case of such importance on his hands,
+recommended the witness to be calm and not to allow any small feelings
+of personal mortification to interfere with a testimony of so much
+evident value. And without waiting for the witness to recover himself,
+asked again:
+
+"What did the widow say, and with what words did you leave?"
+
+"The widow said she abominated drugs, and never took them. I replied
+that she made a great mistake, if she had any ailments. Upon which she
+retorted that she had no ailment, and politely showed me the door. I do
+not remember that any thing else passed between us."
+
+His tone, which had been shrill and high, dropped at the final sentence,
+and by the nervous workings of his lips, Mr. Byrd perceived that he
+dreaded the next question. The persons grouped around him evidently
+dreaded it too.
+
+But it was less searching than they expected, and proved that the
+coroner preferred to approach his point by circuitous rather than direct
+means.
+
+"In what room was the conversation held, and by what door did you come
+in and go out?"
+
+"I came in by the front door, and we stood in that room"--pointing to
+the sitting-room from which he had just issued.
+
+"Stood! Did you not sit down?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Stood all the time, and in that room to which you have just pointed?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The coroner drew a deep breath, and looked at the witness long and
+searchingly. Mr. Hildreth's way of uttering this word had been any thing
+but pleasant, and consequently any thing but satisfactory. A low murmur
+began to eddy through the rooms.
+
+"Gentlemen, silence!" commanded the coroner, venting in this injunction
+some of the uncomfortable emotion with which he was evidently
+surcharged; for his next words were spoken in a comparatively quiet
+voice, though the fixed severity of his eye could have given the witness
+but little encouragement.
+
+"You say," he declared, "that in coming through the lane you encountered
+no one. Was this equally true of your return?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I believe so. I don't remember. I was not looking up," was
+the slightly confused reply.
+
+"You passed, however, through the lane, and entered the main street by
+the usual path?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And where did you go then?"
+
+"To the depot."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"I wished to leave the town. I had done with it."
+
+"And did you do so, Mr. Hildreth?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Where did you go?"
+
+"To Albany, where I had left my traps."
+
+"You took the noon train, then?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Which leaves precisely five minutes after twelve?"
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"Took it without stopping anywhere on the way?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Did you buy a ticket at the office?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I did not have time."
+
+"Ah, the train was at the station, then?"
+
+Mr. Hildreth did not reply; he had evidently been driven almost to the
+end of his patience, or possibly of his courage, by this quick fire of
+small questions.
+
+The coroner saw this and pressed his advantage.
+
+"Was the train at the station or not when you arrived there, Mr.
+Hildreth?"
+
+"I do not see why it can interest you to know," the witness retorted,
+with a flash of somewhat natural anger; "but since you insist, I will
+tell you that it was just going out, and that I had to run to reach it,
+and only got a foothold upon the platform of the rear car at the risk of
+my life."
+
+He looked as if he wished it had been at the cost of his life, and
+compressed his lips and moved restlessly from side to side as if the
+battery of eyes levelled upon his face were so many points of red-hot
+steel burning into his brain.
+
+But the coroner, intent upon his duty, released not one jot of the
+steady hold he had taken upon his victim.
+
+"Mr. Hildreth," said he, "your position as the only person who
+acknowledges himself to have been in this house during the half-hour
+that preceded the assault, makes every thing you can tell us in
+reference to your visit of the highest importance. Was the widow alone,
+do you think, or did you see any thing--pause now and consider
+well--_any thing_ that would lead you to suppose there was any one
+beside her and yourself in the house?"
+
+It was the suggestion of a just man, and Mr. Byrd looked to see the
+witness grasp with all the energy of despair at the prospect of release
+it held out. But Mr. Hildreth either felt his cause beyond the reach of
+any such assistance, or his understanding was so dulled by misery he
+could not see the advantage of acknowledging the presence of a third
+party in the cottage. Giving a dreary shake of the head, he slowly
+answered:
+
+"There may have been somebody else in the house, I don't know; but if
+so, I didn't hear him or see him. I thought we were alone."
+
+The frankness with which he made the admission was in his favor, but the
+quick and overpowering flush that rose to his face the moment he had
+given utterance to it, betrayed so unmistakable a consciousness of what
+the admission implied that the effect was immediately reversed. Seeing
+that he had lost rather than gained in the opinions of the merciless
+inquisitors about him, he went back to his old bravado, and haughtily
+lifted his head.
+
+"One question more," resumed the coroner. "You have said that Mrs.
+Clemmens was a spirited woman. Now, what made you think so? Any
+expression of annoyance on her part at the interruption in her work
+which your errand had caused her, or merely the expression of her face
+and the general way she had of speaking?"
+
+"The latter, I think, though she did use a harsh word or two when she
+showed me the door."
+
+"And raised her voice?"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"Mr. Hildreth," intimated the coroner, rising, "will you be kind enough
+to step with me into the adjoining room?"
+
+With a look of wonder not unmixed with alarm, the young man prepared to
+comply.
+
+"I should like the attention of the jury," Dr. Tredwell signified as he
+passed through the door.
+
+There was no need to give them this hint. Not a man of them but was
+already on his feet in eager curiosity as to what their presiding
+officer was about to do.
+
+"I wish you to tell me now," the coroner demanded of Mr. Hildreth, as
+they paused in the centre of the sitting-room, "where it was you stood
+during your interview with Mrs. Clemmens, and, if possible, take the
+very position now which you held at that time."
+
+"There are too many persons here," the witness objected, visibly
+rebelling at a request of which he could not guess the full
+significance.
+
+"The people present will step back," declared the coroner; "you will
+have no trouble in taking your stand on the spot you occupied the other
+day."
+
+"Here, then!" exclaimed the young man, taking a position near the centre
+of the room.
+
+"And the widow?"
+
+"Stood there."
+
+"Facing you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I see," intimated the coroner, pointing toward the windows. "Her back
+was to the yard while you stood with your face toward it." Then with a
+quick motion, summoning the witness back into the other room, asked,
+amid the breathless attention of the crowd, whom this bit of by-play had
+wrought up to expectation: "Did you observe any one go around to the
+back door while you stood there, and go away again without attempting to
+knock?"
+
+Mr. Hildreth knitted his brow and seemed to think.
+
+"Answer," persisted the coroner; "it is not a question that requires
+thought."
+
+"Well, then, I did not," cried the witness, looking the other directly
+in the eye, with the first gleam of real manly feeling which he had yet
+displayed.
+
+"You did not see a tramp come into the yard, walk around to the kitchen
+door, wait a moment as if hesitating whether he would rap, and then turn
+and come back again without doing so?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+The coroner drew a piece of paper before him and began figuring on it.
+Earnestly, almost wildly, the young man watched him, drawing a deep
+breath and turning quite pale as the other paused and looked up.
+
+"Yet," affirmed the coroner, as if no delay had occurred since he
+received his last answer, "such a person did approach the house while
+you were in it, and if you had stood where you say, you must have seen
+him."
+
+It was a vital thrust, a relentless presentation of fact, and as such
+shook the witness out of his lately acquired composure. Glancing hastily
+about, he sought the assistance of some one both capable and willing to
+advise him in this crisis, but seeing no one, he made a vigorous effort
+and called together his own faculties.
+
+"Sir," he protested, a tremor of undisguised anxiety finding way into
+his voice, "I do not see how you make that all out. What proof have you
+that this tramp of which you speak came to the house while I was in it?
+Could he not have come before? Or, what was better, could he not have
+come after?"
+
+The ringing tone with which the last question was put startled
+everybody. No such sounds had issued from his lips before. Had he caught
+a glimpse of hope, or was he driven to an extremity in his defence that
+forced him to assert himself? The eyes of Miss Firman and of a few other
+women began to soften, and even the face of Mr. Byrd betrayed that a
+change was on the verge of taking place in his feelings.
+
+But the coroner's look and tone dashed cold water on this young and
+tender growth of sympathy. Passing over to the witness the paper on
+which he had been scribbling, he explained with dry significance:
+
+"It is only a matter of subtraction and addition, Mr. Hildreth. You have
+said that upon quitting this house you went directly to the depot, where
+you arrived barely in time to jump on the train as it was leaving the
+station. Now, to walk from this place to the depot at any pace you would
+be likely to use, would occupy--well, let us say seven minutes. At two
+minutes before twelve, then, you were still in this house. Well!" he
+ejaculated, interrupting himself as the other opened his lips, "have you
+any thing to say?"
+
+"No," was the dejected and hesitating reply.
+
+The coroner at once resumed:
+
+"But at five minutes before twelve, Mr. Hildreth, the tramp walked into
+the widow's yard. Now, allowing only two minutes for your interview with
+that lady, the conclusion remains that you were in the house when he
+came up to it. Yet you declare that, although you stood in full view of
+the yard, you did not see him."
+
+"You figure closer than an astronomer calculating an eclipse," burst
+from the young man's lips in a flash of that resolution which had for
+the last few minutes animated him. "How do you know your witnesses have
+been so exact to a second when they say this and that of the goings and
+comings you are pleased to put into an arithmetical problem. A minute or
+two one way or the other would make a sad discrepancy in your
+calculations, Mr. Coroner."
+
+"I know it," assented Dr. Tredwell, quietly ignoring the other's heat;
+"but if the jury will remember, there were four witnesses, at least, who
+testified to the striking of the town clock just as the tramp finally
+issued from the lane, and one witness, of well-known accuracy in matters
+of detail, who declared on oath that she had just dropped her eyes from
+that same clock when she observed the tramp go into the widow's gate,
+and that it was five minutes to twelve exactly. But, lest I do seem too
+nice in my calculations," the coroner inexorably pursued, "I will take
+the trouble of putting it another way. At what time did you leave the
+hotel, Mr. Hildreth?"
+
+"I don't know," was the testy response.
+
+"Well, I can tell you," the coroner assured him. "It was about twenty
+minutes to twelve, or possibly earlier, but no later. My reason for
+saying this," he went on, drawing once more before him the fatal sheet
+of paper, "is that Mrs. Dayton's children next door were out playing in
+front of this house for some few minutes previous to the time the tramp
+came into the lane. As you did not see them you must have arrived here
+before they began their game, and that, at the least calculation, would
+make the time as early as a quarter to twelve."
+
+"Well," the fierce looks of the other seemed to say, "and what if it
+was?"
+
+"Mr. Hildreth," continued the coroner, "if you were in this house at a
+quarter to twelve and did not leave it till two minutes before, and the
+interview was as you say a mere interchange of a dozen words or so, that
+could not possibly have occupied more than three minutes; _where were
+you during all the rest of the time_ that must have elapsed after you
+finished your interview and the moment you left the house?"
+
+It was a knock-down question. This aristocratic-looking young gentleman
+who had hitherto held himself erect before them, notwithstanding the
+humiliating nature of the inquiries which had been propounded to him,
+cringed visibly and bowed his head as if a stroke of vital force had
+descended upon it. Bringing his fist down on the table near which he
+stood, he seemed to utter a muttered curse, while the veins swelled on
+his forehead so powerfully that more than one person present dropped
+their eyes from a spectacle which bore so distinctly the stamp of guilt.
+
+"You have not answered," intimated the coroner, after a moment of silent
+waiting.
+
+"No!" was the loud reply, uttered with a force that startled all
+present, and made the more timid gaze with some apprehension at his
+suddenly antagonistic attitude. "It is not pleasant for a gentleman"--he
+emphasized the word bitterly--"for a _gentleman_ to acknowledge himself
+caught at a time like this in a decided equivocation. But you have
+cornered me fairly and squarely, and I am bound to tell the truth.
+Gentlemen, I did not leave the widow's house as immediately as I said. I
+stayed for fully five minutes or so alone in the small hall that leads
+to the front door. In all probability I was there when the tramp passed
+by on his way to the kitchen-door, and there when he came back again."
+And Mr. Hildreth fixed his eyes on the coroner as if he dared him to
+push him further.
+
+But Dr. Tredwell had been in his present seat before. Merely confronting
+the other with that cold official gaze which seems to act like a wall of
+ice between a witness and the coroner, he said the two words: "What
+doing?"
+
+The effect was satisfactory. Paling suddenly, Mr. Hildreth dropped his
+eyes and replied humbly, though with equal laconism, "I was thinking."
+But scarcely had the words left his lips, than a fresh flame of feeling
+started up within him, and looking from juryman to juryman he
+passionately exclaimed: "You consider that acknowledgment suspicious.
+You wonder why a man should give a few minutes to thought after the
+conclusion of an interview that terminated all hope. I wonder at it now
+myself. I wonder I did not go straight out of the house and rush
+headlong into any danger that promised an immediate extinction of my
+life."
+
+No language could have more forcibly betrayed the real desperation of
+his mind at the critical moment when the widow's life hung in the
+balance. He saw this, perhaps, when it was too late, for the sweat
+started on his brow, and he drew himself up like a man nerving himself
+to meet a blow he no longer hoped to avert. One further remark, however,
+left his lips.
+
+"Whatever I did or of whatever I was thinking, one thing I here declare
+to be true, and that is, that I did not see the widow again after she
+left my side and went back to her kitchen in the rear of the house. The
+hand that struck her may have been lifted while I stood in the hall, but
+if so, I did not know it, nor can I tell you now who it was that killed
+her."
+
+It was the first attempt at direct disavowal which he had made, and it
+had its effect. The coroner softened a trifle of his austerity, and the
+jurymen glanced at each other relieved. But the weight of suspicion
+against this young man was too heavy, and his manner had been too
+unfortunate, for this effect to last long. Gladly as many would have
+been to credit this denial, if only for the name he bore and a certain
+fine aspect of gentlemanhood that surrounded him in spite of his present
+humiliation, it was no longer possible to do so without question, and he
+seemed to feel this and do his best to accept the situation with
+patience.
+
+An inquiry which was put to him at this time by a juryman showed the
+existent state of feeling against him.
+
+"May I ask," that individual dryly interrogated, "why you came back to
+Sibley, after having left it?"
+
+The response came clear and full. Evidently the gravity of his position
+had at last awakened the latent resources of Mr. Hildreth's mind.
+
+"I heard of the death of this woman, and my surprise caused me to
+return."
+
+"How did you hear of it?"
+
+"Through the newspapers."
+
+"And you were surprised?"
+
+"I was astounded; I felt as if I had received a blow myself, and could
+not rest till I had come back where I could learn the full particulars."
+
+"So, then, it was curiosity that brought you to the inquest to-day?"
+
+"It was."
+
+The juryman looked at him astonished; so did all the rest. His manner
+was so changed, his answers so prompt and ringing.
+
+"And what was it," broke in the coroner, "that led you to register
+yourself at the hotel under a false name?"
+
+"I scarcely know," was the answer, given with less fire and some show of
+embarrassment. "Perhaps I thought that, under the circumstances, it
+would be better for me not to use my own."
+
+"In other words, you were afraid?" exclaimed the coroner, with the full
+impressiveness of his somewhat weighty voice and manner.
+
+It was a word to make the weakest of men start. Mr. Hildreth, who was
+conspicuous in his own neighborhood for personal if not for moral
+courage, flushed till it looked as if the veins would burst on his
+forehead, but he made no other reply than a proud and angry look and a
+short:
+
+"I was not aware of fear; though, to be sure, I had no premonition of
+the treatment I should be called upon to suffer here to-day."
+
+The flash told, the coroner sat as if doubtful, and looked from man to
+man of the jury as if he would question their feelings on this vital
+subject. Meantime the full shame of his position settled heavier and
+heavier upon Mr. Hildreth; his head fell slowly forward, and he seemed
+to be asking himself how he was to meet the possibly impending ignominy
+of a direct accusation. Suddenly he drew himself erect, and a gleam shot
+from his eyes that, for the first time, revealed him as a man of latent
+pluck and courage.
+
+"Gentlemen," he began, looking first at the coroner and then at the
+jury, "you have not said you consider me guilty of this crime, but you
+evidently harbor the suspicion. I do not wonder; my own words have given
+me away, and any man would find it difficult to believe in my innocence
+after what has been testified to in this place. Do not hesitate, then.
+The shock of finding myself suspected of a horrible murder is passed. I
+am willing to be arrested. Indeed, after what has here taken place, I
+not only am willing but even anxious. I want to be tried, if only to
+prove to the world my complete and entire innocence."
+
+The effect of this speech, uttered at a moment so critical, may be
+easily imagined. All the impressible people present at once signified
+their belief in his honesty, and gave him looks of sympathy, if not
+approval; while the cooler and possibly the more judicious of his
+auditors calmly weighed these assertions against the evidence that had
+been advanced, and finding the result unsatisfactory, shook their heads
+as if unconvinced, and awaited further developments.
+
+They did not come. The inquiry had reached its climax, and little, if
+any thing, more was left to be said. Mr. Hildreth was examined more
+fully, and some few of the witnesses who had been heard in the early
+part of the day were recalled, but no new facts came to light, and no
+fresh inquiries were started.
+
+Mr. Byrd, who from the attitude of the coroner could not fail to see Mr.
+Hildreth was looked upon with a suspicion that would ultimately end in
+arrest, decided that his interest in the inquest was at an end, and
+being greatly fatigued, gave up his position at the window and quietly
+stole away.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+THE FINAL TEST.
+
+          Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue,
+          in order that they should see twice as much as
+          they say.--COLTON.
+
+
+THE fact was, he wanted to think. Detective though he was and accustomed
+to the bravado with which every sort of criminal will turn to meet their
+fate when fully driven to bay, there had been something in the final
+manner of this desperate but evidently cultured gentleman, which had
+impressed him against his own will, and made him question whether the
+suspected man was not rather the victim of a series of extraordinary
+circumstances, than the selfish and brutal criminal which the evidence
+given seemed to suggest.
+
+Not that Mr. Byrd ever allowed his generous heart to blind him to the
+plain language of facts. His secret and not to be smothered doubts in
+another direction were proof enough of this; and had it not been for
+those very doubts, the probabilities are that he would have agreed with
+the cooler-headed portion of the crowd, which listened unmoved to that
+last indignant burst of desperate manhood.
+
+But with those doubts still holding possession of his mind, he could not
+feel so sure of Mr. Hildreth's guilt; and the struggle that was likely
+to ensue between his personal feelings on the one side and his sense of
+duty on the other did not promise to be so light as to make it possible
+for him to remain within eye and earshot of an unsympathetic crowd.
+
+"If only the superintendent had not left it to my judgment to
+interfere," thought he, pacing the streets with ever-increasing
+uneasiness, "the responsibility would have been shifted from my
+shoulders, and I would have left the young man to his fate in peace. But
+now I would be criminally at fault if I were to let him drift hopelessly
+to his doom, when by a lift of my finger I might possibly turn the
+attention of justice toward the real culprit."
+
+Yet the making up of his mind to interfere was a torture to Horace Byrd.
+If he was not conscious of any love for Imogene Dare, he was
+sufficiently under the dominion of her extraordinary fascinations to
+feel that any movement on his part toward the unravelling of the mystery
+that enveloped her, would be like subjecting his own self to the rack of
+public inquiry and suspicion.
+
+Nor, though he walked the streets for hours, each moment growing more
+and more settled in his conviction of Mr. Hildreth's innocence, could he
+bring himself to the point of embracing the duty presented to him, till
+he had subjected Miss Dare to a new test, and won for himself absolute
+certainty as to the fact of her possessing a clue to the crime, which
+had not been discovered in the coroner's inquiry.
+
+"The possibility of innocence on her part is even greater than on that
+of Mr. Hildreth," he considered, "and nothing, not even the peril of
+those dearest to me, could justify me in shifting the weight of
+suspicion from a guiltless man to an equally guiltless woman."
+
+It was, therefore, for the purpose of solving this doubt, that he
+finally sought Mr. Ferris, and after learning that Mr. Hildreth was
+under surveillance, and would in all probability be subjected to arrest
+on the morrow, asked for some errand that would take him to Mr. Orcutt's
+house.
+
+"I have a great admiration for that gentleman and would like to make his
+acquaintance," he remarked carelessly, hiding his true purpose under his
+usual nonchalant tones. "But I do not want to seem to be pushing myself
+forward; so if you could give me some papers to carry to him, or some
+message requiring an introduction to his presence, I should feel very
+much obliged."
+
+Mr. Ferris, who had no suspicions of his own to assist him in
+understanding the motives that led to this request, easily provided the
+detective with the errand he sought. Mr. Byrd at once started for the
+lawyer's house.
+
+It was fully two miles away, but once arrived there, he was thankful
+that the walk had been so long, as the fatigue, following upon the
+activity of the afternoon, had succeeded in quieting his pulses and
+calming down the fierce excitement which had held him under its control
+ever since he had taken the determination to satisfy his doubts by an
+interview with Miss Dare.
+
+Ringing the bell of the rambling old mansion that spread out its wide
+extensions through the vines and bushes of an old-fashioned and most
+luxuriant garden, he waited the issue with beating heart. A
+respectable-looking negro servant came to the door.
+
+"Is Mr. Orcutt in?" he asked; "or, if not, Miss Dare? I have a message
+from Mr. Ferris and would be glad to see one of them."
+
+This, in order to ascertain at a word if the lady was at home.
+
+"Miss Dare is not in," was the civil response, "and Mr. Orcutt is very
+busily engaged; but if you will step into the parlor I will tell him you
+are here."
+
+"No," returned the disappointed detective, handing her the note he held
+in his hand. "If your master is busy I will not disturb him." And,
+turning away, he went slowly down the steps.
+
+"If I only knew where she was gone!" he muttered, bitterly.
+
+But he did not consider himself in a position to ask.
+
+Inwardly chafing over his ill-luck, Mr. Byrd proceeded with reluctant
+pace to regain the street, when, hearing the gate suddenly click, he
+looked up, and saw advancing toward him a young gentleman of a
+peculiarly spruce and elegant appearance.
+
+"Ha! another visitor for Miss Dare," was the detective's natural
+inference. And with a sudden movement he withdrew from the path, and
+paused as if to light his cigar in the shadow of the thick bushes that
+grew against the house.
+
+In an instant the young stranger was on the stoop. Another, and he had
+rung the bell, which was answered almost as soon as his hand dropped
+from the knob.
+
+"Is Miss Dare in?" was the inquiry, uttered in loud and cheery tones.
+
+"No, sir. She is spending a few days with Miss Tremaine," was the clear
+and satisfactory reply. "Shall I tell her you have been here?"
+
+"No. I will call myself at Miss Tremaine's," rejoined the gentleman.
+And, with a gay swing of his cane and a cheerful look overhead where the
+stars were already becoming visible, he sauntered easily off, followed
+by the envious thoughts of Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Miss Tremaine," repeated the latter, musingly. "Who knows Miss
+Tremaine?"
+
+While he was asking himself this question, the voice of the young man
+rose melodiously in a scrap of old song, and instantly Mr. Byrd
+recognized in the seeming stranger the well-known tenor singer of the
+church he had himself attended the Sunday before--a gentleman, too, to
+whom he had been introduced by Mr. Ferris, and with whom he had
+exchanged something more than the passing civilities of the moment.
+
+To increase his pace, overtake the young man, recall himself to his
+attention, and join him in his quick walk down the street, was the work
+of a moment. The natural sequence followed. Mr. Byrd made himself so
+agreeable that by the time they arrived at Miss Tremaine's the other
+felt loath to part with him, and it resulted in his being urged to join
+this chance acquaintance in his call.
+
+Nothing could have pleased Mr. Byrd better. So, waiving for once his
+instinctive objection to any sort of personal intrusion, he signified
+his acquiescence to the proposal, and at once accompanied his new friend
+into the house of the unknown Miss Tremaine. He found it lit up as for
+guests. All the rooms on the ground floor were open, and in one of them
+he could discern a dashing and coquettish young miss holding court over
+a cluster of eager swains.
+
+"Ah, I forgot," exclaimed Mr. Byrd's companion, whose name, by-the-way,
+was Duryea. "It is Miss Tremaine's reception night. She is the daughter
+of one of the professors of the High School," he went on, whispering his
+somewhat late explanations into the ear of Mr. Byrd. "Every Thursday
+evening she throws her house open for callers, and the youth of the
+academy are only too eager to avail themselves of the opportunity of
+coming here. Well, it is all the better for us. Miss Dare despises boys,
+and in all likelihood we shall have her entirely to ourselves."
+
+A quick pang contracted the breast of Mr. Byrd. If this easy, almost
+rakish, fellow at his side but knew the hideous errand which brought him
+to this house, what a scene would have ensued!
+
+But he had no time for reflection, or even for that irresistible
+shrinking from his own designs which he now began to experience. Before
+he realized that he was fully committed to this venture, he found
+himself in the parlor bowing before the _naive_ and laughing-eyed Miss
+Tremaine, who rose to receive him with all the airy graciousness of a
+finished coquette.
+
+Miss Dare was not visible, and Mr. Byrd was just wondering if he would
+be called upon to enter into a sustained conversation with his pretty
+hostess, when a deep, rich voice was heard in the adjoining room, and,
+looking up, he saw the stately figure he so longed and yet dreaded to
+encounter, advancing toward them through the open door. She was very
+pale, and, to Mr. Byrd's eyes, looked thoroughly worn out, if not ill.
+Yet, she bore herself with a steadiness that was evidently the result of
+her will; and manifested neither reluctance nor impatience when the
+eager Mr. Duryea pressed forward with his compliments, though from the
+fixedness of her gaze and the immobility of her lip, Mr. Byrd too truly
+discovered that her thoughts were far away from the scene of mirth and
+pleasure in which she found herself.
+
+"You see I have presumed to follow you, Miss Dare," was the greeting
+with which Mr. Duryea hailed her approach. And he immediately became so
+engrossed with his gallantries he forgot to introduce his companion.
+
+Mr. Byrd was rather relieved at this. He was not yet ready to submit
+her to the test he considered necessary to a proper understanding of the
+situation; and he had not the heart to approach her with any mere
+civility on his tongue, while matters of such vital importance to her
+happiness, if not to her honor, trembled in the balance.
+
+He preferred to talk to Miss Tremaine, and this he continued to do till
+the young fellows at his side, one by one, edged away, leaving no one in
+that portion of the room but himself and Miss Tremaine, Mr. Duryea and
+Miss Dare.
+
+The latter two stood together some few feet behind him, and were
+discussing in a somewhat languid way, the merits of a _musicale_ which
+they had lately attended. They were approaching, however, and he felt
+that if he did not speak at once he might not have another opportunity
+for doing so during the whole evening. Turning, therefore, to Miss
+Tremaine, with more seriousness than her gay and totally inconsequent
+conversation had hitherto allowed, he asked, in what he meant to be a
+simply colloquial and courteous manner, if she had heard the news.
+
+"News," she repeated, "no; is there any news?"
+
+"Yes, I call it news. But, perhaps, you are not interested in the murder
+that has lately taken place in this town?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I am," she exclaimed, all eagerness at once, while he felt
+rather than perceived that the couple at his back stood suddenly still,
+as if his words had worked their spell over one heart there at least.
+"Papa knew Mrs. Clemmens very well," the little lady proceeded with a
+bewitchingly earnest look. "Have they found the murderer, do you think?
+Any thing less than that would be no news to me."
+
+"There is every reason to suppose----" he began, and stopped, something
+in the deadly silence behind him making it impossible for him to
+proceed. Happily he was not obliged to. An interruption occurred in the
+shape of a new-comer, and he was left with the fatal word on his lips to
+await the approach of that severely measured step behind him, which by
+this time he knew was bringing the inscrutable Miss Dare to his side.
+
+"Miss Dare, allow me to present to you Mr. Byrd. Mr. Byrd, Miss Dare."
+
+The young detective bowed. With rigid attention to the forms of
+etiquette, he uttered the first few acknowledgments necessary to the
+occasion, and then glanced up.
+
+She was looking him full in the face.
+
+"We have met before," he was about to observe, but not detecting the
+least sign of recognition in her gaze, restrained the words and hastily
+dropped his eyes.
+
+"Mr. Duryea informs me you are a stranger in the town," she remarked,
+moving slowly to one side in a way to rid herself of that gentleman's
+too immediate presence. "Have you a liking for the place, or do you
+meditate any lengthy stay?"
+
+"No. That is," he rejoined, somewhat shaken in his theories by the
+self-possession of her tone and the ease and quietness with which she
+evidently prepared to enter into a sustained conversation, "I may go
+away to-morrow, and I may linger on for an indefinite length of time. It
+all depends upon certain matters that will be determined for me
+to-night. Sibley is a very pretty place," he observed, startled at his
+own temerity in venturing the last remark.
+
+"Yes."
+
+The word came as if forced, and she looked at Mr. Duryea.
+
+"Do you wish any thing, Miss Dare?" that gentleman suddenly asked. "You
+do not look well."
+
+"I am not well," she acknowledged. "No, thank you," she cried, as he
+pushed a chair toward her. "It is too warm here. If you do not object,
+we will go into the other room." And with a courteous glance that
+included both gentlemen in its invitation, she led the way into the
+adjoining apartment. Could it have been with the purpose of ridding
+herself of the assiduities of Mr. Duryea? The room contained half a
+dozen or more musical people, and no sooner did they perceive their
+favorite tenor approach than they seized upon him and, without listening
+to his excuses, carried him off to the piano, leaving Miss Dare alone
+with Mr. Byrd.
+
+She seemed instantly to forget her indisposition. Drawing herself up
+till every queenly attribute she possessed flashed brilliantly before
+his eyes, she asked, with sudden determination, if she had been right in
+understanding him to say that there was news in regard to the murder of
+Mrs. Clemmens?
+
+Subduing, by a strong inward effort, every token of the emotion which
+her own introduction of this topic naturally evoked, he replied in his
+easiest tones:
+
+"Yes; there was an inquest held to-day, and the authorities evidently
+think they have discovered the person who killed her." And obliging
+himself to meet half-way the fate that awaited him, he bestowed upon the
+lady before him a casual glance that hid beneath its easy politeness the
+greatest anxiety of his life.
+
+The test worked well. From the pallor of sickness, grief, or
+apprehension, her complexion whitened to the deadlier hue of mortal
+terror.
+
+"Impossible!" her lips seemed to breathe; and Mr. Byrd could almost
+fancy he saw the hair rise on her forehead.
+
+Cursing in his heart the bitter necessity that had forced him into this
+duty, he was about to address her in a way calculated to break the spell
+occasioned by his last words, when the rich and tuneful voice of the
+melodious singer rose suddenly on the air, and they heard the words:
+
+          "Come rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer,
+           Though the herd have fled from thee, thy home is still here;
+           Here still is the smile that no cloud can o'ercast,
+           And a heart and a hand all thy own to the last."
+
+Instantly Mr. Byrd perceived that he should not be obliged to speak.
+Though the music, or possibly the words, struck her like a blow, it
+likewise served to recall her to herself. Dropping her gaze, which had
+remained fixed upon his own, she turned her face aside, saying with
+forced composure:
+
+"This near contact with crime is dreadful." Then slowly, and with a
+quietness that showed how great was her power of self-control when she
+was not under the influence of surprise, she inquired: "And who do they
+think this person is? What name do they presume to associate with the
+murderer of this woman?"
+
+With something of the feeling of a surgeon who nerves himself to bury
+the steel in his patient's quivering flesh, he gave his response
+unhesitatingly.
+
+"A gentleman's, I believe. A young man connected with her, in some
+strange way, by financial interests. A Mr. Hildreth, of
+Toledo--Gouverneur Hildreth, I think they call him."
+
+It was not the name she expected. He saw this by the relaxation that
+took place in all her features, by the look of almost painful relief
+that flashed for a moment into the eyes she turned like lightning upon
+him.
+
+"Gouverneur Hildreth!" she repeated. And he knew from the tone that it
+was not only a different name from what she anticipated, but that it was
+also a strange one to her. "I never heard of such a person," she went on
+after a minute, during which the relentless mellow voice of the
+unconscious singer filled the room with the passionate appeal:
+
+          "Oh, what was love made for, if 't is not the same,
+           Through joy and through sorrow, through glory and shame!"
+
+"That is not strange," explained Mr. Byrd, drawing nearer, as if to
+escape that pursuing sweetness of incongruous song. "He is not known in
+this town. He only came here the morning the unfortunate woman was
+murdered. Whether he really killed her or not," he proceeded, with
+forced quietness, "no one can tell, of course. But the facts are very
+much against him, and the poor fellow is under arrest."
+
+"What?"
+
+The word was involuntary. So was the tone of horrified surprise in which
+it was uttered. But the music, now swelling to a crescendo, drowned both
+word and tone, or so she seemed to fondly imagine; for, making another
+effort at self-control, she confined herself to a quiet repetition of
+his words, "'Under arrest'?" and then waited with only a suitable
+display of emotion for whatever further enlightenment he chose to give
+her.
+
+He mercifully spoke to the point.
+
+"Yes, under arrest. You see he was in the house at or near the time the
+deadly blow was struck. He was in the front hall, he says, and nowhere
+near the woman or her unknown assailant, but there is no evidence
+against any one else, and the facts so far proved, show he had an
+interest in her death, and so he has to pay the penalty of
+circumstances. And he may be guilty, who knows," the young detective
+pursued, seeing she was struck with horror and dismay, "dreadful as it
+is to imagine that a gentleman of culture and breeding could be brought
+to commit such a deed."
+
+But she seemed to have ears for but one phrase of all this.
+
+"He was in the front hall," she repeated. "How did he get there? What
+called him there?"
+
+"He had been visiting the widow, and was on his way out. He paused to
+collect his thoughts, he said. It seems unaccountable, Miss Dare; but
+the whole thing is strange and very mysterious."
+
+She was deaf to his explanations.
+
+"Do you suppose he heard the widow scream?" she asked, tremblingly,
+"or----"
+
+A sinking of the ringing tones whose powerful vibration had made this
+conversation possible, caused her to pause. When the notes grew loud
+enough again for her to proceed, she seemed to have forgotten the
+question she was about to propound, and simply inquired:
+
+"Had he any thing to say about what he overheard--or saw?"
+
+"No. If he spoke the truth and stood in the hall as he said, the sounds,
+if sounds there were, stopped short of the sitting-room door, for he has
+nothing to say about them."
+
+A change passed over Miss Dare. She dropped her eyes, and an instant's
+pause followed this last acknowledgment.
+
+"Will you tell me," she inquired, at last, speaking very slowly, in an
+attempt to infuse into her voice no more than a natural tone of
+interest, "how it was he came to say he stood in that place during the
+assault?"
+
+"He did not say he stood in that place during the assault," was again
+the forced rejoinder of Mr. Byrd. "It was by means of a nice calculation
+of time and events, that it was found he must have been in the house at
+or near the fatal moment."
+
+Another pause; another bar of that lovely music.
+
+"And he is a gentleman, you say?" was her hurried remark at last.
+
+"Yes, and a very handsome one."
+
+"And they have put him in prison?"
+
+"Yes, or will on the morrow."
+
+She turned and leaned against a window-frame near by, looking with eyes
+that saw nothing into the still vast night.
+
+"I suppose he has friends," she faintly suggested.
+
+"Two sisters, if no one nearer and dearer."
+
+          "Thou hast called me thy angel in moments of bliss,
+           And thy angel I 'll be, 'mid the horrors of this--
+           Through the furnace, unshrinking, thy steps to pursue,
+           And shield thee, and save thee--or perish there too,"
+
+rang the mellow song.
+
+"I am not well," she suddenly cried, leaving the window and turning
+quickly toward Mr. Byrd. "I am much obliged to you," said she, lowering
+her voice to a whisper, for the last note of the song was dying away in
+a quivering _pianissimo_. "I have been deeply interested in this
+tragedy, and am thankful for any information in regard to it. I must now
+bid you good-evening."
+
+And with a stately bow into which she infused the mingled courtesy and
+haughtiness of her nature, she walked steadily away through the crowd
+that vainly sought to stay her, and disappeared, almost without a pause,
+behind the door that opened into the hall.
+
+Mr. Byrd remained for a full half-hour after that, but he never could
+tell what he did, or with whom he conversed, or how or when he issued
+from the house and made his way back to his room in the hotel. He only
+knew that at midnight he was still walking the floor, and had not yet
+made up his mind to take the step which his own sense of duty now
+inexorably demanded.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+DECISION.
+
+                                Who dares
+          To say that he alone has found the truth.
+                                                --LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+THE next morning Mr. Ferris was startled by the appearance in his office
+of Mr. Byrd, looking wretchedly anxious and ill.
+
+"I have come," said the detective, "to ask you what you think of Mr.
+Hildreth's prospects. Have you made up your mind to have him arrested
+for this crime?"
+
+"Yes," was the reply. "The evidence against him is purely
+circumstantial, but it is very strong; and if no fresh developments
+occur, I think there can be no doubt about my duty. Each and every fact
+that comes to light only strengthens the case against him. When he came
+to be examined last night, a ring was found on his person, which he
+acknowledged to having worn on the day of the murder."
+
+"He took it off during the inquest," murmured Mr. Byrd; "I saw him."
+
+"It is said by Hickory--the somewhat questionable cognomen of your
+fellow-detective from New York--that the young man manifested the most
+intense uneasiness during the whole inquiry. That in fact his attention
+was first drawn to him by the many tokens which he gave of suppressed
+agitation and alarm. Indeed, Mr. Hickory at one time thought he should
+be obliged to speak to this stranger in order to prevent a scene. Once
+Mr. Hildreth got up as if to go, and, indeed, if he had been less hemmed
+in by the crowd, there is every reason to believe he would have
+attempted an escape."
+
+"Is this Hickory a man of good judgment?" inquired Mr. Byrd, anxiously.
+
+"Why, yes, I should say so. He seems to understand his business. The way
+he procured us the testimony of Mr. Hildreth was certainly
+satisfactory."
+
+"I wish that, without his knowing it, I could hear him give his opinion
+of this matter," intimated the other.
+
+"Well, you can," rejoined Mr. Ferris, after a quick and comprehensive
+survey of Mr. Byrd's countenance. "I am expecting him here any moment,
+and if you see fit to sit down behind that screen, you can, without the
+least difficulty to yourself or him, hear all he has to impart."
+
+"I will, then," the detective declared, a gloomy frown suddenly
+corrugating his brow; and he stepped across to the screen which had been
+indicated to him, and quietly withdrew from view.
+
+He had scarcely done this, when a short, quick step was heard at the
+door, and a wide-awake voice called out, cheerily:
+
+"Are you alone, sir?"
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated Mr. Ferris, "come in, come in. I have been awaiting
+you for some minutes," he declared, ignoring the look which the man
+threw hastily around the room. "Any news this morning?"
+
+"No," returned the other, in a tone of complete self-satisfaction.
+"We've caged the bird and mustn't expect much more in the way of news.
+I'm on my way to Albany now, to pick up such facts about him as may be
+lying around there loose, and shall be ready to start for Toledo any day
+next week that you may think proper."
+
+"You are, then, convinced that Mr. Hildreth is undeniably the guilty
+party in this case?" exclaimed the District Attorney, taking a whiff at
+his cigar.
+
+"Convinced? That is a strong word, sir. A detective is never convinced,"
+protested the man. "He leaves that for the judge and jury. But if you
+ask me if there is any doubt about the direction in which all the
+circumstantial evidence in this case points, I must retort by asking you
+for a clue, or the tag-end of a clue, guiding me elsewhere. I know," he
+went on, with the volubility of a man whose work is done, and who feels
+he has the right to a momentary indulgence in conversation, "that it is
+not an agreeable thing to subject a gentleman like Mr. Hildreth to the
+shame of a public arrest. But facts are not partial, sir; and the
+gentleman has no more rights in law than the coarsest fellow that we
+take up for butchering his mother. But you know all this without my
+telling you, and I only mention it to excuse any obstinacy I may have
+manifested on the subject. He is mightily cut up about it," he again
+proceeded, as he found Mr. Ferris forebore to reply. "I am told he
+didn't sleep a wink all night, but spent his time alternately in pacing
+the floor like a caged lion, and in a wild sort of stupor that had
+something of the hint of madness in it. 'If my grandfather had only
+known!' was the burden of his song; and when any one approached him he
+either told them to keep their eyes off him, or else buried his face in
+his hands with an entreaty for them not to disturb the last hours of a
+dying man. He evidently has no hope of escaping the indignity of arrest,
+and as soon as it was light enough for him to see, he asked for paper
+and pencil. They were brought him, and a man stood over him while he
+wrote. It proved to be a letter to his sisters enjoining them to believe
+in his innocence, and wound up with what was very much like an attempt
+at a will. Altogether, it looks as if he meditated suicide, and we have
+been careful to take from him every possible means for his effecting his
+release in this way, as well as set a strict though secret watch upon
+him."
+
+A slight noise took place behind the screen, which at any other time Mr.
+Hickory would have been the first to notice and inquire into. As it was,
+it had only the effect of unconsciously severing his train of thought
+and starting him alertly to his feet.
+
+"Well," said he, facing the District Attorney with cheerful vivacity,
+"any orders?"
+
+"No," responded Mr. Ferris. "A run down to Albany seems to be the best
+thing for you at present. On your return we will consult again."
+
+"Very well, sir. I shall not be absent more than two days, and, in the
+meantime, you will let me know if any thing important occurs?" And,
+handing over his new address, Hickory speedily took his leave.
+
+"Well, Byrd, what do you think of him?"
+
+For reply, Mr. Byrd stepped forth and took his stand before the District
+Attorney.
+
+"Has Coroner Tredwell informed you," said he, "that the superintendent
+has left it to my discretion to interfere in this matter if I thought
+that by so doing I could further the ends of justice?"
+
+"Yes," was the language of the quick, short nod he received.
+
+"Very well," continued the other, "you will pardon me, then, if I ask
+you to convey to Mr. Hildreth the following message: That if he is
+guiltless of this crime he need have no fear of the results of the
+arrest to which he may be subjected; that a man has interested himself
+in this matter who pledges his word not to rest till he has discovered
+the guilty party and freed the innocent from suspicion."
+
+"What!" cried Mr. Ferris, astonished at the severe but determined
+bearing of the young man who, up to this time, he had only seen under
+his lighter and more indifferent aspect. "You don't agree with this
+fellow, then, in his conclusions regarding Mr. Hildreth?"
+
+"No, sir. Hickory, as I judge, is an egotist. He discovered Mr. Hildreth
+and brought him to the notice of the jury, therefore Mr. Hildreth is
+guilty."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I am open to doubt about it. Not that I would acknowledge it to any one
+but you, sir."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because if I work in this case at all, or make any efforts to follow up
+the clue which I believe myself to have received, it must be done
+secretly, and without raising the suspicion of any one in this town. I
+am not in a position, as you know, to work openly, even if it were
+advisable to do so, which it certainly is not. What I do must be
+accomplished under cover, and I ask you to help me in my self-imposed
+and by no means agreeable task, by trusting me to pursue my inquiries
+alone, until such time as I assure myself beyond a doubt that my own
+convictions are just, and that the man who murdered Mrs. Clemmens is
+some one entirely separated from Mr. Hildreth and any interests that he
+represents."
+
+"You are, then, going to take up this case?"
+
+The answer given was short, but it meant the deliberate shivering of the
+fairest dream of love that had ever visited Mr. Byrd's imagination.
+
+"I am."
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+THE WEAVING OF A WEB.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+THE SPIDER.
+
+          "Thus far we run before the wind."
+
+
+IN the interview which Mr. Byrd had held with Miss Dare he had been
+conscious of omitting one test which many another man in his place would
+have made. This was the utterance of the name of him whom he really
+believed to be the murderer of Mrs. Clemmens. Had he spoken this name,
+had he allowed himself to breathe the words "Craik Mansell" into the
+ears of this agitated woman, or even gone so far as to allude in the
+most careless way to the widow's nephew, he felt sure his daring would
+have been rewarded by some expression on her part that would have given
+him a substantial basis for his theories to rest upon.
+
+But he had too much natural chivalry for this. His feelings as a man got
+in the way of his instinct as a detective. Nevertheless, he felt
+positive that his suspicions in regard to this nephew of Mrs. Clemmens
+were correct, and set about the task of fitting facts to his theory,
+with all that settled and dogged determination which follows the pursuit
+of a stern duty unwillingly embraced.
+
+Two points required instant settling.
+
+First, the truth or falsehood of his supposition as to the
+identification of the person confronted by Miss Dare in the Syracuse
+depot with the young man described by Miss Firman as the nephew of Widow
+Clemmens.
+
+Secondly, the existence or non-existence of proof going to show the
+presence of this person at or near the house of Mrs. Clemmens, during
+the time of the assault.
+
+But before proceeding to satisfy himself in regard to these essentials,
+he went again to the widow's house and there spent an hour in a careful
+study of its inner and outer arrangements, with a view to the formation
+of a complete theory as to the manner and method of the murder. He found
+that in default of believing Mr. Hildreth the assailant, one supposition
+was positively necessary, and this was that the murderer was in the
+house when this gentleman came to it. A glance at the diagram on next
+page will explain why.
+
+The house, as you will see, has but three entrances: the front door, at
+which Mr. Hildreth unconsciously stood guard; the kitchen door, also
+unconsciously guarded during the critical moment by the coming and going
+of the tramp through the yard; and the dining-room door, which, though
+to all appearance free from the surveillance of any eye, was so situated
+in reference to the clock at which the widow stood when attacked, that
+it was manifestly impossible for any one to enter it and cross the room
+to the hearth without attracting the attention of her eye if not of her
+ear.
+
+[Illustration: Diagram]
+
+To be sure, there was the bare possibility of his having come in by the
+kitchen-door, after the departure of the tramp, but such a contingency
+was scarcely worth considering. The almost certain conclusion was that
+he had been in the house for some time, and was either in the
+dining-room when Mrs. Clemmens returned to it from her interview with
+Mr. Hildreth, or else came down to it from the floor above by means of
+the staircase that so strangely descended into that very room.
+
+Another point looked equally clear. The escape of the murderer--still in
+default of considering Mr. Hildreth as such--must have been by means of
+one of the back doors, and must have been in the direction of the woods.
+To be sure there was a stretch of uneven and marshy ground to be
+travelled over before the shelter of the trees could be reached; but a
+person driven by fear could, at a pinch, travel it in five minutes or
+less; and a momentary calculation on the part of Mr. Byrd sufficed to
+show him that more time than this had elapsed from the probable instant
+of assault to the moment when Mr. Ferris opened the side door and looked
+out upon the swamp.
+
+The dearth of dwellings on the left-hand side of the street, and,
+consequently, the comparative immunity from observation which was given
+to that portion of the house which over-looked the swamp, made him
+conclude that this outlet from the dining-room had been the one made use
+of in the murderer's flight. A glance down the yard to the broken fence
+that separated the widow's land from the boggy fields beyond, only
+tended to increase the probabilities of this supposition, and, alert to
+gain for himself that full knowledge of the situation necessary to a
+successful conduct of this mysterious affair, he hastily left the house
+and started across the swamp, with the idea of penetrating the woods and
+discovering for himself what opportunity they afforded for concealment
+or escape.
+
+He had more difficulty in doing this than he expected. The ground about
+the hillocks was half-sunk in water, and the least slip to one side
+invariably precipitated him among the brambles that encumbered this
+spot. Still, he compassed his task in little more than five minutes,
+arriving at the firm ground, and its sturdy growth of beeches and
+maples, well covered with mud, but so far thoroughly satisfied with the
+result of his efforts.
+
+The next thing to be done was to search the woods, not for the purpose
+of picking up clues--it was too late for that--but to determine what
+sort of a refuge they afforded, and whether, in the event of a man's
+desiring to penetrate them quickly, many impediments would arise in the
+shape of tangled underground or loose-lying stones.
+
+He found them remarkably clear; so much so, indeed, that he travelled
+for some distance into their midst before he realized that he had passed
+beyond their borders. More than this, he came ere long upon something
+like a path, and, following it, emerged into a sort of glade, where,
+backed up against a high rock, stood a small and seemingly deserted hut.
+It was the first object he had met with that in any way suggested the
+possible presence of man, and advancing to it with cautious steps, he
+looked into its open door-way. Nothing met his eyes but an empty
+interior, and without pausing to bestow upon the building a further
+thought, he hurried on through a path he saw opening beyond it, till he
+came to the end of the wood.
+
+Stepping forth, he paused in astonishment. Instead of having penetrated
+the woods in a direct line, he found that he had merely described a half
+circle through them, and now stood on a highway leading directly back
+into the town.
+
+Likewise, he was in full sight of the terminus of a line of horse-cars
+that connected this remote region of Sibley with its business portion,
+and though distant a good mile from the railway depot, was, to all
+intents and purposes, as near that means of escape as he would have been
+in the street in front of Widow Clemmens' house.
+
+Full of thoughts and inly wondering over the fatality that had confined
+the attention of the authorities to the approaches afforded by the lane,
+to the utter exclusion of this more circuitous, but certainly more
+elusive, road of escape, he entered upon the highway, and proceeded to
+gain the horse-car he saw standing at the head of the road, a few rods
+away. As he did so, he for the first time realized just where he was.
+The elegant villa of Professor Darling rising before him on the ridge
+that ran along on the right-hand side of the road, made it at once
+evident that he was on the borders of that choice and aristocratic
+quarter known as the West Side. It was a new region to him, and,
+pausing for a moment, he cast his eyes over the scene which lay
+stretched out before him. He had frequently heard it said that the view
+commanded by the houses on the ridge was the finest in the town, and he
+was not disappointed in it. As he looked across the verdant basin of
+marshy ground around which the road curved like a horseshoe, he could
+see the city spread out like a map before him. So unobstructed, indeed,
+was the view he had of its various streets and buildings, that he
+thought he could even detect, amid the taller and more conspicuous
+dwellings, the humble walls and newly-shingled roof of the widow's
+cottage.
+
+But he could not be sure of this; his eyesight was any thing but
+trustworthy for long distances, and hurrying forward to the car, he took
+his seat just as it was about to start.
+
+It carried him straight into town, and came to a standstill not ten feet
+from the railroad depot. As he left it and betook himself back to his
+hotel, he gave to his thoughts a distinct though inward expression.
+
+"If," he mused, "my suppositions in regard to this matter are true, and
+another man than Mr. Hildreth struck the fatal blow, then I have just
+travelled over the self-same route he took in his flight."
+
+But were his suppositions true? It remained for him to determine.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+THE FLY.
+
+          Like--but oh! how different.--WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+THE paper mill of Harrison, Goodman & Chamberlain was situated in one of
+the main thoroughfares of Buffalo. It was a large but otherwise
+unpretentious building, and gave employment to a vast number of
+operatives, mostly female.
+
+Some of these latter might have been surprised, and possibly a little
+fluttered, one evening, at seeing a well-dressed young gentleman
+standing at the gate as they came forth, gazing with languid interest
+from one face to another, as if he were on the look-out for some one of
+their number.
+
+But they would have been yet more astonished could they have seen him
+still lingering after the last one had passed, watching with unabated
+patience the opening and shutting of the small side door devoted to the
+use of the firm, and such employes as had seats in the office. It was
+Mr. Byrd, and his purpose there at this time of day was to see and
+review the whole rank and file of the young men employed in the place,
+in the hope of being able to identify the nephew of Mrs. Clemmens by his
+supposed resemblance to the person whose character of face and form had
+been so minutely described to him.
+
+For Mr. Byrd was a just man and a thoughtful one, and knowing this
+identification to be the key-stone of his lately formed theory, desired
+it to be complete and of no doubtful character. He accordingly held fast
+to his position, watching and waiting, seemingly in vain, for the dark,
+powerful face and the sturdily-built frame of the gentleman whose
+likeness he had attempted to draw in conjunction with that of Miss Dare.
+But, though he saw many men of all sorts and kinds issue from one door
+or another of this vast building, not one of them struck him with that
+sudden and unmistakable sense of familiarity which he had a right to
+expect, and he was just beginning to doubt if the whole framework of his
+elaborately-formed theory was not destined to fall into ruins, when the
+small door, already alluded to, opened once more, and a couple of
+gentlemen came out.
+
+The appearance of one of them gave Mr. Byrd a start. He was young,
+powerfully built, wore a large mustache, and had a complexion of unusual
+swarthiness. There was character, too, in his face, though not so much
+as Mr. Byrd had expected to see in the nephew of Mrs. Clemmens. Still,
+people differ about degrees of expression, and to his informant this
+face might have appeared strong. He was dressed in a business suit, and
+was without an overcoat--two facts that made it difficult for Mr. Byrd
+to get any assistance from the cut and color of his clothes.
+
+But there was enough in the general style and bearing of this person to
+make Mr. Byrd anxious to know his name. He, therefore, took it upon
+himself to follow him--a proceeding which brought him to the corner just
+in time to see the two gentlemen separate, and the especial one in whom
+he was interested, step into a car.
+
+He succeeded in getting a seat in the same car, and for some blocks had
+the pleasure of watching the back of the supposed Mansell, as he stood
+on the front platform with the driver. Then others got in, and the
+detective's view was obstructed, and presently--he never could tell how
+it was--he lost track of the person he was shadowing, and when the
+chance came for another sight of the driver and platform, the young man
+was gone.
+
+Annoyed beyond expression, Mr. Byrd went to a hotel, and next day sent
+to the mill and procured the address of Mr. Mansell. Going to the place
+named, he found it to be a very respectable boarding-house, and,
+chancing upon a time when more or less of the rooms were empty,
+succeeded in procuring for himself an apartment there.
+
+So here he was a fixture in the house supposed by him to hold the
+murderer of Mrs. Clemmens. When the time for dinner came, and with it an
+opportunity for settling the vexed question of Mr. Mansell's identity
+not only with the man in the Syracuse depot, but with the person who had
+eluded his pursuit the day before, something of the excitement of the
+hunter in view of his game seized upon this hitherto imperturbable
+detective, and it was with difficulty he could sustain his usual _role_
+of fashionable indifference.
+
+He arrived at the table before any of the other boarders, and presently
+a goodly array of amiable matrons, old and young gentlemen, and pretty
+girls came filing into the room, and finally--yes, finally--the
+gentleman whom he had followed from the mill the day before, and whom he
+now had no hesitation in fixing upon as Mr. Mansell.
+
+But the satisfaction occasioned by the settlement of this perplexing
+question was dampened somewhat by a sudden and uneasy sense of being
+himself at a disadvantage. Why he should feel thus he did not know.
+Perhaps the almost imperceptible change which took place in that
+gentleman's face as their eyes first met, may have caused the
+unlooked-for sensation; though why Mr. Mansell should change at the
+sight of one who must have been a perfect stranger to him, was more than
+Mr. Byrd could understand. It was enough that the latter felt he had
+made a mistake in not having donned a disguise before entering this
+house, and that, oppressed by the idea, he withdrew his attention from
+the man he had come to watch, and fixed it upon more immediate and
+personal matters.
+
+The meal was half over. Mr. Byrd who, as a stranger of more than
+ordinary good looks and prepossessing manners, had been placed by the
+obliging landlady between her own daughter and a lady of doubtful
+attractions, was endeavoring to improve his advantages and make himself
+as agreeable as possible to both of his neighbors, when he heard a lady
+near him say aloud, "You are late, Mr. Mansell," and, looking up in his
+amazement, saw entering the door---- Well, in the presence of the real
+owner of this name, he wondered he ever could have fixed upon the other
+man as the original of the person that had been described to him. The
+strong face, the sombre expression, the herculean frame, were unique,
+and in the comparison which they inevitably called forth, made all other
+men in the room look dwarfed if not actually commonplace.
+
+Greatly surprised at this new turn of affairs, and satisfied that he at
+last had before him the man who had confronted Miss Dare in the Syracuse
+depot, he turned his attention back to the ladies. He, however, took
+care to keep one ear open on the side of the new-comer, in the hope of
+gleaning from his style and manner of conversation some notion of his
+disposition and nature.
+
+But Craik Mansell was at no time a talkative man, and at this especial
+period of his career was less inclined than ever to enter into the
+trivial debates or good-natured repartee that was the staple of
+conversation at Mrs. Hart's table.
+
+So Mr. Byrd's wishes in this regard were foiled. He succeeded, however,
+in assuring himself by a square look, into the other's face, that to
+whatever temptation this man may have succumbed, or of whatever crime he
+may have been guilty, he was by nature neither cold, cruel, nor
+treacherous, and that the deadly blow, if dealt by him, was the
+offspring of some sudden impulse or violent ebullition of temper, and
+was being repented of with every breath he drew.
+
+But this discovery, though it modified Mr. Byrd's own sense of personal
+revolt against the man, could not influence him in the discharge of his
+duty, which was to save another of less interesting and perhaps less
+valuable traits of character from the consequences of a crime he had
+never committed. It was, therefore, no more than just, that, upon
+withdrawing from the table, he should endeavor to put himself in the way
+of settling that second question, upon whose answer in the affirmative
+depended the rightful establishment of his secret suspicions.
+
+That was, whether this young man was at or near the house of his aunt at
+the time when she was assaulted.
+
+Mrs. Hart's parlors were always thrown open to her boarders in the
+evening.
+
+There, at any time from seven to ten, you might meet a merry crowd of
+young people intent upon enjoying themselves, and usually highly
+successful in their endeavors to do so. Into this throng Mr. Byrd
+accordingly insinuated himself, and being of the sort to win instant
+social recognition, soon found he had but to make his choice in order to
+win for himself that _tete-a-tete_ conversation from which he hoped so
+much. He consequently surveyed the company with a critical eye, and soon
+made up his mind as to which lady was the most affable in her manners
+and the least likely to meet his advances with haughty reserve, and
+having won an introduction to her, sat down at her side with the stern
+determination of making her talk about Mr. Mansell.
+
+"You have a very charming company here," he remarked; "the house seems
+to be filled with a most cheerful class of people."
+
+"Yes," was the not-unlooked-for reply. "We are all merry enough if we
+except Mr. Mansell. But, of course, there is excuse for him. No one
+expects him to join in our sports."
+
+"Mr. Mansell? the gentleman who came in late to supper?" repeated Mr.
+Byrd, with no suggestion of the secret satisfaction he felt at the
+immediate success of his scheme.
+
+"Yes, he is in great trouble, you know; is the nephew of the woman who
+was killed a few days ago at Sibley, don't you remember? The widow lady
+who was struck on the head by a man of the name of Hildreth, and who
+died after uttering something about a ring, supposed by many to be an
+attempt on her part to describe the murderer?"
+
+"Yes," was the slow, almost languid, response; "and a dreadful thing,
+too; quite horrifying in its nature. And so this Mr. Mansell is her
+nephew?" he suggestively repeated. "Odd! I suppose he has told you all
+about the affair?"
+
+"He? Mercy! I don't suppose you could get him to say anything about it
+to save your life. He isn't of the talking sort. Besides, I don't
+believe he knows any more about it than you or I. He hasn't been to
+Sibley."
+
+"Didn't he go to the funeral?"
+
+"No; he said he was too ill; and indeed he was shut up one whole day
+with a terrible sore throat. He is the heir, too, of all her savings,
+they say; but he won't go to Sibley. Some folks think it is queer, but
+I----"
+
+Here her eyes wandered and her almost serious look vanished in a
+somewhat coquettish smile. Following her gaze with his own, Mr. Byrd
+perceived a gentleman approaching. It was the one he had first taken for
+Mr. Mansell.
+
+"Beg pardon," was the somewhat abrupt salutation with which this person
+advanced. "But they are proposing a game in the next room, and Miss
+Clayton's assistance is considered absolutely indispensable."
+
+"Mr. Brown, first allow me to make you acquainted with Mr. Byrd," said
+the light-hearted damsel, with a gracious inclination. "As you are both
+strangers, it is well for you to know each other, especially as I expect
+you to join in our games."
+
+"Thank you," protested Mr. Brown, "but I don't play games." Then seeing
+the deep bow of acquiescence which Mr. Byrd was making, added, with what
+appeared to be a touch of jealousy, "Except under strong provocation,"
+and holding out his arm, offered to escort the young lady into the next
+room.
+
+With an apologetic glance at Mr. Byrd, she accepted the attention
+proffered her, and speedily vanished into the midst of the laughing
+group that awaited her.
+
+Mr. Byrd found himself alone.
+
+"Check number one," thought he; and he bestowed any thing but an amiable
+benediction upon the man who had interrupted him in the midst of so
+promising a conversation.
+
+His next move was in the direction of the landlady's daughter, who,
+being somewhat shy, favored a retired nook behind the piano. They had
+been neighbors at table, and he could at once address her without fear
+of seeming obtrusive.
+
+"I do not see here the dark young gentleman whom you call Mr. Mansell?"
+he remarked, inquiringly.
+
+"Oh, no; he is in trouble. A near relative of his was murdered in cold
+blood the other day, and under the most aggravating circumstances.
+Haven't you heard about it? She was a Mrs. Clemmens, and lived in
+Sibley. It was in all the papers."
+
+"Ah, yes; I remember about it very well. And so he is her nephew," he
+went on, recklessly repeating himself in his determination to elicit all
+he could from these young and thoughtless misses. "A peculiar-looking
+young man; has the air of thoroughly understanding himself."
+
+"Yes, he is very smart, they say."
+
+"Does he never talk?"
+
+"Oh, yes; that is, he used to; but, since his aunt's death, we don't
+expect it. He is very much interested in machinery, and has invented
+something----"
+
+"Oh, Clara, you are not going to sit here," interposed the reproachful
+voice of a saucy-eyed maiden, who at this moment peeped around the
+corner of the piano. "We want all the recruits we can get," she cried,
+with a sudden blush, as she encountered the glance of Mr. Byrd. "Do
+come, and bring the gentleman too." And she slipped away to join that
+very Mr. Brown who, by his importunities, had been the occasion of the
+former interruption from which Mr. Byrd had suffered.
+
+"That man and I will quarrel yet," was the mental exclamation with which
+the detective rose. "Shall we join your friends?" asked he, assuming an
+unconcern he was far from feeling.
+
+"Yes, if you please," was the somewhat timid, though evidently pleased,
+reply.
+
+And Mr. Byrd noted down in his own mind check number two.
+
+The game was a protracted one. Twice did he think to escape from the
+merry crowd he had entered, and twice did he fail to do so. The
+indefatigable Brown would not let him slip, and it was only by a
+positive exertion of his will that he finally succeeded in withdrawing
+himself.
+
+"I wish to have a word with your mother," he explained, in reply to the
+look of protest with which Miss Hart honored his departure. "I hear she
+retires early; so you will excuse me if I leave somewhat abruptly."
+
+And to Mrs. Hart's apartment he at once proceeded, and, by dint of his
+easy assurance, soon succeeded in leading her, as he had already done
+the rest, into a discussion of the one topic for which he had an
+interest. He had not time, however, to glean much from her, for, just as
+she was making the admission that Mr. Mansell had not been home at the
+time of the murder, a knock was heard at the door, and, with an affable
+bow and a short, quick stare of surprise at Mr. Byrd, the ubiquitous Mr.
+Brown stepped in and took a seat on the sofa, with every appearance of
+intending to make a call.
+
+At this third check, Mr. Byrd was more than annoyed. Rising, however,
+with the most amiable courtesy, he bowed his acknowledgments to the
+landlady, and, without heeding her pressing invitation to remain and
+make the acquaintance of Mr. Brown, left the room and betook himself
+back to the parlors.
+
+He was just one minute too late. The last of the boarders had gone
+up-stairs, and only an empty room met his eyes.
+
+He at once ascended to his own apartment. It was on the fourth floor.
+There were many other rooms on this floor, and for a moment he could not
+remember which was his own door. At last, however, he felt sure it was
+the third one from the stairs, and, going to it, gave a short knock in
+case of mistake, and, hearing no reply, opened it and went in.
+
+The first glance assured him that his recollection had played him false,
+and that he was in the wrong room. The second, that he was in that of
+Mr. Mansell. The sight of the small model of a delicate and intricate
+machine that stood in full view on a table before him would have been
+sufficient assurance of this fact, even if the inventor himself had been
+absent. But he was there. Seated at a table, with his back to the door,
+and his head bowed forward on his arms, he presented such a picture of
+misery or despair, that Mr. Byrd felt his sympathies touched in spite of
+himself, and hastily stumbling backward, was about to confusedly
+withdraw, when a doubt struck him as to the condition of the deathly,
+still, and somewhat pallid figure before him, and, stepping hurriedly
+forward, he spoke the young man's name, and, failing to elicit a
+response, laid his hand on his shoulder, with an apology for disturbing
+him, and an inquiry as to how he felt.
+
+The touch acted where the voice had failed. Leaping from his partly
+recumbent position, Craik Mansell faced the intruder with indignant
+inquiry written in every line of his white and determined face.
+
+"To what do I owe this intrusion?" he cried, his nostrils expanding and
+contracting with an anger that proved the violence of his nature when
+aroused.
+
+"First, to my carelessness," responded Mr. Byrd; "and, secondly----" But
+there he paused, for the first time in his life, perhaps, absolutely
+robbed of speech. His eye had fallen upon a picture that the other held
+clutched in his vigorous right hand. It was a photograph of Imogene
+Dare, and it was made conspicuous by two heavy black lines which had
+been relentlessy drawn across the face in the form of a cross.
+"Secondly," he went on, after a moment, resolutely tearing his gaze away
+from this startling and suggestive object, "to my fears. I thought you
+looked ill, and could not forbear making an effort to reassure myself
+that all was right."
+
+"Thank you," ejaculated the other, in a heavy weariful tone. "I am
+perfectly well." And with a short bow he partially turned his back, with
+a distinct intimation that he desired to be left alone.
+
+Mr. Byrd could not resist this appeal. Glad as he would have been for
+even a moment's conversation with this man, he was, perhaps
+unfortunately, too much of a gentleman to press himself forward against
+the expressed wishes even of a suspected criminal. He accordingly
+withdrew to the door, and was about to open it and go out, when it was
+flung violently forward, and the ever-obtrusive Brown stepped in.
+
+This second intrusion was more than unhappy Mr. Mansell could stand.
+Striding passionately forward, he met the unblushing Brown at full tilt,
+and angrily pointing to the door, asked if it was not the custom of
+gentlemen to knock before entering the room of strangers.
+
+"I beg pardon," said the other, backing across the threshold, with a
+profuse display of confusion. "I had no idea of its being a stranger's
+room. I thought it was my own. I--I was sure that my door was the third
+from the stairs. Excuse me, excuse me." And he bustled noisily out.
+
+This precise reproduction of his own train of thought and action
+confounded Mr. Byrd.
+
+Turning with a deprecatory glance to the perplexed and angry occupant of
+the room, he said something about not knowing the person who had just
+left them; and then, conscious that a further contemplation of the stern
+and suffering countenance before him would unnerve him for the duty he
+had to perform, hurriedly withdrew.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+A LAST ATTEMPT.
+
+          When Fortune means to men most good,
+          She looks upon them with a threatening eye.--KING JOHN.
+
+
+THE sleep of Horace Byrd that night was any thing but refreshing. In the
+first place, he was troubled about this fellow Brown, whose last
+impertinence showed he was a man to be watched, and, if possible,
+understood. Secondly, he was haunted by a vision of the unhappy youth he
+had just left; seeing, again and again, both in his dreams and in the
+rush of heated fancies which followed his awaking, that picture of utter
+despair which the opening of his neighbor's door had revealed. He could
+not think of that poor mortal as sleeping. Whether it was the result of
+his own sympathetic admiration for Miss Dare, or of some subtle
+clairvoyance bestowed upon him by the darkness and stillness of the
+hour, he felt assured that the quiet watch he had interrupted by his
+careless importunity, had been again established, and that if he could
+tear down the partition separating their two rooms, he should see that
+bowed form and buried face crouched despairingly above the disfigured
+picture. The depths of human misery and the maddening passions that
+underlie all crime had been revealed to him for the first time,
+perhaps, in all their terrible suggestiveness, and he asked himself over
+and over as he tossed on his uneasy pillow, if he possessed the needful
+determination to carry on the scheme he had undertaken, in face of the
+unreasoning sympathies which the fathomless misery of this young man had
+aroused. Under the softening influences of the night, he answered, No;
+but when the sunlight came and the full flush of life with its restless
+duties and common necessities awoke within him, he decided, Yes.
+
+Mr. Mansell was not at the breakfast-table when Mr. Byrd came down. His
+duties at the mill were peremptory, and he had already taken his coffee
+and gone. But Mr. Brown was there, and at sight of him Mr. Byrd's
+caution took alarm, and he bestowed upon this intrusive busybody a close
+and searching scrutiny. It, however, elicited nothing in the way of his
+own enlightenment beyond the fact that this fellow, total stranger
+though he seemed, was for some inexplicable reason an enemy to himself
+or his plans.
+
+Not that Mr. Brown manifested this by any offensive token of dislike or
+even of mistrust. On the contrary, he was excessively polite, and let
+slip no opportunity of dragging Mr. Byrd into the conversation. Yet, for
+all that, a secret influence was already at work against the detective,
+and he could not attribute it to any other source than the jealous
+efforts of this man. Miss Hart was actually curt to him, and in the
+attitude of the various persons about the board he detected a certain
+reserve which had been entirely absent from their manner the evening
+before.
+
+But while placing, as he thought, due weight upon this fellow's
+animosity, he had no idea to what it would lead, till he went up-stairs.
+Mrs. Hart, who had hitherto treated him with the utmost cordiality, now
+called him into the parlor, and told him frankly that she would be
+obliged to him if he would let her have his room. To be sure, she
+qualified the seeming harshness of her request by an intimation that a
+permanent occupant had applied for it, and offered to pay his board at
+the hotel till he could find a room to suit him in another house; but
+the fact remained that she was really in a flutter to rid herself of
+him, and no subterfuge could hide it, and Mr. Byrd, to whose plans the
+full confidence of those around him was essential, found himself obliged
+to acquiesce in her desires, and announce at once his willingness to
+depart.
+
+Instantly she was all smiles, and overwhelmed him with overtures of
+assistance; but he courteously declined her help, and, flying from her
+apologies with what speed he could, went immediately to his room. Here
+he sat down to deliberate.
+
+The facts he had gleaned, despite the interference of his unknown enemy,
+were three:
+
+First, that Craik Mansell had found excuses for not attending the
+inquest, or even the funeral, of his murdered aunt.
+
+Secondly, that he had a strong passion for invention, and had even now
+the model of a machine on hand.
+
+And third, that he was not at home, wherever else he may have been, on
+the morning of the murder in Sibley.
+
+"A poor and meagre collection of insignificant facts," thought Mr. Byrd.
+"Too poor and meagre to avail much in stemming the tide threatening to
+overwhelm Gouverneur Hildreth."
+
+But what opportunity remained for making them weightier? He was turned
+from the house that held the few persons from whom he could hope to
+glean more complete and satisfactory information, and he did not know
+where else to seek it unless he went to the mill. And this was an
+alternative from which he shrank, as it would, in the first place,
+necessitate a revelation of his real character; and, secondly, make
+known the fact that Mr. Mansell was under the surveillance of the
+police, if not in the actual attitude of a suspected man.
+
+A quick and hearty, "Shure, you are very good, sir!" uttered in the hall
+without roused him from his meditations and turned his thoughts in a new
+direction. What if he could learn something from the servants? He had
+not thought of them. This girl, now, whose work constantly carried her
+into the various rooms on this floor, would, of course, know whether Mr.
+Mansell had been away on the day of the murder, even if she could not
+tell the precise time of his return. At all events, it was worth while
+to test her with a question or two before he left, even if he had to
+resort to the means of spurring her memory with money. His failure in
+other directions did not necessitate a failure here.
+
+He accordingly called her in, and showing her a bright silver dollar,
+asked her if she thought it good enough pay for a short answer to a
+simple question.
+
+To his great surprise she blushed and drew back, shaking her head and
+muttering that her mistress didn't like to have the girls talk to the
+young men about the house, and finally going off with a determined toss
+of her frowsy head, that struck Mr. Byrd aghast, and made him believe
+more than ever that his evil star hung in the ascendant, and that the
+sooner he quit the house the better.
+
+In ten minutes he was in the street.
+
+But one thing now remained for him to do. He must make the acquaintance
+of one of the mill-owners, or possibly of an overseer or accountant, and
+from him learn where Mr. Mansell had been at the time of his aunt's
+murder. To this duty he devoted the day; but here also he was met by
+unexpected difficulties. Though he took pains to disguise himself before
+proceeding to the mill, all the endeavors which he made to obtain an
+interview there with any responsible person were utterly fruitless.
+Whether his ill-luck at the house had followed him to this place he
+could not tell, but, for some reason or other, there was not one of the
+gentlemen for whom he inquired but had some excuse for not seeing him;
+and, worn out at last with repeated disappointments, if not oppressed
+by the doubtful looks he received from the various subordinates who
+carried his messages, he left the building, and proceeded to make use of
+the only means now left him of compassing his end.
+
+This was to visit Mr. Goodman, the one member of the firm who was not at
+his post that day, and see if from him he could gather the single fact
+he was in search of.
+
+"Perhaps the atmosphere of distrust with which I am surrounded in this
+quarter has not reached this gentleman's house," thought he. And having
+learned from the directory where that house was, he proceeded
+immediately to it.
+
+His reception was by no means cordial. Mr. Goodman had been ill the
+night before, and was in no mood to see strangers.
+
+"Mansell?" he coolly repeated, in acknowledgment of the other's inquiry
+as to whether he had a person of that name in his employ. "Yes, our
+book-keeper's name is Mansell. May I ask"--and here Mr. Byrd felt
+himself subjected to a thorough, if not severe, scrutiny--"why you come
+to me with inquiries concerning him?"
+
+"Because," the determined detective responded, adopting at once the bold
+course, "you can put me in possession of a fact which it eminently
+befits the cause of justice to know. I am an emissary, sir, from the
+District Attorney at Sibley, and the point I want settled is, where Mr.
+Mansell was on the morning of the twenty-sixth of September?"
+
+This was business, and the look that involuntarily leaped into Mr.
+Goodman's eye proved that he considered it so. He did not otherwise
+betray this feeling, however, but turned quite calmly toward a chair,
+into which he slowly settled himself before replying:
+
+"And why do you not ask the gentleman himself where he was? He probably
+would be quite ready to tell you."
+
+The inflection he gave to these words warned Mr. Byrd to be careful. The
+truth was, Mr. Goodman was Mr. Mansell's best friend, and as such had
+his own reasons for not being especially communicative in his regard, to
+this stranger. The detective vaguely felt this, and immediately changed
+his manner.
+
+"I have no doubt of that, sir," he ingenuously answered. "But Mr.
+Mansell has had so much to distress him lately, that I was desirous of
+saving him from the unpleasantness which such a question would
+necessarily cause. It is only a small matter, sir. A person--it is not
+essential to state whom--has presumed to raise the question among the
+authorities in Sibley as to whether Mr. Mansell, as heir of poor Mrs.
+Clemmens' small property, might not have had some hand in her dreadful
+death. There was no proof to sustain the assumption, and Mr. Mansell was
+not even known to have been in the town on or after the day of her
+murder; but justice, having listened to the aspersion, felt bound to
+satisfy itself of its falsity; and I was sent here to learn where Mr.
+Mansell was upon that fatal day. I find he was not in Buffalo. But this
+does not mean he was in Sibley, and I am sure that, if you will, you can
+supply me with facts that will lead to a complete and satisfactory
+_alibi_ for him."
+
+But the hard caution of the other was not to be moved.
+
+"I am sorry," said he, "but I can give you no information in regard to
+Mr. Mansell's travels. You will have to ask the gentleman himself."
+
+"You did not send him out on business of your own, then?"
+
+"No."
+
+"But you knew he was going?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And can tell when he came back?"
+
+"He was in his place on Wednesday."
+
+The cold, dry nature of these replies convinced Mr. Byrd that something
+more than the sullen obstinacy of an uncommunicative man lay behind this
+determined reticence. Looking at Mr. Goodman inquiringly, he calmly
+remarked:
+
+"You are a friend of Mr. Mansell?"
+
+The answer came quick and coldly:
+
+"He is a constant visitor at my house."
+
+Mr. Byrd made a respectful bow.
+
+"You can, then, have no doubts of his ability to prove an _alibi_?"
+
+"I have no doubts concerning Mr. Mansell," was the stern and
+uncompromising reply.
+
+Mr. Byrd at once felt he had received his dismissal. But before making
+up his mind to go, he resolved upon one further effort. Calling to his
+aid his full power of acting, he slowly shook his head with a thoughtful
+air, and presently murmured half aloud and half, as it were, to himself:
+
+"I thought, possibly, he might have gone to Washington." Then, with a
+casual glance at Mr. Goodman, added: "He is an inventor, I believe?"
+
+"Yes," was again the laconic response.
+
+"Has he not a machine at present which he desires to bring to the notice
+of some capitalist?"
+
+"I believe he has," was the forced and none too amiable answer.
+
+Mr. Byrd at once leaned confidingly forward.
+
+"Don't you think," he asked, "that he may have gone to New York to
+consult with some one about this pet hobby of his? It would certainly be
+a natural thing for him to do, and if I only knew it was so, I could go
+back to Sibley with an easy conscience."
+
+His disinterested air, and the tone of kindly concern which he had
+adopted, seemed at last to produce its effect on his companion. Relaxing
+a trifle of his austerity, Mr. Goodman went so far as to admit that Mr.
+Mansell had told him that business connected with his patent had called
+him out of town; but beyond this he would allow nothing; and Mr. Byrd,
+baffled in his attempts to elicit from this man any distinct
+acknowledgment of Mr. Mansell's whereabouts at the critical time of Mrs.
+Clemmens' death, made a final bow and turned toward the door.
+
+It was only at this moment he discovered that Mr. Goodman and himself
+had not been alone in the room; that curled up in one of the
+window-seats was a little girl of some ten or twelve years of age, who
+at the first tokens of his taking his departure slipped shyly down to
+the floor and ran before him out into the hall. He found her by the
+front door when he arrived there. She was standing with her hand on the
+knob, and presented such a picture of childish eagerness, tempered by
+childish timidity, that he involuntarily paused before her with a smile.
+She needed no further encouragement.
+
+"Oh, sir, I know about Mr. Mansell!" she cried. "He wasn't in that place
+you talk about, for he wrote a letter to papa just the day before he
+came back, and the postmark on the envelope was Monteith. I remember,
+because it was the name of the man who made our big map." And, looking
+up with that eager zeal which marks the liking of very little folks for
+some one favorite person among their grown acquaintances, she added,
+earnestly: "I do hope you won't let them say any thing bad about Mr.
+Mansell, he is so good."
+
+And without waiting for a reply, she ran off, her curls dancing, her
+eyes sparkling, all her little innocent form alive with the joy of
+having done a kindness, as she thought, for her favorite, Mr. Mansell.
+
+Mr. Byrd, on the contrary, felt a strange pang that the information he
+had sought for so long and vainly should come at last from the lips of
+an innocent child.
+
+Monteith, as you remember, was the next station to Sibley.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+THE END OF A TORTUOUS PATH.
+
+          Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.--HAMLET.
+
+
+THE arrest of Mr. Hildreth had naturally quieted public suspicion by
+fixing attention upon a definite point, so that when Mr. Byrd returned
+to Sibley he found that he could pursue whatever inquiries he chose
+without awakening the least mistrust that he was on the look-out for the
+murderer of Mrs. Clemmens.
+
+The first use he made of his time was to find out if Mr. Mansell, or any
+man answering to his description, had been seen to take the train from
+the Sibley station on the afternoon or evening of the fatal Tuesday. The
+result was unequivocal. No such person had been seen there, and no such
+person was believed to have been at the station at any time during that
+day. This was his first disappointment.
+
+He next made the acquaintance of the conductors on that line of
+street-cars by means of which he believed Mr. Mansell to have made his
+escape. But with no better result. Not one of them remembered having
+taken up, of late, any passenger from the terminus, of the appearance
+described by Mr. Byrd.
+
+And this was his second disappointment.
+
+His next duty was obviously to change his plan of action and make the
+town of Monteith the centre of his inquiries. But he hesitated to do
+this till he had made one other visit to the woods in whose recesses he
+still believed the murderer to have plunged immediately upon dealing the
+fatal blow.
+
+He went by the way of the street railroad, not wishing to be again seen
+crossing the bog, and arrived at the hut in the centre of the glade
+without meeting any one or experiencing the least adventure.
+
+This time he went in, but nothing was to be seen save bare logs, a rough
+hearth where a fire had once been built, and the rudest sort of bench
+and table; and hurrying forth again, he looked doubtfully up and down
+the glade in pursuit of some hint to guide him in his future researches.
+
+Suddenly he received one. The thick wall of foliage which at first
+glance revealed but the two outlets already traversed by him, showed
+upon close inspection a third path, opening well behind the hut, and
+leading, as he soon discovered, in an entirely opposite direction from
+that which had taken him to West Side. Merely stopping to cast one
+glance at the sun, which was still well overhead, he set out on this new
+path. It was longer and much more intricate than the other. It led
+through hollows and up steeps, and finally out into an open blackberry
+patch, where it seemed to terminate. But a close study of the
+surrounding bushes, soon disclosed signs of a narrow and thread-like
+passage curving about a rocky steep. Entering this he presently found
+himself drawn again into the woods, which he continued to traverse till
+he came to a road cut through the heart of the forest, for the use of
+the lumbermen. Here he paused. Should he turn to the right or left? He
+decided to turn to the right. Keeping in the road, which was rough with
+stones where it was not marked with the hoofs of both horses and cattle,
+he walked for some distance. Then he emerged into open space again, and
+discovered that he was on the hillside overlooking Monteith, and that by
+a mile or two's further walk over the highway that was dimly to be
+descried at the foot of the hill, he would reach the small station
+devoted to the uses of the quarrymen that worked in this place.
+
+There was no longer any further doubt that this route, and not the
+other, had been the one taken by Mr. Mansell on that fatal afternoon.
+But he was determined not to trust any further to mere surmises; so
+hastening down the hill, he made his way in the direction of the
+highway, meaning to take the walk alluded to, and learn for himself what
+passengers had taken the train at this point on the Tuesday afternoon so
+often mentioned.
+
+But a barrier rose in his way. A stream which he had barely noticed in
+the quick glance he threw over the landscape from the brow of the hill,
+separated with quite a formidable width of water the hillside from the
+road, and it was not till he wandered back for some distance along its
+banks, that he found a bridge. The time thus lost was considerable, but
+he did not think of it; and when, after a long and weary tramp, he
+stepped upon the platform of the small station, he was so eager to learn
+if he had correctly followed the scent, that he forgot to remark that
+the road he had taken was any thing but an easy or feasible one for a
+hasty escape.
+
+The accommodation-trains, which alone stop at this point, had both
+passed, and he found the station-master at leisure. A single glance into
+his honest and intelligent face convinced the detective that he had a
+reliable man to deal with. He at once commenced his questions.
+
+"Do many persons besides the quarrymen take the train at this place?"
+asked he.
+
+"Not many," was the short but sufficiently good-natured rejoinder. "I
+guess I could easily count them on the fingers of one hand," he laughed.
+
+"You would be apt to notice, then, if a strange gentleman got on board
+here at any time, would you not?"
+
+"Guess so; not often troubled that way, but sometimes--sometimes."
+
+"Can you tell me whether a young man of very dark complexion, heavy
+mustache, and a determined, if not excited, expression, took the cars
+here for Monteith, say, any day last week?"
+
+"I don't know," mused the man. "Dark complexion, you say, large
+mustache; let me see."
+
+"No dandy," Mr. Byrd carefully explained, "but a strong man, who
+believes in work. He was possibly in a state of somewhat nervous hurry,"
+he went on, suggestively, "and if he wore an overcoat at all, it was a
+gray one."
+
+The face of the man lighted up.
+
+"I seem to remember," said he. "Did he have a very bright blue eye and a
+high color?"
+
+Mr. Byrd nodded.
+
+"And did he carry a peculiarly shaped bag, of which he was very
+careful?"
+
+"I don't know," said Mr. Byrd, but remembering the model, added with
+quick assurance, "I have no doubt he did"; which seemed to satisfy the
+other, for he at once cried:
+
+"I recollect such a person very well. I noticed him before he got to the
+station; as soon in fact as he came in sight. He was walking down the
+highway, and seemed to be thinking about something. He's of the kind to
+attract attention. What about him, sir?"
+
+"Nothing. He was in trouble of some kind, and he went from home without
+saying where he was going; and his friends are anxious about him, that
+is all. Do you think you could swear to his face if you saw it?"
+
+"I think I could. He was the only stranger that got on to the cars that
+afternoon."
+
+"Do you remember, then, the day?"
+
+"Well, no, now, I don't."
+
+"But can't you, if you try? Wasn't there something done by you that day
+which will assist your memory?"
+
+Again that slow "Let me see" showed that the man was pondering. Suddenly
+he slapped his thigh and exclaimed:
+
+"You might be a lawyer's clerk now, mightn't you; or, perhaps, a lawyer
+himself? I do remember that a large load of stone was sent off that day,
+and a minute's look at my book---- It was Tuesday," he presently
+affirmed.
+
+Mr. Byrd drew a deep breath. There is sadness mixed with the
+satisfaction of such a triumph.
+
+"I am much obliged to you," he said, in acknowledgment of the other's
+trouble. "The friends of this gentleman will now have little difficulty
+in tracing him. There is but one thing further I should like to make
+sure of."
+
+And taking from his memorandum-book the picture he kept concealed there,
+he showed him the face of Mr. Mansell, now altered to a perfect
+likeness, and asked him if he recognized it.
+
+The decided Yes which he received made further questions unnecessary.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+STORM.
+
+          Oh, my offence is rank, it smells to heav'n:
+          It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't!--HAMLET.
+
+
+A DAY had passed. Mr. Byrd, who no longer had any reason to doubt that
+he was upon the trail of the real assailant of the Widow Clemmens, had
+resolved upon a third visit to the woods, this time with the definite
+object of picking up any clew, however trifling, in support of the fact
+that Craik Mansell had passed through the glade behind his aunt's house.
+
+The sky, when he left the hotel, was one vast field of blue; but by the
+time he reached the terminus of the car-route, and stepped out upon the
+road leading to the woods, dark clouds had overcast the sun, and a cool
+wind replaced the quiet zephyrs which had all day fanned the brilliant
+autumn foliage.
+
+He did not realize the condition of the atmosphere, however, and
+proceeded on his way, thinking more of the person he had just perceived
+issuing from the door-way of Professor Darling's lofty mansion, than of
+the low mutterings of distant thunder that now and then disturbed the
+silence of the woods, or of the ominous, brazen tint which was slowly
+settling over the huge bank of cloud that filled the northern sky. For
+that person was Miss Dare, and her presence here, or anywhere near him,
+at this time, must of necessity, awaken a most painful train of thought.
+
+But, though unmindful of the storm, he was dimly conscious of the
+darkness that was settling about him. Quicker and quicker grew his pace,
+and at last he almost broke into a run as the heavy pall of a large
+black cloud swept up over the zenith, and wiped from the heavens the
+last remnant of blue sky. One drop fell, then another, then a slow,
+heavy patter, that bent double the leaves they fell upon, as if a shower
+of lead had descended upon the heavily writhing forest. The wind had
+risen, too, and the vast aisles of that clear and beautiful wood
+thundered with the swaying of boughs, and the crash here and there of an
+old and falling limb. But the lightning delayed.
+
+The blindest or most abstracted man could be ignorant no longer of what
+all this turmoil meant. Stopping in the path along which he had been
+speeding, Mr. Byrd glanced before him and behind, in a momentary
+calculation of distances, and deciding he could not regain the terminus
+before the storm burst, pushed on toward the hut.
+
+He reached it just as the first flash of lightning darted down through
+the heavy darkness, and was about to fling himself against the door,
+when something--was it the touch of an invisible hand, or the crash of
+awful thunder which at this instant plowed up the silence of the forest
+and woke a pandemonium of echoes about his head?--stopped him.
+
+He never knew. He only realized that he shuddered and drew back, with a
+feeling of great disinclination to enter the low building before him,
+alone; and that presently taking advantage of another loud crash of
+falling boughs, he crept around the corner of the hut, and satisfied his
+doubts by looking into the small, square window opening to the west.
+
+He found there was ample reason for all the hesitation he had felt. A
+man was sitting there, who, at the first glimpse, appeared to him to be
+none other than Craik Mansell. But reason soon assured him this could
+not be, though the shape, the attitude--that old attitude of despair
+which he remembered so well--was so startlingly like that of the man
+whose name was uppermost in his thoughts, that he recoiled in spite of
+himself.
+
+A second flash swept blinding through the wood. Mr. Byrd advanced his
+head and took another glance at the stranger. It _was_ Mr. Mansell. No
+other man would sit so quiet and unmoved during the rush and clatter of
+a terrible storm.
+
+Look! not a hair of his head has stirred, not a movement has taken place
+in the hands clasped so convulsively beneath his brow. He is an image, a
+stone, and would not hear though the roof fell in.
+
+Mr. Byrd himself forgot the storm, and only queried what his duty was
+in this strange and surprising emergency.
+
+But before he could come to any definite conclusion, he was subjected to
+a new sensation. A stir that was not the result of the wind or the rain
+had taken place in the forest before him. A something--he could not tell
+what--was advancing upon him from the path he had himself travelled so
+short a time before, and its step, if step it were, shook him with a
+vague apprehension that made him dread to lift his eyes. But he
+conquered the unmanly instinct, and merely taking the precaution to step
+somewhat further back from view, looked in the direction of his fears,
+and saw a tall, firmly-built woman, whose grandly poised head, held
+high, in defiance of the gale, the lightning, and the rain, proclaimed
+her to be none other than Imogene Dare.
+
+It was a juxtaposition of mental, moral, and physical forces that almost
+took Mr. Byrd's breath away. He had no doubt whom she had come to see,
+or to what sort of a tryst he was about to be made an unwilling witness.
+But he could not have moved if the blast then surging through the trees
+had uprooted the huge pine behind which he had involuntarily drawn at
+the first impression he had received of her approach. He must watch that
+white face of hers slowly evolve itself from the surrounding darkness,
+and he must be present when the dreadful bolt swept down from heaven, if
+only to see her eyes in the flare of its ghostly flame.
+
+It came while she was crossing the glade. Fierce, blinding, more vivid
+and searching than at any time before, it flashed down through the
+cringing boughs, and, like a mantle of fire, enveloped her form,
+throwing out its every outline, and making of the strong and beautiful
+face an electric vision which Mr. Byrd was never able to forget.
+
+A sudden swoop of wind followed, flinging her almost to the ground, but
+Mr. Byrd knew from that moment that neither wind nor lightning, not even
+the fear of death, would stop this woman if once she was determined upon
+any course.
+
+Dreading the next few moments inexpressibly, yet forcing himself, as a
+detective, to remain at his post, though every instinct of his nature
+rebelled, Mr. Byrd drew himself up against the side of the low hut and
+listened. Her voice, rising between the mutterings of thunder and the
+roar of the ceaseless gale, was plainly to be heard.
+
+"Craik Mansell," said she, in a strained tone, that was not without its
+severity, "you sent for me, and I am here."
+
+Ah, this was her mode of greeting, was it? Mr. Byrd felt his breath come
+easier, and listened for the reply with intensest interest.
+
+But it did not come. The low rumbling of the thunder went on, and the
+wind howled through the gruesome forest, but the man she had addressed
+did not speak.
+
+"Craik!" Her voice still came from the door-way, where she had seemingly
+taken her stand. "Do you not hear me?"
+
+A stifled groan was the sole reply.
+
+She appeared to take one step forward, but no more.
+
+"I can understand," said she, and Mr. Byrd had no difficulty in hearing
+her words, though the turmoil overhead was almost deafening, "why the
+restlessness of despair should drive you into seeking this interview. I
+have longed to see you too, if only to tell you that I wish heaven's
+thunderbolts had fallen upon us both on that day when we sat and talked
+of our future prospects and----"
+
+A lurid flash cut short her words. Strange and awesome sounds awoke in
+the air above, and the next moment a great branch fell crashing down
+upon the roof of the hut, beating in one corner, and sliding thence
+heavily to the ground, where it lay with all its quivering leaves
+uppermost, not two feet from the door-way where this woman stood.
+
+A shriek like that of a lost spirit went up from her lips.
+
+"I thought the vengeance of heaven had fallen!" she gasped. And for a
+moment not a sound was heard within or without the hut, save that low
+flutter of the disturbed leaves. "It is not to be," she then whispered,
+with a return of her old calmness, that was worse than any shriek.
+"Murder is not to be avenged thus." Then, shortly: "A dark and hideous
+line of blood is drawn between you and me, Craik Mansell. _I_ cannot
+pass it, and you must not, forever and forever and forever. But that
+does not hinder me from wishing to help you, and so I ask, in all
+sincerity, What is it you want me to do for you to-day?"
+
+A response came this time.
+
+"Show me how to escape the consequences of my act," were his words,
+uttered in a low and muffled voice.
+
+She did not answer at once.
+
+"Are you threatened?" she inquired at last, in a tone that proved she
+had drawn one step nearer to the bowed form and hidden face of the
+person she addressed.
+
+"My conscience threatens me," was the almost stifled reply.
+
+Again that heavy silence, all the more impressive that the moments
+before had been so prolific of heaven's most terrible noises.
+
+"You suffer because another man is forced to endure suspicion for a
+crime he never committed," she whisperingly exclaimed.
+
+Only a groan answered her; and the moments grew heavier and heavier,
+more and more oppressive, though the hitherto accompanying outcries of
+the forest had ceased, and a faint lightening of the heavy darkness was
+taking place overhead. Mr. Byrd felt the pressure of the situation so
+powerfully, he drew near to the window he had hitherto avoided, and
+looked in. She was standing a foot behind the crouched figure of the
+man, between whom and herself she had avowed a line of blood to be
+drawn. As he looked she spoke.
+
+"Craik," said she, and the deathless yearning of love spoke in her voice
+at last, "there is but one thing to do. Expiate your guilt by
+acknowledging it. Save the innocent from unmerited suspicion, and trust
+to the mercy of God. It is the only advice I can give you. I know no
+other road to peace. If I did----" She stopped, choked by the terror of
+her own thoughts. "Craik," she murmured, at last, "on the day I hear of
+your having made this confession, I vow to take an oath of celibacy for
+life. It is the only recompense I can offer for the misery and sin into
+which our mutual mad ambitions have plunged you."
+
+And subduing with a look of inexpressible anguish an evident longing to
+lay her hand in final caress upon that bended head, she gave him one
+parting look, and then, with a quick shudder, hurried away, and buried
+herself amid the darkness of the wet and shivering woods.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+A SURPRISE.
+
+          Season your admiration for awhile.--HAMLET.
+
+
+WHEN all was still again, Mr. Byrd advanced from his place of
+concealment, and softly entered the hut. Its solitary occupant sat as
+before, with his head bent down upon his clasped hands. But at the first
+sound of Mr. Byrd's approach he rose and turned. The shock of the
+discovery which followed sent the detective reeling back against the
+door. The person who faced him with such quiet assurance was _not_ Craik
+Mansell.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+A BRACE OF DETECTIVES.
+
+          Hath this fellow no feeling of his business?--HAMLET.
+
+          No action, whether foul or fair,
+          Is ever done, but it leaves somewhere
+          A record.                            --LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+"SO there are two of us! I thought as much when I first set eyes upon
+your face in Buffalo!"
+
+This exclamation, uttered in a dry and musing tone, woke Mr. Byrd from
+the stupor into which this astonishing discovery had thrown him.
+Advancing upon the stranger, who in size, shape, and coloring was almost
+the _fac-simile_ of the person he had so successfully represented, Mr.
+Byrd looked him scrutinizingly over.
+
+The man bore the ordeal with equanimity; he even smiled.
+
+"You don't recognize me, I see."
+
+Mr. Byrd at once recoiled.
+
+"Ah!" cried he, "you are that Jack-in-the-box, Brown!"
+
+"_Alias_ Frank Hickory, at your service."
+
+This name, so unexpected, called up a flush of mingled surprise and
+indignation to Mr. Byrd's cheek.
+
+"I thought----" he began.
+
+"Don't think," interrupted the other, who, when excited, affected
+laconicism, "know." Then, with affability, proceeded, "You are the
+gentleman----" he paid that much deference to Mr. Byrd's air and manner,
+"who I was told might lend me a helping hand in this Clemmens affair. I
+didn't recognize you before, sir. Wouldn't have stood in your way if I
+had. Though, to be sure, I did want to see this matter through myself. I
+thought I had the right. And I've done it, too, as you must acknowledge,
+if you have been present in this terrible place very long."
+
+This self-satisfied, if not boastful, allusion to a scene in which this
+strange being had played so unworthy, if not unjustifiable, a part, sent
+a thrill of revulsion through Mr. Byrd. Drawing hastily back with an
+instinct of dislike he could not conceal, he cast a glance through the
+thicket of trees that spread beyond the open door, and pointedly asked:
+
+"Was there no way of satisfying yourself of the guilt of Craik Mansell,
+except by enacting a farce that may lead to the life-long remorse of the
+woman out of whose love you have made a trap?"
+
+A slow flush, the first, possibly, that had visited the hardy cheek of
+this thick-skinned detective for years, crept over the face of Frank
+Hickory.
+
+"I don't mean she shall ever know," he sullenly protested, kicking at
+the block upon which he had been sitting. "But it _was_ a mean trick,"
+he frankly enough admitted the next moment. "If I hadn't been the tough
+old hickory knot that I am, I couldn't have done it, I suppose. The
+storm, too, made it seem a bit trifling. But---- Well, well!" he
+suddenly interjected, in a more cheerful tone, "'tis too late now for
+tears and repentance. The thing is done, and can't be undone. And, at
+all events, I reckon we are both satisfied _now_ as to who killed Widow
+Clemmens!"
+
+Mr. Byrd could not resist a slight sarcasm. "I thought you were
+satisfied in that regard before?" said he. "At least, I understood that
+at a certain time you were very positive it was Mr. Hildreth."
+
+"So I was," the fellow good-naturedly allowed; "so I was. The byways of
+a crime like this are dreadful dark and uncertain. It isn't strange that
+a fellow gets lost sometimes. But I got a jog on my elbow that sent me
+into the right path," said he, "as, perhaps, you did too, sir, eh?"
+
+Not replying to this latter insinuation, Mr. Byrd quietly repeated:
+
+"You got a jog on your elbow? When, may I ask?"
+
+"Three days ago, _just_!" was the emphatic reply.
+
+"And from whom?"
+
+Instead of replying, the man leaned back against the wall of the hut and
+looked at his interlocutor in silence.
+
+"Are we going to join hands over this business?" he cried, at last, "or
+are you thinking of pushing your way on alone after you have got from me
+all that I know?"
+
+The question took Mr. Byrd by surprise.
+
+He had not thought of the future. He was as yet too much disturbed by
+his memories of the past. To hide his discomfiture, he began to pace the
+floor, an operation which his thoroughly wet condition certainly made
+advisable.
+
+"I have no wish to rob you of any glory you may hope to reap from the
+success of the plot you have carried on here to-day," he presently
+declared, with some bitterness; "but if this Craik Mansell _is_ guilty,
+I suppose it is my duty to help you in the collection of all suitable
+and proper evidence against him."
+
+"Then," said the other, who had been watching him with rather an anxious
+eye, "let us to work." And, sitting down on the table, he motioned to
+Mr. Byrd to take a seat upon the block at his side.
+
+But the latter kept up his walk.
+
+Hickory surveyed him for a moment in silence, then he said:
+
+"You must have something against this young man, or you wouldn't be
+here. What is it? What first set you thinking about Craik Mansell?"
+
+Now, this was a question Mr. Byrd could not and would not answer. After
+what had just passed in the hut, he felt it impossible to mention to
+this man the name of Imogene Dare in connection with that of the nephew
+of Mrs. Clemmens. He therefore waived the other's interrogation and
+remarked:
+
+"My knowledge was rather the fruit of surmise than fact. I did not
+believe in the guilt of Gouverneur Hildreth, and so was forced to look
+about me for some one whom I could conscientiously suspect. I fixed upon
+this unhappy man in Buffalo; how truly, your own suspicions,
+unfortunately, reveal."
+
+"And I had to have my wits started by a horrid old woman," murmured the
+evidently abashed Hickory.
+
+"Horrid old woman!" repeated Mr. Byrd. "Not Sally Perkins?"
+
+"Yes. A sweet one, isn't she?"
+
+Mr. Byrd shuddered.
+
+"Tell me about it," said he, coming and sitting down in the seat the
+other had previously indicated to him.
+
+"I will, sir; I will: but first let's look at the weather. Some folks
+would think it just as well for you to change that toggery of yours.
+What do you say to going home first, and talking afterward?"
+
+"I suppose it would be wise," admitted Mr. Byrd, looking down at his
+garments, whose decidedly damp condition he had scarcely noticed in his
+excitement. "And yet I hate to leave this spot till I learn how you came
+to choose it as the scene of the tragi-comedy you have enacted here
+to-day, and what position it is likely to occupy in the testimony which
+you have collected against this young man."
+
+"Wait, then," said the bustling fellow, "till I build you the least bit
+of a fire to warm you. It won't take but a minute," he averred, piling
+together some old sticks that cumbered the hearth, and straightway
+setting a match to them. "See! isn't that pleasant? And now, just cast
+your eye at this!" he continued, drawing a comfortable-looking flask out
+of his pocket and handing it over to the other with a dry laugh. "Isn't
+_this_ pleasant?" And he threw himself down on the floor and stretched
+out his hands to the blaze, with a gusto which the dreary hour he had
+undoubtedly passed made perfectly natural, if not excusable.
+
+"I thank you," said Mr. Byrd; "I didn't know I was so chilled," and he,
+too, enjoyed the warmth. "And, now," he pursued, after a moment, "go on;
+let us have the thing out at once."
+
+But the other was in no hurry. "Very good, sir," he cried; "but, first,
+if you don't mind, suppose you tell me what brought _you_ to this hut
+to-day?"
+
+"I was on the look-out for clues. In my study of the situation, I
+decided that the murderer of Mrs. Clemmens escaped, not from the front,
+but from the back, of the house. Taking the path I imagined him to have
+trod, I came upon this hut. It naturally attracted my attention, and
+to-day I came back to examine it more closely in the hope of picking up
+some signs of his having been here, or at least of having passed through
+the glade on his way to the deeper woods."
+
+"And what, if you had succeeded in this, sir? What, if some token of his
+presence had rewarded your search?"
+
+"I should have completed a chain of proof of which only this one link is
+lacking. I could have shown how Craik Mansell fled from this place on
+last Tuesday afternoon, making his way through the woods to the highway,
+and thence to the Quarry Station at Monteith, where he took the train
+which carried him back to Buffalo."
+
+"You could!--show me how?"
+
+Mr. Byrd explained himself more definitely.
+
+Hickory at once rose.
+
+"I guess we can give you the link," he dryly remarked. "At all events,
+suppose you just step here and tell me what conclusion you draw from the
+appearance of this pile of brush."
+
+Mr. Byrd advanced and looked at a small heap of hemlock that lay in a
+compact mass in one corner.
+
+"I have not disturbed it," pursued the other. "It is just as it was when
+I found it."
+
+"Looks like a pillow," declared Mr. Byrd. "Has been used for such, I am
+sure; for see, the dust in this portion of the floor lies lighter than
+elsewhere. You can almost detect the outline of a man's recumbent form,"
+he went on, slowly, leaning down to examine the floor more closely. "As
+for the boughs, they have been cut from the tree with a knife, and----"
+Lifting up a sprig, he looked at it, then passed it over to Hickory,
+with a meaning glance that directed attention to one or two short hairs
+of a dark brown color, that were caught in the rough bark. "He did not
+even throw his pocket-handkerchief over the heap before lying down," he
+observed.
+
+Mr. Hickory smiled. "You're up in your business, I see." And drawing his
+new colleague to the table, he asked him what he saw there.
+
+At first sight Mr. Byrd exclaimed: "Nothing," but in another moment he
+picked up an infinitesimal chip from between the rough logs that formed
+the top of this somewhat rustic piece of furniture, and turning it over
+in his hand, pronounced it to be a piece of wood from a lead-pencil.
+
+"Here are several of them," remarked Mr. Hickory, "and what is more, it
+is easy to tell just the color of the pencil from which they were cut.
+It was blue."
+
+"That is so," assented Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Quarrymen, charcoal-burners, and the like are not much in the habit of
+sharpening pencils," suggested Hickory.
+
+"Is the pencil now to be found in the pocket of Mr. Mansell a blue one?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"Have you any thing more to show me?" asked Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Only this," responded the other, taking out of his pocket the torn-off
+corner of a newspaper. "I found this blowing about under the bushes out
+there," said he. "Look at it and tell me from what paper it was torn."
+
+"I don't know," said Mr. Byrd; "none that I am acquainted with."
+
+"You don't read the Buffalo _Courier_?"
+
+"Oh, is this----"
+
+"A corner from the Buffalo _Courier_? I don't know, but I mean to find
+out. If it is, and the date proves to be correct, we won't have much
+trouble about the little link, will we?"
+
+Mr. Byrd shook his head and they again crouched down over the fire.
+
+"And, now, what did you learn in Buffalo?" inquired the persistent
+Hickory.
+
+"Not much," acknowledged Mr. Byrd. "The man Brown was entirely too
+ubiquitous to give me my full chance. Neither at the house nor at the
+mill was I able to glean any thing beyond an admission from the landlady
+that Mr. Mansell was not at home at the time of his aunt's murder. I
+couldn't even learn where he was on that day, or where he had ostensibly
+gone? If it had not been for the little girl of Mr. Goodman----"
+
+"Ah, I had not time to go to that house," interjected the other,
+suggestively.
+
+"I should have come home as wise as I went," continued Mr. Byrd. "She
+told me that on the day before Mr. Mansell returned, he wrote to her
+father from Monteith, and _that_ settled my mind in regard to him. It
+was pure luck, however."
+
+The other laughed long and loud.
+
+"I didn't know I did it up so well," he cried. "I told the landlady you
+were a detective, or acted like one, and she was very ready to take the
+alarm, having, as I judge, a motherly liking for her young boarder. Then
+I took Messrs. Chamberlin and Harrison into my confidence, and having
+got from them all the information they could give me, told them there
+was evidently another man on the track of this Mansell, and warned them
+to keep silence till they heard from the prosecuting attorney in Sibley.
+But I didn't know who you were, or, at least, I wasn't sure; or, as I
+said before, I shouldn't have presumed."
+
+The short, dry laugh with which he ended this explanation had not
+ceased, when Mr. Byrd observed:
+
+"You have not told me what _you_ gathered in Buffalo."
+
+"Much," quoth Hickory, reverting to his favorite laconic mode of speech.
+"First, that Mansell went from home on Monday, the day before the
+murder, for the purpose, as he said, of seeing a man in New York about
+his wonderful invention. Secondly, that he never went to New York, but
+came back the next evening, bringing his model with him, and looking
+terribly used up and worried. Thirdly, that to get this invention before
+the public had been his pet aim and effort for a whole year. That he
+believed in it as you do in your Bible, and would have given his heart's
+blood, if it would have done any good, to start the thing, and prove
+himself right in his estimate of its value. That the money to do this
+was all that was lacking, no one believing in him sufficiently to
+advance him the five thousand dollars considered necessary to build the
+machine and get it in working order. That, in short, he was a fanatic on
+the subject, and often said he would be willing to die within the year
+if he could first prove to the unbelieving capitalists whom he had
+vainly importuned for assistance, the worth of the discovery he believed
+himself to have made. Fourthly--but what is it you wish to say, sir?"
+
+"Five thousand dollars is just the amount Widow Clemmens is supposed to
+leave him," remarked Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Precisely," was the short reply.
+
+"And fourthly?" suggested the former.
+
+"Fourthly, he was in the mill on Wednesday morning, where he went about
+his work as usual, until some one who knew his relation to Mrs. Clemmens
+looked up from the paper he was reading, and, in pure thoughtlessness,
+cried, 'So they have killed your aunt for you, have they?' A barbarous
+jest, that caused everybody near him to start in indignation, but which
+made him recoil as if one of these thunderbolts we have been listening
+to this afternoon had fallen at his feet. And he didn't get over it,"
+Hickory went on. "He had to beg permission to go home. He said the
+terrible news had made him ill, and indeed he looked sick enough, and
+continued to look sick enough for days. He had letters from Sibley, and
+an invitation to attend the inquest and be present at the funeral
+services, but he refused to go. He was threatened with diphtheria, he
+declared, and remained away from the mill until the day before
+yesterday. Some one, I don't remember who, says he went out of town the
+very Wednesday he first heard the news; but if so, he could not have
+been gone long, for he was at home Wednesday night, sick in bed, and
+threatened, as I have said, with the diphtheria. Fifthly----"
+
+"Well, fifthly?"
+
+"I am afraid of your criticisms," laughed the rough detective. "Fifthly
+is the result of my poking about among Mr. Mansell's traps."
+
+"Ah!" frowned the other, with a vivid remembrance of that picture of
+Miss Dare, with its beauty blotted out by the ominous black lines.
+
+"You are too squeamish for a detective," the other declared. "Guess
+you're kept for the fancy business, eh?"
+
+The look Mr. Byrd gave him was eloquent. "Go on," said he; "let us hear
+what lies behind your fifthly."
+
+"Love," returned the man. "Locked in the drawer of this young
+gentleman's table, I found some half-dozen letters tied with a black
+ribbon. I knew they were written by a lady, but squeamishness is not a
+fault of mine, and so I just allowed myself to glance over them. They
+were from Miss Dare, of course, and they revealed the fact that love, as
+well as ambition, had been a motive power in determining this Mansell to
+make a success out of his invention."
+
+Leaning back, the now self-satisfied detective looked at Mr. Byrd.
+
+"The name of Miss Dare," he went on, "brings me to the point from which
+we started. I haven't yet told you what old Sally Perkins had to say to
+me."
+
+"No," rejoined Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Well," continued the other, poking with his foot the dying embers of
+the fire, till it started up into a fresh blaze, "the case against this
+young fellow wouldn't be worth very much without that old crone's
+testimony, I reckon; but with it I guess we can get along."
+
+"Let us hear," said Mr. Byrd.
+
+"The old woman is a wretch," Hickory suddenly broke out. "She seems to
+gloat over the fact that a young and beautiful woman is in trouble. She
+actually trembled with eagerness as she told her story. If I hadn't been
+rather anxious myself to hear what she had to say, I could have thrown
+her out of the window. As it was, I let her go on; duty before pleasure,
+you see--duty before pleasure."
+
+"But her story," persisted Mr. Byrd, letting some of his secret
+irritation betray itself.
+
+"Well, her story was this: Monday afternoon, the day before the murder,
+you know, she was up in these very woods hunting for witch-hazel. She
+had got her arms full and was going home across the bog when she
+suddenly heard voices. Being of a curious disposition, like myself, I
+suppose, she stopped, and seeing just before her a young gentleman and
+lady sitting on an old stump, crouched down in the shadow of a tree,
+with the harmless intent, no doubt, of amusing herself with their
+conversation. It was more interesting than she expected, and she really
+became quite tragic as she related her story to me. I cannot do justice
+to it myself, and I sha'n't try. It is enough that the man whom she did
+not know, and the woman whom she immediately recognized as Miss Dare,
+were both in a state of great indignation. That he spoke of selfishness
+and obstinacy on the part of his aunt, and that she, in the place of
+rebuking him, replied in a way to increase his bitterness, and lead him
+finally to exclaim: 'I cannot bear it! To think that with just the
+advance of the very sum she proposes to give me some day, I could make
+her fortune and my own, and win _you_ all in one breath! It is enough to
+drive a man mad to see all that he craves in this world so near his
+grasp, and yet have nothing, not even hope, to comfort him.' And at
+that, it seems, they both rose, and she, who had not answered any thing
+to this, struck the tree before which they stood, with her bare fist,
+and murmured a word or so which the old woman couldn't catch, but which
+was evidently something to the effect that she wished she knew Mrs.
+Clemmens; for Mansell--of course it was he--said, in almost the same
+breath, 'And if you did know her, what then?' A question which elicited
+no reply at first, but which finally led her to say: 'Oh! I think that,
+possibly, I might be able to persuade her.' All this," the detective
+went on, "old Sally related with the greatest force; but in regard to
+what followed, she was not so clear. Probably they interrupted their
+conversation with some lovers' by-play, for they stood very near
+together, and he seemed to be earnestly pleading with her. 'Do take it,'
+old Sally heard him say. 'I shall feel as if life held some outlook for
+me, if you only will gratify me in this respect.' But she answered: 'No;
+it is of no use. I am as ambitious as you are, and fate is evidently
+against us,' and put his hand back when he endeavored to take hers, but
+finally yielded so far as to give it to him for a moment, though she
+immediately snatched it away again, crying: 'I cannot; you must wait
+till to-morrow.' And when he asked: 'Why to-morrow?' she answered: 'A
+night has been known to change the whole current of a person's affairs.'
+To which he replied: 'True,' and looked thoughtful, very thoughtful, as
+he met her eyes and saw her raise that white hand of hers and strike the
+tree again with a passionate force that made her fingers bleed. And she
+was right," concluded the speaker. "The night, or if not the night, the
+next twenty-four hours, _did_ make a change, as even old Sally Perkins
+observed. Widow Clemmens was struck down and Craik Mansell became the
+possessor of the five thousand dollars he so much wanted in order to win
+for himself a fortune and a bride."
+
+Mr. Byrd, who had been sitting with his face turned aside during this
+long recital, slowly rose to his feet. "Hickory," said he, and his tone
+had an edge of suppressed feeling in it that made the other start,
+"don't let me ever hear you say, in my presence, that you think this
+young and beautiful woman was the one to suggest murder to this man, for
+I won't hear it. And now," he continued, more calmly, "tell me why this
+babbling old wretch did not enliven the inquest with her wonderful tale.
+It would have been a fine offset to the testimony of Miss Firman."
+
+"She said she wasn't fond of coroners and had no wish to draw the
+attention of twelve of her own townsfolk upon herself. She didn't mean
+to commit herself with me," pursued Hickory, rising also. "She was going
+to give me a hint of the real state of affairs; or, rather, set me
+working in the right direction, as this little note which she tucked
+under the door of my room at the hotel will show. But I was too quick
+for her, and had her by the arm before she could shuffle down the
+stairs. It was partly to prove her story was true and not a romance made
+up for the occasion, that I lured this woman here this afternoon."
+
+"You are not as bad a fellow as I thought," Mr. Byrd admitted, after a
+momentary contemplation of the other's face. "If I might only know how
+you managed to effect this interview."
+
+"Nothing easier. I found in looking over the scraps of paper which
+Mansell had thrown into the waste-paper basket in Buffalo, the draft of
+a note which he had written to Miss Dare, under an impulse which he
+afterward probably regretted. It was a summons to their usual place of
+tryst at or near this hut, and though unsigned, was of a character, as I
+thought, to effect its purpose. I just sent it to her, that's all."
+
+The nonchalance with which this was said completed Mr. Byrd's
+astonishment.
+
+"You are a worthy disciple of Gryce," he asserted, leading the way to
+the door.
+
+"Think so?" exclaimed the man, evidently flattered at what he considered
+a great compliment. "Then shake hands," he cried, with a frank appeal
+Mr. Byrd found it hard to resist. "Ah, you don't want to," he somewhat
+ruefully declared. "Will it change your feelings any if I promise to
+ignore what happened here to-day--my trick with Miss Dare and what she
+revealed and all that? If it will, I swear I won't even think of it any
+more if I can help it. At all events, I won't tattle about it even to
+the superintendent. It shall be a secret between you and me, and she
+won't know but what it was her lover she talked to, after all."
+
+"You are willing to do all this?" inquired Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Willing and ready," cried the man. "I believe in duty to one's
+superiors, but duty doesn't always demand of one to tell every thing he
+knows. Besides, it won't be necessary, I imagine. There is enough
+against this poor fellow without that."
+
+"I fear so," ejaculated Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Then it is a bargain?" said Hickory.
+
+"Yes."
+
+And Mr. Byrd held out his hand.
+
+The rain had now ceased and they prepared to return home. Before leaving
+the glade, however, Mr. Byrd ran his eye over the other's person and
+apparel, and in some wonder inquired:
+
+"How do you fellows ever manage to get up such complete disguises? I
+declare you look enough like Mr. Mansell in the back to make me doubt
+even now who I am talking to."
+
+"Oh," laughed the other, "it is easy enough. It's my specialty, you see,
+and one in which I _am_ thought to excel. But, to tell the truth, I
+hadn't much to contend with in this case. In build I am famously like
+this man, as you must have noticed when you saw us together in Buffalo.
+Indeed, it was our similarity in this respect that first put the idea of
+personifying him into my head. My complexion had been darkened already,
+and, as for such accessories as hair, voice, manner, dress, etc., a
+five-minutes' study of my model was sufficient to prime me up in all
+that--enough, at least, to satisfy the conditions of an interview which
+did not require me to show my face."
+
+"But you did not know when you came here that you would not have to show
+your face," persisted Mr. Byrd, anxious to understand how this man dared
+risk his reputation on an undertaking of this kind.
+
+"No, and I did not know that the biggest thunderstorm of the season was
+going to spring up and lend me its darkness to complete the illusion I
+had attempted. I only trusted my good fortune--and my wits," he added,
+with a droll demureness. "Both had served me before, and both were
+likely to serve me again. And, say she had detected me in my little
+game, what then? Women like her don't babble."
+
+There was no reply to make to this, and Mr. Byrd's thoughts being thus
+carried back to Imogene Dare and the unhappy revelations she had been
+led to make, he walked on in a dreary silence his companion had
+sufficient discretion not to break.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+MR. FERRIS.
+
+          Which of you have done this?--MACBETH.
+
+          What have we here?--TEMPEST.
+
+
+MR. FERRIS sat in his office in a somewhat gloomy frame of mind. There
+had been bad news from the jail that morning. Mr. Hildreth had attempted
+suicide the night before, and was now lying in a critical condition at
+the hospital.
+
+Mr. Ferris himself had never doubted this man's guilt. From Hildreth's
+first appearance at the inquest, the District Attorney had fixed upon
+him as the murderer of Mrs. Clemmens, and up to this time he had seen no
+good and substantial reason for altering his opinion.
+
+Even the doubts expressed by Mr. Byrd had moved him but little. Mr. Byrd
+was an enthusiast, and, naturally enough, shrank from believing a
+gentleman capable of such a crime. But the other detective's judgment
+was unswayed, and he considered Hildreth guilty. It was not astonishing,
+then, that the opinion of Mr. Ferris should coincide with that of the
+older and more experienced man.
+
+But the depth of despair or remorse which had led Mr. Hildreth to this
+desperate attempt upon his own life had struck the District Attorney
+with dismay. Though not over-sensitive by nature, he could not help
+feeling sympathy for the misery that had prompted such a deed, and while
+secretly regarding this unsuccessful attempt at suicide as an additional
+proof of guilt, he could not forbear satisfying himself by a review of
+the evidence elicited at the inquest, that the action of the authorities
+in arresting this man had been both warrantable and necessary.
+
+The result was satisfactory in all but one point. When he came to the
+widow's written accusation against one by the name of Gouverneur
+Hildreth, he was impressed by a fact that had hitherto escaped his
+notice. This was the yellowness of the paper upon which the words were
+written. If they had been transcribed a dozen years before, they would
+not have looked older, nor would the ink have presented a more faded
+appearance. Now, as the suspected man was under twenty-five years of
+age, and must, therefore, have been a mere child when the paper was
+drawn up, the probability was that the Gouverneur intended was the
+prisoner's father, their names being identical.
+
+But this discovery, while it robbed the affair of its most dramatic
+feature, could not affect in any serious way the extreme significance of
+the remaining real and compromising facts which told so heavily against
+this unfortunate man. Indeed, the well-known baseness of the father made
+it easier to distrust the son, and Mr. Ferris had just come to the
+conclusion that his duty compelled him to draw up an indictment of the
+would-be suicide, when the door opened, and Mr. Byrd and Mr. Hickory
+came in.
+
+To see these two men in conjunction was a surprise to the District
+Attorney. He, however, had no time to express himself on the subject,
+for Mr. Byrd, stepping forward, immediately remarked:
+
+"Mr. Hickory and I have been in consultation, sir; and we have a few
+facts to give you that we think will alter your opinion as to the person
+who murdered Mrs. Clemmens."
+
+"Is this so?" cried Mr. Ferris, looking at Hickory with a glance
+indicative of doubt.
+
+"Yes, _sir_," exclaimed that not easily abashed individual, with an
+emphasis decided enough to show the state of his feelings on the
+subject. "After I last saw you a woman came in my way and put into my
+hands so fresh and promising a clue, that I dropped the old scent at
+once and made instanter for the new game. But I soon found I was not the
+only sportsman on this trail. Before I had taken a dozen steps I ran
+upon this gentleman, and, finding him true grit, struck up a partnership
+with him that has led to our bringing down the quarry together."
+
+"Humph!" quoth the District Attorney. "Some very remarkable discoveries
+must have come to light to influence the judgment of two such men as
+yourselves."
+
+"You are right," rejoined Mr. Byrd. "In fact, I should not be surprised
+if this case proved to be one of the most remarkable on record. It is
+not often that equally convincing evidence of guilt is found against two
+men having no apparent connection."
+
+"And have you collected such evidence?"
+
+"We have."
+
+"And who is the person you consider equally open to suspicion with Mr.
+Hildreth?"
+
+"Craik Mansell, Mrs. Clemmens' nephew."
+
+The surprise of the District-Attorney was, as Mr. Hickory in later days
+remarked, nuts to him. The solemn nature of the business he was engaged
+upon never disturbed this hardy detective's sense of the ludicrous, and
+he indulged in one of his deepest chuckles as he met the eye of Mr.
+Ferris.
+
+"One never knows what they are going to run upon in a chase of this
+kind, do they, sir?" he remarked, with the greatest cheerfulness. "Mr.
+Mansell is no more of a gentleman than Mr. Hildreth; yet, because he is
+the second one of his caste who has attracted our attention, you are
+naturally very much surprised. But wait till you hear what we have to
+tell you. I am confident you will be satisfied with our reasons for
+suspecting this new party." And he glanced at Mr. Byrd, who, seeing no
+cause for delay, proceeded to unfold before the District Attorney the
+evidence they had collected against Mr. Mansell.
+
+It was strong, telling, and seemingly conclusive, as we already know;
+and awoke in the mind of Mr. Ferris the greatest perplexity of his
+life. It was not simply that the facts urged against Mr. Mansell were of
+the same circumstantial character and of almost the same significance as
+those already urged against Mr. Hildreth, but that the association of
+Miss Dare's name with this new theory of suspicion presented
+difficulties, if it did not involve consequences, calculated to make any
+friend of Mr. Orcutt quail. And Mr. Ferris was such a friend, and knew
+very well the violent nature of the shock which this eminent lawyer
+would experience at discovering the relations held by this trusted woman
+toward a man suspected of crime.
+
+Then Miss Dare herself! Was this beautiful and cherished woman, hitherto
+believed by all who knew her to be set high above the reach of reproach,
+to be dragged down from her pedestal and submitted to the curiosity of
+the rabble, if not to its insinuations and reproach? It seemed hard;
+even to this stern, dry searcher among dead men's bones, it seemed both
+hard and bitter. And yet, because he was an honest man, he had no
+thought of paltering with his duty. He could only take time to make sure
+what that duty was. He accordingly refrained from expressing any opinion
+in regard to Mr. Mansell's culpability to the two detectives, and
+finally dismissed them without any special orders.
+
+But a day or two after this he sent for them again, and said:
+
+"Since I have seen you I have considered, with due carefulness, the
+various facts presented me in support of your belief that Craik Mansell
+is the man who assailed the Widow Clemmens, and have weighed them
+against the equally significant facts pointing toward Mr. Hildreth as
+the guilty party, and find but one link lacking in the former chain of
+evidence which is not lacking in the latter; and that is this: Mrs.
+Clemmens, in the one or two lucid moments which returned to her after
+the assault, gave utterance to an exclamation which many think was meant
+to serve as a guide in determining the person of her murderer. She said,
+'Ring,' as Mr. Byrd here will doubtless remember, and then 'Hand,' as if
+she wished to fix upon the minds of those about her that the hand
+uplifted against her wore a ring. At all events, such a conclusion is
+plausible enough, and led to my making an experiment yesterday, which
+has, for ever, set the matter at rest in my own mind. I took my stand at
+the huge clock in her house, just in the attitude she was supposed to
+occupy when struck, and, while in this position, ordered my clerk to
+advance upon me from behind with his hands clasped about a stick of
+wood, which he was to bring down within an inch of my head. This was
+done, and while his arm was in the act of descending, I looked to see if
+by a quick glance from the corner of my eye I could detect the broad
+seal ring I had previously pushed upon his little finger. I discovered
+that I could; that indeed it was all of the man which I could distinctly
+see without turning my head completely around. The ring, then, is an
+important feature in this case, a link without which any chain of
+evidence forged for the express purpose of connecting a man with this
+murder must necessarily remain incomplete and consequently useless. But
+amongst the suspicious circumstances brought to bear against Mr.
+Mansell, I discern no token of a connection between him and any such
+article, while we all know that Mr. Hildreth not only wore a ring on the
+day of the murder, but considered the circumstance so much in his own
+disfavor, that he slipped it off his finger when he began to see the
+shadow of suspicion falling upon him."
+
+"You have, then, forgotten the diamond I picked up from the floor of
+Mrs. Clemmens' dining-room on the morning of the murder?" suggested Mr.
+Byrd with great reluctance.
+
+"No," answered the District Attorney, shortly. "But Miss Dare distinctly
+avowed that ring to be hers, and you have brought me no evidence as yet
+to prove her statement false. If you can supply such proof, or if you
+can show that Mr. Mansell had that ring on his hand when he entered Mrs.
+Clemmens' house on the fatal morning--another fact, which, by-the-way,
+rests as yet upon inference only--I shall consider the case against him
+as strong as that against Mr. Hildreth; otherwise, not."
+
+Mr. Byrd, with the vivid remembrance before him of Miss Dare's looks and
+actions in the scene he had witnessed between her and the supposed
+Mansell in the hut, smiled with secret bitterness over this attempt of
+the District Attorney to shut his eyes to the evident guiltiness of this
+man.
+
+Mr. Ferris saw this smile and instantly became irritated.
+
+"I do not doubt any more than yourself," he resumed, in a changed voice,
+"that this young man allowed his mind to dwell upon the possible
+advantages which might accrue to himself if his aunt should die. He may
+even have gone so far as to meditate the commission of a crime to insure
+these advantages. But whether the crime which did indeed take place the
+next day in his aunt's house was the result of his meditations, or
+whether he found his own purpose forestalled by an attack made by
+another person possessing no less interest than himself in seeing this
+woman dead, is not determined by the evidence you bring."
+
+"Then you do not favor his arrest?" inquired Mr. Byrd.
+
+"No. The vigorous measures which were taken in Mr. Hildreth's case, and
+the unfortunate event to which they have led, are terrible enough to
+satisfy the public craving after excitement for a week at least. I am
+not fond of driving men to madness myself, and unless I can be made to
+see that my duty demands a complete transferal of my suspicions from
+Hildreth to Mansell, I can advise nothing more than a close but secret
+surveillance of the latter's movements until the action of the Grand
+Jury determines whether the evidence against Mr. Hildreth is sufficient
+to hold him for trial."
+
+Mr. Byrd, who had such solid, if private and uncommunicable, reasons for
+believing in the guilt of Craik Mansell, was somewhat taken aback at
+this unlooked-for decision of Mr. Ferris, and, remembering the
+temptation which a man like Hickory must feel to make his cause good at
+all hazards, cast a sharp look toward that blunt-spoken detective, in
+some doubt as to whether he could be relied upon to keep his promise in
+the face of this manifest disappointment.
+
+But Hickory had given his word, and Hickory remained firm; and Mr. Byrd,
+somewhat relieved in his own mind, was about to utter his acquiescence
+in the District Attorney's views, when a momentary interruption
+occurred, which gave him an opportunity to exchange a few words aside
+with his colleague.
+
+"Hickory," he whispered, "what do you think of this objection which Mr.
+Ferris makes?"
+
+"I?" was the hurried reply. "Oh, I think there is something in it."
+
+"Something in it?"
+
+"Yes. Mr. Mansell is the last man to wear a ring, I must acknowledge.
+Indeed, I took some pains while in Buffalo to find out if he ever
+indulged in any such vanity, and was told decidedly No. As to the
+diamond you mentioned, that is certainly entirely too rich a jewel for a
+man like him to possess. I--I am a afraid the absence of this link in
+our chain of evidence is fatal. I shouldn't wonder if the old scent was
+the best, after all."
+
+
+"But Miss Dare--her feelings and her convictions, as manifested by the
+words she made use of in the hut?" objected Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Oh! _she_ thinks he is guilty, of course!"
+
+_She_ thinks! Mr. Byrd stared at his companion for a minute in silence.
+_She_ thinks! Then there was a possibility, it seems, that it was only
+her thought, and that Mr. Mansell was not really the culpable man he had
+been brought to consider him.
+
+But here an exclamation, uttered by Mr. Ferris, called their attention
+back to that gentleman. He was reading a letter which had evidently been
+just brought in, and his expression was one of amazement, mixed with
+doubt. As they looked toward him they met his eye, that had a troubled
+and somewhat abashed expression, which convinced them that the
+communication he held in his hand was in some way connected with the
+matter under consideration.
+
+Surprised themselves, they unconsciously started forward, when, in a dry
+and not altogether pleased tone, the District Attorney observed:
+
+"This affair seems to be full of coincidences. You talk of a missing
+link, and it is immediately thrust under your nose. Read that!"
+
+And he pushed toward them the following epistle, roughly scrawled on a
+sheet of common writing-paper:
+
+          If Mr. Ferris is anxious for justice, and can
+          believe that suspicion does not always attach
+          itself to the guilty, let him, or some one whose
+          business it is, inquire of Miss Imogene Dare, of
+          this town, how she came to claim as her own the
+          ring that was picked up on the floor of Mrs.
+          Clemmens' house.
+
+"Well!" cried Mr. Byrd, glancing at Hickory, "what are we to think of
+this?"
+
+"Looks like the work of old Sally Perkins," observed the other, pointing
+out the lack of date and signature.
+
+"So it does," acquiesced Mr. Byrd, in a relieved tone. "The miserable
+old wretch is growing impatient."
+
+But Mr. Ferris, with a gloomy frown, shortly said:
+
+"The language is not that of an ignorant old creature like Sally
+Perkins, whatever the writing may be. Besides, how could she have known
+about the ring? The persons who were present at the time it was picked
+up are not of the gossiping order."
+
+"Who, then, do you think wrote this?" inquired Mr. Byrd.
+
+"That is what I wish you to find out," declared the District Attorney.
+
+Mr. Hickory at once took it in his hand.
+
+"Wait," said he, "I have an idea." And he carried the letter to one
+side, where he stood examining it for several minutes. When he came back
+he looked tolerably excited and somewhat pleased. "I believe I can tell
+you who wrote it," said he.
+
+"Who?" inquired the District Attorney.
+
+For reply the detective placed his finger upon a name that was written
+in the letter.
+
+
+"Imogene Dare?" exclaimed Mr. Ferris, astonished.
+
+"She herself," proclaimed the self-satisfied detective.
+
+"What makes you think that?" the District Attorney slowly asked.
+
+"Because I have seen her writing, and studied her signature, and, ably
+as she has disguised her hand in the rest of the letter, it betrays
+itself in her name. See here." And Hickory took from his pocket-book a
+small slip of paper containing her autograph, and submitted it to the
+test of comparison.
+
+The similarity between the two signatures was evident, and both Mr. Byrd
+and Mr. Ferris were obliged to allow the detective might be right,
+though the admission opened up suggestions of the most formidable
+character.
+
+"It is a turn for which I am not prepared," declared the District
+Attorney.
+
+"It is a turn for which _we_ are not prepared," repeated Mr. Byrd, with
+a controlling look at Hickory.
+
+"Let us, then, defer further consideration of the matter till I have had
+an opportunity to see Miss Dare," suggested Mr. Ferris.
+
+And the two detectives were very glad to acquiesce in this, for they
+were as much astonished as he at this action of Miss Dare, though, with
+their better knowledge of her feelings, they found it comparatively easy
+to understand how her remorse and the great anxiety she doubtless felt
+for Mr. Hildreth had sufficed to drive her to such an extreme and
+desperate measure.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+A CRISIS.
+
+  _Queen._ Alas, how is it with you?
+           That you do bend your eye on vacancy,
+           And with the incorporeal air do hold discourse?
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+           Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
+           Starts up and stands on end.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+           Whereon do you look?
+
+  _Hamlet._ On him! On him! Look you how pale he glares!
+           His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones,
+           Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;
+           Lest, with this piteous action, you convert
+           My stern effects! then what I have to do
+           Will want true color; tears, perchance, for blood.--HAMLET.
+
+
+THAT my readers may understand even better than Byrd and Hickory how it
+was that Imogene came to write this letter, I must ask them to consider
+certain incidents that had occurred in a quarter far removed from the
+eye of the detectives.
+
+Mr. Orcutt's mind had never been at rest concerning the peculiar
+attitude assumed by Imogene Dare at the time of Mrs. Clemmens' murder.
+Time and thought had not made it any more possible for him to believe
+now than then that she knew any thing of the matter beyond what appeared
+to the general eye: but he could not forget the ring. It haunted him.
+Fifty times a day he asked himself what she had meant by claiming as her
+own a jewel which had been picked up from the floor of a strange house
+at a time so dreadful, and which, in despite of her explanations to him,
+he found it impossible to believe was hers or ever could have been hers?
+He was even tempted to ask her; but he never did. The words would not
+come. Though they faltered again and again upon his lips, he could not
+give utterance to them; no, though with every passing day he felt that
+the bond uniting her to him was growing weaker and weaker, and that if
+something did not soon intervene to establish confidence between them,
+he would presently lose all hope of the treasure for the possession of
+which he was now ready to barter away half the remaining years of his
+life.
+
+Her increasing reticence, and the almost stony look of misery that now
+confronted him without let or hindrance from her wide gray eyes, were
+not calculated to reassure him or make his future prospects look any
+brighter. Her pain, if pain it were, or remorse, if remorse it could be,
+was not of a kind to feel the influence of time; and, struck with
+dismay, alarmed in spite of himself, if not for her reason at least for
+his own, he watched her from day to day, feeling that now he would give
+his life not merely to possess her, but to understand her and the secret
+that was gnawing at her heart.
+
+At last there came a day when he could no longer restrain himself. She
+had been seated in his presence, and had been handed a letter which for
+the moment seemed to thoroughly overwhelm her. We know what that letter
+was. It was the note which had been sent as a decoy by the detective
+Hickory, but which she had no reason to doubt was a real communication
+from Craik Mansell, despite the strange handwriting on the envelope. It
+prayed her for an interview. It set the time and mentioned the place of
+meeting, and created for the instant such a turmoil in her usually
+steady brain that she could not hide it from the searching eyes that
+watched her.
+
+"What is it, Imogene?" inquired Mr. Orcutt, drawing near her with a
+gesture of such uncontrollable anxiety, it looked as if he were about to
+snatch the letter from her hand.
+
+For reply she rose, walked to the grate, in which a low wood fire was
+burning, and plunged the paper in among the coals. When it was all
+consumed she turned and faced Mr. Orcutt.
+
+"You must excuse me," she murmured; "but the letter was one which I
+absolutely desired no one to see."
+
+But he did not seem to hear her apology. He stood with his gaze fixed on
+the fire, and his hand clenched against his heart, as if something in
+the fate of that wretched sheet of paper reminded him of the love and
+hope that were shrivelling up before his eyes.
+
+She saw his look and drooped her head with a sudden low moan of mingled
+shame and suffering.
+
+"Am I killing _you_?" she faintly cried. "Are my strange, wild ways
+driving _you_ to despair? I had not thought of that. I am so selfish, I
+had not thought of that!"
+
+This evidence of feeling, the first she had ever shown him, moved Mr.
+Orcutt deeply. Advancing toward her, with sudden passion, he took her by
+the hand.
+
+"Killing me?" he repeated. "Yes, you are killing me. Don't you see how
+fast I am growing old? Don't you see how the dust lies thick upon the
+books that used to be my solace and delight? I do not understand you,
+Imogene. I love you and I do not understand your grief, or what it is
+that is affecting you in this terrible way. Tell me. Let me know the
+nature of the forces with which I have to contend, and I can bear all
+the rest."
+
+This appeal, forced as it was from lips unused to prayer, seemed to
+strike her, absorbed though she was in her own suffering. Looking at him
+with real concern, she tried to speak, but the words faltered on her
+tongue. They came at last, however, and he heard her say:
+
+"I wish I could weep, if only to show you I am not utterly devoid of
+womanly sympathy for an anguish I cannot cure. But the fountain of my
+tears is dried at its source. I do not think I can ever weep again. I am
+condemned to tread a path of misery and despair, and must traverse it to
+the end without weakness and without help. Do not ask me why, for I can
+never tell you. And do not detain me now, or try to make me talk, for I
+must go where I can be alone and silent."
+
+She was slipping away, but he caught her by the wrist and drew her back.
+His pain and perplexity had reached their climax.
+
+"You must speak," he cried. "I have paltered long enough with this
+matter. You must tell me what it is that is destroying your happiness
+and mine."
+
+But her eyes, turning toward him, seemed to echo that _must_ in a look
+of disdain eloquent enough to scorn all help from words, and in the
+indomitable determination of her whole aspect he saw that he might slay
+her, but that he could never make her speak.
+
+Loosing her with a gesture of despair, he turned away. When he glanced
+back again she was gone.
+
+The result of this interview was naturally an increased doubt and
+anxiety on his part. He could not attend to his duties with any degree
+of precision, he was so haunted by uneasy surmises as to what might have
+been the contents of the letter which he had thus seen her destroy
+before his eyes. As for her words, they were like her conduct, an
+insolvable mystery, for which he had no key.
+
+His failure to find her at home when he returned that night added to his
+alarm, especially as he remembered the vivid thunderstorm that had
+deluged the town in the afternoon. Nor, though she came in very soon and
+offered both excuses and explanations for her absence, did he experience
+any appreciable relief, or feel at all satisfied that he was not
+threatened with some secret and terrible catastrophe. Indeed, the air of
+vivid and feverish excitement which pervaded every look of hers from
+this time, making each morning and evening distinctive in his memory as
+a season of fresh fear and renewed suspense, was enough of itself to
+arouse this sense of an unknown, but surely approaching, danger. He saw
+she was on the look out for some event, he knew not what, and studied
+the papers as sedulously as she, in the hope of coming upon some
+revelation that should lay bare the secret of this new condition of
+hers. At last he thought he had found it. Coming home one day from the
+court, he called her into his presence, and, without pause or preamble,
+exclaimed, with almost cruel abruptness:
+
+"An event of possible interest to you has just taken place. The murderer
+of Mrs. Clemmens has just cut his throat."
+
+He saw before he had finished the first clause that he had struck at the
+very citadel of her terrors and her woe. At the end of the second
+sentence he knew, beyond all doubt now, what it was she had been
+fearing, if not expecting. Yet she said not a word, and by no movement
+betrayed that the steel had gone through and through her heart.
+
+A demon--the maddening demon of jealousy--gripped him for the first time
+with relentless force.
+
+"Ah, you have been looking for it?" he cried in a choked voice. "You
+know this man, then--knew him, perhaps, before the murder of Mrs.
+Clemmens; knew him, and--and, perhaps, loved him?"
+
+She did not reply.
+
+He struck his forehead with his hand, as if the moment was perfectly
+intolerable to him.
+
+"Answer," he cried. "Did you know Gouverneur Hildreth or not?"
+
+"_Gouverneur Hildreth?_" Oh, the sharp surprise, the wailing anguish of
+her tone! Mr. Orcutt stood amazed. "It is not he who has made this
+attempt upon his life!--not he!" she shrieked like one appalled.
+
+Perhaps because all other expression or emotion failed him, Mr. Orcutt
+broke forth into a loud and harrowing laugh. "And who else should it
+be?" he cried. "What other man stands accused of having murdered Widow
+Clemmens? You are mad, Imogene; you don't know what you say or what you
+do."
+
+"Yes, I am mad," she repeated--"mad!" and leaned her forehead forward on
+the back of a high chair beside which she had been standing, and hid her
+face and struggled with herself for a moment, while the clock went on
+ticking, and the wretched surveyer of her sorrow stood looking at her
+bended head like a man who does not know whether it is he or she who is
+in the most danger of losing his reason.
+
+At last a word struggled forth from between her clasped hands.
+
+"When did it happen?" she gasped, without lifting her head. "Tell me all
+about it. I think I can understand."
+
+The noted lawyer smiled a bitter smile, and spoke for the first time,
+without pity and without mercy.
+
+"He has been trying for some days to effect his death. His arrest and
+the little prospect there is of his escaping trial seem to have maddened
+his gentlemanly brain. Fire-arms were not procurable, neither was poison
+nor a rope, but a pewter plate is enough in the hands of a desperate
+man. He broke one in two last night, and----"
+
+He paused, sick and horror-stricken. Her face had risen upon him from
+the back of the chair, and was staring upon him like that of a Medusa.
+Before that gaze the flesh crept on his bones and the breath of life
+refused to pass his lips. Gazing at her with rising horror, he saw her
+stony lips slowly part.
+
+"Don't go on," she whispered. "I can see it all without the help of
+words." Then, in a tone that seemed to come from some far-off world of
+nightmare, she painfully gasped, "Is he dead?"
+
+[Illustration: "He paused, sick and horror-stricken. Her face had risen
+upon him from the back of the chair, and was staring at him like that of
+a Medusa."--(Page 252.)]
+
+Mr. Orcutt was a man who, up to the last year, had never known what it
+was to experience a real and controlling emotion. Life with him had
+meant success in public affairs, and a certain social pre-eminence that
+made his presence in any place the signal of admiring looks and
+respectful attentions. But let no man think that, because his doom
+delays, it will never come. Passions such as he had deprecated in
+others, and desires such as he had believed impossible to himself, had
+seized upon him with ungovernable power, and in this moment especially
+he felt himself yielding to their sway with no more power of resistance
+than a puppet experiences in the grasp of a whirlwind. Meeting that
+terrible eye of hers, burning with an anxiety for a man he despised,
+and hearing that agonized question from lips whose touch he had never
+known, he experienced a sudden wild and almost demoniac temptation to
+hurl back the implacable "Yes" that he felt certain would strike her
+like a dead woman to the ground. But the horrid impulse passed, and,
+with a quick remembrance of the claims of honor upon one bearing his
+name and owning his history, he controlled himself with a giant
+resolution, and merely dropping his eyes from an anguish he dared no
+longer confront, answered, quietly:
+
+"No; he has hurt himself severely and has disfigured his good looks for
+life, but he will not die; or so the physicians think."
+
+A long, deep, shuddering sigh swept through the room.
+
+"Thank God!" came from her lips, and then all was quiet again.
+
+He looked up in haste; he could not bear the silence.
+
+"Imogene----" he began, but instantly paused in surprise at the change
+which had taken place in her expression. "What do you intend to do?" was
+his quick demand. "You look as I have never seen you look before."
+
+"Do not ask me!" she returned. "I have no words for what I am going to
+do. What _you_ must do is to see that Gouverneur Hildreth is released
+from prison. He is not guilty, mind you; he never committed this crime
+of which he is suspected, and in the shame of which suspicion he has
+this day attempted his life. If he is kept in the restraint which is so
+humiliating to him, and if he dies there, it will be murder--do you
+hear? murder! And he _will_ die there if he is not released; I know his
+feelings only too well."
+
+"But, Imogene----"
+
+"Hush! don't argue. 'Tis a matter of life and death, I tell you. He must
+be released! I know," she went on, hurriedly, "what it is you want to
+say. You think you cannot do this; that the evidence is all against him;
+that he went to prison of his own free will and cannot hope for release
+till his guilt or innocence has been properly inquired into. But I know
+you can effect his enlargement if you will. You are a lawyer, and
+understand all the crooks and turns by which a man can sometimes be made
+to evade the grasp of justice. Use your knowledge. Avail yourself of
+your influence with the authorities, and I----" she paused and gave him
+a long, long look.
+
+He was at her side in an instant.
+
+"You would--what?" he cried, taking her hand in his and pressing it
+impulsively.
+
+"I would grant you whatever you ask," she murmured, in a weariful tone.
+
+"Would you be my wife?" he passionately inquired.
+
+"Yes," was the choked reply; "if I did not die first."
+
+He caught her to his breast in rapture. He knelt at her side and threw
+his arms about her waist.
+
+"You shall not die," he cried. "You shall live and be happy. Only marry
+me to-day."
+
+"Not till Gouverneur Hildreth be released," she interposed, gently.
+
+He started as if touched by a galvanic battery, and slowly rose up and
+coldly looked at her.
+
+"Do you love him so madly you would sell yourself for his sake?" he
+sternly demanded.
+
+With a quick gesture she threw back her head as though the indignant
+"No" that sprang to her lips would flash out whether she would or not.
+But she restrained herself in time.
+
+"I cannot answer," she returned.
+
+But he was master now--master of this dominating spirit that had held
+him in check for so long a time, and he was not to be put off.
+
+"You must answer," he sternly commanded. "I have the right to know the
+extent of your feeling for this man, and I will. Do you _love_ him,
+Imogene Dare? Tell me, or I here swear that I will do nothing for him,
+either now or at a time when he may need my assistance more than you
+know."
+
+This threat, uttered as he uttered it, could have but one effect.
+Turning aside, so that he should not see the shuddering revolt in her
+eyes, she mechanically whispered:
+
+"And what if I did? Would it be so very strange? Youth admires youth,
+Mr. Orcutt, and Mr. Hildreth is very handsome and very unfortunate. Do
+not oblige me to say more."
+
+Mr. Orcutt, across whose face a dozen different emotions had flitted
+during the utterance of these few words, drew back till half the
+distance of the room lay between them.
+
+"Nor do I wish to hear any more," he rejoined, slowly. "You have said
+enough, quite enough. I understand now all the past--all your terrors
+and all your secret doubts and unaccountable behavior. The man you loved
+was in danger, and you did not know how to manage his release. Well,
+well, I am sorry for you, Imogene. I wish I could help you. I love you
+passionately, and would make you my wife in face of your affection for
+this man if I could do for you what you request. But it is impossible.
+Never during the whole course of my career has a blot rested upon my
+integrity as a lawyer. I am known as an honest man, and honest will I
+remain known to the last. Besides, I could do nothing to effect his
+enlargement if I tried. Nothing but the plainest proof that he is
+innocent, or that another man is guilty, would avail now to release him
+from the suspicion which his own admissions have aroused."
+
+"Then there is no hope?" was her slow and despairing reply.
+
+"None at present, Imogene," was his stern, almost as despairing, answer.
+
+As Mr. Orcutt sat over his lonely hearth that evening, a servant brought
+to him the following letter:
+
+          DEAR FRIEND,--It is not fit that I should remain
+          any longer under your roof. I have a duty before
+          me which separates me forever from the friendship
+          and protection of honorable men and women. No home
+          but such as I can provide for myself by the work
+          of my own hands shall henceforth shelter the
+          disgraced head of Imogene Dare. Her fate, whatever
+          it may prove to be, she bears alone, and you, who
+          have been so kind, shall never suffer from any
+          association with one whose name must henceforth
+          become the sport of the crowd, if not the
+          execration of the virtuous. If your generous heart
+          rebels at this, choke it relentlessly down. I
+          shall be already gone when you read these lines,
+          and nothing you could do or say would make me come
+          back. Good-by, and may Heaven grant you
+          forgetfulness of one whose only return to your
+          benefactions has been to make you suffer almost as
+          much as she suffers herself.
+
+As Mr. Orcutt read these last lines, District Attorney Ferris was
+unsealing the anonymous missive which has already been laid before my
+readers.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+HEART'S MARTYRDOM.
+
+          Oh that a man might know
+          The end of this day's business, ere it come;
+          But it sufficeth that the day will end,
+          And then the end is known!--JULIUS CAESAR.
+
+
+MR. FERRIS' first impulse upon dismissing the detectives had been to
+carry the note he had received to Mr. Orcutt. But a night's careful
+consideration of the subject convinced him that the wisest course would
+be to follow the suggestions conveyed in the letter, and seek a direct
+interview with Imogene Dare.
+
+It was not an agreeable task for him to undertake. Miss Dare was a young
+lady whom he had always held in the highest esteem. He had hoped to see
+her the wife of his friend, and would have given much from his own
+private stock of hope and happiness to have kept her name free from the
+contumely which any association with this dreadful crime must
+necessarily bring upon it. But his position as prosecuting attorney of
+the county would not allow him to consult his feelings any further in a
+case of such serious import. The condition of Mr. Hildreth was, to say
+the least, such as demanded the most impartial action on the part of the
+public officials, and if through any explanation of Miss Dare the one
+missing link in the chain of evidence against another could be
+supplied, it was certainly his duty to do all he could to insure it.
+
+Accordingly at a favorable hour the next day, he made his appearance at
+Mr. Orcutt's house, and learning that Miss Dare had gone to Professor
+Darling's house for a few days, followed her to her new home and
+requested an interview.
+
+She at once responded to his call. Little did he think as she came into
+the parlor where he sat, and with even more than her usual calm
+self-possession glided down the length of that elegant apartment to his
+side, that she had just come from a small room on the top floor, where,
+in the position of a hired seamstress, she had been engaged in cutting
+out the wedding garments of one of the daughters of the house.
+
+Her greeting was that of a person attempting to feign a surprise she did
+not feel.
+
+"Ah," said she, "Mr. Ferris! This is an unexpected pleasure."
+
+But Mr. Ferris had no heart for courtesies.
+
+"Miss Dare," he began, without any of the preliminaries which might be
+expected of him, "I have come upon a disagreeable errand. I have a favor
+to ask. You are in the possession of a piece of information which it is
+highly necessary for me to share."
+
+"I?"
+
+The surprise betrayed in this single word was no more than was to be
+expected from a lady thus addressed, neither did the face she turned so
+steadily toward him alter under his searching gaze.
+
+"If I can tell you any thing that you wish to know," she quietly
+declared, "I am certainly ready to do so, sir."
+
+Deceived by the steadiness of her tone and the straightforward look of
+her eyes, he proceeded, with a sudden releasement from his
+embarrassment, to say:
+
+"I shall have to recall to your mind a most painful incident. You
+remember, on the morning when we met at Mrs. Clemmens' house, claiming
+as your own a diamond ring which was picked up from the floor at your
+feet?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Miss Dare, was this ring really yours, or were you misled by its
+appearance into merely thinking it your property? My excuse for asking
+this is that the ring, if not yours, is likely to become an important
+factor in the case to which the murder of this unfortunate woman has
+led."
+
+"Sir----" The pause which followed the utterance of this one word was
+but momentary, but in it what faint and final hope may have gone down
+into the depths of everlasting darkness God only knows. "Sir, since you
+ask me the question, I will say that in one sense of the term it was
+mine, and in another it was not. The ring was mine, because it had been
+offered to me as a gift the day before. The ring was not mine, because I
+had refused to take it when it was offered."
+
+At these words, spoken with such quietness they seemed like the
+mechanical utterances of a woman in a trance, Mr. Ferris started to his
+feet. He could no longer doubt that evidence of an important nature lay
+before him.
+
+"And may I ask," he inquired, without any idea of the martyrdom he
+caused, "what was the name of the person who offered you this ring, and
+from whom you refused to take it?"
+
+"The name?" She quavered for a moment, and her eyes flashed up toward
+heaven with a look of wild appeal, as if the requirement of this moment
+was more than even she had strength to meet. Then a certain terrible
+calm settled upon her, blotting the last hint of feeling from her face,
+and, rising up in her turn, she met Mr. Ferris' inquiring eye, and
+slowly and distinctly replied:
+
+"It was Craik Mansell, sir. He is a nephew of Mrs. Clemmens."
+
+It was the name Mr. Ferris had come there to hear, yet it gave him a
+slight shock when it fell from her lips--perhaps because his mind was
+still running upon her supposed relations with Mr. Orcutt. But he did
+not show his feelings, however, and calmly asked:
+
+"And was Mr. Mansell in this town the day before the assault upon his
+aunt?"
+
+"He was."
+
+"And you had a conversation with him?"
+
+"I had."
+
+"May I ask where?"
+
+For the first time she flushed; womanly shame had not yet vanished
+entirely from her stricken breast; but she responded as steadily as
+before:
+
+"In the woods, sir, back of Mrs. Clemmens' house. There were
+reasons"--she paused--"there were good reasons, which I do not feel
+obliged to state, why a meeting in such a place was not discreditable to
+us."
+
+Mr. Ferris, who had received from other sources a full version of the
+interview to which she thus alluded, experienced a sudden revulsion of
+feeling against one he could not but consider as a detected coquette;
+and, drawing quickly back, made a gesture such as was not often
+witnessed in those elegant apartments.
+
+"You mean," said he, with a sharp edge to his tone that passed over her
+dreary soul unheeded, "that you were lovers?"
+
+"I mean," said she, like the automaton she surely was at that moment,
+"that he had paid me honorable addresses, and that I had no reason to
+doubt his motives or my own in seeking such a meeting."
+
+"Miss Dare,"--all the District Attorney spoke in the manner of Mr.
+Ferris now,--"if you refused Mr. Mansell his ring, you must have
+returned it to him?"
+
+She looked at him with an anguish that bespoke her full appreciation of
+all this question implied, but unequivocally bowed her head.
+
+"It was in his possession, then," he continued, "when you left him on
+that day and returned to your home?"
+
+"Yes," her lips seemed to say, though no distinct utterance came from
+them.
+
+"And you did not see it again till you found it on the floor of Mrs.
+Clemmens' dining-room the morning of the murder?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Miss Dare," said he, with greater mildness, after a short pause, "you
+have answered my somewhat painful inquiries with a straightforwardness I
+cannot sufficiently commend. If you will now add to my gratitude by
+telling me whether you have informed any one else of the important facts
+you have just given me, I will distress you by no further questions."
+
+"Sir," said she, and her attitude showed that she could endure but
+little more, "I have taken no one else into my confidence. Such
+knowledge as I had to impart was not matter for idle gossip."
+
+And Mr. Ferris, being thus assured that his own surmises and that of
+Hickory were correct, bowed with the respect her pale face and rigid
+attitude seemed to demand, and considerately left the house.
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+CRAIK MANSELL.
+
+          Bring me unto my trial when you will.--HENRY VI.
+
+
+"HE is here."
+
+Mr. Ferris threw aside his cigar, and looked up at Mr. Byrd, who was
+standing before him.
+
+"You had no difficulty, then?"
+
+"No, sir. He acted like a man in hourly expectation of some such
+summons. At the very first intimation of your desire to see him in
+Sibley, he rose from his desk, with what I thought was a meaning look at
+Mr. Goodman, and after a few preparations for departure, signified he
+was ready to take the next train."
+
+"And did he ask no questions?"
+
+"Only one. He wished to know if I were a detective. And when I responded
+'Yes,' observed with an inquiring look: 'I am wanted as a witness, I
+suppose.' A suggestion to which I was careful to make no reply."
+
+Mr. Ferris pushed aside his writing and glanced toward the door. "Show
+him in, Mr. Byrd," said he.
+
+A moment after Mr. Mansell entered the room.
+
+The District Attorney had never seen this man, and was struck at once by
+the force and manliness of his appearance. Half-rising from his seat to
+greet the visitor, he said:
+
+"I have to beg your pardon, Mr. Mansell. Feeling it quite necessary to
+see you, I took the liberty of requesting you to take this journey, my
+own time being fully occupied at present."
+
+Mr. Mansell bowed--a slow, self-possessed bow,--and advancing to the
+table before which the District Attorney sat, laid his hand firmly upon
+it and said:
+
+"No apologies are needed." Then shortly, "What is it you want of me?"
+
+The words were almost the same as those which had been used by Mr.
+Hildreth under similar circumstances, but how different was their
+effect! The one was the utterance of a weak man driven to bay, the other
+of a strong one. Mr. Ferris, who was by no means of an impressible
+organization, flashed a look of somewhat uneasy doubt at Mr. Byrd, and
+hesitated slightly before proceeding.
+
+"We have sent for you in this friendly way," he remarked, at last, "in
+order to give you that opportunity for explaining certain matters
+connected with your aunt's sudden death which your well-known character
+and good position seem to warrant. We think you can do this. At all
+events I have accorded myself the privilege of so supposing; and any
+words you may have to say will meet with all due consideration. As Mrs.
+Clemmens' nephew, you, of course, desire to see her murderer brought to
+justice."
+
+The slightly rising inflection given to the last few words made them to
+all intents and purposes a question, and Mr. Byrd, who stood near by,
+waited anxiously for the decided Yes which seemed the only possible
+reply under the circumstances, but it did not come.
+
+Surprised, and possibly anxious, the District Attorney repeated himself.
+
+"As her nephew," said he, "and the inheritor of the few savings she has
+left behind her, you can have but one wish on this subject, Mr.
+Mansell?"
+
+But this attempt succeeded no better than the first. Beyond a slight
+compression of the lips, Mr. Mansell gave no manifestation of having
+heard this remark, and both Mr. Ferris and the detective found
+themselves forced to wonder at the rigid honesty of a man who, whatever
+death-giving blow he may have dealt, would not allow himself to escape
+the prejudice of his accusers by assenting to a supposition he and they
+knew to be false.
+
+Mr. Ferris did not press the question.
+
+"Mr. Mansell," he remarked instead, "a person by the name of Gouverneur
+Hildreth is, as you must know, under arrest at this time, charged with
+the crime of having given the blow that led to your aunt's death. The
+evidence against him is strong, and the public generally have no doubt
+that his arrest will lead to trial, if not to conviction. But,
+unfortunately for us, however fortunately for him, another person has
+lately been found, against whom an equal show of evidence can be raised,
+and it is for the purpose of satisfying ourselves that it is but a
+show, we have requested your presence here to-day."
+
+A spasm, vivid as it was instantaneous, distorted for a moment the
+powerful features of Craik Mansell at the words, "another person," but
+it was gone before the sentence was completed; and when Mr. Ferris
+ceased, he looked up with the steady calmness which made his bearing so
+remarkable.
+
+"I am waiting to hear the name of this freshly suspected person," he
+observed.
+
+"Cannot you imagine?" asked the District Attorney, coldly, secretly
+disconcerted under a gaze that held his own with such steady
+persistence.
+
+The eyeballs of the other flashed like coals of fire.
+
+"I think it is my right to hear it spoken," he returned.
+
+This display of feeling restored Mr. Ferris to himself.
+
+"In a moment, sir," said he. "Meanwhile, have you any objections to
+answering a few questions I would like to put to you?"
+
+"I will hear them," was the steady reply.
+
+"You know," said the District Attorney, "you are at perfect liberty to
+answer or not, as you see fit. I have no desire to entrap you into any
+acknowledgments you may hereafter regret."
+
+"Speak," was the sole response he received.
+
+"Well, sir," said Mr. Ferris, "are you willing to tell me where you were
+when you first heard of the assault which had been made upon your aunt?"
+
+"I was in my place at the mill."
+
+"And--pardon me if I go too far--were you also there the morning she was
+murdered?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Mr. Mansell, if you could tell us where you were at that time, it would
+be of great benefit to us, and possibly to yourself."
+
+"To myself?"
+
+Having shown his surprise, or, possibly, his alarm, by the repetition of
+the other's words, Craik Mansell paused and looked slowly around the
+room until he encountered Mr. Byrd's eye. There was a steady compassion
+in the look he met there that seemed to strike him with great force, for
+he at once replied that he was away from home, and stopped--his glance
+still fixed upon Mr. Byrd, as if, by the very power of his gaze, he
+would force the secrets of that detective's soul to the surface.
+
+"Mr. Mansell," pursued the District Attorney, "a distinct avowal on your
+part of the place where you were at that time, would be best for us
+both, I am sure."
+
+"Do you not already know?" inquired the other, his eye still upon Horace
+Byrd.
+
+"We have reason to think you were in this town," averred Mr. Ferris,
+with an emphasis calculated to recall the attention of his visitor to
+himself.
+
+"And may I ask," Craik Mansell quietly said, "what reason you can have
+for such a supposition? No one could have seen me here, for, till to-day
+I have not entered the streets of this place since my visit to my aunt
+three months ago."
+
+"It was not necessary to enter the streets of this town to effect a
+visit to Mrs. Clemmens' house, Mr. Mansell."
+
+"No?"
+
+There was the faintest hint of emotion in the intonation he gave to that
+one word, but it vanished before he spoke his next sentence.
+
+"And how," asked he, "can a person pass from Sibley Station to the door
+of my aunt's house without going through the streets?"
+
+Instead of replying, Mr. Ferris inquired:
+
+"Did you get out at Sibley Station, Mr. Mansell?"
+
+But the other, with unmoved self-possession, returned:
+
+"I have not said so."
+
+"Mr. Mansell," the District Attorney now observed, "we have no motive in
+deceiving or even in misleading you. You were in this town on the
+morning of your aunt's murder, and you were even in her house. Evidence
+which you cannot dispute proves this, and the question that now arises,
+and of whose importance we leave you to judge, is whether you were there
+prior to the visit of Mr. Hildreth, or after. Any proof you may have to
+show that it was before will receive its due consideration."
+
+A change, decided as it was involuntary, took place in the hitherto
+undisturbed countenance of Craik Mansell. Leaning forward, he surveyed
+Mr. Ferris with great earnestness.
+
+"I asked that man," said he, pointing with a steady forefinger at the
+somewhat abashed detective, "if I were not wanted here simply as a
+witness, and he did not say No. Now, sir," he continued, turning back
+with a slight gesture of disdain to the District Attorney, "was the man
+right in allowing me to believe such a fact, or was he not? I would like
+an answer to my question before I proceed further, if you please."
+
+"You shall have it, Mr. Mansell. If this man did not answer you, it was
+probably because he did not feel justified in so doing. He knew I had
+summoned you here in the hope of receiving such explanations of your
+late conduct as should satisfy me you had nothing to do with your aunt's
+murder. The claims upon my consideration, which are held by certain
+persons allied to you in this matter"--Mr. Ferris' look was eloquent of
+his real meaning here--"are my sole justification for this somewhat
+unusual method of dealing with a suspected man."
+
+A smile, bitter, oh, how bitter in its irony! traversed the firm-set
+lips of Craik Mansell for a moment, then he bowed with a show of
+deference to the District Attorney, and settling into the attitude of a
+man willing to plead his own cause, responded:
+
+"It would be more just, perhaps, if I first heard the reasons you have
+for suspecting me, before I attempt to advance arguments to prove the
+injustice of your suspicions."
+
+"Well," said Mr. Ferris, "you shall have them. If frankness on my part
+can do aught to avert the terrible scandal which your arrest and its
+consequent developments would cause, I am willing to sacrifice thus much
+to my friendship for Mr. Orcutt. But if I do this, I shall expect an
+equal frankness in return. The matter is too serious for subterfuge."
+
+The other merely waved his hand.
+
+"The reasons," proceeded Mr. Ferris, "for considering you a party as
+much open to suspicion as Mr. Hildreth, are several. First, we have
+evidence to prove your great desire for a sum of money equal to your
+aunt's savings, in order to introduce an invention which you have just
+patented.
+
+"Secondly, we can show that you left your home in Buffalo the day before
+the assault, came to Monteith, the next town to this, alighted at the
+remote station assigned to the use of the quarrymen, crossed the hills
+and threaded the woods till you came to a small hut back of your aunt's
+house, where you put up for the night.
+
+"Thirdly, evidence is not lacking to prove that while there you visited
+your aunt's once, if not twice; the last time on the very morning she
+was killed, entering the house in a surreptitious way by the back door,
+and leaving it in the same suspicious manner.
+
+"And fourthly, we can prove that you escaped from this place as you had
+come, secretly, and through a difficult and roundabout path over the
+hills.
+
+"Mr. Mansell, these facts, taken with your reticence concerning a visit
+so manifestly of importance to the authorities to know, must strike
+even you as offering grounds for a suspicion as grave as that attaching
+to Mr. Hildreth."
+
+With a restraint marked as it was impressive, Mr. Mansell looked at the
+District Attorney for a moment, and then said:
+
+"You speak of proof. Now, what proof have you to give that I put up, as
+you call it, for a night, or even for an hour, in the hut which stands
+in the woods back of my aunt's house?"
+
+"This," was Mr. Ferris' reply. "It is known you were in the woods the
+afternoon previous to the assault upon your aunt, because you were seen
+there in company with a young lady with whom you were holding a tryst.
+Did you speak, sir?"
+
+"No!" was the violent, almost disdainful, rejoinder.
+
+"You did not sleep at your aunt's, for her rooms contained not an
+evidence of having been opened for a guest, while the hut revealed more
+than one trace of having been used as a dormitory. I could even tell you
+where you cut the twigs of hemlock that served you for a pillow, and
+point to the place where you sat when you scribbled over the margin of
+the Buffalo _Courier_ with a blue pencil, such as that I now see
+projecting from your vest pocket."
+
+"It is not necessary," replied the young man, heavily frowning. Then
+with another short glance at Mr. Ferris, he again demanded:
+
+"What is your reason for stating I visited my aunt's house on the
+morning she was murdered? Did any one see me do it? or does the house,
+like the hut, exhibit traces of my presence there at that particular
+time?"
+
+There was irony in his tone, and a disdain almost amounting to scorn in
+his wide-flashing blue eyes; but Mr. Ferris, glancing at the hand
+clutched about the railing of the desk, remarked quietly:
+
+"You do not wear the diamond ring you carried away with you from the
+tryst I mentioned? Can it be that the one which was picked up after the
+assault, on the floor of Mrs. Clemmens' dining-room, could have fallen
+from your finger, Mr. Mansell?"
+
+A start, the first this powerfully repressed man had given, showed that
+his armor of resistance had been pierced at last.
+
+"How do you know," he quickly asked, "that I carried away a diamond ring
+from the tryst you speak of?"
+
+"Circumstances," returned the District Attorney, "prove it beyond a
+doubt. Miss Dare----"
+
+"Miss Dare!"
+
+Oh, the indescribable tone of this exclamation! Mr. Byrd shuddered as he
+heard it, and looked at Mr. Mansell with a new feeling, for which he had
+no name.
+
+"Miss Dare," repeated the District Attorney, without, apparently,
+regarding the interruption, "acknowledges she returned you the ring
+which you endeavored at that interview to bestow upon her."
+
+"Ah!" The word came after a moment's pause. "I see the case has been
+well worked up, and it only remains for me to give you such explanations
+as I choose to make. Sir," declared he, stepping forward, and bringing
+his clenched hand down upon the desk at which Mr. Ferris was sitting, "I
+did not kill my aunt. I admit that I paid her a visit. I admit that I
+stayed in the woods back of her house, and even slept in the hut, as you
+have said; but that was on the day previous to her murder, and not after
+it. I went to see her for the purpose of again urging the claims of my
+invention upon her. I went secretly, and by the roundabout way you
+describe, because I had another purpose in visiting Sibley, which made
+it expedient for me to conceal my presence in the town. I failed in my
+efforts to enlist the sympathies of my aunt in regard to my plans, and I
+failed also in compassing that other desire of my heart of which the
+ring you mention was a token. Both failures unnerved me, and I lay in
+that hut all night. I even lay there most of the next morning; but I did
+not see my aunt again, and I did not lift my hand against her life."
+
+There was indescribable quiet in the tone, but there was indescribable
+power also, and the look he levelled upon the District Attorney was
+unwaveringly solemn and hard.
+
+"You deny, then, that you entered the widow's house on the morning of
+the murder?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"It is, then, a question of veracity between you and Miss Dare?"
+
+Silence.
+
+"She asserts she gave you back the ring you offered her. If this is so,
+and that ring was in your possession after you left her on Monday
+evening, how came it to be in the widow's dining-room the next morning,
+if you did not carry it there?"
+
+"I can only repeat my words," rejoined Mr. Mansell.
+
+The District Attorney replied impatiently. For various reasons he did
+not wish to believe this man guilty.
+
+"You do not seem very anxious to assist me in my endeavors to reach the
+truth," he observed. "Cannot you tell me what you did with the ring
+after you left Miss Dare? Whether you put it on your finger, or thrust
+it into your pocket, or tossed it into the marsh? If you did not carry
+it to the house, some one else must have done so, and you ought to be
+able to help us in determining who."
+
+But Mr. Mansell shortly responded:
+
+"I have nothing to say about the ring. From the moment Miss Dare
+returned it to me, as you say, it was, so far as I am concerned, a thing
+forgotten. I do not know as I should ever have thought of it again, if
+you had not mentioned it to me to-day. How it vanished from my
+possession only to reappear upon the scene of murder, some more clever
+conjurer than myself must explain."
+
+"And this is all you have to say, Mr. Mansell?"
+
+"This is all I have to say."
+
+"Byrd," suggested the District Attorney, after a long pause, during
+which the subject of his suspicions had stood before him as rigid and
+inscrutable as a statue in bronze, "Mr. Mansell would probably like to
+go to the hotel, unless, indeed, he desires to return immediately to
+Buffalo."
+
+Craik Mansell at once started forward.
+
+"Do you intend to allow me to return to Buffalo?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," was the District Attorney's reply.
+
+"You are a good man," broke involuntarily from the other's lips, and he
+impulsively reached out his hand, but as quickly drew it back with a
+flush of pride that greatly became him.
+
+"I do not say," quoth Mr. Ferris, "that I exempt you from surveillance.
+As prosecuting attorney of this district, my duty is to seek out and
+discover the man who murdered Mrs. Clemmens, and your explanations have
+not been as full or as satisfactory as I could wish."
+
+"Your men will always find me at my desk in the mill," said Mr. Mansell,
+coldly. And, with another short bow, he left the attorney's side and
+went quickly out.
+
+"That man is innocent," declared Mr. Ferris, as Horace Byrd leaned above
+him in expectation of instructions to keep watch over the departing
+visitor.
+
+"The way in which he held out his hand to me spoke volumes."
+
+The detective cast a sad glance at Craik Mansell's retreating figure.
+
+"You could not convince Hickory of that fact," said he.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.
+
+MR. ORCUTT.
+
+          What is it she does now?--MACBETH.
+
+          My resolution's plac'd, and I have nothing
+          Of woman in me. Now, from head to foot
+          I am marble--constant.--ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
+
+
+THESE words rang in the ears of Mr. Ferris. For he felt himself
+disturbed by them. Hickory did not believe Mr. Mansell innocent.
+
+At last he sent for that detective.
+
+"Hickory," he asked, "why do you think Mansell, rather than Hildreth,
+committed this crime?"
+
+Now this query, on the part of the District Attorney, put Hickory into a
+quandary. He wished to keep his promise to Horace Byrd, and yet he
+greatly desired to answer his employer's question truthfully. Without
+any special sympathies of his own, he yet had an undeniable leaning
+toward justice, and justice certainly demanded the indictment of
+Mansell. He ended by compromising matters.
+
+"Mr. Ferris," said he, "when you went to see Miss Dare the other day,
+what did you think of her state of mind?"
+
+"That it was a very unhappy one."
+
+"Didn't you think more than that, sir? Didn't you think she believed Mr.
+Mansell guilty of this crime?"
+
+"Yes," admitted the other, with reluctance.
+
+"If Miss Dare is attached to Mr. Mansell, she must feel certain of his
+guilt to _offer_ testimony against him. Her belief should go for
+something, sir; for much, it strikes me, when you consider what a woman
+she is."
+
+This conversation increased Mr. Ferris' uneasiness. Much as he wished to
+spare the feelings of Miss Dare, and, through her, those of his friend,
+Mr. Orcutt, the conviction of Mansell's criminality was slowly gaining
+ground in his mind. He remembered the peculiar manner of the latter
+during the interview they had held together; his quiet acceptance of the
+position of a suspected man, and his marked reticence in regard to the
+ring. Though the delicate nature of the interests involved might be
+sufficient to explain his behavior in the latter regard, his whole
+conduct could not be said to be that of a disinterested man, even if it
+were not necessarily that of a guilty one. In whatever way Mr. Ferris
+looked at it, he could come to but one conclusion, and that was, that
+justice to Hildreth called for such official attention to the evidence
+which had been collected against Mansell as should secure the indictment
+of that man against whom could be brought the more convincing proof of
+guilt.
+
+Not that Mr. Ferris meant, or in anywise considered it good policy, to
+have Mansell arrested at this time. As the friend of Mr. Orcutt, it was
+manifestly advisable for him to present whatever evidence he possessed
+against Mansell directly to the Grand Jury. For in this way he would not
+only save the lawyer from the pain and humiliation of seeing the woman
+he so much loved called up as a witness against the man who had
+successfully rivalled him in her affections, but would run the chance,
+at least, of eventually preserving from open knowledge, the various
+details, if not the actual facts, which had led to this person being
+suspected of crime. For the Grand Jury is a body whose business it is to
+make secret inquisition into criminal offences. Its members are bound by
+oath to the privacy of their deliberations. If, therefore, they should
+find the proofs presented to them by the District Attorney insufficient
+to authorize an indictment against Mansell, nothing of their proceedings
+would transpire. While, on the contrary, if they decided that the
+evidence was such as to oblige them to indict Mansell instead of
+Hildreth, neither Mr. Orcutt nor Miss Dare could hold the District
+Attorney accountable for the exposures that must follow.
+
+The course, therefore, of Mr. Ferris was determined upon. All the
+evidence in his possession against both parties, together with the
+verdict of the coroner's jury, should go at once before the Grand Jury;
+Mansell, in the meantime, being so watched that a bench-warrant issuing
+upon the indictment would have him safely in custody at any moment.
+
+But this plan for saving Mr. Orcutt's feelings did not succeed as fully
+as Mr. Ferris hoped. By some means or other the rumor got abroad that
+another man than Hildreth had fallen under the suspicion of the
+authorities, and one day Mr. Ferris found himself stopped on the street
+by the very person he had for a week been endeavoring to avoid.
+
+"Mr. Orcutt!" he cried, "how do you do? I did not recognize you at
+first."
+
+"No?" was the sharp rejoinder. "I'm not myself nowadays. I have a bad
+cold." With which impatient explanation he seized Mr. Ferris by the arm
+and said: "But what is this I hear? You have your eye on another party
+suspected of being Mrs. Clemmens' murderer?"
+
+The District Attorney bowed uneasily. He had hoped to escape the
+discussion of this subject with Mr. Orcutt.
+
+The lawyer observed the embarrassment his question had caused, and
+instantly turned pale, notwithstanding the hardihood which a long career
+at the bar had given him.
+
+"Ferris," he pursued, in a voice he strove hard to keep steady, "we have
+always been good friends, in spite of the many tilts we have had
+together before the court. Will you be kind enough to inform me if your
+suspicions are founded upon evidence collected by yourself, or at the
+instigation of parties professing to know more about this murder than
+they have hitherto revealed?"
+
+Mr. Ferris could not fail to understand the true nature of this
+question, and out of pure friendship answered quietly:
+
+"I have allowed myself to look with suspicion upon this Mansell--for it
+is Mrs. Clemmens' nephew who is at present occupying our
+attention,--because the facts which have come to light in his regard are
+as criminating in their nature as those which have transpired in
+reference to Mr. Hildreth. The examination into this matter, which my
+duty requires, has been any thing but pleasant to me, Mr. Orcutt. The
+evidence of such witnesses as will have to be summoned before the Grand
+Jury, is of a character to bring open humiliation, if not secret grief,
+upon persons for whom I entertain the highest esteem."
+
+The pointed way in which this was said convinced Mr. Orcutt that his
+worst fears had been realized. Turning partly away, but not losing his
+hold upon the other's arm, he observed with what quietness he could:
+
+"You say that so strangely, I feel forced to put another question to
+you. If what I have to ask strikes you with any surprise, remember that
+my own astonishment and perplexity at being constrained to interrogate
+you in this way, are greater than any sensation you can yourself
+experience. What I desire to know is this. Among the witnesses you have
+collected against this last suspected party, there are some women, are
+there not?"
+
+The District Attorney gravely bowed.
+
+"Ferris, is Miss Dare amongst them?"
+
+"Orcutt, she is."
+
+With a look that expressed his secret mistrust the lawyer gave way to a
+sudden burst of feeling.
+
+"Ferris," he wrathfully acknowledged, "I may be a fool, but I don't see
+what she can have to say on this subject. It is impossible she should
+know any thing about the murder; and, as for this Mansell----" He made a
+violent gesture with his hand, as if the very idea of her having any
+acquaintance with the nephew of Mrs. Clemmens were simply preposterous.
+
+The District Attorney, who saw from this how utterly ignorant the other
+was concerning Miss Dare's relations to the person named, felt his
+embarrassment increase.
+
+"Mr. Orcutt," he replied, "strange as it may appear to you, Miss Dare
+_has_ testimony to give of value to the prosecution, or she would not be
+reckoned among its witnesses. What that testimony is, I must leave to
+her discretion to make known to you, as she doubtless will, if you
+question her with sufficient consideration. I never forestall matters
+myself, nor would you wish me to tell you what would more becomingly
+come from her own lips. But, Mr. Orcutt, this I can say: that if it had
+been given me to choose between the two alternatives of resigning my
+office and of pursuing an inquiry which obliges me to submit to the
+unpleasantness of a judicial investigation a person held in so much
+regard by yourself, I would have given up my office with pleasure, so
+keenly do I feel the embarrassment of my position and the unhappiness of
+yours. But any mere resignation on my part would have availed nothing to
+save Miss Dare from appearing before the Grand Jury. The evidence she
+has to give in this matter makes the case against Mansell as strong as
+that against Hildreth, and it would be the duty of any public prosecutor
+to recognize the fact and act accordingly."
+
+Mr. Orcutt, who had by the greatest effort succeeded in calming himself
+through this harangue, flashed sarcastically at this last remark, and
+surveyed Mr. Ferris with a peculiar look.
+
+"Are you sure," he inquired in a slow, ironical tone, "that she has not
+succeeded in making it stronger?"
+
+The look, the tone, were unexpected, and greatly startled Mr. Ferris.
+Drawing nearer to his friend, he returned his gaze with marked
+earnestness.
+
+"What do you mean?" he asked, with secret anxiety.
+
+But the wary lawyer had already repented this unwise betrayal of his own
+doubts. Meeting his companion's eye with a calmness that amazed himself,
+he remarked, instead of answering:
+
+"It was through Miss Dare, then, that your attention was first drawn to
+Mrs. Clemmens' nephew?"
+
+"No," disclaimed Mr. Ferris, hastily. "The detectives already had their
+eyes upon him. But a hint from her went far toward determining me upon
+pursuing the matter," he allowed, seeing that his friend was determined
+upon hearing the truth.
+
+"So then," observed the other, with a stern dryness that recalled his
+manner at the bar, "she opened a communication with you herself?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+It was enough. Mr. Orcutt dropped the arm of Mr. Ferris, and, with his
+usual hasty bow, turned shortly away. The revelation which he believed
+himself to have received in this otherwise far from satisfactory
+interview, was one that he could not afford to share--that is, not yet;
+not while any hope remained that circumstances would so arrange
+themselves as to make it unnecessary for him to do so. If Imogene Dare,
+out of her insane desire to free Gouverneur Hildreth from the suspicion
+that oppressed him, had resorted to perjury and invented evidence
+tending to show the guilt of another party--and remembering her
+admissions at their last interview and the language she had used in her
+letter of farewell, no other conclusion offered itself,--what
+alternative was left him but to wait till he had seen her before he
+proceeded to an interference that would separate her from himself by a
+gulf still greater than that which already existed between them? To be
+sure, the jealousy which consumed him, the passionate rage that seized
+his whole being when he thought of all she dared do for the man she
+loved, or that he thought she loved, counselled him to nip this attempt
+of hers in the bud, and by means of a word to Mr. Ferris throw such a
+doubt upon her veracity as a witness against this new party as should
+greatly influence the action of the former in the critical business he
+had in hand. But Mr. Orcutt, while a prey to unwonted passions, had not
+yet lost control of his reason, and reason told him that impulse was an
+unsafe guide for him to follow at this time. Thought alone--deep and
+concentrated thought--would help him out of this crisis with honor and
+safety. But thought would not come at call. In all his quick walk home
+but one mad sentence formulated itself in his brain, and that was: "She
+loves him so, she is willing to perjure herself for his sake!" Nor,
+though he entered his door with his usual bustling air and went through
+all the customary observances of the hour with an appearance of no
+greater abstraction and gloom than had characterized him ever since the
+departure of Miss Dare, no other idea obtruded itself upon his mind than
+this: "She loves him so, she is willing to perjure herself for his
+sake!"
+
+Even the sight of his books, his papers, and all that various
+paraphernalia of work and study which gives character to a lawyer's
+library, was insufficient to restore his mind to its usual condition of
+calm thought and accurate judgment. Not till the clock struck eight and
+he found himself almost without his own volition at Professor Darling's
+house, did he realize all the difficulties of his position and the
+almost intolerable nature of the undertaking which had been forced upon
+him by the exigencies of the situation.
+
+Miss Dare, who had refused to see him at first, came into his presence
+with an expression that showed him with what reluctance she had finally
+responded to his peremptory message. But in the few heavy moments he had
+been obliged to wait, he had schooled himself to expect coldness if not
+absolute rebuff. He therefore took no heed of the haughty air of inquiry
+which she turned upon him, but came at once to the point, saying almost
+before she had closed the door:
+
+"What is this you have been doing, Imogene?"
+
+A flush, such as glints across the face of a marble statue, visited for
+a moment the still whiteness of her set features, then she replied:
+
+"Mr. Orcutt, when I left your house I told you I had a wretched and
+unhappy duty to perform, that, when once accomplished, would separate us
+forever. I have done it, and the separation has come; why attempt to
+bridge it?"
+
+There was a sad weariness in her tone, a sad weariness in her face, but
+he seemed to recognize neither. The demon jealousy--that hindrance to
+all unselfish feeling--had gripped him again, and the words that came to
+his lips were at once bitter and masterful.
+
+"Imogene," he cried, with as much wrath in his tone as he had ever
+betrayed in her presence, "you do not answer my question. I ask you what
+you have been doing, and you reply, your duty. Now, what do you mean by
+duty? Tell me at once and distinctly, for I will no longer be put off
+by any roundabout phrases concerning a matter of such vital importance."
+
+"Tell you?" This repetition of his words had a world of secret anguish
+in it which he could not help but notice. She did not succumb to it,
+however, but continued in another moment: "You said to me, in the last
+conversation we held together, that Gouverneur Hildreth could not be
+released from his terrible position without a distinct proof of
+innocence or the advancement of such evidence against another as should
+turn suspicion aside from him into a new and more justifiable quarter. I
+could not, any more than he, give a distinct proof of his innocence; but
+I could furnish the authorities with testimony calculated to arouse
+suspicion in a fresh direction, and I did it. For Gouverneur Hildreth
+had to be saved at any price--_at any price_."
+
+The despairing emphasis she laid upon the last phrase went like hot
+steel to Mr. Orcutt's heart, and made his eyes blaze with almost
+uncontrollable passion.
+
+"_Je ne vois pas la necessite_," said he, in that low, restrained tone
+of bitter sarcasm which made his invective so dreaded by opposing
+counsel. "If Gouverneur Hildreth finds himself in an unfortunate
+position, he has only his own follies and inordinate desire for this
+woman's death to thank for it. Because you love him and compassionate
+him beyond all measure, that is no reason why you should perjure
+yourself, and throw the burden of his shame upon a man as innocent as
+Mr. Mansell."
+
+But this tone, though it had made many a witness quail before it,
+neither awed nor intimidated her.
+
+"You--you do not understand," came from her white lips. "It is Mr.
+Hildreth who is perfectly innocent, and not----" But here she paused.
+"You will excuse me from saying more," she said. "You, as a lawyer,
+ought to know that I should not be compelled to speak on a subject like
+this except under oath."
+
+"Imogene!" A change had passed over Mr. Orcutt. "Imogene, do you mean to
+affirm that you really have charges to make against Craik Mansell; that
+this evidence you propose to give is real, and not manufactured for the
+purpose of leading suspicion aside from Hildreth?"
+
+It was an insinuation against her veracity he never could have made, or
+she have listened to, a few weeks before; but the shield of her pride
+was broken between them, and neither he nor she seemed to give any
+thought to the reproach conveyed in these words.
+
+"What I have to say is the truth," she murmured. "I have not
+manufactured any thing."
+
+With an astonishment he took no pains to conceal, Mr. Orcutt anxiously
+surveyed her. He could not believe this was so, yet how could he convict
+her of falsehood in face of that suffering expression of resolve which
+she wore. His methods as a lawyer came to his relief.
+
+"Imogene," he slowly responded, "if, as you say, you are in possession
+of positive evidence against this Mansell, how comes it that you
+jeopardized the interests of the man you loved by so long withholding
+your testimony?"
+
+But instead of the flush of confusion which he expected, she flashed
+upon him with a sudden revelation of feeling that made him involuntarily
+start.
+
+"Shall I tell you?" she replied. "You will have to know some time, and
+why not now? I kept back the truth," she replied, advancing a step, but
+without raising her eyes to his, "because it is not the aspersed
+Hildreth that I love, but----"
+
+Why did she pause? What was it she found so hard to speak? Mr. Orcutt's
+expression became terrible.
+
+"But the other," she murmured at last.
+
+"The other!"
+
+It was now her turn to start and look at him in surprise, if not in some
+fear.
+
+"What other?" he cried, seizing her by the hand. "Name him. I will have
+no further misunderstanding between us."
+
+"Is it necessary?" she asked, with bitterness. "Will Heaven spare me
+nothing?" Then, as she saw no relenting in the fixed gaze that held her
+own, whispered, in a hollow tone: "You have just spoken the name
+yourself--Craik Mansell."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+Incredulity, anger, perplexity, all the emotions that were seething in
+this man's troubled soul, spoke in that simple exclamation. Then silence
+settled upon the room, during which she gained control over herself,
+and he the semblance of it if no more. She was the first to speak.
+
+"I know," said she, "that this avowal on my part seems almost incredible
+to you; but it is no more so than that which you so readily received
+from me the other day in reference to Gouverneur Hildreth. A woman who
+spends a month away from home makes acquaintances which she does not
+always mention when she comes back. I saw Mr. Mansell in Buffalo,
+and----" turning, she confronted the lawyer with her large gray eyes, in
+which a fire burned such as he had never seen there before--"and grew to
+esteem him," she went on. "For the first time in my life I found myself
+in the presence of a man whose nature commanded mine. His ambition, his
+determination, his unconventional and forcible character woke
+aspirations within me such as I had never known myself capable of
+before. Life, which had stretched out before me with a somewhat
+monotonous outlook, changed to a panorama of varied and wonderful
+experiences, as I listened to his voice and met the glance of his eye;
+and soon, before he knew it, and certainly before I realized it, words
+of love passed between us, and the agony of that struggle began which
+has ended---- Ah, let me not think how, or I shall go mad!"
+
+Mr. Orcutt, who had watched her with a lover's fascination during all
+this attempted explanation, shivered for a moment at this last bitter
+cry of love and despair, but spoke up when he did speak, with a coldness
+that verged on severity.
+
+"So you loved another man when you came back to my home and listened to
+the words of passion which came from _my_ lips, and the hopes of future
+bliss and happiness that welled up from _my_ heart?"
+
+"Yes," she whispered, "and, as you will remember, I tried to suppress
+those hopes and turn a deaf ear to those words, though I had but little
+prospect of marrying a man whose fortunes depended upon the success of
+an invention he could persuade no one to believe in."
+
+"Yet you brought yourself to listen to those hopes on the afternoon of
+the murder," he suggested, ironically.
+
+"Can you blame me for that?" she cried, "remembering how you pleaded,
+and what a revulsion of feeling I was laboring under?"
+
+A smile bitter as the fate which loomed before him, and scornful as the
+feelings that secretly agitated his breast, parted Mr. Orcutt's pale
+lips for an instant, and he seemed about to give utterance to some
+passionate rejoinder, but he subdued himself with a determined effort,
+and quietly waiting till his voice was under full control, remarked with
+lawyer-like brevity at last:
+
+"You have not told me what evidence you have to give against young
+Mansell?"
+
+Her answer came with equal brevity if not equal quietness.
+
+"No; I have told Mr. Ferris; is not that enough?"
+
+But he did not consider it so. "Ferris is a District Attorney," said he,
+"and has demanded your confidence for the purposes of justice, while I
+am your friend. The action you have taken is peculiar, and you may need
+advice. But how can I give it or how can you receive it unless there is
+a complete understanding between us?"
+
+Struck in spite of herself, moved perhaps by a hope she had not allowed
+herself to contemplate before, she looked at him long and earnestly.
+
+"And do you really wish to help me?" she inquired. "Are you so generous
+as to forgive the pain, and possibly the humiliation, I have inflicted
+upon you, and lend me your assistance in case my testimony works its due
+effect, and he be brought to trial instead of Mr. Hildreth?"
+
+It was a searching and a pregnant question, for which Mr. Orcutt was
+possibly not fully prepared, but his newly gained control did not give
+way.
+
+"I must insist upon hearing the facts before I say any thing of my
+intentions," he averred. "Whatever they may be, they cannot be more
+startling in their character than those which have been urged against
+Hildreth."
+
+"But they are," she whispered. Then with a quick look around her, she
+put her mouth close to Mr. Orcutt's ear and breathed:
+
+"Mr. Hildreth is not the only man who, unseen by the neighbors, visited
+Mrs. Clemmens' house on the morning of the murder. Craik Mansell was
+there also."
+
+"Craik Mansell! How do you know that? Ah," he pursued, with the scornful
+intonation of a jealous man, "I forgot that you are lovers."
+
+The sneer, natural as it was, perhaps, seemed to go to her heart and
+wake its fiercest indignation.
+
+"Hush," cried she, towering upon him with an ominous flash of her proud
+eye. "Do not turn the knife in _that_ wound or you will seal my lips
+forever." And she moved hastily away from his side. But in another
+instant she determinedly returned, saying: "This is no time for
+indulging in one's sensibilities. I affirm that Craik Mansell visited
+his aunt on that day, because the ring which was picked up on the floor
+of her dining-room--you remember the ring, Mr. Orcutt?"
+
+Remember it! Did he not? All his many perplexities in its regard crowded
+upon him as he made a hurried bow of acquiescence.
+
+"It belonged to him," she continued. "He had bought it for me, or,
+rather, had had the diamond reset for me--it had been his mother's. Only
+the day before, he had tried to put it on my finger in a meeting we had
+in the woods back of his aunt's house. But I refused to allow him. The
+prospect ahead was too dismal and unrelenting for us to betroth
+ourselves, whatever our hopes or wishes might be."
+
+"You--you had a meeting with this man in the woods the day before his
+aunt was assaulted," echoed Mr. Orcutt, turning upon her with an
+amazement that swallowed up his wrath.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And he afterward visited her house?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And dropped that ring there?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Starting slowly, as if the thoughts roused by this short statement of
+facts were such as demanded instant consideration, Mr. Orcutt walked to
+the other side of the room, where he paced up and down in silence for
+some minutes. When he returned it was the lawyer instead of the lover
+who stood before her.
+
+"Then, it was the simple fact of finding this gentleman's ring on the
+floor of Mrs. Clemmens' dining-room that makes you consider him the
+murderer of his aunt?" he asked, with a tinge of something like irony in
+his tone.
+
+"No," she breathed rather than answered. "That was a proof, of course,
+that he had been there, but I should never have thought of it as an
+evidence of guilt if the woman herself had not uttered, in our hearing
+that tell-tale exclamation of 'Ring and Hand,' and if, in the talk I
+held with Mr. Mansell the day before, he had not betrayed---- Why do you
+stop me?" she whispered.
+
+"I did not stop you," he hastily assured her. "I am too anxious to hear
+what you have to say. Go on, Imogene. What did this Mansell betray? I--I
+ask as a father might," he added, with some dignity and no little
+effort.
+
+But her fears had taken alarm, or her caution been aroused, and she
+merely said:
+
+"The five thousand dollars which his aunt leaves him is just the amount
+he desired to start him in life."
+
+"Did he wish such an amount?" Mr. Orcutt asked.
+
+"Very much."
+
+"And acknowledged it in the conversation he had with you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Imogene," declared the lawyer, "if you do not want to insure Mr.
+Mansell's indictment, I would suggest to you not to lay too great stress
+upon any _talk_ you may have held with him."
+
+But she cried with unmoved sternness, and a relentless crushing down of
+all emotion that was at once amazing and painful to see:
+
+"The innocent is to be saved from the gallows, no matter what the fate
+of the guilty may be."
+
+And a short but agitated silence followed which Mr. Orcutt broke at last
+by saying:
+
+"Are these all the facts you have to give me?"
+
+She started, cast him a quick look, bowed her head, and replied:
+
+"Yes."
+
+There was something in the tone of this assertion that made him repeat
+his question.
+
+"Are these _all_ the facts you have to give me?"
+
+Her answer came ringing and emphatic now.
+
+"Yes," she avowed--"all."
+
+With a look of relief, slowly smoothing out the deep furrows of his
+brow, Mr. Orcutt, for the second time, walked thoughtfully away in
+evident consultation with his own thoughts. This time he was gone so
+long, the suspense became almost intolerable to Imogene. Feeling that
+she could endure it no longer, she followed him at last, and laid her
+hand upon his arm.
+
+"Speak," she impetuously cried. "Tell me what you think; what I have to
+expect."
+
+But he shook his head.
+
+"Wait," he returned; "wait till the Grand Jury has brought in a bill of
+indictment. It will, doubtless, be against one of these two men; but I
+must know which, before I can say or do any thing."
+
+"And do you think there can be any doubt about which of these two it
+will be?" she inquired, with sudden emotion.
+
+"There is always doubt," he rejoined, "about any thing or every thing a
+body of men may do. This is a very remarkable case, Imogene," he
+resumed, with increased sombreness; "the most remarkable one, perhaps,
+that has ever come under my observation. What the Grand Jury will think
+of it; upon which party, Mansell or Hildreth, the weight of their
+suspicion will fall, neither I nor Ferris, nor any other man, can
+prophesy with any assurance. The evidence against both is, in so far as
+we know, entirely circumstantial. That you believe Mr. Mansell to be the
+guilty party----"
+
+"Believe!" she murmured; "I know it."
+
+"That you _believe_ him to be the guilty party," the wary lawyer
+pursued, as if he had not heard her "does not imply that they will
+believe it too. Hildreth comes of a bad stock, and his late attempt at
+suicide tells wonderfully against him; yet, the facts you have to give
+in Mansell's disfavor are strong also, and Heaven only knows what the
+upshot will be. However, a few weeks will determine all that, and
+then----" Pausing, he looked at her, and, as he did so, the austerity
+and self-command of the lawyer vanished out of sight, and the passionate
+gleam of a fierce and overmastering love shone again in his eyes. "And
+then," he cried, "then we will see what Tremont Orcutt can do to bring
+order out of this chaos."
+
+There was so much resolve in his look, such a hint of promise in his
+tone, that she flushed with something almost akin to hope.
+
+"Oh, generous----" she began.
+
+But he stopped her before she could say more.
+
+"Wait," he repeated; "wait till we see what action will be taken by the
+Grand Jury." And taking her hand, he looked earnestly, if not
+passionately, in her face. "Imogene," he commenced, "if I should
+succeed----" But there he himself stopped short with a quick recalling
+of his own words, perhaps. "No," he cried, "I will say no more till we
+see which of these two men is to be brought to trial." And, pressing her
+hand to his lips, he gave her one last look in which was concentrated
+all the secret passions which had been called forth by this hour, and
+hastily left the room.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+A TRUE BILL.
+
+          Come to me, friend or foe,
+          And tell me who is victor, York or Warwick.--HENRY VI.
+
+
+THE town of Sibley was in a state of excitement. About the court-house
+especially the crowd was great and the interest manifested intense. The
+Grand Jury was in session, and the case of the Widow Clemmens was before
+it.
+
+As all the proceedings of this body are private, the suspense of those
+interested in the issue was naturally very great. The name of the man
+lastly suspected of the crime had transpired, and both Hildreth and
+Mansell had their partisans, though the mystery surrounding the latter
+made his friends less forward in asserting his innocence than those of
+the more thoroughly understood Hildreth. Indeed, the ignorance felt on
+all sides as to the express reasons for associating the name of Mrs.
+Clemmens' nephew with his aunt's murder added much to the significance
+of the hour. Conjectures were plenty and the wonder great, but the
+causes why this man, or any other, should lie under a suspicion equal to
+that raised against Hildreth at the inquest was a mystery that none
+could solve.
+
+But what is the curiosity of the rabble to us? Our interest is in a
+little room far removed from this scene of excitement, where the young
+daughter of Professor Darling kneels by the side of Imogene Dare,
+striving by caress and entreaty to win a word from her lips or a glance
+from her heavy eyes.
+
+"Imogene," she pleaded,--"Imogene, what is this terrible grief? Why did
+you have to go to the court-house this morning with papa, and why have
+you been almost dead with terror and misery ever since you got back?
+Tell me, or I shall perish of mere fright. For weeks now, ever since you
+were so good as to help me with my wedding-clothes, I have seen that
+something dreadful was weighing upon your mind, but this which you are
+suffering now is awful; this I cannot bear. Cannot you speak dear? Words
+will do you good."
+
+"Words!"
+
+Oh, the despair, the bitterness of that single exclamation! Miss Darling
+drew back in dismay. As if released, Imogene rose to her feet and
+surveyed the sweet and ingenuous countenance uplifted to her own, with a
+look of faint recognition of the womanly sympathy it conveyed.
+
+"Helen," she resumed, "you are happy. Don't stay here with me, but go
+where there are cheerfulness and hope."
+
+"But I cannot while you suffer so. I love you, Imogene. Would you drive
+me away from your side when you are so unhappy? You don't care for me as
+I do for you or you could not do it."
+
+"Helen!" The deep tone made the sympathetic little bride-elect quiver.
+"Helen, some griefs are best borne alone. Only a few hours now and I
+shall know the worst. Leave me."
+
+But the gentle little creature was not to be driven away. She only clung
+the closer and pleaded the more earnestly:
+
+"Tell me, tell me!"
+
+The reiteration of this request was too much for the pallid woman before
+her. Laying her two hands on the shoulders of this child, she drew back
+and looked her earnestly in the face.
+
+"Helen," she cried, "what do you know of earthly anguish? A petted
+child, the favorite of happy fortune, you have been kept from evil as
+from a blight. None of the annoyances of life have been allowed to enter
+your path, much less its griefs and sins. Terror with you is but a name,
+remorse an unknown sensation. Even your love has no depths in it such as
+suffering gives. Yet, since you do love, and love well, perhaps you can
+understand something of what a human soul can endure who sees its only
+hope and only love tottering above a gulf too horrible for words to
+describe--a gulf, too, which her own hand---- But no, I cannot tell you.
+I overrated my strength. I----"
+
+She sank back, but the next moment started again to her feet: a servant
+had opened the door.
+
+"What is it!" she exclaimed; "speak, tell me."
+
+"Only a gentleman to see you, miss."
+
+"Only a----" But she stopped in that vain repetition of the girl's
+simple words, and looked at her as if she would force from her lips the
+name she had not the courage to demand; but, failing to obtain it,
+turned away to the glass, where she quietly smoothed her hair and
+adjusted the lace at her throat, and then catching sight of the
+tear-stained face of Helen, stooped and gave her a kiss, after which she
+moved mechanically to the door and went down those broad flights, one
+after one, till she came to the parlor, when she went in and
+encountered--Mr. Orcutt.
+
+A glance at his face told her all she wanted to know.
+
+"Ah!" she gasped, "it is then----"
+
+"Mansell!"
+
+It was five minutes later. Imogene leaned against the window where she
+had withdrawn herself at the utterance of that one word. Mr. Orcutt
+stood a couple of paces behind her.
+
+"Imogene," said he, "there is a question I would like to have you
+answer."
+
+The feverish agitation expressed in his tone made her look around.
+
+"Put it," she mechanically replied.
+
+But he did not find it easy to do this, while her eyes rested upon him
+in such despair. He felt, however, that the doubt in his mind must be
+satisfied at all hazards; so choking down an emotion that was almost as
+boundless as her own, he ventured to ask:
+
+"Is it among the possibilities that you could ever again contemplate
+giving yourself in marriage to Craik Mansell, no matter what the issue
+of the coming trial may be?"
+
+A shudder quick and powerful as that which follows the withdrawal of a
+dart from an agonizing wound shook her whole frame for a moment, but she
+answered, steadily:
+
+"No; how can you ask, Mr. Orcutt?"
+
+A gleam of relief shot across his somewhat haggard features.
+
+"Then," said he, "it will be no treason in me to assure you that never
+has my love been greater for you than to-day. That to save you from the
+pain which you are suffering, I would sacrifice every thing, even my
+pride. If, therefore, there is any kindness I can show you, any deed I
+can perform for your sake, I am ready to attempt it, Imogene.
+
+"Would you--" she hesitated, but gathered courage as she met his
+eye--"would you be willing to go to him with a message from me?"
+
+His glance fell and his lips took a line that startled Imogene, but his
+answer, though given with bitterness was encouraging.
+
+"Yes," he returned; "even that."
+
+"Then," she cried, "tell him that to save the innocent, I had to betray
+the guilty, but in doing this I did not spare myself; that whatever his
+doom may be, I shall share it, even though it be that of death."
+
+"Imogene!"
+
+"Will you tell him?" she asked.
+
+But he would not have been a man, much less a lover, if he could answer
+that question now. Seizing her by the arm, he looked her wildly in the
+face.
+
+"Do you mean to kill yourself?" he demanded.
+
+"I feel I shall not live," she gasped, while her hand went involuntarily
+to her heart.
+
+He gazed at her in horror.
+
+"And if he is cleared?" he hoarsely ejaculated.
+
+"I--I shall try to endure my fate."
+
+He gave her another long, long look.
+
+"So this is the alternative you give me?" he bitterly exclaimed. "I must
+either save this man or see you perish. Well," he declared, after a few
+minutes' further contemplation of her face, "I will save this man--that
+is, if he will allow me to do so."
+
+A flash of joy such as he had not perceived on her countenance for weeks
+transformed its marble-like severity into something of its pristine
+beauty.
+
+"And you will take him my message also?" she cried.
+
+But to this he shook his head.
+
+"If I am to approach him as a lawyer willing to undertake his cause,
+don't you see I can give him no such message as that?"
+
+"Ah, yes, yes. But you can tell him Imogene Dare has risked her own life
+and happiness to save the innocent."
+
+"I will tell him whatever I can to show your pity and your misery."
+
+And she had to content herself with this. In the light of the new hope
+that was thus unexpectedly held out to her, it did not seem so
+difficult. Giving Mr. Orcutt her hand, she endeavored to thank him, but
+the reaction from her long suspense was too much, and, for the first
+time in her brave young life, Imogene lost consciousness and fainted
+quite away.
+
+
+
+
+XXV.
+
+AMONG TELESCOPES AND CHARTS.
+
+          Tarry a little--there is something else.--MERCHANT OF VENICE.
+
+
+GOUVERNEUR HILDRETH was discharged and Craik Mansell committed to prison
+to await his trial.
+
+Horace Byrd, who no longer had any motive for remaining in Sibley, had
+completed all his preparations to return to New York. His valise was
+packed, his adieus made, and nothing was left for him to do but to step
+around to the station, when he bethought him of a certain question he
+had not put to Hickory.
+
+Seeking him out, he propounded it.
+
+"Hickory," said he, "have you ever discovered in the course of your
+inquiries where Miss Dare was on the morning of the murder?"
+
+The stalwart detective, who was in a very contented frame of mind,
+answered up with great cheeriness:
+
+"Haven't I, though! It was one of the very first things I made sure of.
+She was at Professor Darling's house on Summer Avenue."
+
+"At Professor Darling's house?" Mr. Byrd felt a sensation of dismay.
+Professor Darling's house was, as you remember, in almost direct
+communication with Mrs. Clemmens' cottage by means of a path through
+the woods. As Mr. Byrd recalled his first experience in threading those
+woods, and remembered with what suddenness he had emerged from them only
+to find himself in full view of the West Side and Professor Darling's
+spacious villa, he stared uneasily at his colleague and said:
+
+"It is train time, Hickory, but I cannot help that. Before I leave this
+town I must know just what she was doing on that morning, and whom she
+was with. Can you find out?"
+
+"_Can I find out?_"
+
+The hardy detective was out of the door before the last word of this
+scornful repetition had left his lips.
+
+He was gone an hour. When he returned he looked very much excited.
+
+"Well!" he ejaculated, breathlessly, "I have had an experience."
+
+Mr. Byrd gave him a look, saw something he did not like in his face, and
+moved uneasily in his chair.
+
+"You have?" he retorted. "What is it? Speak."
+
+"Do you know," the other resumed, "that the hardest thing I ever had to
+do was to keep my head down in the hut the other day, and deny myself a
+look at the woman who could bear herself so bravely in the midst of a
+scene so terrible. Well," he went on, "I have to-day been rewarded for
+my self-control. I have seen Miss Dare."
+
+Horace Byrd could scarcely restrain his impatience.
+
+"Where?" he demanded. "How? Tell a fellow, can't you?"
+
+"I am going to," protested Hickory. "Cannot you wait a minute? _I_ had
+to wait forty. Well," he continued more pleasantly as he saw the other
+frown, "I went to Professor Darling's. There is a girl there I have
+talked to before, and I had no difficulty in seeing her or getting a
+five minutes' chat with her at the back-gate. Odd how such girls will
+talk! She told me in three minutes all I wanted to know. Not that it was
+so much, only----"
+
+"Do get on," interrupted Mr. Byrd. "When did Miss Dare come to the house
+on the morning Mrs. Clemmens was murdered, and what did she do while
+there?"
+
+"She came early; by ten o'clock or so, I believe, and she sat, if she
+did sit, in an observatory they have at the top of the house: a place
+where she often used to go, I am told, to study astronomy with Professor
+Darling's oldest daughter."
+
+"And was Miss Darling with her that morning? Did they study together all
+the time she was in the house?"
+
+"No; that is, the girl said no one went up to the observatory with Miss
+Dare; that Miss Darling did not happen to be at home that day, and Miss
+Dare had to study alone. Hearing this," pursued Hickory, answering the
+look of impatience in the other's face, "I had a curiosity to interview
+the observatory, and being--well, not a clumsy fellow at softsoaping a
+girl--I at last succeeded in prevailing upon her to take me up. Byrd,
+will you believe me when I tell you that we did it without going into
+the house?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"I mean," corrected the other, "without entering the main part of the
+building. The professor's house has a tower, you know, at the upper
+angle toward the woods, and it is in the top of that tower he keeps his
+telescopes and all that kind of thing. The tower has a special staircase
+of its own. It is a spiral one, and opens on a door below that connects
+directly with the garden. We went up these stairs."
+
+"You dared to?"
+
+"Yes; the girl assured me every one was out of the house but the
+servants, and I believed her. We went up the stairs, entered the
+observatory----"
+
+"It is not kept locked, then?"
+
+"It was not locked to-day--saw the room, which is a curious one--glanced
+out over the view, which is well worth seeing, and then----"
+
+"Well, what?"
+
+"I believe I stood still and asked the girl a question or two more. I
+inquired," he went on, deprecating the other's impatience by a wave of
+his nervous hand, "when Miss Dare came down from this place on the
+morning you remember. She answered that she couldn't quite tell; that
+she wouldn't have remembered any thing about it at all, only that Miss
+Tremaine came to the house that morning, and wanting to see Miss Dare,
+ordered her to go up to the observatory and tell that lady to come down,
+and that she went, but to her surprise did not find Miss Dare there,
+though she was sure she had not gone home, or, at least, hadn't taken
+any of the cars that start from the front of the house, for she had
+looked at them every one as they went by the basement window where she
+was at work."
+
+"The girl said this?"
+
+"Yes, standing in the door of this small room, and looking me straight
+in the eye."
+
+"And did you ask her nothing more? Say nothing about the time, Hickory,
+or--or inquire where she supposed Miss Dare to have gone?"
+
+"Yes, I asked her all this. I am not without curiosity any more than you
+are, Mr. Byrd."
+
+"And she replied?"
+
+"Oh, as to the time, that it was somewhere before noon. Her reason for
+being sure of this was that Miss Tremaine declined to wait till another
+effort had been made to find Miss Dare, saying she had an engagement at
+twelve which she did not wish to break."
+
+"And the girl's notions about where Miss Dare had gone?"
+
+"Such as you expect, Byrd. She said she did not know any thing about it,
+but that Miss Dare often went strolling in the garden, or even in the
+woods when she came to Professor Darling's house, and that she supposed
+she had gone off on some such walk at this time, for, at one o'clock or
+thereabouts, she saw her pass in the horse-car on her way back to the
+town."
+
+"Hickory, I wish you had not told me this just as I am going back to the
+city."
+
+"Wish I had not told it, or wish I had not gone to Professor Darling's
+house as you requested?"
+
+"Wish you had not told it. I dare not wish the other. But you spoke of
+seeing Miss Dare; how was that? Where did you run across her?"
+
+"Do you want to hear?"
+
+"Of course, of course."
+
+"But I thought----"
+
+"Oh, never mind, old boy; tell me the whole now, as long as you have
+told me any. Was she in the house?"
+
+"I will tell you. I had asked the girl all these questions, as I have
+said, and was about to leave the observatory and go below when I thought
+I would cast another glance around the curious old place, and in doing
+so caught a glimpse of a huge portfolio of charts, as I supposed,
+standing upright in a rack that stretched across the further portion of
+the room. Somehow my heart misgave me when I saw this rack, and,
+scarcely conscious what it was I feared, I crossed the floor and looked
+behind the portfolio. Byrd, there was a woman crouched there--a woman
+whose pallid cheeks and burning eyes lifted to meet my own, told me only
+too plainly that it was Miss Dare. I have had many experiences,"
+Hickory allowed, after a moment, "and some of them any thing but
+pleasant to myself, but I don't think I ever felt just as I did at that
+instant. I believe I attempted a bow--I don't remember; or, at least,
+tried to murmur some excuse, but the look that came into her face
+paralyzed me, and I stopped before I had gotten very far, and waited to
+hear what she would say. But she did not say much; she merely rose, and,
+turning toward me, exclaimed: 'No apologies; you are a detective, I
+suppose?' And when I nodded, or made some other token that she had
+guessed correctly, she merely remarked, flashing upon me, however, in a
+way I do not yet understand: 'Well, you have got what you desired, and
+now can go.' And I went, Byrd, went; and I felt puzzled, I don't know
+why, and a little bit sore about the heart, too, as if---- Well, I can't
+even tell what I mean by that _if_. The only thing I am sure of is, that
+Mansell's cause hasn't been helped by this day's job, and that if this
+lady is asked on the witness stand where she was during the hour every
+one believed her to be safely shut up with the telescopes and charts, we
+shall hear----"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Well, that she _was_ shut up with them, most likely. Women like her are
+not to be easily disconcerted even on the witness stand."
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.
+
+"HE SHALL HEAR ME!"
+
+          There's some ill planet reigns;
+          I must be patient till the heavens look
+          With an aspect more favorable.--WINTER'S TALE.
+
+
+THE time is midnight, the day the same as that which saw this irruption
+of Hickory into Professor Darling's observatory; the scene that of Miss
+Dare's own room in the northeast tower. She is standing before a table
+with a letter in her hand and a look upon her face that, if seen, would
+have added much to the puzzlement of the detectives.
+
+The letter was from Mr. Orcutt and ran thus:
+
+          I have seen Mr. Mansell, and have engaged myself
+          to undertake his defence. When I tell you that out
+          of the hundreds of cases I have tried in my still
+          short life, I have lost but a small percentage,
+          you will understand what this means.
+
+          In pursuance to your wishes, I mentioned your name
+          to the prisoner with an intimation that I had a
+          message from you to deliver. But he stopped me
+          before I could utter a word. "I receive no
+          communication from Miss Dare!" he declared, and,
+          anxious as I really was to do your bidding, I was
+          compelled to refrain; for his tone was one of
+          hatred and his look that of ineffable scorn.
+
+This was all, but it was enough. Imogene had read these words over three
+times, and now was ready to plunge the letter into the flame of a
+candle to destroy it. As it burned, her grief and indignation took
+words:
+
+"He is alienated, completely alienated," she gasped; "and I do not
+wonder. But," and here the full majesty of her nature broke forth in one
+grand gesture, "he shall hear me yet! As there is a God above, he shall
+hear me yet, even if it has to be in the open court and in the presence
+of judge and jury!"
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+THE SCALES OF JUSTICE.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII.
+
+THE GREAT TRIAL.
+
+          _Othello._--What dost thou think?
+          _Iago._--                  Think, my lord?
+          _Othello._--By heav'n, he echoes me.
+          As if there was some monster in his thought
+          Too hideous to be shown.--OTHELLO.
+
+
+SIBLEY was in a stir. Sibley was the central point of interest for the
+whole country. The great trial was in progress and the curiosity of the
+populace knew no bounds.
+
+In a room of the hotel sat our two detectives. They had just come from
+the court-house. Both seemed inclined to talk, though both showed an
+indisposition to open the conversation. A hesitation lay between them; a
+certain thin vail of embarrassment that either one would have found it
+hard to explain, and yet which sufficed to make their intercourse a
+trifle uncertain in its character, though Hickory's look had lost none
+of its rude good-humor, and Byrd's manner was the same mixture of easy
+nonchalance and quiet self-possession it had always been.
+
+It was Hickory who spoke at last.
+
+"Well, Byrd?" was his suggestive exclamation.
+
+"Well, Hickory?" was the quiet reply.
+
+"What do you think of the case so far?"
+
+"I think"--the words came somewhat slowly--"I think that it looks bad.
+Bad for the prisoner, I mean," he explained the next moment with a quick
+flush.
+
+"Your sympathies are evidently with Mansell," Hickory quietly remarked.
+
+"Yes," was the slow reply. "Not that I think him innocent, or would turn
+a hair's breadth from the truth to serve him."
+
+"He _is_ a manly fellow," Hickory bluntly admitted, after a moment's
+puff at the pipe he was smoking. "Do you remember the peculiar
+straightforwardness of his look when he uttered his plea of 'Not
+guilty,' and the tone he used too, so quiet, yet so emphatic? You could
+have heard a pin drop."
+
+"Yes," returned Mr. Byrd, with a quick contraction of his usually smooth
+brow.
+
+"Have you noticed," the other broke forth, after another puff, "a
+certain curious air of disdain that he wears?"
+
+"Yes," was again the short reply.
+
+"I wonder what it means?" queried Hickory carelessly, knocking the ashes
+out of his pipe.
+
+Mr. Byrd flashed a quick askance look at his colleague from under his
+half-fallen lids, but made no answer.
+
+"It is not pride alone," resumed the rough-and-ready detective,
+half-musingly; "though he's as proud as the best of 'em. Neither is it
+any sort of make-believe, or _I_ wouldn't be caught by it.
+'Tis--'tis--what?" And Hickory rubbed his nose with his thoughtful
+forefinger, and looked inquiringly at Mr. Byrd.
+
+"How should I know?" remarked the other, tossing his stump of a cigar
+into the fire. "Mr. Mansell is too deep a problem for me."
+
+"And Miss Dare too?"
+
+"_And_ Miss Dare."
+
+Silence followed this admission, which Hickory broke at last by
+observing:
+
+"The day that sees _her_ on the witness stand will be interesting, eh?"
+
+"It is not far off," declared Mr. Byrd.
+
+"No?"
+
+"I think she will be called as a witness to-morrow."
+
+"Have you noticed," began Hickory again, after another short interval of
+quiet contemplation, "that it is only when Miss Dare is present that
+Mansell wears the look of scorn I have just mentioned."
+
+"Hickory," said Mr. Byrd, wheeling directly about in his chair and for
+the first time surveying his colleague squarely, "I have noticed _this_.
+That ever since the day she made her first appearance in the court-room,
+she has sat with her eyes fixed earnestly upon the prisoner, and that he
+has never answered her look by so much as a glance in her direction.
+This has but one explanation as I take it. He never forgets that it is
+through her he has been brought to trial for his life."
+
+Mr. Byrd uttered this very distinctly, and with a decided emphasis. But
+the impervious Hickory only settled himself farther back in his chair,
+and stretching his feet out toward the fire, remarked dryly:
+
+"Perhaps I am not much of a judge of human nature, but I should have
+said now that this Mansell was not a man to treat her contemptuously for
+that. Rage he might show or hatred, but this quiet ignoring of her
+presence seems a little too dignified for a criminal facing a person he
+has every reason to believe is convinced of his guilt."
+
+"Ordinary rules don't apply to this man. Neither you nor I can sound his
+nature. If he displays contempt, it is because he is of the sort to feel
+it for the woman who has betrayed him."
+
+"You make him out mean-spirited, then, as well as wicked?"
+
+"I make him out human. More than that," Mr. Byrd resumed, after a
+moment's thought, "I make him out consistent. A man who lets his
+passions sway him to the extent of committing a murder for the purpose
+of satisfying his love or his ambition, is not of the unselfish cast
+that would appreciate such a sacrifice as Miss Dare has made. This under
+the supposition that our reasons for believing him guilty are well
+founded. If our suppositions are false, and the crime was not committed
+by him, his contempt needs no explanation."
+
+"Just so!"
+
+The peculiar tone in which this was uttered caused Mr. Byrd to flash
+another quick look at his colleague. Hickory did not seem to observe it.
+
+"What makes you think Miss Dare will be called to the witness stand
+to-morrow?" he asked.
+
+"Well I will tell you," returned Byrd, with the sudden vivacity of one
+glad to turn the current of conversation into a fresh channel. "If you
+have followed the method of the prosecution as I have done, you will
+have noticed that it has advanced to its point by definite stages.
+First, witnesses were produced to prove the existence of motive on the
+part of the accused. Mr. Goodman was called to the witness stand, and,
+after him, other business men of Buffalo, all of whom united in
+unqualified assertions of the prisoner's frequently-expressed desire for
+a sum of money sufficient to put his invention into practical use. Next,
+the amount considered necessary for this purpose was ascertained and
+found to be just covered by the legacy bequeathed him by his aunt; after
+which, ample evidence was produced to show that he knew the extent of
+her small fortune, and the fact that she had by her will made him her
+heir. Motive for the crime being thus established, they now proceeded to
+prove that he was not without actual opportunity for perpetrating it. He
+was shown to have been in Sibley at the time of the murder. The
+station-master at Monteith was confronted with the prisoner, also old
+Sally Perkins. Then you and I came before the court with our testimony,
+and whatever doubt may have remained as to his having been in a position
+to effect his aunt's death, and afterward escape unnoticed by means of
+the path leading over the hills to Monteith Quarry station, was swept
+away. What remains? To connect him with the murder itself, by some,
+strong link of circumstantial evidence, such as the ring provides. And
+who is it that can give testimony regarding the ring?--Miss Dare."
+
+"Hem! Well, she will do it," was the dry remark of Hickory.
+
+"She will be obliged to do it," was the emphatic response of Byrd.
+
+And again their glances crossed in a furtive way both seemed ready to
+ignore.
+
+"What do you think of Orcutt?" Hickory next inquired.
+
+"He is very quiet."
+
+"Too quiet, eh?"
+
+"Perhaps. Folks that know him well declare they never before saw him
+conduct a case in so temperate a manner. He has scarcely made an effort
+at cross-examination, and, in fact, has thus far won nothing for the
+defence except that astonishing tribute to the prisoner's character
+given by Mr. Goodman."
+
+"Mr. Goodman is Mansell's friend."
+
+"I know it; but his short, decisive statements told upon the jury. Such
+a man as he made Mansell out to be is just the sort to create an
+impression on a body of men like them."
+
+"Orcutt understands a jury."
+
+"Orcutt understands his case. He knows he can make nothing by attempting
+to shake the evidence which has been presented by the prosecution; the
+facts are too clear, and the witnesses which have been called to testify
+are of too reliable a character. Whatever defence he contemplates, it
+will not rest upon a denial of any of the facts brought to light through
+our efforts, or the evidence of such persons as Messrs. Goodman and
+Harrison."
+
+"No."
+
+"The question is, then, in what will it lie? Some strong point, I
+warrant you, or he would not hold himself and his plans so completely in
+reserve. But what strong point? I acknowledge the uncertainty troubles
+me."
+
+"I don't wonder," rejoined Hickory. "So it does me."
+
+And a constraint again fell between them that lasted till Hickory put
+his pipe in his pocket and signified his intention of returning to his
+own apartments.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.
+
+THE CHIEF WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION.
+
+          Oh, while you live tell truth and shame the devil!
+                                             --HENRY IV.
+
+
+MR. BYRD'S countenance after the departure of his companion was any
+thing but cheerful. The fact is, he was secretly uneasy. He dreaded the
+morrow. He dreaded the testimony of Miss Dare. He had not yet escaped so
+fully from under the dominion of her fascinations as to regard with
+equanimity this unhappy woman forcing herself to give testimony
+compromising to the man she loved.
+
+Yet when the morrow came he was among the first to secure a seat in the
+court-room. Though the scene was likely to be harrowing to his feelings,
+he had no wish to lose it, and, indeed, chose such a position as would
+give him the best opportunity for observing the prisoner and surveying
+the witnesses.
+
+He was not the only one on the look-out for the testimony of Miss Dare.
+The increased number of the spectators and the general air of
+expectation visible in more than one of the chief actors in this
+terrible drama gave suspicious proof of the fact; even if the deadly
+pallor of the lady herself had not revealed her own feelings in regard
+to the subject.
+
+The entrance of the prisoner was more marked, too, than usual. His air
+and manner were emphasized, so to speak, and his face, when he turned it
+toward the jury, wore an iron look of resolution that would have made
+him conspicuous had he occupied a less prominent position than that of
+the dock.
+
+Miss Dare, who had flashed her eyes toward him at the moment of his
+first appearance, dropped them again, contrary to her usual custom. Was
+it because she knew the moment was at hand when their glances would be
+obliged to meet?
+
+Mr. Orcutt, whom no movement on the part of Miss Dare ever escaped,
+leaned over and spoke to the prisoner.
+
+"Mr. Mansell," said he, "are you prepared to submit with composure to
+the ordeal of confronting Miss Dare?"
+
+"Yes," was the stern reply.
+
+"I would then advise you to look at her now," proceeded his counsel.
+"She is not turned this way, and you can observe her without
+encountering her glance. A quick look at this moment may save you from
+betraying any undue emotion when you see her upon the stand."
+
+The accused smiled with a bitterness Mr. Orcutt thought perfectly
+natural, and slowly prepared to obey. As he raised his eyes and allowed
+them to traverse the room until they settled upon the countenance of the
+woman he loved, this other man who, out of a still more absorbing
+passion for Imogene, was at that very moment doing all that lay in his
+power for the saving of this his openly acknowledged rival, watched him
+with the closest and most breathless attention. It was another instance
+of that peculiar fascination which a successful rival has for an
+unsuccessful one. It was as if this great lawyer's thoughts reverted to
+his love, and he asked himself: "What is there in this Mansell that she
+should prefer him to me?"
+
+And Orcutt himself, though happily unaware of the fact, was at that same
+instant under a scrutiny as narrow as that he bestowed upon his client.
+Mr. Ferris, who knew his secret, felt a keen interest in watching how he
+would conduct himself at this juncture. Not an expression of the
+lawyer's keen and puzzling eye but was seen by the District Attorney and
+noted, even if it was not understood.
+
+Of the three, Mr. Ferris was the first to turn away, and his thoughts if
+they could have been put into words might have run something like this:
+"That man"--meaning Orcutt--"is doing the noblest work one human being
+can perform for another, and yet there is something in his face I do not
+comprehend. Can it be he hopes to win Miss Dare by his effort to save
+his rival?"
+
+As for the thoughts of the person thus unconsciously subjected to the
+criticism of his dearest friend, let our knowledge of the springs that
+govern his action serve to interpret both the depth and bitterness of
+his curiosity; while the sentiments of Mansell---- But who can read what
+lurks behind the iron of that sternly composed countenance? Not
+Imogene, not Orcutt, not Ferris. His secret, if he owns one, he keeps
+well, and his lids scarcely quiver as he drops them over the eyes that
+but a moment before reflected the grand beauty of the unfortunate woman
+for whom he so lately protested the most fervent love.
+
+The next moment the court was opened and Miss Dare's name was called by
+the District Attorney.
+
+With a last look at the unresponsive prisoner, Imogene rose, took her
+place on the witness stand and faced the jury.
+
+It was a memorable moment. If the curious and impressible crowd of
+spectators about her had been ignorant of her true relations to the
+accused, the deadly stillness and immobility of her bearing would have
+convinced them that emotion of the deepest nature lay behind the still,
+white mask she had thought fit to assume. That she was beautiful and
+confronted them from that common stand as from a throne, did not serve
+to lessen the impression she made.
+
+The officer held the Bible toward her. With a look that Mr. Byrd was
+fain to consider one of natural shrinking only, she laid her white hand
+upon it; but at the intimation from the officer, "The right hand, if you
+please, miss," she started and made the exchange he suggested, while at
+the same moment there rang upon her ear the voice of the clerk as he
+administered the awful adjuration that she should, as she believed and
+hoped in Eternal mercy, tell the truth as between this man and the law
+and keep not one tittle back. The book was then lifted to her lips by
+the officer, and withdrawn.
+
+"Take your seat, Miss Dare," said the District Attorney. And the
+examination began.
+
+"Your name, if you please?"
+
+"Imogene Dare."
+
+"Are you married or single?"
+
+"I am single."
+
+"Where were you born?"
+
+Now this was a painful question to one of her history. Indeed, she
+showed it to be so by the flush which rose to her cheek and by the
+decided trembling of her proud lip. But she did not seek to evade it.
+
+"Sir," she said, "I cannot answer you. I never heard any of the
+particulars of my birth. I was a foundling."
+
+The mingled gentleness and dignity with which she made this
+acknowledgment won for her the instantaneous sympathy of all present.
+Mr. Orcutt saw this, and the flash of indignation that had involuntarily
+passed between him and the prisoner subsided as quickly as it arose.
+
+Mr. Ferris went on.
+
+"Where do you live?"
+
+"In this town?"
+
+"With whom do you live?"
+
+"I am boarding at present with a woman of the name of Kennedy. I support
+myself by my needle," she hurriedly added, as though anxious to
+forestall his next question.
+
+Seeing the prisoner start at this, Imogene lifted her head still higher.
+Evidently this former lover of hers knew little of her movements since
+they parted so many weeks ago.
+
+"And how long is it since you supported yourself in this way?" asked the
+District Attorney.
+
+"For a few weeks only. Formerly," she said, making a slight inclination
+in the direction of the prisoner's counsel, "I lived in the household of
+Mr. Orcutt, where I occupied the position of assistant to the lady who
+looks after his domestic affairs." And her eye met the lawyer's with a
+look of pride that made him inwardly cringe, though not even the jealous
+glance of the prisoner could detect that an eyelash quivered or a
+flicker disturbed the studied serenity of his gaze.
+
+The District Attorney opened his lips as if to pursue this topic, but,
+meeting his opponent's eye, concluded to waive further preliminaries and
+proceed at once to the more serious part of the examination.
+
+"Miss Dare," said he, "will you look at the prisoner and tell us if you
+have any acquaintance with him?"
+
+Slowly she prepared to reply; slowly she turned her head and let her
+glance traverse that vast crowd till it settled upon her former lover.
+The look which passed like lightning across her face as she encountered
+his gaze fixed for the first time steadily upon her own, no one in that
+assemblage ever forgot.
+
+"Yes," she returned, quietly, but in a tone that made Mansell quiver and
+look away, despite his iron self-command; "I know him."
+
+"Will you be kind enough to say how long you have known him and where it
+was you first made his acquaintance?"
+
+"I met him first in Buffalo some four months since," was the steady
+reply. "He was calling at a friend's house where I was staying."
+
+"Did you at that time know of his relation to your townswoman, Mrs.
+Clemmens?"
+
+"No, sir. It was not till I had seen him several times that I learned he
+had any connections in Sibley."
+
+"Miss Dare, you will excuse me, but it is highly desirable for the court
+to know if the prisoner ever paid his addresses to you?"
+
+The deep, almost agonizing blush that colored her white cheek answered
+as truly as the slow "Yes," that struggled painfully to her lips.
+
+"And--excuse me again, Miss Dare--did he propose marriage to you?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"Did you accept him?"
+
+"I did not."
+
+"Did you refuse him?"
+
+"I refused to engage myself to him."
+
+"Miss Dare, will you tell us when you left Buffalo?"
+
+"On the nineteenth day of August last."
+
+"Did the prisoner accompany you?"
+
+"He did not."
+
+"Upon what sort of terms did you part?"
+
+"Good terms, sir."
+
+"Do you mean friendly terms, or such as are held by a man and a woman
+between whom an attachment exists which, under favorable circumstances,
+may culminate in marriage?"
+
+"The latter, sir, I think."
+
+"Did you receive any letters from the prisoner after your return to
+Sibley?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And did you answer them?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Miss Dare, may I now ask what reasons you gave the prisoner for
+declining his offer--that is, if my friend does not object to the
+question?" added the District Attorney, turning with courtesy toward Mr.
+Orcutt.
+
+The latter, who had started to his feet, bowed composedly and prepared
+to resume his seat.
+
+"I desire to put nothing in the way of your eliciting the whole truth
+concerning this matter," was his quiet, if somewhat constrained,
+response.
+
+Mr. Ferris at once turned back to Miss Dare.
+
+"You will, then, answer," he said.
+
+Imogene lifted her head and complied.
+
+"I told him," she declared, with thrilling distinctness, "that he was in
+no condition to marry. I am by nature an ambitious woman, and, not
+having suffered at that time, thought more of my position before the
+world than of what constitutes the worth and dignity of a man."
+
+No one who heard these words could doubt they were addressed to the
+prisoner. Haughtily as she held herself, there was a deprecatory
+humility in her tone that neither judge nor jury could have elicited
+from her. Naturally many eyes turned in the direction of the prisoner.
+They saw two white faces before them, that of the accused and that of
+his counsel, who sat near him. But the pallor of the one was of scorn,
+and that of the other---- Well, no one who knew the relations of Mr.
+Orcutt to the witness could wonder that the renowned lawyer shrank from
+hearing the woman he loved confess her partiality for another man.
+
+Mr. Ferris, who understood the situation as well as any one, but who had
+passed the point where sympathy could interfere with his action, showed
+a disposition to press his advantage.
+
+"Miss Dare," he inquired, "in declining the proposals of the prisoner,
+did you state to him in so many words these objections you have here
+mentioned?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"And what answer did he give you?"
+
+"He replied that he was also ambitious, and hoped and intended to make a
+success in life."
+
+"And did he tell you how he hoped and intended to make a success?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"Miss Dare, were these letters written by you?"
+
+She looked at the packet he held toward her, started as she saw the
+broad black ribbon that encircled it, and bowed her head.
+
+"I have no doubt these are my letters," she rejoined, a little
+tremulously for her. And unbinding the packet, she examined its
+contents. "Yes," she answered, "they are. These letters were all written
+by me."
+
+And she handed them back with such haste that the ribbon which bound
+them remained in her fingers, where consciously or unconsciously she
+held it clutched all through the remaining time of her examination.
+
+"Now," said the District Attorney, "I propose to read two of these
+letters. Does my friend wish to look at them before I offer them in
+evidence?" holding them out to Mr. Orcutt.
+
+Every eye in the court-room was fixed upon the latter's face, as the
+letters addressed to his rival by the woman he wished to make his wife,
+were tendered in this public manner to his inspection. Even the iron
+face of Mansell relaxed into an expression of commiseration as he turned
+and surveyed the man who, in despite of the anomalous position they held
+toward each other, was thus engaged in battling for his life before the
+eyes of the whole world. At that instant there was not a spectator who
+did not feel that Tremont Orcutt was the hero of the moment.
+
+He slowly turned to the prisoner:
+
+"Have you any objection to these letters being read?"
+
+"No," returned the other, in a low tone.
+
+Mr. Orcutt turned firmly to the District Attorney:
+
+"You may read them if you think proper," said he.
+
+Mr. Ferris bowed; the letters were marked as exhibits by the
+stenographic reporter who was taking the minutes of testimony, and
+handed back to Ferris, who proceeded to read the following in a clear
+voice to the jury:
+
+
+                          "SIBLEY, N. Y., September 7, 1882.
+
+          "DEAR FRIEND,--You show signs of impatience, and
+          ask for a word to help you through this period of
+          uncertainty and unrest. What can I say more than I
+          have said? That I believe in you and in your
+          invention, and proudly wait for the hour when you
+          will come to claim me with the fruit of your
+          labors in your hand. I am impatient myself, but I
+          have more trust than you. Some one will see the
+          value of your work before long, or else your aunt
+          will interest herself in your success, and lend
+          you that practical assistance which you need to
+          start you in the way of fortune and fame. I cannot
+          think you are going to fail. I will not allow
+          myself to look forward to any thing less than
+          success for you and happiness for myself. For the
+          one involves the other, as you must know by this
+          time, or else believe me to be the most heartless
+          of coquettes.
+
+          "Wishing to see you, but of the opinion that
+          further meetings between us would be unwise till
+          our future looks more settled, I remain, hopefully
+          yours,
+
+                                            "IMOGENE DARE."
+
+"The other letter I propose to read," continued Mr. Ferris, "is dated
+September 23d, three days before the widow's death.
+
+          "DEAR CRAIK,--Since you insist upon seeing me, and
+          say that you have reasons of your own for not
+          visiting me openly, I will consent to meet you at
+          the trysting spot you mention, though all such
+          underhand dealings are as foreign to my nature as
+          I believe them to be to yours.
+
+          "Trusting that fortune will so favor us as to make
+          it unnecessary for us to meet in this way more
+          than once, I wait in anxiety for your coming.
+
+                                             "IMOGENE DARE."
+
+These letters, unfolding relations that, up to this time, had been
+barely surmised by the persons congregated before her, created a great
+impression. To those especially who knew her and believed her to be
+engaged to Mr. Orcutt the surprise was wellnigh thrilling. The witness
+seemed to feel this, and bestowed a short, quick glance upon the lawyer,
+that may have partially recompensed him for the unpleasantness of the
+general curiosity.
+
+The Prosecuting Attorney went on without pause:
+
+"Miss Dare," said he, "did you meet the prisoner as you promised?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Will you tell me when and where?"
+
+"On the afternoon of Monday, September 27th, in the glade back of Mrs.
+Clemmens' house."
+
+"Miss Dare, we fully realize the pain it must cost you to refer to these
+matters, but I must request you to tell us what passed between you at
+this interview?"
+
+"If you will ask me questions, sir, I will answer them with the truth
+the subject demands."
+
+The sorrowful dignity with which this was said, called forth a bow from
+the Prosecuting Attorney.
+
+"Very well," he rejoined, "did the prisoner have any thing to say about
+his prospects?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"How did he speak of them?"
+
+"Despondingly."
+
+"And what reason did he give for this?"
+
+"He said he had failed to interest any capitalist in his invention."
+
+"Any other reason?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"That he had just come from his aunt whom he had tried to persuade to
+advance him a sum of money to carry out his wishes, but that she had
+refused."
+
+"He told you that?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Did he also tell you what path he had taken to his aunt's house?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Was there any thing said by him to show he did not take the secret path
+through the woods and across the bog to her back door?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Or that he did not return in the same way?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Miss Dare, did the prisoner express to you at this time irritation as
+well as regret at the result of his efforts to elicit money from his
+aunt?"
+
+"Yes," was the evidently forced reply.
+
+"Can you remember any words that he used which would tend to show the
+condition of his mind?"
+
+"I have no memory for words," she began, but flushed as she met the eye
+of the Judge, and perhaps remembered her oath. "I do recollect, however,
+one expression he used. He said: 'My life is worth nothing to me without
+success. If only to win you, I must put this matter through; and I will
+do it yet.'"
+
+She repeated this quietly, giving it no emphasis and scarcely any
+inflection, as if she hoped by her mechanical way of uttering it to rob
+it of any special meaning. But she did not succeed, as was shown by the
+compassionate tone in which Mr. Ferris next addressed her.
+
+"Miss Dare, did you express any anger yourself at the refusal of Mrs.
+Clemmens to assist the prisoner by lending him such moneys as he
+required?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I fear I did. It seemed unreasonable to me then, and I was
+very anxious he should have that opportunity to make fame and fortune
+which I thought his genius merited."
+
+"Miss Dare," inquired the District Attorney, calling to his aid such
+words as he had heard from old Sally in reference to this interview,
+"did you make use of any such expression as this: 'I wish I knew Mrs.
+Clemmens'?"
+
+"I believe I did."
+
+"And did this mean you had no acquaintance with the murdered woman at
+that time?" pursued Mr. Ferris, half-turning to the prisoner's counsel,
+as if he anticipated the objection which that gentleman might very
+properly make to a question concerning the intention of a witness.
+
+And Mr. Orcutt, yielding to professional instinct, did indeed make a
+slight movement as if to rise, but became instantly motionless. Nothing
+could be more painful to him than to wrangle before the crowded
+court-room over these dealings between the woman he loved and the man he
+was now defending.
+
+Mr. Ferris turned back to the witness and awaited her answer. It came
+without hesitation.
+
+"It meant that, sir."
+
+"And what did the prisoner say when you gave utterance to this wish?"
+
+"He asked me why I desired to know her."
+
+"And what did you reply?"
+
+"That if I knew her I might be able to persuade her to listen to his
+request."
+
+"And what answer had he for this?"
+
+"None but a quick shake of his head."
+
+"Miss Dare; up to the time of this interview had you ever received any
+gift from the prisoner--jewelry, for instance--say, a ring!"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Did he offer you such a gift then?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"What was it?"
+
+"A gold ring set with a diamond."
+
+"Did you receive it?"
+
+"No, sir. I felt that in taking a ring from him I would be giving an
+irrevocable promise, and I was not ready to do that."
+
+"Did you allow him to put it on your finger?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"And it remained there?" suggested Mr. Ferris, with a smile.
+
+"A minute, may be."
+
+"Which of you, then, took it off?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"And what did you say when you took it off?"
+
+"I do not remember my words."
+
+Again recalling old Sally's account of this interview, Mr. Ferris asked:
+
+"Were they these: 'I cannot. Wait till to-morrow'?"
+
+"Yes, I believe they were."
+
+"And when he inquired: 'Why to-morrow?' did you reply: 'A night has been
+known to change the whole current of one's affairs'?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"Miss Dare, what did you mean by those words?"
+
+"I object!" cried Mr. Orcutt, rising. Unseen by any save himself, the
+prisoner had made him an eloquent gesture, slight, but peremptory.
+
+"I think it is one I have a right to ask," urged the District Attorney.
+
+But Mr. Orcutt, who manifestly had the best of the argument, maintained
+his objection, and the Court instantly ruled in his favor.
+
+Mr. Ferris prepared to modify his question. But before he could speak
+the voice of Miss Dare was heard.
+
+"Gentlemen," said she, "there was no need of all this talk. I intended
+to seek an interview with Mrs. Clemmens and try what the effect would be
+of confiding to her my interest in her nephew."
+
+The dignified simplicity with which she spoke, and the air of quiet
+candor that for that one moment surrounded her, gave to this voluntary
+explanation an unexpected force that carried it quite home to the hearts
+of the jury. Even Mr. Orcutt could not preserve the frown with which he
+had confronted her at the first movement of her lips, but turned toward
+the prisoner with a look almost congratulatory in its character. But Mr.
+Byrd, who for reasons of his own kept his eyes upon that prisoner,
+observed that it met with no other return than that shadow of a bitter
+smile which now and then visited his otherwise unmoved countenance.
+
+Mr. Ferris, who, in his friendship for the witness, was secretly
+rejoiced in an explanation which separated her from the crime of her
+lover, bowed in acknowledgment of the answer she had been pleased to
+give him in face of the ruling of the Court, and calmly proceeded:
+
+"And what reply did the prisoner make you when you uttered this remark
+in reference to the change that a single day sometimes makes in one's
+affairs?"
+
+"Something in the way of assent."
+
+"Cannot you give us his words?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Well, then, can you tell us whether or not he looked thoughtful when
+you said this?"
+
+"He may have done so, sir."
+
+"Did it strike you at the time that he reflected on what you said?"
+
+"I cannot say how it struck me at the time."
+
+"Did he look at you a few minutes before speaking, or in any way conduct
+himself as if he had been set thinking?"
+
+"He did not speak for a few minutes."
+
+"And looked at you?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+The District Attorney paused a moment as if to let the results of his
+examination sink into the minds of the jury; then he went on:
+
+"Miss Dare, you say you returned the ring to the prisoner?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You say positively the ring passed from you to him; that you saw it in
+his hand after it had left yours?"
+
+"No, sir. The ring passed from me to him, but I did not see it in his
+hand, because I did not return it to him that way. I dropped it into his
+pocket."
+
+At this acknowledgment, which made both the prisoner and his counsel
+look up, Mr. Byrd felt himself nudged by Hickory.
+
+"Did you hear that?" he whispered.
+
+"Yes," returned the other.
+
+"And do you believe it?"
+
+"Miss Dare is on oath," was the reply.
+
+"Pooh!" was Hickory's whispered exclamation.
+
+The District Attorney alone showed no surprise.
+
+"You dropped it into his pocket?" he resumed. "How came you to do that?"
+
+"I was weary of the strife which had followed my refusal to accept this
+token. He would not take it from me himself, so I restored it to him in
+the way I have said."
+
+"Miss Dare, will you tell us what pocket this was?"
+
+"The outside pocket on the left side of his coat," she returned, with a
+cold and careful exactness that caused the prisoner to drop his eyes
+from her face, with that faint but scornful twitch of the muscles about
+his mouth, which gave to his countenance now and then the proud look of
+disdain which both the detectives had noted.
+
+"Miss Dare," continued the Prosecuting Attorney, "did you see this ring
+again during the interview?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Did you detect the prisoner making any move to take it out of his
+pocket, or have you any reason to believe that it was taken out of the
+pocket on the left-hand side of his coat while you were with him?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"So that, as far as you know, it was still in his pocket when you
+parted?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Miss Dare, have you ever seen that ring since?"
+
+"I have."
+
+"When and where?"
+
+"I saw it on the morning of the murder. It was lying on the floor of
+Mrs. Clemmens' dining-room. I had gone to the house, in my surprise at
+hearing of the murderous assault which had been made upon her, and,
+while surveying the spot where she was struck, perceived this ring lying
+on the floor before me."
+
+"What made you think it was this ring which you had returned to the
+prisoner the day before?"
+
+"Because of its setting, and the character of the gem, I suppose."
+
+"Could you see all this where it was lying on the floor?"
+
+"It was brought nearer to my eyes, sir. A gentleman who was standing
+near, picked it up and offered it to me, supposing it was mine. As he
+held it out in his open palm I saw it plainly."
+
+"Miss Dare, will you tell us what you did when you first saw this ring
+lying on the floor?"
+
+"I covered it with my foot."
+
+"Was that before you recognized it?"
+
+"I cannot say. I placed my foot upon it instinctively."
+
+"How long did you keep it there?"
+
+"Some few minutes."
+
+"What caused you to move at last?"
+
+"I was surprised."
+
+"What surprised you?"
+
+"A man came to the door."
+
+"What man."
+
+"I don't know. A stranger to me. Some one who had been sent on an errand
+connected with this affair."
+
+"What did he say or do to surprise you?"
+
+"Nothing. It was what you said yourself after the man had gone."
+
+"And what did I say, Miss Dare?"
+
+She cast him a look of the faintest appeal, but answered quietly:
+
+"Something about its not being the tramp who had committed this crime."
+
+"That surprised you?"
+
+"That made me start."
+
+"Miss Dare, were you present in the house when the dying woman spoke the
+one or two exclamations which have been testified to in this trial?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What was the burden of the first speech you heard?"
+
+"The words _Hand_, sir, and _Ring_. She repeated the two half a dozen
+times."
+
+"Miss Dare, what did you say to the gentleman who showed you the ring
+and asked if it were yours?"
+
+"I told him it was mine, and took it and placed it on my finger."
+
+"But the ring was not yours?"
+
+"My acceptance of it made it mine. In all but that regard it had been
+mine ever since Mr. Mansell offered it to me the day before."
+
+Mr. Ferris surveyed the witness for a moment before saying:
+
+"Then you considered it damaging to your lover to have this ring found
+in that apartment?"
+
+Mr. Orcutt instantly rose to object.
+
+"I won't press the question," said the District Attorney, with a wave of
+his hand and a slight look at the jury.
+
+"You ought never to have asked it?" exclaimed Mr. Orcutt, with the first
+appearance of heat he had shown.
+
+"You are right," Mr. Ferris coolly responded. "The jury could see the
+point without any assistance from you or me."
+
+"And the jury," returned Mr. Orcutt, with equal coolness, "is scarcely
+obliged to you for the suggestion."
+
+"Well, we won't quarrel about it," declared Mr. Ferris.
+
+"We won't quarrel about any thing," retorted Mr. Orcutt. "We will try
+the case in a legal manner."
+
+"Have you got through?" inquired Mr. Ferris, nettled.
+
+Mr. Orcutt took his seat with the simple reply:
+
+"Go on with the case."
+
+The District Attorney, after a momentary pause to regain the thread of
+his examination and recover his equanimity, turned to the witness.
+
+"Miss Dare," he asked, "how long did you keep that ring on your finger
+after you left the house?"
+
+"A little while--five or ten minutes, perhaps."
+
+"Where were you when you took it off?"
+
+Her voice sank just a trifle:
+
+"On the bridge at Warren Street."
+
+"What did you do with it then?"
+
+Her eyes which had been upon the Attorney's face, fell slowly.
+
+"I dropped it into the water," she said.
+
+And the character of her thoughts and suspicions at that time stood
+revealed.
+
+The Prosecuting Attorney allowed himself a few more questions.
+
+"When you parted with the prisoner in the woods, was it with any
+arrangement for meeting again before he returned to Buffalo?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Give us the final words of your conversation, if you please."
+
+"We were just parting, and I had turned to go, when he said: 'Is it
+good-by, then, Imogene?' and I answered, 'That to-morrow must decide.'
+'Shall I stay, then?' he inquired; to which I replied, 'Yes.'"
+
+'Twas a short, seemingly literal, repetition of possibly innocent words,
+but the whisper into which her voice sank at the final "Yes" endowed it
+with a thrilling effect for which even she was not prepared. For she
+shuddered as she realized the deathly quiet that followed its utterance,
+and cast a quick look at Mr. Orcutt that was full of question, if not
+doubt.
+
+"I was calculating upon the interview I intended to have with Mrs.
+Clemmens," she explained, turning toward the Judge with indescribable
+dignity.
+
+"We understand that," remarked the Prosecuting Attorney, kindly, and
+then inquired:
+
+"Was this the last you saw of the prisoner until to-day?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"When did you see him again?"
+
+"On the following Wednesday."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In the depot at Syracuse."
+
+"How came you to be in Syracuse the day after the murder?"
+
+"I had started to go to Buffalo."
+
+"What purpose had you in going to Buffalo?"
+
+"I wished to see Mr. Mansell."
+
+"Did he know you were coming?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Had no communication passed between you from the time you parted in the
+woods till you came upon each other in the depot you have just
+mentioned?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Had he no reason to expect to meet you there?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"With what words did you accost each other?"
+
+"I don't know. I have no remembrance of saying any thing. I was utterly
+dumbfounded at seeing him in this place, and cannot say into what
+exclamation I may have been betrayed."
+
+"And he? Don't you remember what he said?"
+
+"No, sir. I only know he started back with a look of great surprise.
+Afterward he asked if I were on my way to see him."
+
+"And what did you answer?"
+
+"I don't think I made any answer. I was wondering if he was on his way
+to see me."
+
+"Did you put the question to him?"
+
+"Perhaps. I cannot tell. It is all like a dream to me."
+
+If she had said horrible dream, every one there would have believed her.
+
+"You can tell us, however, if you held any conversation?"
+
+"We did not."
+
+"And you can tell us how the interview terminated?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I turned away and took the train back home, which I saw
+standing on the track without."
+
+"And he?"
+
+"Turned away also. Where he went I cannot say."
+
+"Miss Dare"--the District Attorney's voice was very earnest--"can you
+tell us which of you made the first movement to go?"
+
+"What does he mean by that?" whispered Hickory to Byrd.
+
+"I think----" she commenced and paused. Her eyes in wandering over the
+throng of spectators before her, had settled on these two detectives,
+and noting the breathless way in which they looked at her, she seemed to
+realize that more might lie in this question than at first appeared.
+
+"I do not know," she answered at last. "It was a simultaneous movement,
+I think."
+
+"Are you sure?" persisted Mr. Ferris. "You are on oath, Miss Dare? Is
+there no way in which you can make certain whether he or you took the
+initiatory step in this sudden parting after an event that so materially
+changed your mutual prospects?"
+
+"No, sir. I can only say that in recalling the sensations of that hour,
+I am certain my own movement was not the result of any I saw him take.
+The instinct to leave the place had its birth in my own breast."
+
+"I told you so," commented Hickory, in the ear of Byrd. "She is not
+going to give herself away, whatever happens."
+
+"But can you positively say he did not make the first motion to leave?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+Mr. Ferris bowed, turned toward the opposing counsel and said:
+
+"The witness is yours."
+
+Mr. Ferris sat down perfectly satisfied. He had dexterously brought out
+Imogene's suspicions of the prisoner's guilt, and knew that the jury
+must be influenced in their convictions by those of the woman who, of
+all the world, ought to have believed, if she could, in the innocence of
+her lover. He did not even fear the cross-examination which he expected
+to follow. No amount of skill on the part of Orcutt could extract other
+than the truth, and the truth was that Imogene believed the prisoner to
+be the murderer of his aunt. He, therefore, surveyed the court-room with
+a smile, and awaited the somewhat slow proceedings of his opponent with
+equanimity.
+
+But, to the surprise of every one, Mr. Orcutt, after a short
+consultation with the prisoner, rose and said he had no questions to put
+to the witness.
+
+And Miss Dare was allowed to withdraw from the stand, to the great
+satisfaction of Mr. Ferris, who found himself by this move in a still
+better position than he had anticipated.
+
+"Byrd," whispered Hickory, as Miss Dare returned somewhat tremulously to
+her former seat among the witnesses--"Byrd, you could knock me over with
+a feather. I thought the defence would have no difficulty in riddling
+this woman's testimony, and they have not even made the effort. Can it
+be that Orcutt has such an attachment for her that he is going to let
+his rival hang?"
+
+"No. Orcutt isn't the man to deliberately lose a case for any woman. He
+looks at Miss Dare's testimony from a different standpoint than you do.
+He believes what she says to be true, and you do not."
+
+"Then, all I've got to say, 'So much the worse for Mansell!'" was the
+whispered response. "He was a fool to trust his case to that man."
+
+The judge, the jury, and all the by-standers in court, it must be
+confessed, shared the opinion of Hickory--Mr. Orcutt was standing on
+slippery ground.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.
+
+THE OPENING OF THE DEFENCE.
+
+          Excellent! I smell a device.--TWELFTH NIGHT.
+
+
+LATE that afternoon the prosecution rested. It had made out a case of
+great strength and seeming impregnability. Favorably as every one was
+disposed to regard the prisoner, the evidence against him was such that,
+to quote a man who was pretty free with his opinions in the lobby of the
+court-room: "Orcutt will have to wake up if he is going to clear his man
+in face of facts like these."
+
+The moment, therefore, when this famous lawyer and distinguished
+advocate rose to open the defence, was one of great interest to more
+than the immediate actors in the scene. It was felt that hitherto he had
+rather idled with his case, and curiosity was awake to his future
+course. Indeed, in the minds of many the counsel for the prisoner was on
+trial as well as his client.
+
+He rose with more of self-possession, quiet and reserved strength, than
+could be hoped for, and his look toward the Court and then to the jury
+tended to gain for him the confidence which up to this moment he seemed
+to be losing. Never a handsome man or even an imposing one, he had the
+advantage of always rising to the occasion, and whether pleading with a
+jury or arguing with opposing counsel, flashed with that unmistakable
+glitter of keen and ready intellect which, once observed in a man, marks
+him off from his less gifted fellows and makes him the cynosure of all
+eyes, however insignificant his height, features, or ordinary
+expression.
+
+To-day he was even cooler, more brilliant, and more confident in his
+bearing than usual. Feelings, if feelings he possessed--and we who have
+seen him at his hearth can have no doubt on this subject,--had been set
+aside when he rose to his feet and turned his face upon the expectant
+crowd before him. To save his client seemed the one predominating
+impulse of his soul, and, as he drew himself up to speak, Mr. Byrd, who
+was watching him with the utmost eagerness and anticipation, felt that,
+despite appearances, despite evidence, despite probability itself, this
+man was going to win his case.
+
+"May it please your Honor and Gentlemen of the Jury," he began, and
+those who looked at him could not but notice how the prisoner at his
+side lifted his head at this address, till it seemed as if the words
+issued from his lips instead of from those of his counsel, "I stand
+before you to-day not to argue with my learned opponent in reference to
+the evidence which he has brought out with so much ingenuity. I have a
+simpler duty than that to perform. I have to show you how, in spite of
+this evidence, in face of all this accumulated testimony showing the
+prisoner to have been in possession of both motive and opportunities
+for committing this crime, he is guiltless of it; that a physical
+impossibility stands in the way of his being the assailant of the Widow
+Clemmens, and that to whomever or whatsoever her death may be due, it
+neither was nor could have been the result of any blow struck by the
+prisoner's hand. In other words, we dispute, not the facts which have
+led the Prosecuting Attorney of this district, and perhaps others also,
+to infer guilt on the part of the prisoner,"--here Mr. Orcutt cast a
+significant glance at the bench where the witnesses sat,--"but the
+inference itself. Something besides proof of motive and opportunity must
+be urged against _this_ man in order to convict him of guilt. Nor is it
+sufficient to show he was on the scene of murder some time during the
+fatal morning when Mrs. Clemmens was attacked; you must prove he was
+there at the time the deadly blow was struck; for it is not with him as
+with so many against whom circumstantial evidence of guilt is brought.
+_This_ man, gentlemen, has an answer for those who accuse him of
+crime--an answer, too, before which all the circumstantial evidence in
+the world cannot stand. Do you want to know what it is? Give me but a
+moment's attention and you shall hear."
+
+Expectation, which had been rising through this exordium, now stood at
+fever-point. Byrd and Hickory held their breaths, and even Miss Dare
+showed feeling through the icy restraint which had hitherto governed her
+secret anguish and suspense. Mr. Orcutt went on:
+
+"First, however, as I have already said, the prisoner desires it to be
+understood that he has no intention of disputing the various facts which
+have been presented before you at this trial. He does not deny that he
+was in great need of money at the time of his aunt's death; that he came
+to Sibley to entreat her to advance to him certain sums he deemed
+necessary to the furtherance of his plans; that he came secretly and in
+the roundabout way you describe. Neither does he refuse to allow that
+his errand was also one of love, that he sought and obtained a private
+interview with the woman he wished to make his wife, in the place and at
+the time testified to; that the scraps of conversation which have been
+sworn to as having passed between them at this interview are true in as
+far as they go, and that he did place upon the finger of Miss Dare a
+diamond ring. Also, he admits that she took this ring off immediately
+upon receiving it, saying she could not accept it, at least not then,
+and that she entreated him to take it back, which he declined to do,
+though he cannot say she did not restore it in the manner she declares,
+for he remembers nothing of the ring after the moment he put her hand
+aside as she was offering it back to him. The prisoner also allows that
+he slept in the hut and remained in that especial region of the woods
+until near noon the next day; but, your Honor and Gentlemen of the Jury,
+what the prisoner does not allow and will not admit is that he struck
+the blow which eventually robbed Mrs. Clemmens of her life, and the
+proof which I propose to bring forward in support of this assertion is
+this:
+
+"Mrs. Clemmens received the blow which led to her death at some time
+previously to three minutes past twelve o'clock on Tuesday, September
+26th. This the prosecution has already proved. Now, what I propose to
+show is, that Mrs. Clemmens, however or whenever assailed, was still
+living and unhurt up to ten minutes before twelve on that same day. A
+witness, whom you must believe, saw her at that time and conversed with
+her, proving that the blow by which she came to her death must have
+occurred after that hour, that is, after ten minutes before noon. But,
+your Honor and Gentlemen of the Jury, the prosecution has already shown
+that the prisoner stepped on to the train at Monteith Quarry Station at
+twenty minutes past one of that same day, and has produced witnesses
+whose testimony positively proves that the road he took there from Mrs.
+Clemmens' house was the same he had traversed in his secret approach to
+it the day before--viz., the path through the woods; the only path, I
+may here state, that connects those two points with any thing like
+directness.
+
+"But, Sirs, what the prosecution has not shown you, and what it now
+devolves upon me to show, is that this path which the prisoner is
+allowed to have taken is one which no man could traverse without
+encountering great difficulties and many hindrances to speed. It is not
+only a narrow path filled with various encumbrances in the way of
+brambles and rolling stones, but it is so flanked by an impenetrable
+undergrowth in some places, and by low, swampy ground in others, that no
+deviation from its course is possible, while to keep within it and
+follow its many turns and windings till it finally emerges upon the
+highway that leads to the Quarry Station would require many more minutes
+than those which elapsed between the time of the murder and the hour the
+prisoner made his appearance at the Quarry Station. In other words, I
+propose to introduce before you as witnesses two gentlemen from New
+York, both of whom are experts in all feats of pedestrianism, and who,
+having been over the road themselves, are in position to testify that
+the time necessary for a man to pass by means of this path from Mrs.
+Clemmens' house to the Quarry Station is, by a definite number of
+minutes, greater than that allowed to the prisoner by the evidence laid
+before you. If, therefore, you accept the testimony of the prosecution
+as true, and believe that the prisoner took the train for Buffalo, which
+he has been said to do, it follows, as a physical impossibility, for him
+to have been at Mrs. Clemmens' cottage, or anywhere else except on the
+road to the station, at the moment when the fatal blow was dealt.
+
+"Your Honor, this is our answer to the terrible charge which has been
+made against the prisoner; it is simple, but it is effective, and upon
+it, as upon a rock, we found our defence."
+
+And with a bow, Mr. Orcutt sat down, and, it being late in the day, the
+court adjourned.
+
+
+
+
+XXX.
+
+BYRD USES HIS PENCIL AGAIN.
+
+          Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be
+          so, I shall do that that is reason.--MERRY WIVES
+          OF WINDSOR.
+
+
+"BYRD, you look dazed."
+
+"I am."
+
+Hickory paused till they were well clear of the crowd that was pouring
+from the court-room; then he said:
+
+"Well, what do you think of this as a defence?"
+
+"I am beginning to think it is good," was the slow, almost hesitating,
+reply.
+
+"Beginning to think?"
+
+"Yes. At first it seemed puerile. I had such a steadfast belief in
+Mansell's guilt, I could not give much credit to any argument tending to
+shake me loose from my convictions. But the longer I think of it the
+more vividly I remember the difficulties of the road he had to take in
+his flight. I have travelled it myself, you remember, and I don't see
+how he could have got over the ground in ninety minutes."
+
+Hickory's face assumed a somewhat quizzical expression.
+
+"Byrd," said he, "whom were you looking at during the time Mr. Orcutt
+was making his speech?"
+
+"At the speaker, of course."
+
+"Bah!"
+
+"Whom were _you_ looking at?"
+
+"At the person who would be likely to give me some return for my pains."
+
+"The prisoner?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Whom, then?"
+
+"Miss Dare."
+
+Byrd shifted uneasily to the other side of his companion.
+
+"And what did you discover from her, Hickory?" he asked.
+
+"Two things. First, that she knew no more than the rest of us what the
+defence was going to be. Secondly, that she regarded it as a piece of
+great cleverness on the part of Orcutt, but that she didn't believe in
+it anymore--well, any more than I do."
+
+"Hickory!"
+
+"Yes, _sir_! Miss Dare is a smart woman, and a resolute one, and could
+have baffled the penetration of all concerned if she had only remembered
+to try. But she forgot that others might be more interested in making
+out what was going on in her mind at this critical moment than in
+watching the speaker or noting the effect of his words upon the court.
+In fact, she was too eager herself to hear what he had to say to
+remember her _role_, I fancy."
+
+"But, I don't see----" began Byrd.
+
+"Wait," interrupted the other. "You believe Miss Dare loves Craik
+Mansell?"
+
+"Most certainly," was the gloomy response.
+
+"Very well, then. If she had known what the defence was going to be she
+would have been acutely alive to the effect it was going to have upon
+the jury. That would have been her first thought and her only thought
+all the time Mr. Orcutt was speaking, and she would have sat with her
+eyes fixed upon the men upon whose acceptance or non-acceptance of the
+truth of this argument her lover's life ultimately depended. But no; her
+gaze, like yours, remained fixed upon Mr. Orcutt, and she scarcely
+breathed or stirred till he had fully revealed what his argument was
+going to be. Then----"
+
+"Well, then?"
+
+"Instead of flashing with the joy of relief which any devoted woman
+would experience who sees in this argument a proof of her lover's
+innocence, she merely dropped her eyes and resumed her old mask of
+impassiveness."
+
+"From all of which you gather----"
+
+"That her feelings were not those of relief, but doubt. In other words,
+that the knowledge she possesses is of a character which laughs to scorn
+any such subterfuge of defence as Orcutt advances."
+
+"Hickory," ventured Byrd, after a long silence, "it is time we
+understood each other. What is your secret thought in relation to Miss
+Dare?"
+
+"My secret thought? Well," drawled the other, looking away, "I think
+she knows more about this crime than she has yet chosen to reveal."
+
+"More than she evinced to-day in her testimony?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I should like to know why you think so. What special reasons have you
+for drawing any such conclusions?"
+
+"Well, one reason is, that she was no more shaken by the plausible
+argument advanced by Mr. Orcutt. If her knowledge of the crime was
+limited to what she acknowledged in her testimony, and her conclusions
+as to Mansell's guilt were really founded upon such facts as she gave us
+in court to-day, why didn't she grasp at the possibility of her lover's
+innocence which was held out to her by his counsel? No facts that she
+had testified to, not even the fact of his ring having been found on the
+scene of murder, could stand before the proof that he left the region of
+Mrs. Clemmens' house before the moment of assault; yet, while evincing
+interest in the argument, and some confidence in it, too, as one that
+would be likely to satisfy the jury, she gave no tokens of being
+surprised by it into a reconsideration of her own conclusions, as must
+have happened if she told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
+the truth, when she was on the stand to-day."
+
+"I see," remarked Byrd, "that you are presuming to understand Miss Dare
+after all."
+
+Hickory smiled.
+
+"You call this woman a mystery," proceeded Byrd; "hint at great
+possibilities of acting on her part, and yet in a moment, as it were,
+profess yourself the reader of her inmost thoughts, and the interpreter
+of looks and expressions she has manifestly assumed to hide those
+thoughts."
+
+Hickory's smile broadened into a laugh.
+
+"Just so," he cried. "One's imbecility has to stop somewhere." Then, as
+he saw Byrd look grave, added: "I haven't a single fact at my command
+that isn't shared by you. My conclusions are different, that is all."
+
+Horace Byrd did not answer. Perhaps if Hickory could have sounded his
+thoughts he would have discovered that their conclusions were not so far
+apart as he imagined.
+
+"Hickory," Byrd at last demanded, "what do you propose to do with your
+conclusions?"
+
+"I propose to wait and see if Mr. Orcutt proves his case. If he don't, I
+have nothing more to say; but if he does, I think I shall call the
+attention of Mr. Ferris to one question he has omitted to ask Miss
+Dare."
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+"Where she was on the morning of Mrs. Clemmens' murder. You remember you
+took some interest in that question yourself a while ago."
+
+"But----"
+
+"Not that I think any thing will come of it, only my conscience will be
+set at rest."
+
+"Hickory,"--Byrd's face had quite altered now--"where do you think Miss
+Dare was at that time?"
+
+"Where do I think she was?" repeated Hickory.
+
+"Well, I will tell you. I think she was _not_ in Professor Darling's
+observatory."
+
+"Do you think she was in the glade back of Widow Clemmens' house?"
+
+"Now you ask me conundrums."
+
+"Hickory!" Byrd spoke almost violently, "Mr. Orcutt shall not prove his
+case."
+
+"No?"
+
+"I will make the run over the ground supposed to have been taken by
+Mansell in his flight, and show in my own proper person that it can be
+done in the time specified."
+
+Hickory's eye, which had taken a rapid survey of his companion's form
+during the utterance of the above, darkened, then he slowly shook his
+head.
+
+"You couldn't," he rejoined laconically. "Too little staying power;
+you'd give out before you got clear of the woods. Better delegate the
+job to me."
+
+"To you?"
+
+"Yes. I'm of the make to stand long runs; besides I am no novice at
+athletic sports of any kind. More than one race has owed its interest to
+the efforts of your humble servant. 'Tis my pet amusement, you see, as
+off-hand drawing is yours, and is likely to be of as much use to me,
+eh?"
+
+"Hickory, you are chaffing me."
+
+"Think so? Do you see that five-barred gate over there? Well, now keep
+your eye on the top rail and see if I clear it without a graze or not."
+
+"Stop!" exclaimed Mr. Byrd, "don't make a fool of yourself in the public
+street. I'll believe you if you say you understand such things."
+
+"Well, I do, and what is more, I'm an adept at them. If I can't make
+that run in the time requisite to show that Mansell could have committed
+the murder, and yet arrive at the station the moment he did, I don't
+know of a chap who can."
+
+"Hickory, do you mean to say you _will_ make this run?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"With a conscientious effort to prove that Orcutt's scheme of defence is
+false?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"When?"
+
+"To-morrow."
+
+"While we are in court?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Byrd turned square around, gave Hickory a look and offered his hand.
+
+"You are a good fellow," he declared, "May luck go with you."
+
+Hickory suddenly became unusually thoughtful.
+
+"A little while ago," he reflected, "this fellow's sympathies were all
+with Mansell; now he would risk my limbs and neck to have the man proved
+guilty. He does not wish Miss Dare to be questioned again, I see."
+
+"Hickory," resumed Byrd, a few minutes later, "Orcutt has not rested the
+defence upon this one point without being very sure of its being
+unassailable."
+
+"I know that."
+
+"He has had more than one expert make that run during the weeks that
+have elapsed since the murder. It has been tested to the uttermost."
+
+"I know _that_."
+
+"If you succeed then in doing what none of these others have, it must be
+by dint of a better understanding of the route you have to take and the
+difficulties you will have to overcome. Now, do you understand the
+route?"
+
+"I think so."
+
+"You will have to start from the widow's door, you know?"
+
+"Certain."
+
+"Cross the bog, enter the woods, skirt the hut--but I won't go into
+details. The best way to prove you know exactly what you have to do is
+to see if you can describe the route yourself. Come into my room, old
+fellow, and let us see if you can give me a sufficiently exact account
+of the ground you will have to pass over, for me to draw up a chart by
+it. An hour spent with paper and pencil to-night may save you from an
+uncertainty to-morrow that would lose you a good ten minutes."
+
+"Good! that's an idea; let's try it," rejoined Hickory.
+
+And being by this time at the hotel, they went in. In another moment
+they were shut up in Mr. Byrd's room, with a large sheet of foolscap
+before them.
+
+"Now," cried Horace, taking up a pencil, "begin with your description,
+and I will follow with my drawing."
+
+"Very well," replied Hickory, setting himself forward in a way to watch
+his colleague's pencil. "I leave the widow's house by the dining-room
+door--a square for the house, Byrd, well down in the left-hand corner of
+the paper, and a dotted line for the path I take,--run down the yard to
+the fence, leap it, cross the bog, and make straight for the woods."
+
+"Very good," commented Byrd, sketching rapidly as the other spoke.
+
+"Having taken care to enter where the trees are thinnest, I find a path
+along which I rush in a bee-line till I come to the glade--an ellipse
+for the glade, Byrd, with a dot in it for the hut. Merely stopping to
+dash into the hut and out again----"
+
+"Wait!" put in Byrd, pausing with his pencil in mid-air; "what did you
+want to go into the hut for?"
+
+"To get the bag which I propose to leave there to-night."
+
+"Bag?"
+
+[Illustration: (Page 364)]
+
+"Yes; Mansell carried a bag, didn't he? Don't you remember what the
+station-master said about the curious portmanteau the fellow had in
+his hand when he came to the station?"
+
+"Yes, but----"
+
+"Byrd, if I run that fellow to his death it must be fairly. A man with
+an awkward bag in his hand cannot run like a man without one. So I
+handicap myself in the same way he did, do you see?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Very well, then; I rush into the hut, pick up the bag, carry it out,
+and dash immediately into the woods at the opening behind the hut.--What
+are you doing?"
+
+"Just putting in a few landmarks," explained Byrd, who had run his
+pencil off in an opposite direction. "See, that is the path to West Side
+which I followed in my first expedition through the woods--the path,
+too, which Miss Dare took when she came to the hut at the time of the
+fearful thunderstorm. And wait, let me put in Professor Darling's house,
+too, and the ridge from which you can see Mrs. Clemmens' cottage. It
+will help us to understand----"
+
+"What?" cried Hickory, with quick suspiciousness, as the other paused.
+
+But Byrd, impatiently shaking his head, answered:
+
+"The whole situation, of course." Then, pointing hastily back to the
+hut, exclaimed: "So you have entered the woods again at this place? Very
+well; what then?"
+
+"Well, then," resumed Hickory, "I make my way along the path I find
+there--run it at right angles to the one leading up to the glade--till
+I come to a stony ledge covered with blackberry bushes. (A very cleverly
+drawn blackberry patch that, Byrd.) Here I fear I shall have to pause."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, deuce take me if I can remember where the path runs after
+that."
+
+"But I can. A big hemlock-tree stands just at the point where the woods
+open again. Make for that and you will be all right."
+
+"Good enough; but it's mighty rough travelling over that ledge, and I
+shall have to go at a foot's pace. The stones are slippery as glass, and
+a fall would scarcely be conducive to the final success of my scheme."
+
+"I will make the path serpentine."
+
+"That will be highly expressive."
+
+"And now, what next?"
+
+"The Foresters' Road, Byrd, upon which I ought to come about this time.
+Run it due east and west--not that I have surveyed the ground, but it
+looks more natural so--and let the dotted line traverse it toward the
+right, for that is the direction in which I shall go."
+
+"It's done," said Byrd.
+
+"Well, description fails me now. All I know is, I come out on a hillside
+running straight down to the river-bank and that the highway is visible
+beyond, leading directly to the station; but the way to get to it----"
+
+"I will show you," interposed Byrd, mapping out the station and the
+intervening river with a few quick strokes of his dexterous pencil. "You
+see this point where you issue from the woods? Very good; it is, as you
+say, on a hillside overlooking the river. Well, it seems unfortunate,
+but there is no way of crossing that river at this point. The falls
+above and below make it no place for boats, and you will have to go back
+along its banks for some little distance before you come to a bridge.
+But there is no use in hesitating or looking about for a shorter path.
+The woods just here are encumbered with a mass of tangled undergrowth
+which make them simply impassable except as you keep in the road, while
+the river curves so frequently and with so much abruptness--see, I will
+endeavor to give you some notion of it here--that you would only waste
+time in attempting to make any short cuts. But, once over the
+bridge----"
+
+"I have only to foot it," burst in Hickory, taking up the sketch which
+the other had now completed, and glancing at it with a dubious eye. "Do
+you know, Byrd," he remarked in another moment, "that it strikes me
+Mansell did not take this roundabout road to the station?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it _is_ so roundabout, and he is such a clearheaded fellow.
+Couldn't he have got there by some shorter cut?"
+
+"No. Don't you remember how Orcutt cross-examined the station-master
+about the appearance which Mansell presented when he came upon the
+platform, and how that person was forced to acknowledge that, although
+the prisoner looked heated and exhausted, his clothes were neither
+muddied nor torn? Now, I did not think of it at the time, but this was
+done by Orcutt to prove that Mansell did take the road I have jotted
+down here, since any other would have carried him through swamps
+knee-deep with mud, or amongst stones and briers which would have put
+him in a state of disorder totally unfitting him for travel."
+
+"That is so," acquiesced Hickory, after a moment's thought. "Mansell
+must be kept in the path. Well, well, we will see to-morrow if wit and a
+swift foot can make any thing out of this problem."
+
+"Wit? Hickory, it _will_ be wit and not a swift foot. Or luck, maybe I
+should call it, or rather providence. If a wagon should be going along
+the highway, now----"
+
+"Let me alone for availing myself of it," laughed Hickory. "Wagon! I
+would jump on the back of a mule sooner than lose the chance of gaining
+a minute on these experts whose testimony we are to hear to-morrow.
+Don't lose confidence in old Hickory yet. He's the boy for this job if
+he isn't for any other."
+
+And so the matter was settled.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI.
+
+THE CHIEF WITNESS FOR THE DEFENCE.
+
+  Your _If_ is the only peace-maker; much virtue in _If_.--AS YOU
+         LIKE IT.
+
+
+THE crowd that congregated at the court-house the next morning was even
+greater than at any previous time. The opening speech of Mr. Orcutt had
+been telegraphed all over the country, and many who had not been
+specially interested in the case before felt an anxiety to hear how he
+would substantiate the defence he had so boldly and confidently put
+forth.
+
+To the general eye, however, the appearance of the court-room was much
+the same as on the previous day. Only to the close observer was it
+evident that the countenances of the several actors in this exciting
+drama wore a different expression. Mr. Byrd, who by dint of the most
+energetic effort had succeeded in procuring his old seat, was one of
+these, and as he noted the significant change, wished that Hickory had
+been at his side to note it with him.
+
+The first person he observed was, naturally, the Judge.
+
+Judge Evans, who has been but barely introduced to the reader, was a man
+of great moral force and discretion. He had occupied his present
+position for many years, and possessed not only the confidence but the
+affections of those who came within the sphere of his jurisdiction. The
+reason for this undoubtedly lay in his sympathetic nature. While never
+accused of weakness, he so unmistakably retained the feeling heart under
+the official ermine that it was by no means an uncommon thing for him to
+show more emotion in uttering a sentence than the man he condemned did
+in listening to it.
+
+His expression, then, upon this momentous morning was of great
+significance to Mr. Byrd. In its hopefulness and cheer was written the
+extent of the effect made upon the unprejudiced mind by the promised
+defence.
+
+As for Mr. Orcutt himself, no advocate could display a more confident
+air or prepare to introduce his witnesses with more dignity or quiet
+assurance. His self-possession was so marked, indeed, that Mr. Byrd, who
+felt a sympathetic interest in what he knew to be seething in this man's
+breast, was greatly surprised, and surveyed, with a feeling almost akin
+to awe, the lawyer who could so sink all personal considerations in the
+cause he was trying.
+
+Miss Dare, on the contrary, was in a state of nervous agitation. Though
+no movement betrayed this, the very force of the restraint she put upon
+herself showed the extent of her inner excitement.
+
+The prisoner alone remained unchanged. Nothing could shake his steady
+soul from its composure, not the possibility of death or the prospect of
+release. He was absolutely imposing in his quiet presence, and Mr. Byrd
+could not but admire the power of the man even while recoiling from his
+supposed guilt.
+
+The opening of the defence carried the minds of many back to the
+inquest. The nice question of time was gone into, and the moment when
+Mrs. Clemmens was found lying bleeding and insensible at the foot of her
+dining-room clock, fixed at three or four minutes past noon. The next
+point to be ascertained was when she received the deadly blow.
+
+And here the great surprise of the defence occurred. Mr. Orcutt rose,
+and in clear, firm tones said:
+
+"Gouverneur Hildreth, take the stand."
+
+Instantly, and before the witness could comply, Mr. Ferris was on his
+feet.
+
+"Who? what?" he cried.
+
+"Gouverneur Hildreth," repeated Mr. Orcutt.
+
+"Did you know this gentleman has already been in custody upon suspicion
+of having committed the crime for which the prisoner is now being
+tried?"
+
+"I do," returned Mr. Orcutt, with imperturbable _sang froid_.
+
+"And is it your intention to save your client from the gallows by
+putting the halter around the neck of the man you now propose to call as
+a witness?"
+
+"No," retorted Mr. Orcutt; "_I_ do not propose to put the halter about
+any man's neck. That is the proud privilege of my learned and respected
+opponent."
+
+With an impatient frown Mr. Ferris sat down, while Mr. Hildreth, who
+had taken advantage of this short passage of arms between the lawyers to
+retain his place in the remote corner where he was more or less shielded
+from the curiosity of the crowd, rose, and, with a slow and painful
+movement that at once attracted attention to his carefully bandaged
+throat and the general air of debility which surrounded him, came
+hesitatingly forward and took his stand in face of the judge and jury.
+
+Necessarily a low murmur greeted him from the throng of interested
+spectators who saw in this appearance before them of the man who, by no
+more than a hair's-breadth, had escaped occupying the position of the
+prisoner, another of those dramatic incidents with which this trial
+seemed fairly to bristle.
+
+It was hushed by one look from the Judge, but not before it had awakened
+in Mr. Hildreth's weak and sensitive nature those old emotions of shame
+and rage whose token was a flush so deep and profuse it unconsciously
+repelled the gaze of all who beheld it. Immediately Mr. Byrd, who sat
+with bated breath, as it were, so intense was his excitement over the
+unexpected turn of affairs, recognized the full meaning of the
+situation, and awarded to Mr. Orcutt all the admiration which his skill
+in bringing it about undoubtedly deserved. Indeed, as the detective's
+quick glance flashed first at the witness, cringing in his old
+unfortunate way before the gaze of the crowd, and then at the prisoner
+sitting unmoved and quietly disdainful in his dignity and pride, he
+felt that, whether Mr. Orcutt succeeded in getting all he wished from
+his witness, the mere conjunction of these two men before the jury, with
+the opportunity for comparison between them which it inevitably offered,
+was the master-stroke of this eminent lawyer's legal career.
+
+Mr. Ferris seemed to feel the significance of the moment also, for his
+eyes fell and his brow contracted with a sudden doubt that convinced Mr.
+Byrd that, mentally, he was on the point of giving up his case.
+
+The witness was at once sworn.
+
+"Orcutt believes Hildreth to be the murderer, or, at least, is willing
+that others should be impressed with this belief," was the comment of
+Byrd to himself at this juncture.
+
+He had surprised a look which had passed between the lawyer and Miss
+Dare--a look of such piercing sarcasm and scornful inquiry that it might
+well arrest the detective's attention and lead him to question the
+intentions of the man who could allow such an expression of his feelings
+to escape him.
+
+But whether the detective was correct in his inferences, or whether Mr.
+Orcutt's glance at Imogene meant no more than the natural emotion of a
+man who suddenly sees revealed to the woman he loves the face of him for
+whose welfare she has expressed the greatest concern and for whose sake,
+while unknown, she has consented to make the heaviest of sacrifices, the
+wary lawyer was careful to show neither scorn nor prejudice when he
+turned toward the witness and began his interrogations.
+
+On the contrary, his manner was highly respectful, if not considerate,
+and his questions while put with such art as to keep the jury constantly
+alert to the anomalous position which the witness undoubtedly held, were
+of a nature mainly to call forth the one fact for which his testimony
+was presumably desired. This was, his presence in the widow's house on
+the morning of the murder, and the fact that he saw her and conversed
+with her and could swear to her being alive and unhurt up to a few
+minutes before noon. To be sure, the precise minute of his leaving her
+in this condition Mr. Orcutt failed to gather from the witness, but,
+like the coroner at the inquest, he succeeded in eliciting enough to
+show that the visit had been completed prior to the appearance of the
+tramp at the widow's kitchen-door, as it had been begun after the
+disappearance of the Danton children from the front of the widow's
+house.
+
+This fact being established and impressed upon the jury, Mr. Orcutt with
+admirable judgment cut short his own examination of the witness, and
+passed him over to the District Attorney, with a grim smile, suggestive
+of his late taunt, that to this gentleman belonged the special privilege
+of weaving halters for the necks of unhappy criminals.
+
+Mr. Ferris who understood his adversary's tactics only too well, but who
+in his anxiety for the truth could not afford to let such an
+opportunity for reaching it slip by, opened his cross-examination with
+great vigor.
+
+The result could not but be favorable to the defence and damaging to the
+prosecution. The position which Mr. Hildreth must occupy if the prisoner
+was acquitted, was patent to all understandings, making each and every
+admission on his part tending to exculpate the latter, of a manifest
+force and significance.
+
+Mr. Ferris, however, was careful not to exceed his duty or press his
+inquiries beyond due bounds. The man they were trying was not Gouverneur
+Hildreth but Craik Mansell, and to press the witness too close, was to
+urge him into admissions seemingly so damaging to himself as, in the
+present state of affairs, to incur the risk of distracting attention
+entirely from the prisoner.
+
+Mr. Hildreth's examination being at an end, Mr. Orcutt proceeded with
+his case, by furnishing proof calculated to fix the moment at which Mr.
+Hildreth had made his call. This was done in much the same way as it was
+at the inquest. Mrs. Clemmens' next-door neighbor, Mrs. Danton, was
+summoned to the stand, and after her her two children, the testimony of
+the three, taken with Mr. Hildreth's own acknowledgments, making it very
+evident to all who listened that he could not have gone into Mrs.
+Clemmens' house before a quarter to twelve.
+
+The natural inference followed. Allowing the least possible time for his
+interview with Mrs. Clemmens, the moment at which the witness swore to
+having seen her alive and unhurt must have been as late as ten minutes
+before noon.
+
+Taking pains to impress this time upon the jury, Mr. Orcutt next
+proceeded to fix the moment at which the prisoner arrived at Monteith
+Quarry Station. As the fact of his having arrived in time to take the
+afternoon train to Buffalo had been already proved by the prosecution,
+it was manifestly necessary only to determine at what hour the train was
+due, and whether it had come in on time.
+
+The hour was ascertained, by direct consultation with the road's
+time-table, to be just twenty minutes past one, and the station-master
+having been called to the stand, gave it as his best knowledge and
+belief that the train had been on time.
+
+This, however, not being deemed explicit enough for the purposes of the
+defence, there was submitted to the jury a telegram bearing the date of
+that same day, and distinctly stating that the train was on time. This
+was testified to by the conductor of the train as having been sent by
+him to the superintendent of the road who was awaiting the cars at
+Monteith; and was received as evidence and considered as conclusively
+fixing the hour at which the prisoner arrived at the Quarry Station as
+twenty minutes past one.
+
+This settled, witnesses were called to testify as to the nature of the
+path by which he must have travelled from the widow's house to the
+station. A chart similar to that Mr. Byrd had drawn, but more explicit
+and nice in its details, was submitted to the jury by an actual surveyor
+of the ground; after which, and the establishment of other minor details
+not necessary to enumerate here, a man of well-known proficiency in
+running and other athletic sports, was summoned to the stand.
+
+Mr. Byrd, who up to this moment had shared in the interest every where
+displayed in the defence, now felt his attention wandering. The fact is,
+he had heard the whistle of the train on which Hickory had promised to
+return to Sibley, and interesting as was the testimony given by the
+witness, he could not prevent his eyes from continually turning toward
+the door by which he expected Hickory to enter.
+
+Strange to say, Mr. Orcutt seemed to take a like interest in that same
+door, and was more than once detected by Byrd flashing a hurried glance
+in its direction, as if he, too, were on the look-out for some one.
+
+Meantime the expert in running was saying:
+
+"It took me one hundred and twenty minutes to go over the ground the
+first time, and one hundred and fifteen minutes the next. I gained five
+minutes the second time, you see," he explained, "by knowing my ground
+better and by saving my strength where it was of no avail to attempt
+great speed. The last time I made the effort, however, I lost three
+minutes on my former time. The wood road which I had to take for some
+distance was deep with mud, and my feet sank with every step. The
+shortest time, then, which I was able to make in three attempts, was one
+hundred and fifteen minutes."
+
+Now, as the time between the striking of the fatal blow and the hour at
+which the prisoner arrived at the Quarry Station was only ninety
+minutes, a general murmur of satisfaction followed this announcement. It
+was only momentary, however, for Mr. Ferris, rising to cross-examine the
+witness, curiosity prevailed over all lesser emotions, and an immediate
+silence followed without the intervention of the Court.
+
+"Did you make these three runs from Mrs. Clemmens' house to Monteith
+Quarry Station entirely on foot?"
+
+"I did, sir."
+
+"Was that necessary?"
+
+"Yes, sir; as far as the highway, at least. The path through the woods
+is not wide enough for a horse, unless it be for that short distance
+where the Foresters' Road intervenes."
+
+"And you ran there?"
+
+"Yes, sir, twice at full speed; the third time I had the experience I
+have told you of."
+
+"And how long do you think it took you to go over that especial portion
+of ground?"
+
+"Five minutes, maybe."
+
+"And, supposing you had had a horse?"
+
+"Well, sir, _if_ I had had a horse, and _if_ he had been waiting there,
+all ready for me to jump on his back, and _if_ he had been a good
+runner and used to the road, I think I could have gone over it in two
+minutes, if I had not first broken my neck on some of the jagged stones
+that roughen the road."
+
+"In other words, you could have saved three minutes if you had been
+furnished with a horse at that particular spot?"
+
+"Yes, _if_."
+
+Mr. Orcutt, whose eye had been fixed upon the door at this particular
+juncture, now looked back at the witness and hurriedly rose to his feet.
+
+"Has my esteemed friend any testimony on hand to prove that the prisoner
+had a horse at this place? if he has not, I object to these questions."
+
+"What testimony I have to produce will come in at its proper time,"
+retorted Mr. Ferris. "Meanwhile, I think I have a right to put this or
+any other kind of similar question to the witness."
+
+The Judge acquiescing with a nod, Mr. Orcutt sat down.
+
+Mr. Ferris went on.
+
+"Did you meet any one on the road during any of these three runs which
+you made?"
+
+"No, sir. That is, I met no one in the woods. There were one or two
+persons on the highway the last time I ran over it."
+
+"Were they riding or walking?"
+
+"Walking."
+
+Here Mr. Orcutt interposed.
+
+"Did you say that in passing over the highway you ran?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Why did you do this? Had you not been told that the prisoner was seen
+to be walking when he came down the road to the station?"
+
+"Yes, sir. But I was in for time, you see."
+
+"And you did not make it even with that advantage?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+The second expert had the same story to tell, with a few variations. He
+had made one of his runs in five minutes less than the other had done,
+but it was by a great exertion that left him completely exhausted when
+he arrived at the station. It was during his cross-examination that
+Hickory at last came in.
+
+Horace Byrd, who had been growing very impatient during the last few
+minutes, happened to be looking at the door when it opened to admit this
+late comer. So was Mr. Orcutt. But Byrd did not notice this, or Hickory
+either. If they had, perhaps Hickory would have been more careful to
+hide his feelings. As it was, he no sooner met his colleague's eye than
+he gave a quick, despondent shake of the head in intimation that he had
+_failed_.
+
+Mr. Byrd, who had anticipated a different result, was greatly
+disappointed. His countenance fell and he cast a glance of compassion
+at Miss Dare, now flushing with a secret but slowly growing hope. The
+defence, then, was good, and she ran the risk of being interrogated
+again. It was a prospect from which Mr. Byrd recoiled.
+
+As soon as Hickory got the chance, he made his way to the side of Byrd.
+
+"No go," was his low but expressive salutation. "One hundred and five
+minutes is the shortest time in which I can get over the ground, and
+that by a deuced hard scramble of it too."
+
+"But that's five minutes' gain on the experts," Byrd whispered.
+
+"Is it? Hope I could gain something on them, but what's five minutes'
+gain in an affair like this? Fifteen is what's wanted."
+
+"I know it."
+
+"And fifteen I cannot make, nor ten either, unless a pair of wings
+should be given me to carry me over the river."
+
+"Sure?"
+
+"Sure!"
+
+Here there was some commotion in their vicinity, owing to the withdrawal
+of the last witness from the stand. Hickory took advantage of the bustle
+to lean over and whisper in Byrd's ear:
+
+"Do you know I think I have been watched to-day. There was a fellow
+concealed in Mrs. Clemmens' house, who saw me leave it, and who, I have
+no doubt, took express note of the time I started. And there was another
+chap hanging round the station at the quarries, whom I am almost sure
+had no business there unless it was to see at what moment I arrived. He
+came back to Sibley when I did, but he telegraphed first, and it is my
+opinion that Orcutt----"
+
+Here he was greatly startled by hearing his name spoken in a loud and
+commanding tone of voice. Stopping short, he glanced up, encountered the
+eye of Mr. Orcutt fixed upon him from the other side of the court-room,
+and realized he was being summoned to the witness stand.
+
+"The deuce!" he murmured, with a look at Byrd to which none but an
+artist could do justice.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII.
+
+HICKORY.
+
+          Hickory, dickory, dock!
+          The mouse ran up the clock!
+          The clock struck one,
+          And down he run!
+          Hickory, dickory, dock!
+                    --MOTHER GOOSE MELODIES.
+
+
+HICKORY'S face was no new one to the court. He had occupied a
+considerable portion of one day in giving testimony for the prosecution,
+and his rough manner and hardy face, twinkling, however, at times with
+an irrepressible humor that redeemed it and him from all charge of
+ugliness, were well known not only to the jury but to all the _habitues_
+of the trial. Yet, when he stepped upon the stand at the summons of Mr.
+Orcutt, every eye turned toward him with curiosity, so great was the
+surprise with which his name had been hailed, and so vivid the interest
+aroused in what a detective devoted to the cause of the prosecution
+might have to say in the way of supporting the defence.
+
+The first question uttered by Mr. Orcutt served to put them upon the
+right track.
+
+"Will you tell the court where you have been to-day, Mr. Hickory?"
+
+"Well," replied the witness in a slow and ruminating tone of voice, as
+he cast a look at Mr. Ferris, half apologetic and half reassuring, "I
+have been in a good many places----"
+
+"You know what I mean," interrupted Mr. Orcutt. "Tell the court where
+you were between the hours of eleven and a quarter to one," he added,
+with a quick glance at the paper he held in his hand.
+
+"Oh, _then_," cried Hickory, suddenly relaxing into his drollest self.
+"Well, _then_, I was all along the route from Sibley to Monteith Quarry
+Station. I don't think I was stationary at any one minute of the time,
+sir."
+
+"In other words----" suggested Mr. Orcutt, severely.
+
+"I was trying to show myself smarter than my betters;" bowing with a
+great show of respect to the two experts who sat near. "_Or_, in other
+words still, I was trying to make the distance between Mrs. Clemmens'
+house and the station I have mentioned, in time sufficient to upset the
+defence, sir."
+
+And the look he cast at Mr. Ferris was wholly apologetic now.
+
+"Ah, I understand, and at whose suggestion did you undertake to do this,
+Mr. Hickory?"
+
+"At the suggestion of a friend of mine, who is also somewhat of a
+detective."
+
+"And when was this suggestion given?"
+
+"After your speech, sir, yesterday afternoon."
+
+"And where?"
+
+"At the hotel, sir, where I and my friend put up."
+
+"Did not the counsel for the prosecution order you to make this
+attempt?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Did he not know you were going to make it?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Who did know it?"
+
+"My friend."
+
+"No one else?"
+
+"Well, sir, judging from my present position, I should say there seems
+to have been some one else," the witness slyly retorted.
+
+The calmness with which Mr. Orcutt carried on this examination suffered
+a momentary disturbance.
+
+"You know what I mean," he returned. "Did you tell any one but your
+friend that you were going to undertake this run?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Mr. Hickory," the lawyer now pursued, "will you tell us why you
+considered yourself qualified to succeed in an attempt where you had
+already been told regular experts had failed?"
+
+"Well, sir, I don't know unless you find the solution in the slightly
+presumptive character of my disposition."
+
+"Had you ever run before or engaged in athletic sports of any kind?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I have run before."
+
+"And engaged in athletic sports?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Mr. Hickory, have you ever run in a race with men of well-known
+reputation for speed?"
+
+"Well, yes, I have."
+
+"Did you ever win in running such a race?"
+
+"Once."
+
+"No more?"
+
+"Well, then, twice."
+
+The dejection with which this last assent came forth roused the mirth of
+some light-hearted, feather-headed people, but the officers of the court
+soon put a stop to that.
+
+"Mr. Hickory, will you tell us whether on account of having twice beaten
+in a race requiring the qualifications of a professional runner, you
+considered yourself qualified to judge of the feasibility of any other
+man's making the distance from Mrs. Clemmens' house to Monteith Quarry
+Station in ninety minutes by your own ability or non-ability to do so?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I did; but a man's judgment of his own qualifications don't
+go very far, I've been told."
+
+"I did not ask you for any remarks, Mr. Hickory. This is a serious
+matter and demands serious treatment. I asked if in undertaking to make
+this run in ninety minutes you did not presume to judge of the
+feasibility of the prisoner having made it in that time, and you
+answered, 'Yes.' It was enough."
+
+The witness bowed with an air of great innocence.
+
+"Now," resumed the lawyer, "you say you made a run from Mrs. Clemmens'
+house to Monteith Quarry Station to-day. Before telling us in what time
+you did it, will you be kind enough to say what route you took?"
+
+"The one, sir, which has been pointed out by the prosecution as that
+which the prisoner undoubtedly took--the path through the woods and over
+the bridge to the highway. I knew no other."
+
+"Did you know _this_?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"How came you to know it?"
+
+"I had been over it before."
+
+"The whole distance?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Mr. Hickory, were you well enough acquainted with the route not to be
+obliged to stop at any point during your journey to see if you were in
+the right path or taking the most direct road to your destination?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And when you got to the river?"
+
+"I turned straight to the right and made for the bridge."
+
+"Did you not pause long enough to see if you could not cross the stream
+in some way?"
+
+"No, sir. I don't know how to swim in my clothes and keep them dry, and
+as for my wings, I had unfortunately left them at home."
+
+Mr. Orcutt frowned.
+
+"These attempts at humor," said he, "are very _mal a propos_, Mr.
+Hickory." Then, with a return to his usual tone: "Did you cross the
+bridge at a run?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And did you keep up your pace when you got to the highroad?"
+
+"No, I did not."
+
+"You did not?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"And why, may I ask?"
+
+"I was tired."
+
+"Tired?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+There was a droll demureness in the way Hickory said this which made Mr.
+Orcutt pause. But in another minute he went on.
+
+"And what pace do you take when you are tired?"
+
+"A horse's pace when I can get it," was the laughing reply. "A team was
+going by, sir, and I just jumped up with the driver."
+
+"Ah, you rode, then, part of the way? Was it a fast team, Mr. Hickory?"
+
+"Well, it wasn't one of Bonner's."
+
+"Did they go faster than a man could run?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I am obliged to say they did."
+
+"And how long did you ride behind them?"
+
+"Till I got in sight of the station."
+
+"Why did you not go farther?"
+
+"Because I had been told the prisoner was seen to walk up to the
+station, and I meant to be fair to him when I knew how."
+
+"Oh, you did; and do you think it was fair to him to steal a ride on the
+highway?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"Because no one has ever told me he didn't ride down the highway, at
+least till he came within sight of the station."
+
+"Mr. Hickory," inquired the lawyer, severely, "are you in possession of
+any knowledge proving that he did?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+Mr. Byrd, who had been watching the prisoner breathlessly through all
+this, saw or thought he saw the faintest shadow of an odd, disdainful
+smile cross his sternly composed features at this moment. But he could
+not be sure. There was enough in the possibility, however, to make the
+detective thoughtful; but Mr. Orcutt proceeding rapidly with his
+examination, left him no time to formulate his sensations into words.
+
+"So that by taking this wagon you are certain you lost no time?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Rather gained some?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Mr. Hickory, will you now state whether you put forth your full speed
+to-day in going from Mrs. Clemmens' house to the Quarry Station?"
+
+"I did not."
+
+"What?"
+
+"I did not put forth any thing like my full speed, sir," the witness
+repeated, with a twinkle in the direction of Byrd that fell just short
+of being a decided wink.
+
+"And why, may I ask? What restrained you from running as fast as you
+could? Sympathy for the defence?"
+
+The ironical suggestion conveyed in this last question gave Hickory an
+excuse for indulging in his peculiar humor.
+
+"No, sir; sympathy for the prosecution. I feared the loss of one of its
+most humble but valuable assistants. In other words, I was afraid I
+should break my neck."
+
+"And why should you have any special fears of breaking your neck?"
+
+"The path is so uneven, sir. No man could run for much of the way
+without endangering his life or at least his limbs."
+
+"Did you run when you could?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And in those places where you could not run, did you proceed as fast as
+you knew how?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Very well; now I think it is time you told the jury just how many
+minutes it took you to go from Mrs. Clemmens' door to the Monteith
+Quarry Station."
+
+"Well, sir, according to _my_ watch, it took one hundred and five
+minutes."
+
+Mr. Orcutt glanced impressively at the jury.
+
+"One hundred and five minutes," he repeated. He then turned to the
+witness with his concluding questions.
+
+"Mr. Hickory, were you present in the court-room just now when the two
+experts whom I have employed to make the run gave their testimony?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Do you know in what time they made it?"
+
+"I believe I do. I was told by the person whom I informed of my failure
+that I had gained five minutes upon them."
+
+"And what did you reply?"
+
+"That I hoped I could make something on _them_; but that five minutes
+wasn't much when a clean fifteen was wanted," returned Hickory, with
+another droll look at the experts and an askance appeal at Byrd, which
+being translated might read: "How in the deuce could this man have known
+what I was whispering to you on the other side of the court-room? Is he
+a wizard, this Orcutt?"
+
+He forgot that a successful lawyer is always more or less of a wizard.
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII.
+
+A LATE DISCOVERY.
+
+          Oh, torture me no more, I will confess.--KING LEAR.
+
+
+WITH the cross-examination of Hickory, the defence rested, and the day
+being far advanced, the court adjourned.
+
+During the bustle occasioned by the departure of the prisoner, Mr. Byrd
+took occasion to glance at the faces of those most immediately concerned
+in the trial.
+
+His first look naturally fell upon Mr. Orcutt. Ah! all was going well
+with the great lawyer. Hope, if not triumph, beamed in his eye and
+breathed in every movement of his alert and nervous form. He was looking
+across the court-room at Imogene Dare, and his features wore a faint
+smile that indelibly impressed itself upon Mr. Byrd's memory. Perhaps
+because there was something really peculiar and remarkable in its
+expression, and perhaps because of the contrast it offered to his own
+feelings of secret doubt and dread.
+
+His next look naturally followed that of Mr. Orcutt and rested upon
+Imogene Dare. Ah! she was under the spell of awakening hope also. It was
+visible in her lightened brow, her calmer and less studied aspect, her
+eager and eloquently speaking gaze yet lingering on the door through
+which the prisoner had departed. As Mr. Byrd marked this look of hers
+and noted all it revealed, he felt his emotions rise till they almost
+confounded him. But strong as they were, they deepened still further
+when, in another moment, he beheld her suddenly drop her eyes from the
+door and turn them slowly, reluctantly but gratefully, upon Mr. Orcutt.
+All the story of her life was in that change of look; all the story of
+her future, too, perhaps, if---- Mr. Byrd dared not trust himself to
+follow the contingency that lurked behind that _if_, and, to divert his
+mind, turned his attention to Mr. Ferris.
+
+But he found small comfort there. For the District Attorney was not
+alone. Hickory stood at his side, and Hickory was whispering in his ear,
+and Mr. Byrd, who knew what was weighing on his colleague's mind, found
+no difficulty in interpreting the mingled expression of perplexity and
+surprise that crossed the dark, aquiline features of the District
+Attorney as he listened with slightly bended head to what the detective
+had to say. That look and the deep, anxious frown which crossed his brow
+as he glanced up and encountered Imogene's eye, remained in Mr. Byrd's
+mind long after the court-room was empty and he had returned to his
+hotel. It mingled with the smile of strange satisfaction which he had
+detected on Mr. Orcutt's face, and awakened such a turmoil of
+contradictory images in his mind that he was glad when Hickory at last
+came in to break the spell.
+
+Their meeting was singular, and revealed, as by a flash, the difference
+between the two men. Byrd contented himself with giving Hickory a look
+and saying nothing, while Hickory bestowed upon Byrd a hearty "Well, old
+fellow!" and broke out into a loud and by no means unenjoyable laugh.
+
+"You didn't expect to see me mounting the rostrum in favor of the
+defence, did you?" he asked, after he had indulged himself as long as he
+saw fit in the display of this somewhat unseasonable mirth. "Well, it
+was a surprise. But I've done it for Orcutt now!"
+
+"You have?"
+
+"Yes, I have."
+
+"But the prosecution has closed its case?"
+
+"Bah! what of that?" was the careless reply. "The District Attorney can
+get it reopened. No Court would refuse that."
+
+Horace surveyed his colleague for a moment in silence.
+
+"So Mr. Ferris was struck with the point you gave him?" he ventured, at
+last.
+
+"Well, sufficiently so to be uneasy," was Hickory's somewhat dry
+response.
+
+The look with which Byrd answered him was eloquent. "And that makes you
+cheerful?" he inquired, with ill-concealed sarcasm.
+
+"Well, it has a slight tendency that way," drawled the other, seemingly
+careless of the other's expression, if, indeed, he had noted it. "You
+see," he went on, with a meaning wink and a smile of utter unconcern,
+"all my energies just now are concentrated on getting myself even with
+that somewhat too wide-awake lawyer." And his smile broadened till it
+merged into a laugh that was rasping enough to Byrd's more delicate and
+generous sensibilities.
+
+"Sufficiently so to be uneasy!" Yes, that was it. From the minute Mr.
+Ferris listened to the suggestion that Miss Dare had not told all she
+knew about the murder, and that a question relative to where she had
+been at the time it was perpetrated would, in all probability, bring
+strange revelations to light, he had been awakened to a most
+uncomfortable sense of his position and the duty that was possibly
+required of him. To be sure, the time for presenting testimony to the
+court was passed, unless it was in the way of rebuttal; but how did he
+know but what Miss Dare had a fact at her command which would help the
+prosecution in overturning the strange, unexpected, yet simple theory of
+the defence? At all events, he felt he ought to know whether, in giving
+her testimony she had exhausted her knowledge on this subject, or
+whether, in her sympathy for the accused, she had kept back certain
+evidence which if presented might bring the crime more directly home to
+the prisoner. Accordingly, somewhere toward eight o'clock in the
+evening, he sought her out with the bold resolution of forcing her to
+satisfy him on this point.
+
+He did not find his task so easy, however, when he came into direct
+contact with her stately and far from encouraging presence, and met the
+look of surprise not unmixed with alarm with which she greeted him. She
+looked very weary, too, and yet unnaturally excited, as if she had not
+slept for many nights, if indeed she had rested at all since the trial
+began. It struck him as cruel to further disturb this woman, and yet the
+longer he surveyed her, the more he studied her pale, haughty,
+inscrutable face, he became the more assured that he would never feel
+satisfied with himself if he did not give her an immediate opportunity
+to disperse at once and forever these freshly awakened doubts.
+
+His attitude or possibly his expression must have betrayed something of
+his anxiety if not of his resolve, for her countenance fell as she
+watched him, and her voice sounded quite unnatural as she strove to ask
+to what she was indebted for this unexpected visit.
+
+He did not keep her in suspense.
+
+"Miss Dare," said he, not without kindness, for he was very sorry for
+this woman, despite the inevitable prejudice which her relations to the
+accused had awakened, "I would have given much not to have been obliged
+to disturb you to-night, but my duty would not allow it. There is a
+question which I have hitherto omitted to ask----"
+
+He paused, shocked; she was swaying from side to side before his eyes,
+and seemed indeed about to fall. But at the outreaching of his hand she
+recovered herself and stood erect, the noblest spectacle of a woman
+triumphing over the weakness of her body by the mere force of her
+indomitable will, that he had ever beheld.
+
+"Sit down," he gently urged, pushing toward her a chair. "You have had a
+hard and dreary week of it; you are in need of rest."
+
+She did not refuse to avail herself of the chair, though, as he could
+not help but notice, she did not thereby relax one iota of the restraint
+she put upon herself.
+
+"I do not understand," she murmured; "what question?"
+
+"Miss Dare, in all you have told the court, in all that you have told
+me, about this fatal and unhappy affair, you have never informed us how
+it was you first came to hear of it. You were----"
+
+"I heard it on the street corner," she interrupted, with what seemed to
+him an almost feverish haste.
+
+"First?"
+
+"Yes, first."
+
+"Miss Dare, had you been in the street long? Were you in it at the time
+the murder happened, do you think?"
+
+"I in the street?"
+
+"Yes," he repeated, conscious from the sudden strange alteration in her
+look that he had touched upon a point which, to her, was vital with some
+undefined interest, possibly that to which the surmises of Hickory had
+supplied a clue. "Were you in the street, or anywhere out-of-doors at
+the time the murder occurred? It strikes me that it would be well for me
+to know."
+
+"Sir," she cried, rising in her sudden indignation, "I thought the time
+for questions had passed. What means this sudden inquiry into a matter
+we have all considered exhausted, certainly as far as I am concerned."
+
+"Shall I show you?" he cried, taking her by the hand and leading her
+toward the mirror near by, under one of those impulses which sometimes
+effect so much. "Look in there at your own face and you will see why I
+press this question upon you."
+
+Astonished, if not awed, she followed with her eyes the direction of his
+pointing finger, and anxiously surveyed her own image in the glass.
+Then, with a quick movement, her hands went up before her face--which
+till that moment had kept its counsel so well--and, tottering back
+against a table, she stood for a moment communing with herself, and
+possibly summoning up her courage for the conflict she evidently saw
+before her.
+
+"What is it you wish to know?" she faintly inquired, after a long period
+of suspense and doubt.
+
+"Where were you when the clock struck twelve on the day Mrs. Clemmens
+was murdered?"
+
+Instantly dropping her hands, she turned toward him with a sudden lift
+of her majestic figure that was as imposing as it was unexpected.
+
+"I was at Professor Darling's house," she declared, with great
+steadiness.
+
+Mr. Ferris had not expected this reply, and looked at her for an instant
+almost as if he felt inclined to repeat his inquiry.
+
+"Do you doubt my word?" she queried. "Is it possible you question my
+truth at a time like this?"
+
+"No, Miss Dare," he gravely assured her. "After the great sacrifice you
+have publicly made in the interests of justice, it would be worse than
+presumptuous in me to doubt your sincerity now."
+
+She drew a deep breath, and straightened herself still more proudly.
+
+"Then am I to understand you are satisfied with the answer you have
+received?"
+
+"Yes, if you will also add that you were in the observatory at Professor
+Darling's house," he responded quickly, convinced there was some mystery
+here, and seeing but one way to reach it.
+
+"Very well, then, I was," she averred, without hesitation.
+
+"You were!" he echoed, advancing upon her with a slight flush on his
+middle-aged cheek, that evinced how difficult it was for him to pursue
+this conversation in face of the haughty and repellant bearing she had
+assumed. "You will, perhaps, tell me, then, why you did not see and
+respond to the girl who came into that room at this very time, with a
+message from a lady who waited below to see you?"
+
+"Ah!" she cried, succumbing with a suppressed moan to the inexorable
+destiny that pursued her in this man, "you have woven a net for me!"
+
+And she sank again into a chair, where she sat like one stunned, looking
+at him with a hollow gaze which filled his heart with compassion, but
+which had no power to shake his purpose as a District Attorney.
+
+"Yes," he acknowledged, after a moment, "I have woven a net for you, but
+only because I am anxious for the truth, and desirous of furthering the
+ends of justice. I am confident you know more about this crime than you
+have ever revealed, Miss Dare; that you are acquainted with some fact
+that makes you certain Mr. Mansell committed this murder,
+notwithstanding the defence advanced in his favor. What is this fact? It
+is my office to inquire. True," he admitted, seeing her draw back with
+denial written on every line of her white face, "you have a right to
+refuse to answer me here, but you will have no right to refuse to answer
+me to-morrow when I put the same question to you in the presence of
+judge and jury."
+
+"And"--her voice was so husky he could but with difficulty distinguish
+her words--"do you intend to recall me to the stand to-morrow?"
+
+"I am obliged to, Miss Dare."
+
+"But I thought the time for examination was over; that the witnesses had
+all testified, and that nothing remained now but for the lawyers to sum
+up."
+
+"When in a case like this the prisoner offers a defence not anticipated
+by the prosecution, the latter, of course, has the right to meet such
+defence with proof in rebuttal."
+
+"Proof in rebuttal? What is that?"
+
+"Evidence to rebut or prove false the matters advanced in support of the
+defence."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"I must do it in this case--if I can, of course."
+
+She did not reply.
+
+"And even if the testimony I desire to put in is not rebuttal in its
+character, no unbiassed judge would deny to counsel the privilege of
+reopening his case when any new or important fact has come to light."
+
+As if overwhelmed by a prospect she had not anticipated, she hurriedly
+arose and pointed down the room to a curtained recess.
+
+"Give me five minutes," she cried; "five minutes by myself where no one
+can look at me, and where I can think undisturbed upon what I had better
+do."
+
+"Very well," he acquiesced; "you shall have them."
+
+She at once crossed to the small retreat.
+
+"Five minutes," she reiterated huskily, as she lifted the curtains
+aside; "when the clock strikes nine I will come out."
+
+"You will?" he repeated, doubtfully.
+
+"I will."
+
+The curtains fell behind her, and for five long minutes Mr. Ferris paced
+the room alone. He was far from easy. All was so quiet behind that
+curtain,--so preternaturally quiet. But he would not disturb her; no, he
+had promised, and she should be left to fight her battle alone. When
+nine o'clock struck, however, he started, and owned to himself some
+secret dread. Would she come forth or would he have to seek her in her
+place of seclusion? It seemed he would have to seek her, for the
+curtains did not stir, and by no sound from within was any token given
+that she had heard the summons. Yet he hesitated, and as he did so, a
+thought struck him. Could it be there was any outlet from the refuge she
+had sought? Had she taken advantage of his consideration to escape him?
+Moved by the fear, he hastily crossed the room. But before he could lay
+his hand upon the curtains, they parted, and disclosed the form of
+Imogene.
+
+"I am coming," she murmured, and stepped forth more like a
+faintly-breathing image than a living woman.
+
+His first glance at her face convinced him she had taken her resolution.
+His second, that in taking it she had drifted into a state of feeling
+different from any he had observed in her before, and of a sort that to
+him was wholly inexplicable. Her words when she spoke only deepened this
+impression.
+
+[Illustration: "The curtains parted and disclosed the form of Imogene.
+'I am coming,' she murmured, and stepped forth."--(Page 402.)]
+
+"Mr. Ferris," said she, coming very near to him in evident dread of
+being overheard, "I have decided to tell you all. I hoped never to be
+obliged to do this. I thought enough had been revealed to answer your
+purpose. I--I believed Heaven would spare me this last trial, let me
+keep this last secret. It was of so strange a nature, so totally out of
+the reach of any man's surmise. But the finger of God is on me. It has
+followed this crime from the beginning, and there is no escape. By some
+strange means, some instinct of penetration, perhaps, you have
+discovered that I know something concerning this murder of which I have
+never told you, and that the hour I spent at Professor Darling's is
+accountable for this knowledge. Sir, I cannot struggle with Providence.
+I will tell you all I have hitherto hidden from the world if you will
+promise to let me know if my words will prove fatal, and if he--he who
+is on trial for his life--will be lost if I give to the court my last
+evidence against him?"
+
+"But, Miss Dare," remonstrated the District Attorney, "no man can
+tell----" He did not finish his sentence. Something in the feverish gaze
+she fixed upon him stopped him. He felt that he could not palter with a
+woman in the grasp of an agony like this. So, starting again, he
+observed: "Let me hear what you have to say, and afterward we will
+consider what the effect of it may be; though a question of expediency
+should not come into your consideration, Miss Dare, in telling such
+truths as the law demands."
+
+"No?" she broke out, giving way for one instant to a low and terrible
+laugh which curdled Mr. Ferris' blood and made him wish his duty had
+led him into the midst of any other scene than this.
+
+But before he could remonstrate with her, this harrowing expression of
+misery had ceased, and she was saying in quiet and suppressed tones:
+
+"The reason I did not see and respond to the girl who came into the
+observatory on the morning of Mrs. Clemmens' murder is, that I was so
+absorbed in the discoveries I was making behind the high rack which
+shuts off one end of the room, that any appeal to me at that time must
+have passed unnoticed. I had come to Professor Darling's house,
+according to my usual custom on Tuesday mornings, to study astronomy
+with his daughter Helen. I had come reluctantly, for my mind was full of
+the secret intention I had formed of visiting Mrs. Clemmens in the
+afternoon, and I had no heart for study. But finding Miss Darling out, I
+felt a drawing toward the seclusion I knew I should find in the
+observatory, and mounting to it, I sat down by myself to think. The rest
+and quiet of the place were soothing to me, and I sat still a long time,
+but suddenly becoming impressed with the idea that it was growing late,
+I went to the window to consult the town-clock. But though its face
+could be plainly seen from the observatory, its hands could not, and I
+was about to withdraw from the window when I remembered the telescope,
+which Miss Darling and I had, in a moment of caprice a few days before,
+so arranged as to command a view of the town. Going to it, I peered
+through it at the clock." Stopping, she surveyed the District Attorney
+with breathless suspense. "It was just five minutes to twelve," she
+impressively whispered.
+
+Mr. Ferris felt a shock.
+
+"A critical moment!" he exclaimed. Then, with a certain intuition of
+what she was going to say next, inquired: "And what then, Miss Dare?"
+
+"I was struck by a desire to see if I could detect Mrs. Clemmens' house
+from where I was, and shifting the telescope slightly, I looked through
+it again, and----"
+
+"What did you see, Miss Dare?"
+
+"I saw her dining-room door standing ajar and a man leaping headlong
+over the fence toward the bog."
+
+The District Attorney started, looked at her with growing interest, and
+inquired:
+
+"Did you recognize this man, Miss Dare?"
+
+She nodded in great agitation.
+
+"Who was he?"
+
+"Craik Mansell."
+
+"Miss Dare," ventured Mr. Ferris, after a moment, "you say this was five
+minutes to twelve?"
+
+"Yes, sir," was the faint reply.
+
+"Five minutes later than the time designated by the defence as a period
+manifestly too late for the prisoner to have left Mrs. Clemmens' house
+and arrived at the Quarry Station at twenty minutes past one?"
+
+"Yes," she repeated, below her breath.
+
+The District Attorney surveyed her earnestly, perceiving she had not
+only spoken the truth, but realized all which that truth implied, and
+drew back a few steps muttering ironically to himself:
+
+"Ah, Orcutt! Orcutt!"
+
+Breathlessly she watched him, breathlessly she followed him step by step
+like some white and haunting spirit.
+
+"You believe, then, this fact will cost him his life?" came from her
+lips at last.
+
+"Don't ask me that, Miss Dare. You and I have no concern with the
+consequences of this evidence."
+
+"No concern?" she repeated, wildly. "You and I no concern? Ah!" she went
+on, with heart-piercing sarcasm, "I forgot that the sentiments of the
+heart have no place in judicial investigation. A criminal is but lawful
+prey, and it is every good citizen's duty to push him to his doom. No
+matter if one is bound to that criminal by the dearest ties which can
+unite two hearts; no matter if the trust he has bestowed upon you has
+been absolute and unquestioning, the law does not busy itself with that.
+The law says if you have a word at your command which can destroy this
+man, give utterance to it; and the law must be obeyed."
+
+"But, Miss Dare----" the District Attorney hastily intervened, startled
+by the feverish gleam of her hitherto calm eye.
+
+But she was not to be stopped, now that her misery had at last found
+words.
+
+"You do not understand my position, perhaps," she continued. "You do not
+see that it has been my hand, and mine only, which, from the first, has
+slowly, remorselessly pushed this man back from the point of safety,
+till now, now, I am called upon to drag from his hand the one poor
+bending twig to which he clings, and upon which he relies to support him
+above the terrible gulf that yawns at his feet. You do not see----"
+
+"Pardon me," interposed Mr. Ferris again, anxious, if possible, to
+restore her to herself. "I see enough to pity you profoundly. But you
+must allow me to remark that your hand is not the only one which has
+been instrumental in hurrying this young man to his doom. The
+detectives----"
+
+"Sir," she interrupted in her turn, "can you, dare you say, that without
+my testimony he would have stood at any time in a really critical
+position?--or that he would stand in jeopardy of his life even now, if
+it were not for this fact I have to tell?"
+
+Mr. Ferris was silent.
+
+"Oh, I knew it, I knew it!" she cried. "There will be no doubt
+concerning whose testimony it was that convicted him, if he is sentenced
+by the court for this crime. Ah, ah, what an enviable position is mine!
+What an honorable deed I am called upon to perform! To tell the truth at
+the expense of the life most dear to you. It is a Roman virtue! I shall
+be held up as a model to my sex. All the world must shower plaudits upon
+the woman who, sooner than rob justice of its due, delivered her own
+lover over to the hangman."
+
+Pausing in her passionate burst, she turned her hot, dry eyes in a sort
+of desperation upon his face.
+
+"Do you know," she gurgled in his ear, "some women would kill themselves
+before they would do this deed."
+
+Struck to his heart in spite of himself, Mr. Ferris looked at her in
+alarm--saw her standing there with her arms hanging down at her sides,
+but with her two hands clinched till they looked as if carved from
+marble--and drew near to her with the simple hurried question of:
+
+"But you?"
+
+"I?" she laughed again--a low, gurgling laugh, that yet had a tone in it
+that went to the other's heart and awoke strange sensations there. "Oh,
+I shall live to respond to your questions. Do not fear that I shall not
+be in the court-room to-morrow."
+
+There was something in her look and manner that was new. It awed him,
+while it woke all his latent concern.
+
+"Miss Dare," he began, "you can believe how painful all this has been to
+me, and how I would have spared you this misery if I could. But the
+responsibilities resting upon me are such----"
+
+He did not go on; why should he? She was not listening. To be sure, she
+stood before him, seemingly attentive, but the eyes with which she met
+his were fixed upon other objects than any which could have been
+apparent to her in his face; and her form, which she had hitherto held
+upright, was shaking with long, uncontrollable shudders, which, to his
+excited imagination, threatened to lay her at his feet.
+
+He at once started toward the door for help. But she was alive to his
+movements if not to his words. Stopping him with a gesture, she cried:
+
+"No--no! do not call for any one; I wish to be alone; I have _my_ duty
+to face, you know; my testimony to prepare." And rousing herself she
+cast a peculiar look about the room, like one suddenly introduced into a
+strange place, and then moving slowly toward the window, threw back the
+curtain and gazed without. "Night!" she murmured, "night!" and after a
+moment added, in a deep, unearthly voice that thrilled irresistibly upon
+Mr. Ferris' ear: "And a heaven full of stars!"
+
+Her face, as she turned it upward, wore so strange a look, Mr. Ferris
+involuntarily left his position and crossed to her side. She was still
+murmuring to herself in seeming unconsciousness of his presence.
+"Stars!" she was repeating; "and above them God!" And the long shudders
+shook her frame again, and she dropped her head and seemed about to fall
+into her old abstraction when her eye encountered that of the District
+Attorney, and she hurriedly aroused herself.
+
+"Pardon me," she exclaimed, with an ill-concealed irony, particularly
+impressive after her tone of the moment before, "have you any thing
+further to exact of me?"
+
+"No," he made haste to reply; "only before I go I would entreat you to
+be calm----"
+
+"And say the word I have to say to-morrow without a balk and without an
+unnecessary display of feeling," she coldly interpolated. "Thanks, Mr.
+Ferris, I understand you. But you need fear nothing from me. There will
+be no scene--at least on my part--when I rise before the court to give
+my testimony to-morrow. Since my hand must strike the fatal blow, it
+shall strike--firmly!" and her clenched fist fell heavily on her own
+breast, as if the blow she meditated must first strike there.
+
+The District Attorney, more moved than he had deemed it possible for him
+to be, made her a low bow and withdrew slowly to the door.
+
+"I leave you, then, till to-morrow," he said.
+
+"Till to-morrow."
+
+Long after he had passed out, the deep meaning which informed those two
+words haunted his memory and disturbed his heart. Till to-morrow! Alas,
+poor girl! and after to-morrow, what then?
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV.
+
+WHAT WAS HID BEHIND IMOGENE'S VEIL.
+
+          Mark now, how a plain tale shall put you down.--HENRY IV.
+
+
+THE few minutes that elapsed before the formal opening of court the next
+morning were marked by great cheerfulness. The crisp frosty air had put
+everybody in a good-humor. Even the prisoner looked less sombre than
+before, and for the first time since the beginning of his trial, deigned
+to turn his eyes toward the bench where Imogene sat, with a look that,
+while it was not exactly kind, had certainly less disdain in it than
+before he saw his way to a possible acquittal on the theory advanced by
+his counsel.
+
+But this look, though his first, did not prove to be his last. Something
+in the attitude of the woman he gazed at--or was it the mystery of the
+heavy black veil that enveloped her features?--woke a strange doubt in
+his mind. Beckoning to Mr. Orcutt, he communicated with him in a low
+tone.
+
+"Can it be possible," asked he, "that any thing new could have
+transpired since last night to give encouragement to the prosecution?"
+
+The lawyer, startled, glanced hastily about him and shook his head.
+
+"No," he cried; "impossible! What could have transpired?"
+
+"Look at Mr. Ferris," whispered the prisoner, "and then at the witness
+who wears a veil."
+
+With an unaccountable feeling of reluctance, Mr. Orcutt hastily
+complied. His first glance at the District Attorney made him thoughtful.
+He recognized the look which his opponent wore; he had seen it many a
+time before this, and knew what it indicated. As for Imogene, who could
+tell what went on in that determined breast? The close black veil
+revealed nothing. Mr. Orcutt impatiently turned back to his client.
+
+"I think you alarm yourself unnecessarily," he whispered. "Ferris means
+to fight, but what of that? He wouldn't be fit for his position if he
+didn't struggle to the last gasp even for a failing cause."
+
+Yet in saying this his lip took its sternest line, and from the glitter
+of his eye and the close contraction of his brow it looked as if he were
+polishing his own weapons for the conflict he thus unexpectedly saw
+before him.
+
+Meantime, across the court-room, another whispered conference was going
+on.
+
+"Hickory, where have you been ever since last night? I have not been
+able to find you anywhere."
+
+"I was on duty; I had a bird to look after."
+
+"A bird?"
+
+"Yes, a wild bird; one who is none too fond of its cage; a desperate one
+who might find means to force aside its bars and fly away."
+
+"What do you mean, Hickory? What nonsense is this?"
+
+"Look at Miss Dare and perhaps you will understand."
+
+"Miss Dare?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Horace's eyes opened in secret alarm.
+
+"Do you mean----"
+
+"I mean that I spent the whole night in tramping up and down in front of
+her window. And a dismal task it was too. Her lamp burned till
+daylight."
+
+Here the court was called to order and Byrd had only opportunity to ask:
+
+"Why does she wear a veil?"
+
+To which the other whisperingly retorted:
+
+"Why did she spend the whole night in packing up her worldly goods and
+writing a letter to the Congregational minister to be sent after the
+adjournment of court to-day?"
+
+"Did she do that?"
+
+"She did."
+
+"Hickory, don't _you_ know--haven't you been told what she is expected
+to say or do here to-day?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You only guess?"
+
+"No, I don't guess."
+
+"You fear, then?"
+
+"Fear! Well, that's a big word to a fellow like me. I don't know as I
+fear any thing; I'm curious, that is all."
+
+Mr. Byrd drew back, looked over at Imogene, and involuntarily shook his
+head. What was in the mind of this mysterious woman? What direful
+purpose or shadow of doom lay behind the veil that separated her from
+the curiosity and perhaps the sympathy of the surrounding crowd? It was
+in vain to question; he could only wait in secret anxiety for the
+revelations which the next few minutes might bring.
+
+The defence having rested the night before, the first action of the
+Judge on the opening of the court was to demand whether the prosecution
+had any rebuttal testimony to offer.
+
+Mr. Ferris instantly rose.
+
+"Miss Dare, will you retake the stand," said he.
+
+Immediately Mr. Orcutt, who up to the last moment had felt his case as
+secure as if it had indeed been founded on a rock, bounded to his feet,
+white as the witness herself.
+
+"I object!" he cried. "The witness thus recalled by the counsel of the
+prosecution has had ample opportunity to lay before the court all the
+evidence in her possession. I submit it to the court whether my learned
+opponent should not have exhausted his witness before he rested his
+case."
+
+"Mr. Ferris," asked the Judge, turning to the District Attorney, "do you
+recall this witness for the purpose of introducing fresh testimony in
+support of your case or merely to disprove the defence?"
+
+"Your honor," was the District Attorney's reply, "I ought to say in
+fairness to my adversary and to the court, that since the case was
+closed a fact has come to my knowledge of so startling and conclusive a
+nature that I feel bound to lay it before the jury. From this witness
+alone can we hope to glean this fact; and as I had no information on
+which to base a question concerning it in her former examination, I beg
+the privilege of reopening my case to that extent."
+
+"Then the evidence you desire to submit is not in rebuttal?" queried the
+Judge.
+
+"I do not like to say that," rejoined the District Attorney, adroitly.
+"I think it may bear directly upon the question whether the prisoner
+could catch the train at Monteith Quarry if he left the widow's house
+after the murder. If the evidence I am about to offer be true, he
+certainly could."
+
+Thoroughly alarmed now and filled with the dismay which a mysterious
+threat is always calculated to produce, Mr. Orcutt darted a wild look of
+inquiry at Imogene, and finding her immovable behind her thick veil,
+turned about and confronted the District Attorney with a most sarcastic
+smile upon his blanched and trembling lips.
+
+"Does my learned friend suppose the court will receive any such
+ambiguous explanation as this? If the testimony sought from this witness
+is by way of rebuttal, let him say so; but if it is not, let him be
+frank enough to admit it, that I may in turn present my objections to
+the introduction of any irrelevant evidence at this time."
+
+"The testimony I propose to present through this witness _is_ in the way
+of rebuttal," returned Mr Ferris, severely. "The argument advanced by
+the defence, that the prisoner could not have left Mrs. Clemmens' house
+at ten minutes before twelve and arrived at Monteith Quarry Station at
+twenty minutes past one, is not a tenable one, and I purpose to prove it
+by this witness."
+
+Mr. Orcutt's look of anxiety changed to one of mingled amazement and
+incredulity.
+
+"By _this_ witness! You have chosen a peculiar one for the purpose," he
+ironically exclaimed, more and more shaken from his self-possession by
+the quiet bearing of his opponent, and the silent air of waiting which
+marked the stately figure of her whom, as he had hitherto believed, he
+thoroughly comprehended. "Your Honor," he continued, "I withdraw my
+objections; I should really like to hear how Miss Dare or any lady can
+give evidence on this point."
+
+And he sank back into his seat with a look at his client in which
+professional bravado strangely struggled with something even deeper than
+alarm.
+
+"This must be an exciting moment to the prisoner," whispered Hickory to
+Byrd.
+
+"So, so. But mark his control, will you? He is less cut up than Orcutt."
+
+"Look at his eyes, though. If any thing could pierce that veil of hers,
+you would think such a glance might."
+
+"Ah, he is trying his influence over her at last."
+
+"But it is too late."
+
+Meantime the District Attorney had signified again to Miss Dare his
+desire that she should take the stand. Slowly, and like a person in a
+dream, she arose, unloosed her veil, dragged it from before her set
+features, and stepped mechanically forward to the place assigned her.
+What was there in the face thus revealed that called down an
+instantaneous silence upon the court, and made the momentary pause that
+ensued memorable in the minds of all present? It was not that she was so
+pale, though her close-fitting black dress, totally unrelieved by any
+suspicion of white, was of a kind to bring out any startling change in
+her complexion; nor was there visible in her bearing any trace of the
+feverish excitement which had characterized it the evening before; yet
+of all the eyes that were fixed upon her--and there were many in that
+crowd whose only look a moment before had been one of heartless
+curiosity--there were none which were not filled with compassion and
+more or less dread.
+
+Meanwhile, she remained like a statue on the spot where she had taken
+her stand, and her eyes, which in her former examination had met the
+court with the unflinching gaze of an automaton, were lowered till the
+lashes swept her cheek.
+
+"Miss Dare," asked the District Attorney, as soon as he could recover
+from his own secret emotions of pity and regret, "will you tell us where
+you were at the hour of noon on the morning Mrs. Clemmens was murdered?"
+
+Before she could answer, before in fact her stiff and icy lips could
+part, Mr. Orcutt had risen impetuously to his feet, like a man bound to
+contend every step of the way with the unknown danger that menaced him.
+
+"I object!" he cried, in the changed voice of a deeply disturbed man,
+while those who had an interest in the prisoner at this juncture, could
+not but notice that he, too, showed signs of suppressed feeling, and for
+the first time since the beginning of the trial, absolutely found his
+self-command insufficient to keep down the rush of color that swept up
+to his swarthy cheek.
+
+"The question," continued Mr. Orcutt, "is not to elicit testimony in
+rebuttal."
+
+"Will my learned friend allow the witness to give her answer, instead of
+assuming what it is to be?"
+
+"I will not," retorted his adversary. "A child could see that such a
+question is not admissible at this stage of the case."
+
+"I am sure my learned friend would not wish me to associate _him_ with
+any such type of inexperience?" suggested Mr. Ferris, grimly.
+
+But the sarcasm, which at one time would have called forth a stinging
+retort from Mr. Orcutt, passed unheeded. The great lawyer was fighting
+for his life, for his heart's life, for the love and hand of Imogene--a
+recompense which at this moment her own unconsidered action, or the
+constraining power of a conscience of whose might he had already
+received such heart-rending manifestation, seemed about to snatch from
+his grasp forever. Turning to the Judge, he said:
+
+"I will not delay the case by bandying words with my esteemed friend,
+but appeal at once to the Court as to whether the whereabouts of Miss
+Dare on that fatal morning can have any thing to do with the defence we
+have proved."
+
+"Your Honor," commenced the District Attorney, calmly following the lead
+of his adversary, "I am ready to stake my reputation on the declaration
+that this witness is in possession of a fact that overturns the whole
+fabric of the defence. If the particular question I have made use of, in
+my endeavor to elicit this fact, is displeasing to my friend, I will
+venture upon another less ambiguous, if more direct and perhaps
+leading." And turning again to the witness, Mr. Ferris calmly inquired:
+
+"Did you or did you not see the prisoner on the morning of the assault,
+at a time distinctly known by you to be after ten minutes to twelve?"
+
+It was out. The line of attack meditated by Mr. Ferris was patent to
+everybody. A murmur of surprise and interest swept through the
+court-room, while Mr. Orcutt, who in spite of his vague fears was any
+thing but prepared for a thrust of this vital nature, started and cast
+short demanding looks from Imogene to Mansell, as if he would ask them
+what fact this was which through ignorance or presumption they had
+conspired to keep from him. The startled look which he surprised on the
+stern face of the prisoner, showed him there was every thing to fear in
+her reply, and bounding again to his feet, he was about to make some
+further attempt to stave off the impending calamity, when the rich voice
+of Imogene was heard saying:
+
+"Gentlemen, if you will allow me to tell my story unhindered, I think I
+shall soonest satisfy both the District Attorney and the counsel for the
+prisoner."
+
+And raising her eyes with a slow and heavy movement from the floor, she
+fixed them in a meaning way upon the latter.
+
+At once convinced that he had been unnecessarily alarmed, Mr. Orcutt
+sank back into his seat, and Imogene slowly proceeded.
+
+She commenced in a forced tone and with a sudden quick shudder that made
+her words come hesitatingly and with strange breaks: "I have been
+asked--two questions by Mr. Ferris--I prefer--to answer the first. He
+asked me--where I was at the hour Mrs. Clemmens was murdered."
+
+She paused so long one had time to count her breaths as they came in
+gasps to her white lips.
+
+"I have no further desire to hide from you the truth. I was with Mrs.
+Clemmens in her own house."
+
+At this acknowledgment so astonishing, and besides so totally different
+from the one he had been led to expect, Mr. Ferris started as if a
+thunder-bolt had fallen at his feet.
+
+"In Mrs. Clemmens' house!" he repeated, amid the excited hum of a
+hundred murmuring voices. "Did you say, in Mrs. Clemmens' house?"
+
+"Yes," she returned, with a wild, ironical smile that at once assured
+Mr. Ferris of his helplessness. "I am on oath _now_, and I assert that
+on the day and at the hour Mrs. Clemmens was murdered, I was in her
+house and in her dining-room. I had come there secretly," she proceeded,
+with a sudden feverish fluency that robbed Mr. Ferris of speech, and in
+fact held all her auditors spell-bound. "I had been spending an hour or
+so at Professor Darling's, whose house in West Side is, as many here
+know, at the very end of Summer Avenue, and close to the woods that run
+along back of Mrs. Clemmens' cottage. I had been sitting alone in the
+observatory, which is at the top of one of the towers, but being
+suddenly seized with a desire to see the widow and make that promised
+attempt at persuading her to reconsider her decision in regard to the
+money her--her--the prisoner wanted, I came down, and unknown to any
+one in the house, stole away to the woods and so to the widow's
+cottage. It was noon when I got there, or very near it, for her company,
+if she had had any, was gone, and she was engaged in setting the clock
+where----"
+
+Why did she pause? The District Attorney, utterly stupefied by his
+surprise, had made no sign; neither had Mr. Orcutt. Indeed, it looked as
+if the latter could not have moved, much less spoken, even if he had
+desired it. Thought, feeling, life itself, seemed to be at a standstill
+within him as he sat with a face like clay, waiting for words whose
+import he perhaps saw foreshadowed in her wild and terrible mien. But
+though his aspect was enough to stop her, it was not upon him she was
+gazing when the words tripped on her lips. It was upon the prisoner, on
+the man who up to this time had borne himself with such iron-like
+composure and reserve, but who now, with every sign of feeling and
+alarm, had started forward and stood surveying her, with his hand
+uplifted in the authoritative manner of a master.
+
+The next instant he sank back, feeling the eye of the Judge upon him;
+but the signal had been made, and many in that court-room looked to see
+Imogene falter or break down. But she, although fascinated, perhaps
+moved, by this hint of feeling from one who had hitherto met all the
+exigencies of the hour with a steady and firm composure, did not
+continue silent at his bidding. On the contrary, her purpose, whatever
+it was, seemed to acquire new force, for turning from him with a
+strange, unearthly glare on her face, she fixed her glances on the jury
+and went steadily on.
+
+"I have said," she began, "that Mrs. Clemmens was winding her clock.
+When I came in she stepped down, and a short and angry colloquy
+commenced between us. She did not like my coming there. She did not
+appreciate my interest in her nephew. She made me furious, frenzied,
+mad. I--I turned away--then I came back. She was standing with her face
+lifted toward her clock, as though she no longer heeded or remembered my
+presence. I--I don't know what came to me; whether it was hatred or love
+that maddened my brain--but----"
+
+She did not finish; she did not need to. The look she gave, the attitude
+she took, the appalling gesture which she made, supplied the place of
+language. In an instant Mr. Ferris, Mr. Orcutt, all the many and
+confused spectators who hung upon her words as if spell-bound, realized
+that instead of giving evidence inculpating the prisoner, she was giving
+evidence _accusing_ herself; that, in other words, Imogene Dare, goaded
+to madness by the fearful alternative of either destroying her lover or
+sacrificing herself, had yielded to the claims of her love or her
+conscience, and in hearing of judge and jury, proclaimed herself to be
+the murderess of Mrs. Clemmens.
+
+The moment that followed was frightful. The prisoner, who was probably
+the only man present who foresaw her intention when she began to speak,
+had sunk back into his seat and covered his face with his hands long
+before she reached the fatal declaration. But the spectacle presented
+by Mr. Orcutt was enough, as with eyes dilated and lips half parted in
+consternation, he stood before them a victim of overwhelming emotion; so
+overcome, indeed, as scarcely to be able to give vent to the one low and
+memorable cry that involuntarily left his lips as the full realization
+of what she had done smote home to his stricken breast.
+
+As for Mr. Ferris, he stood dumb, absolutely robbed of speech by this
+ghastly confession he had unwillingly called from his witness' lips;
+while slowly from end to end of that court-room the wave of horror
+spread, till Imogene, her cause, and that of the wretched prisoner
+himself, seemed swallowed up in one fearful tide of unreality and
+nightmare.
+
+The first gleam of relief came from the Judge.
+
+"Miss Dare," said he, in his slow, kindly way that nothing could impair,
+"do you realize the nature of the evidence you have given to the court?"
+
+Her slowly falling head and white face, from which all the fearful
+excitement was slowly ebbing in a dead despair, gave answer for her.
+
+"I fear that you are not in a condition to realize the effect of your
+words," the Judge went on. "Sympathy for the prisoner or the excitement
+of being recalled to the stand has unnerved or confused you. Take time,
+Miss Dare, the court will wait; reconsider your words, and then tell us
+the truth about this matter."
+
+But Imogene, with white lips and drooped head, answered hurriedly:
+
+"I have nothing to consider. I have told, or attempted to tell, how Mrs.
+Clemmens came to her death. She was struck down by me; Craik Mansell
+there is innocent."
+
+At this repetition in words of what she had before merely intimated by a
+gesture, the Judge ceased his questions, and the horror of the multitude
+found vent in one long, low, but irrepressible murmur. Taking advantage
+of the momentary disturbance, Byrd turned to his colleague with the
+agitated inquiry:
+
+"Hickory, is _this_ what you have had in your mind for the last few
+days?"
+
+"This," repeated the other, with an air of careful consideration,
+assumed, as Byrd thought, to conceal any emotion which he might have
+felt; "no, no, not really. I--I don't know what I thought. Not this
+though." And he fixed his eyes upon Imogene's fallen countenance, with
+an expression of mingled doubt and wonder, as baffling in its nature as
+the tone of voice he had used.
+
+"But," stammered Byrd, with an earnestness that almost partook of the
+nature of pleading, "she is not speaking the truth, of course. What we
+heard her say in the hut----"
+
+"Hush!" interposed the other, with a significant gesture and a sudden
+glance toward the prisoner and his counsel; "watching is better than
+talking just now. Besides, Orcutt is going to speak."
+
+It was so. After a short and violent conflict with the almost
+overwhelming emotions that had crushed upon him with the words and
+actions of Imogene, the great lawyer had summoned up sufficient control
+over himself to reassume the duties of his position and face once more
+the expectant crowd, and the startled, if not thoroughly benumbed, jury.
+
+His first words had the well-known ring, and, like a puff of cool air
+through a heated atmosphere, at once restored the court-room to its
+usual condition of formality and restraint.
+
+"This is not evidence, but the raving of frenzy," he said, in
+impassioned tones. "The witness has been tortured by the demands of the
+prosecution, till she is no longer responsible for her words." And
+turning toward the District Attorney, who, at the first sound of his
+adversary's voice, had roused himself from the stupor into which he had
+been thrown by the fearful and unexpected turn which Imogene's
+confession had taken, he continued: "If my learned friend is not lost to
+all feelings of humanity, he will withdraw from the stand a witness
+laboring under a mental aberration of so serious a nature."
+
+Mr. Ferris was an irritable man, but he was touched with sympathy for
+his friend, reeling under so heavy a blow. He therefore forbore to
+notice this taunt save by a low bow, but turned at once to the Judge.
+
+"Your Honor," said he, "I desire to be understood by the Court, that
+the statement which has just been made in your hearing by this witness,
+is as much of a surprise to me as to any one in this court-room. The
+fact which I proposed to elicit from her testimony was of an entirely
+different nature. In the conversation which we held last night----"
+
+But Mr. Orcutt, vacillating between his powerful concern for Imogene,
+and his duty to his client, would not allow the other to proceed.
+
+"I object," said he, "to any attempt at influencing the jury by the
+statement of any conversation which may have passed between the District
+Attorney and the witness. From its effects we may judge something of its
+nature, but with its details we have nothing to do."
+
+And raising his voice till it filled the room like a clarion, Mr. Orcutt
+said:
+
+"The moment is too serious for wrangling. A spectacle, the most terrible
+that can be presented to the eyes of man, is before you. A young,
+beautiful, and hitherto honored woman, caught in the jaws of a cruel
+fate and urged on by the emotions of her sex, which turn ever toward
+self-sacrifice, has, in a moment of mistaken zeal or frantic terror,
+allowed herself to utter words which sound like a criminal confession.
+May it please your Honor and Gentlemen of the Jury, this is an act to
+awaken compassion in the breast of every true man. Neither my client nor
+myself can regard it in any other light. Though his case were ten times
+more critical than it is, and condemnation awaited him at your hands
+instead of a triumphant acquittal, he is not the man I believe him, if
+he would consent to accept a deliverance founded upon utterances so
+manifestly frenzied and devoid of truth. I therefore repeat the
+objection I have before urged. I ask your Honor now to strike out all
+this testimony as irrelevant in rebuttal, and I beg our learned friend
+to close an examination as unprofitable to his own cause as to mine."
+
+"I agree with my friend," returned Mr. Ferris, "that the moment is one
+unfit for controversy. If it please the Court, therefore, I will
+withdraw the witness, though by so doing I am forced to yield all hope
+of eliciting the important fact I had relied upon to rebut the defence."
+
+And obedient to the bow of acquiescence he received from the Judge, the
+District Attorney turned to Miss Dare and considerately requested her to
+leave the stand.
+
+But she, roused by the sound of her name perhaps, looked up, and meeting
+the eye of the Judge, said:
+
+"Pardon me, your Honor, but I do not desire to leave the stand till I
+have made clear to all who hear me that it is I, not the prisoner, who
+am responsible for Mrs. Clemmens' death. The agony which I have been
+forced to undergo in giving testimony against him, has earned me the
+right to say the words that prove his innocence and my own guilt."
+
+"But," said the Judge, "we do not consider you in any condition to give
+testimony in court to-day, even against yourself. If what you say is
+true, you shall have ample opportunities hereafter to confirm and
+establish your statements, for you must know, Miss Dare, that no
+confession of this nature will be considered sufficient without
+testimony corroborative of its truth."
+
+"But, your Honor," she returned, with a dreadful calmness, "I have
+corroborative testimony." And amid the startled looks of all present,
+she raised her hand and pointed with steady forefinger at the astounded
+and by-no-means gratified Hickory. "Let that man be recalled," she
+cried, "and asked to repeat the conversation he had with a young
+servant-girl called Roxana, in Professor Darling's observatory some ten
+weeks ago."
+
+The suddenness of her action, the calm assurance with which it was made,
+together with the intention it evinced of summoning actual evidence to
+substantiate her confession, almost took away the breath of the
+assembled multitude. Even Mr. Orcutt seemed shaken by it, and stood
+looking from the outstretched hand of this woman he so adored, to the
+abashed countenance of the rough detective, with a wonder that for the
+first time betrayed the presence of alarm. Indeed, to him as to others,
+the moment was fuller of horror than when she made her first
+self-accusation, for what at that time partook of the vagueness of a
+dream, seemed to be acquiring the substance of an awful reality.
+
+Imogene alone remained unmoved. Still with her eyes fixed on Hickory,
+she continued:
+
+"He has not told you all he knows about this matter, any more than I. If
+my word needs corroboration, look to him."
+
+And taking advantage of the sensation which this last appeal occasioned,
+she waited where she was for the Judge to speak, with all the calmness
+of one who has nothing more to fear or hope for in this world.
+
+But the Judge sat aghast at this spectacle of youth and beauty insisting
+upon its own guilt, and neither Mr. Ferris nor Mr. Orcutt having words
+for this emergency, a silence, deep as the feeling which had been
+aroused, gradually settled over the whole court. It was fast becoming
+oppressive, when suddenly a voice, low but firm, and endowed with a
+strange power to awake and hold the attention, was heard speaking in
+that quarter of the room whence Mr. Orcutt's commanding tones had so
+often issued. It was an unknown voice, and for a minute a doubt seemed
+to rest upon the assembled crowd as to whom it belonged.
+
+But the change that had come into Imogene's face, as well as the
+character of the words that were uttered, soon convinced them it was the
+prisoner himself. With a start, every one turned in the direction of the
+dock. The sight that met their eyes seemed a fit culmination of the
+scene through which they had just passed. Erect, noble, as commanding in
+appearance and address as the woman who still held her place on the
+witness stand, Craik Mansell faced the judge and jury with a quiet,
+resolute, but courteous assurance, that seemed at once to rob him of
+the character of a criminal, and set him on a par with the able and
+honorable men by whom he was surrounded. Yet his words were not those of
+a belied man, nor was his plea one of innocence.
+
+"I ask pardon," he was saying, "for addressing the court directly; first
+of all, the pardon of my counsel, whose ability has never been so
+conspicuous as in this case, and whose just resentment, if he were less
+magnanimous and noble, I feel I am now about to incur."
+
+Mr. Orcutt turned to him a look of surprise and severity, but the
+prisoner saw nothing but the face of the Judge, and continued:
+
+"I would have remained silent if the disposition which your Honor and
+the District Attorney proposed to make of this last testimony were not
+in danger of reconsideration from the appeal which the witness has just
+made. I believe, with you, that her testimony should be disregarded. I
+intend, if I have the power, that it shall be disregarded."
+
+The Judge held up his hand, as if to warn the prisoner and was about to
+speak.
+
+"I entreat that I may be heard," said Mansell, with the utmost calmness.
+"I beg the Court not to imagine that I am about to imitate the witness
+in any sudden or ill-considered attempt at a confession. All I intend is
+that her self-accusation shall not derive strength or importance from
+any doubts of my guilt which may spring from the defence which has been
+interposed in my behalf."
+
+Mr. Orcutt, who, from the moment the prisoner began to speak, had given
+evidences of a great indecision as to whether he should allow his client
+to continue or not, started at these words, so unmistakably pointing
+toward a demolishment of his whole case, and hurriedly rose. But a
+glance at Imogene seemed to awaken a new train of thought, and he as
+hurriedly reseated himself.
+
+The prisoner, seeing he had nothing to fear from his counsel's
+interference, and meeting with no rebuke from the Judge, went calmly on:
+
+"Yesterday I felt differently in regard to this matter. If I could be
+saved from my fate by a defence seemingly so impregnable, I was willing
+to be so saved, but to-day I would be a coward and a disgrace to my sex
+if, in face of the generous action of this woman, I allowed a falsehood
+of whatever description to place her in peril, or to stand between me
+and the doom that probably awaits me. Sir," he continued, turning for
+the first time to Mr. Orcutt, with a gesture of profound respect, "you
+had been told that the path from Mrs. Clemmens' house to the bridge, and
+so on to Monteith Quarry Station, could not be traversed in ninety
+minutes, and you believed it. You were not wrong. It cannot be gone over
+in that time. But I now say to your Honor and to the jury, that the
+distance from my aunt's house to the Quarry Station can be made in that
+number of minutes if a way can be found to cross the river without
+going around by the bridge. I know," he proceeded, as a torrent of
+muttered exclamations rose on his ear, foremost among which was that of
+the much-discomfited Hickory, "that to many of you, to all of you,
+perhaps, all means for doing this seem to be lacking to the chance
+wayfarer, but if there were a lumberman here, he would tell you that the
+logs which are frequently floated down this stream to the station afford
+an easy means of passage to one accustomed to ride them, as I have been
+when a lad, during the year I spent in the Maine woods. At all events,
+it was upon a log that happened to be lodged against the banks, and
+which I pushed out into the stream by means of the 'pivy' or long spiked
+pole which I found lying in the grass at its side, that I crossed the
+river on that fatal day; and if the detective, who has already made such
+an effort to controvert the defence, will risk an attempt at this
+expedient for cutting short his route, I have no doubt he will be able
+to show you that a man can pass from Mrs. Clemmens' house to the station
+at Monteith Quarry, not only in ninety minutes, but in less, if the
+exigencies of the case seem to demand it. I did it."
+
+And without a glance at Imogene, but with an air almost lofty in its
+pride and manly assertion, the prisoner sank back into his seat, and
+resumed once more his quiet and unshaken demeanor.
+
+This last change in the kaleidoscope of events, that had been shifting
+before their eyes for the last half hour, was too much for the continued
+equanimity of a crowd already worked up into a state of feverish
+excitement. It had become apparent that by stripping away his defence,
+Mansell left himself naked to the law. In this excitement of the jury,
+consequent upon the self-accusation of Imogene, the prisoner's admission
+might prove directly fatal to him. He was on trial for this crime;
+public justice demanded blood for blood, and public excitement clamored
+for a victim. It was dangerous to toy with a feeling but one degree
+removed from the sentiment of a mob. The jury might not stop to
+sympathize with the self-abnegation of these two persons willing to die
+for each other. They might say: "The way is clear as to the prisoner at
+least; he has confessed his defence is false; the guilty interpose false
+defences; we are acquit before God and men if we convict him out of his
+own mouth."
+
+The crowd in the court-room was saying all this and more, each man to
+his neighbor. A clamor of voices next to impossible to suppress rose
+over the whole room, and not even the efforts of the officers of the
+court, exerted to their full power in the maintenance of order, could
+have hushed the storm, had not the spectators become mute with
+expectation at seeing Mr. Ferris and Mr. Orcutt, summoned by a sign from
+the Judge, advance to the front of the bench and engage in an earnest
+conference with the Court. A few minutes afterward the Judge turned to
+the jury and announced that the disclosures of the morning demanded a
+careful consideration by the prosecution, that an adjournment was
+undoubtedly indispensable, and that the jury should refrain from any
+discussion of the case, even among themselves, until it was finally
+given them under the charge of the Court. The jury expressed their
+concurrence by an almost unanimous gesture of assent, and the crier
+proclaimed an adjournment until the next day at ten o'clock.
+
+Imogene, still sitting in the witness chair, saw the prisoner led forth
+by the jailer without being able to gather, in the whirl of the moment,
+any indication that her dreadful sacrifice--for she had made wreck of
+her life in the eyes of the world whether her confession were true or
+false--had accomplished any thing save to drive the man she loved to the
+verge of that doom from which she had sought to deliver him.
+
+
+
+
+XXXV.
+
+PRO AND CON.
+
+  _Hamlet._--Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
+  _Polonius._--By the mass, and 'tis like a camel indeed.
+  _Hamlet._--Methinks it is like a weasel.
+  _Polonius._--It is back'd like a weasel.      --HAMLET.
+
+
+SHORTLY after the adjournment of court, Mr. Ferris summoned the two
+detectives to his office.
+
+"We have a serious question before us to decide," said he. "Are we to go
+on with the prosecution or are we to stop? I should like to hear your
+views on the subject."
+
+Hickory was, as usual, the first to speak.
+
+"I should say, stop," he cried. "This fresh applicant for the honor of
+having slain the Widow Clemmens deserves a hearing at least."
+
+"But," hurriedly interposed Byrd, "you don't give any credit to her
+story now, even if you did before the prisoner spoke? You know she did
+not commit the crime herself, whatever she may choose to declare in her
+anxiety to shield the prisoner. I hope, sir," he proceeded, glancing at
+the District Attorney, "that _you_ have no doubts as to Miss Dare's
+innocence?"
+
+But Mr. Ferris, instead of answering, turned to Hickory and said:
+
+"Miss Dare, in summoning you to confirm her statement, relied, I
+suppose, upon the fact of your having been told by Professor Darling's
+servant-maid that she--that is, Miss Dare--was gone from the observatory
+when the girl came for her on the morning of the murder?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"A strong corroborative fact, if true?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"But is it true? In the explanation which Miss Dare gave me last night
+of this affair, she uttered statements essentially different from those
+she made in court to-day. She then told me she _was_ in the observatory
+when the girl came for her; that she was looking through a telescope
+which was behind a high rack filled with charts; and that---- Why do you
+start?"
+
+"I didn't start," protested Hickory.
+
+"I beg your pardon," returned Mr. Ferris.
+
+"Well, then, if I did make such a fool of myself, it was because so far
+her story is plausible enough. She was in that very position when _I_
+visited the observatory, you remember, and she was so effectually
+concealed I didn't see her or know she was there, till I looked behind
+the rack."
+
+"Very good!" interjected Mr. Ferris. "And that," he resumed, "she did
+not answer the girl or make known her presence, because at the moment
+the girl came in she was deeply interested in watching something that
+was going on in the town."
+
+"In the town!" repeated Byrd.
+
+"Yes; the telescope was lowered so as to command a view of the town, and
+she had taken advantage of its position (as she assured me last night)
+to consult the church clock."
+
+"The church clock!" echoed Byrd once more. "And what time did she say it
+was?" breathlessly cried both detectives.
+
+"Five minutes to twelve."
+
+"A critical moment," ejaculated Byrd. "And what was it she saw going on
+in the town at that especial time?"
+
+"I will tell you," returned the District Attorney, impressively. "She
+said--and I believed her last night and so recalled her to the stand
+this morning--that she saw Craik Mansell fleeing toward the swamp from
+Mrs. Clemmens' dining-room door."
+
+Both men looked up astonished.
+
+"That was what she told me last night. To-day she comes into court with
+this contradictory story of herself being the assailant and sole cause
+of Mrs. Clemmens' death."
+
+"But all that is frenzy," protested Byrd. "She probably saw from your
+manner that the prisoner was lost if she gave this fact to the court,
+and her mind became disordered. She evidently loves this Mansell, and as
+for me, I pity her."
+
+"So do I," assented the District Attorney; "still----"
+
+"Is it possible," Byrd interrupted, with feeling, as Mr. Ferris
+hesitated, "that you do doubt her innocence? After the acknowledgments
+made by the prisoner too?"
+
+Rising from his seat, Mr. Ferris began slowly to pace the floor.
+
+"I should like each of you," said he, without answering the appeal of
+Byrd, "to tell me why I should credit what she told me in conversation
+last night rather than what she uttered upon oath in the court-room
+to-day?"
+
+"Let me speak first," rejoined Byrd, glancing at Hickory. And, rising
+also, he took his stand against the mantel-shelf where he could
+partially hide his face from those he addressed. "Sir," he proceeded,
+after a moment, "both Hickory and myself know Miss Dare to be innocent
+of this murder. A circumstance which we have hitherto kept secret, but
+which in justice to Miss Dare I think we are now bound to make known,
+has revealed to us the true criminal. Hickory, tell Mr. Ferris of the
+deception you practised upon Miss Dare in the hut."
+
+The surprised, but secretly gratified, detective at once complied. _He_
+saw no reason for keeping quiet about that day's work. He told how, by
+means of a letter purporting to come from Mansell, he had decoyed
+Imogene to an interview in the hut, where, under the supposition she was
+addressing her lover, she had betrayed her conviction of his guilt, and
+advised him to confess it.
+
+Mr. Ferris listened with surprise and great interest.
+
+"That seems to settle the question," he said.
+
+But it was now Hickory's turn to shake his head.
+
+"I don't know," he remonstrated. "I have sometimes thought she saw
+through the trick and turned it to her own advantage."
+
+"How to her own advantage?"
+
+"To talk in such a way as to make us think Mansell was guilty."
+
+"Stuff!" said Byrd; "that woman?"
+
+"More unaccountable things have happened," was the weak reply of
+Hickory, his habitual state of suspicion leading him more than once into
+similar freaks of folly.
+
+"Sir," said Mr. Byrd, confidingly, to the District Attorney, "let us run
+over this matter from the beginning. Starting with the supposition that
+the explanation she gave you last night was the true one, let us see if
+the whole affair does not hang together in a way to satisfy us all as to
+where the real guilt lies. To begin, then, with the meeting in the
+woods----"
+
+"Wait," interrupted Hickory; "there is going to be an argument here; so
+suppose you give your summary of events from the lady's standpoint, as
+that seems to be the one which interests you most."
+
+"I was about to do so," Horace assured him, heedless of the rough
+fellow's good-natured taunt. "To make my point, it is absolutely
+necessary for us to transfer ourselves into her position and view
+matters as they gradually unfolded themselves before her eyes. First,
+then, as I have before suggested, let us consider the interview held by
+this man and woman in the woods. Miss Dare, as we must remember, was not
+engaged to Mr. Mansell; she only loved him. Their engagement, to say
+nothing of their marriage, depended upon his success in life--a success
+which to them seemed to hang solely upon the decision of Mrs. Clemmens
+concerning the small capital he desired her to advance him. But in the
+interview which Mansell had held with his aunt previous to the meeting
+between the lovers, Mrs. Clemmens had refused to loan him this money,
+and Miss Dare, whose feelings we are endeavoring to follow, found
+herself beset by the entreaties of a man who, having failed in his plans
+for future fortune, feared the loss of her love as well. What was the
+natural consequence? Rebellion against the widow's decision, of
+course,--a rebellion which she showed by the violent gesture which she
+made;--and then a determination to struggle for her happiness, as she
+evinced when, with most unhappy ambiguity of expression, she begged him
+to wait till the next day before pressing his ring upon her acceptance,
+because, as she said:
+
+"'A night has been known to change the whole current of a person's
+affairs.'
+
+"To her, engrossed with the one idea of making a personal effort to
+alter Mrs. Clemmens' mind on the money question, these words seemed
+innocent enough. But the look with which he received them, and the pause
+that followed, undoubtedly impressed her, and prepared the way for the
+interest she manifested when, upon looking through the telescope the
+next day, she saw him flying in that extraordinary way from his aunt's
+cottage toward the woods. Not that she then thought of his having
+committed a crime. As I trace her mental experience, she did not come to
+that conclusion till it was forced upon her. I do not know, and so
+cannot say, how she first heard of the murder----"
+
+"She was told of it on the street-corner," interpolated Mr. Ferris.
+
+"Ah, well, then, fresh from this vision of her lover hasting from his
+aunt's door to hide himself in the woods beyond, she came into town and
+was greeted by the announcement that Mrs. Clemmens had just been
+assaulted by a tramp in her own house. I know this was the way in which
+the news was told her, from the expression of her face as she entered
+the house. I was standing at the gate, you remember, when she came up,
+and her look had in it determination and horror, but no special fear. In
+fact, the words she dropped show the character of her thoughts at that
+time. She distinctly murmured in my hearing: 'No good can come of it,
+none.' As if her mind were dwelling upon the advantages which might
+accrue to her lover from his aunt's death, and weighing them against the
+foul means by which that person's end had been hastened. Yet I will not
+say but she may have been influenced in the course which she took by
+some doubt or apprehension of her own. The fact that she came to the
+house at all, and, having come, insisted upon knowing all the details
+of the assault, seem to prove she was not without a desire to satisfy
+herself that suspicion rightfully attached itself to the tramp. But not
+until she saw her lover's ring on the floor (the ring which she had with
+her own hand dropped into the pocket of his coat the day before) and
+heard that the tramp had justified himself and was no longer considered
+the assailant, did her true fear and horror come. Then, indeed, all the
+past rose up before her, and, believing her lover guilty of this crime,
+she laid claim to the jewel as the first and only alternative that
+offered by which she might stand between him and the consequences of his
+guilt. Her subsequent agitation when the dying woman made use of the
+exclamation that indissolubly connected the crime with a ring, speaks
+for itself. Nor was her departure from the house any too hurried or
+involuntary, when you consider that the vengeance invoked by the widow,
+was, in Miss Dare's opinion, called down upon one to whom she had nearly
+plighted her troth. What is the next act in the drama? The scene in the
+Syracuse depot. Let me see if I cannot explain it. A woman who has once
+allowed herself to suspect the man she loves of a murderous deed, cannot
+rest till she has either convinced herself that her suspicions are
+false, or until she has gained such knowledge of the truth as makes her
+feel justified in her seeming treason. A woman of Miss Dare's generous
+nature especially. What does she do, then? With the courage that
+characterizes all her movements, she determines upon seeing him, and
+from his own lips, perhaps, win a confession of guilt or innocence.
+Conceiving that his flight was directed toward the Quarry Station, and
+thence to Buffalo, she embraced the first opportunity to follow him to
+the latter place. As I have told you, her ticket was bought for Buffalo,
+and to Buffalo she evidently intended going. But chancing to leave the
+cars at Syracuse, she was startled by encountering in the depot the very
+man with whom she had been associating thoughts of guilt. Shocked and
+thrown off her guard by the unexpectedness of the occurrence, she
+betrays her shrinking and her horror. 'Were you coming to see me?' she
+asks, and recoils, while he, conscious at the first glimpse of her face
+that his guilt has cost him her love, starts back also, uttering, in his
+shame and despair, words that were similar to hers, 'Were you coming to
+see me?'"
+
+"Convinced without further speech, that her worst fears had foundation
+in fact, she turns back toward her home. The man she loved had committed
+a crime. That it was partly for her sake only increased her horror
+sevenfold. She felt as if she were guilty also, and, with sudden
+remorse, remembered how, instead of curbing his wrath the day before she
+had inflamed it by her words, if not given direction to it by her
+violent gestures. That fact, and the self-blame it produced, probably is
+the cause why her love did not vanish with her hopes. Though he was
+stained by guilt, she felt that it was the guilt of a strong nature
+driven from its bearings by the conjunction of two violent
+passions,--ambition and love; and she being passionate and ambitious
+herself, remained attached to the man while she recoiled from his crime.
+
+"This being so, she could not, as a woman, wish him to suffer the
+penalty of his wickedness. Though lost to her, he must not be lost to
+the world. So, with the heroism natural to such a nature, she shut the
+secret up in her own breast, and faced her friends with courage,
+wishing, if not hoping, that the matter would remain the mystery it
+promised to be when she stood with us in the presence of the dying
+woman.
+
+"But this was not to be, for suddenly, in the midst of her complacency,
+fell the startling announcement that another man--an innocent man--one,
+too, of her lover's own standing, if not hopes, had by a curious
+conjunction of events so laid himself open to the suspicion of the
+authorities as to be actually under arrest for this crime. 'Twas a
+danger she had not foreseen, a result for which she was not prepared.
+
+"Startled and confounded she let a few days go by in struggle and
+indecision, possibly hoping, with the blind trust of her sex, that Mr.
+Hildreth would be released without her interference. But Mr. Hildreth
+was not released, and her anxiety was fast becoming unendurable, when
+that decoy letter sent by Hickory reached her, awakening in her breast
+for the first time, perhaps, the hope that Mansell would show himself to
+be a true man in this extremity, and by a public confession of guilt
+release her from the task of herself supplying the information which
+would lead to his commitment.
+
+"And, perhaps, if it had really fallen to the lot of Mansell to confront
+her in the hut and listen to her words of adjuration and appeal, he
+might have been induced to consent to her wishes. But a detective sat
+there instead of her lover, and the poor woman lived to see the days go
+by without any movement being made to save Mr. Hildreth. At last--was it
+the result of the attempt made by this man upon his life?--she put an
+end to the struggle by acting for herself. Moved by a sense of duty,
+despite her love, she sent the letter which drew attention to her lover,
+and paved the way for that trial which has occupied our attention for so
+many days. But--mark this, for I think it is the only explanation of her
+whole conduct--the sense of justice that upheld her in this duty was
+mingled with the hope that her lover would escape conviction if he did
+not trial. The one fact which told the most against him--I allude to his
+flight from his aunt's door on the morning of the murder, as observed by
+her through the telescope--was as yet a secret in her own breast, and
+there she meant it to remain unless it was drawn forth by actual
+question. But it was not a fact likely to be made the subject of
+question, and drawing hope from that consideration, she prepared herself
+for the ordeal before her, determined, as I actually believe, to answer
+with truth all the inquiries that were put to her.
+
+"But in an unexpected hour she learned that the detectives were anxious
+to know where she was during the time of the murder. She heard Hickory
+question Professor Darling's servant-girl, as to whether she was still
+in the observatory, and at once feared that her secret was discovered.
+Feared, I say--I conjecture this,--but what I do not conjecture is that
+with the fear, or doubt, or whatever emotion it was she cherished, a
+revelation came of the story she might tell if worst came to worst, and
+she found herself forced to declare what she saw when the clock stood at
+five minutes to twelve on that fatal day. Think of your conversation
+with the girl Roxana," he went on to Hickory, "and then think of that
+woman crouching behind the rack, listening to your words, and see if you
+can draw any other conclusion from the expression of her face than that
+of triumph at seeing a way to deliver her lover at the sacrifice of
+herself."
+
+As Byrd waited for a reply, Hickory reluctantly acknowledged:
+
+"Her look was a puzzler, that I will allow. She seemed glad----"
+
+"There," cried Byrd, "you say she seemed glad; that is enough. Had she
+had the weight of this crime upon her conscience, she would have
+betrayed a different emotion from that. I pray you to consider the
+situation," he proceeded, turning to the District Attorney, "for on it
+hangs your conviction of her innocence. First, imagine her guilty. What
+would her feelings be, as, hiding unseen in that secret corner, she
+hears a detective's voice inquiring where she was when the fatal blow
+was struck, and hears the answer given that she was not where she was
+supposed to be, but in the woods--the woods which she and every one know
+lead so directly to Mrs. Clemmens' house, she could without the least
+difficulty hasten there and back in the hour she was observed to be
+missing? Would she show gladness or triumph even of a wild or delirious
+order? No, even Hickory cannot say she would. Now, on the contrary, see
+her as I do, crouched there in the very place before the telescope which
+she occupied when the girl came to the observatory before, but unseen
+now as she was unseen then, and watch the change that takes place in her
+countenance as she hears question and answer and realizes what
+confirmation she would receive from this girl if she ever thought fit to
+declare that she was not in the observatory when the girl sought her
+there on the day of the murder. That by this act she would bring
+execration if not death upon herself, she does not stop to consider. Her
+mind is full of what she can do for her lover, and she does not think of
+herself.
+
+"But an enthusiasm like this is too frenzied to last. As time passes by
+and Craik Mansell is brought to trial, she begins to hope she may be
+spared this sacrifice. She therefore responds with perfect truth when
+summoned to the stand to give evidence, and does not waver, though
+question after question is asked her, whose answers cannot fail to show
+the state of her mind in regard to the prisoner's guilt. Life and honor
+are sweet even to one in her condition; and if her lover could be saved
+without falsehood it was her natural instinct to avoid it.
+
+"And it looked as if he would be saved. A defence both skilful and
+ingenious had been advanced for him by his counsel--a defence which only
+the one fact so securely locked in her bosom could controvert. You can
+imagine, then, the horror and alarm which must have seized her when, in
+the very hour of hope, you approached her with the demand which proved
+that her confidence in her power to keep silence had been premature, and
+that the alternative was yet to be submitted to her of destroying her
+lover or sacrificing herself. Yet, because a great nature does not
+succumb without a struggle, she tried even now the effect of the truth
+upon you, and told you the one fact she considered so detrimental to the
+safety of her lover.
+
+"The result was fatal. Though I cannot presume to say what passed
+between you, I can imagine how the change in your countenance warned her
+of the doom she would bring upon Mansell if she went into court with the
+same story she told you. Nor do I find it difficult to imagine how, in
+one of her history and temperament, a night of continuous brooding over
+this one topic should have culminated in the act which startled us so
+profoundly in the court-room this morning. Love, misery, devotion are
+not mere names to her, and the greatness which sustained her through the
+ordeal of denouncing her lover in order that an innocent man might be
+relieved from suspicion, was the same that made it possible for her to
+denounce herself that she might redeem the life she had thus
+deliberately jeopardized.
+
+"That she did this with a certain calmness and dignity proves it to have
+been the result of design. A murderess forced by conscience into
+confession would not have gone into the details of her crime, but
+blurted out her guilt, and left the details to be drawn from her by
+question. Only the woman anxious to tell her story with the plausibility
+necessary to insure its belief would have planned and carried on her
+confession as she did.
+
+"The action of the prisoner, in face of this proof of devotion, though
+it might have been foreseen by a man, was evidently not foreseen by her.
+To me, who watched her closely at the time, her face wore a strange look
+of mingled satisfaction and despair,--satisfaction in having awakened
+his manhood, despair at having failed in saving him. But it is not
+necessary for me to dilate on this point. If I have been successful in
+presenting before you the true condition of her mind during this
+struggle, you will see for yourself what her feelings must be now that
+her lover has himself confessed to a fact, to hide which she made the
+greatest sacrifice of which mortal is capable."
+
+Mr. Ferris, who, during this lengthy and exhaustive harangue, had sat
+with brooding countenance and an anxious mien, roused himself as the
+other ceased, and glanced with a smile at Hickory.
+
+"Well," said he, "that's good reasoning; now let us hear how you will go
+to work to demolish it."
+
+The cleared brow, the playful tone of the District Attorney showed the
+relieved state of his mind. Byrd's arguments had evidently convinced him
+of the innocence of Imogene Dare.
+
+Hickory, seeing it, shook his head with a gloomy air.
+
+"Sir," said he, "I can't demolish it. If I could tell why Mansell fled
+from Widow Clemmens' house at five minutes to twelve I might be able to
+do so, but that fact stumps me. It is an act consistent with guilt. It
+may be consistent with innocence, but, as we don't know all the facts,
+we can't say so. But this I do know, that my convictions with regard to
+that man have undergone a change. I now as firmly believe in his
+innocence as I once did in his guilt."
+
+"What has produced the change?" asked Mr. Ferris.
+
+"Well," said Hickory, "it all lies in this. From the day I heard Miss
+Dare accuse him so confidently in the hut, I believed him guilty; from
+the moment he withdrew his defence, I believed him innocent."
+
+Mr. Ferris and Mr. Byrd looked at him astonished. He at once brought
+down his fist in vigorous assertion on the table.
+
+"I tell you," said he, "that Craik Mansell is innocent. The truth is, he
+believes Miss Dare guilty, and so stands his trial, hoping to save her."
+
+"And be hung for her crime?" asked Mr. Ferris.
+
+"No; he thinks his innocence will save him, in spite of the evidence on
+which we got him indicted."
+
+But the District Attorney protested at this.
+
+"That can't be," said he; "Mansell has withdrawn the only defence he
+had."
+
+"On the contrary," asserted Hickory, "that very thing only proves my
+theory true. He is still determined to save Miss Dare by every thing
+short of a confession of his own guilt. He won't lie. That man is
+innocent."
+
+"And Miss Dare is guilty?" said Byrd.
+
+"Shall I make it clear to you in the way it has become clear to Mr.
+Mansell?"
+
+As Byrd only answered by a toss of his head, Hickory put his elbows on
+the table, and checking off every sentence with the forefinger of his
+right hand, which he pointed at Mr. Ferris' shirt-stud, as if to instil
+from its point conviction into that gentleman's bosom, he proceeded with
+the utmost composure as follows:
+
+"To commence, then, with the scene in the woods. He meets her. She is as
+angry at his aunt as he is. What does she do? She strikes the tree with
+her hand, and tells him to wait till to-morrow, since a night has been
+known to change the whole current of a person's affairs. Now tell me
+what does that mean? Murder? If so, she was the one to originate it. He
+can't forget that. It has stamped itself upon Mansell's memory, and
+when, after the assassination of Mrs. Clemmens, he recalls those words,
+he is convinced that she has slain Mrs. Clemmens to help him."
+
+"But, Mr. Hickory," objected Mr. Ferris, "this assumes that Mr. Mansell
+is innocent, whereas we have exceedingly cogent proof that he is the
+guilty party. There is the circumstance of his leaving Widow Clemmens'
+house at five minutes to twelve."
+
+To which Hickory, with a twinkle in his eye, replied:
+
+"I won't discuss that; it hasn't been proved, you know. Miss Dare told
+you she saw him do this, but she wouldn't swear to it. Nothing is to be
+taken for granted against my man."
+
+"Then you think Miss Dare spoke falsely?"
+
+"I don't say that. I believe that whatever he did could be explained if
+we knew as much about it as he does. But I'm not called upon to explain
+any thing which has not appeared in the evidence against him."
+
+"Well, then, we'll take the evidence. There is his ring, found on the
+scene of murder."
+
+"Exactly," rejoined Hickory. "Dropped there, as he must suppose, by Miss
+Dare, because he didn't know she had secretly restored it to his
+pocket."
+
+Mr. Ferris smiled.
+
+"You don't see the force of the evidence," said he. "As she _had_
+restored it to his pocket, he must have been the one to drop it there."
+
+"I am willing to admit he dropped it there, not that he killed Mrs.
+Clemmens. I am now speaking of his suspicions as to the assassin. When
+the betrothal ring was found there, he suspects Miss Dare of the crime,
+and nothing has occurred to change his suspicions."
+
+"But," said the District Attorney, "how does your client, Mr. Mansell,
+get over this difficulty; that Miss Dare, who has committed a murder to
+put five thousand dollars into his pocket, immediately afterward turns
+round and accuses him of the crime--nay more, furnishes evidence against
+him!"
+
+"You can't expect the same consistency from a woman as from a man. They
+can nerve themselves up one moment to any deed of desperation, and take
+every pains the next to conceal it by a lie."
+
+"Men will do the same; then why not Mansell?"
+
+"I am showing you why I know that Mansell believes Miss Dare guilty of a
+murder. To continue, then. What does he do when he hears that his aunt
+has been murdered? He scratches out the face of Miss Dare in a
+photograph; he ties up her letters with a black ribbon as if she were
+dead and gone to him. Then the scene in the Syracuse depot! The rule of
+three works both ways, Mr. Byrd, and if she left her home to solve _her_
+doubts, what shall be said of him? The recoil, too--was it less on his
+part than hers? And, if she had cause to gather guilt from his manner,
+had he not as much cause to gather it from hers? If his mind was full of
+suspicion when he met her, it became conviction before he left; and,
+bearing that fact in your mind, watch how he henceforth conducted
+himself. He does not come to Sibley; the woman he fears to encounter is
+there. He hears of Mr. Hildreth's arrest, reads of the discoveries which
+led to it, and keeps silent. So would any other man have done in his
+place, at least till he saw whether this arrest was likely to end in
+trial. But he cannot forget he had been in Sibley on the fatal day, or
+that there may be some one who saw his interview with Miss Dare. When
+Byrd comes to him, therefore, and tells him he is wanted in Sibley, his
+first question is, 'Am I wanted as a witness?' and, even you have
+acknowledged, Mr. Ferris, that he seemed surprised to find himself
+accused of the crime. But, accused, he takes his course and keeps to it.
+Brought to trial, he remembers the curious way in which he crossed the
+river, and thus cut short the road to the station; and, seeing in it
+great opportunities for a successful defence, chooses Mr. Orcutt for his
+counsel, and trusts the secret to him. The trial goes on; acquittal
+seems certain, when suddenly she is recalled to the stand, and he hears
+words which make him think she is going to betray him by some falsehood,
+when, instead of following the lead of the prosecution, she launches
+into a personal confession. What does he do? Why, rise and hold up his
+hand in a command for her to stop. But she does not heed, and the rest
+follows as a matter of course. The life she throws away he will not
+accept. He is innocent, but his defence is false! He says so, and leaves
+the jury to decide on the verdict. There can be no doubt," Hickory
+finally concluded, "that some of these circumstances are consistent
+only with his belief that Miss Dare is a murderess: such, for instance,
+as his scratching out her face in the picture. Others favor the theory
+in a less degree, but this is what I want to impress upon both your
+minds," he declared, turning first to Mr. Ferris and then to Mr. Byrd:
+"_If any fact, no matter how slight, leads us to the conviction that
+Craik Mansell, at any time after the murder, entertained the belief that
+Miss Dare committed it, his innocence follows as a matter of course. For
+the guilty could never entertain a belief in the guilt of any other
+person._"
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Ferris, "I admit that, but we have got to see into Mr.
+Mansell's mind before we can tell what his belief really was."
+
+"No," was Hickory's reply; "let us look at his actions. I say that that
+defaced picture is conclusive. One day he loves that woman and wants her
+to marry him; the next, he defaces her picture. Why? She had not
+offended him. Not a word, not a line, passes between them to cause him
+to commit this act. But he does hear of his aunt's murder, and he does
+recall her sinister promise: 'Wait; there is no telling what a day will
+bring forth.' I say that no other cause for his act is shown except his
+conviction that she is a murderess."
+
+"But," persisted Mr. Ferris, "his leaving the house, as he acknowledges
+he did, by this unfrequented and circuitous road?"
+
+"I have said before that I cannot explain his presence there, or his
+flight. All I am now called upon to show is, some fact inconsistent with
+any thing except a belief in this young woman's guilt. I claim I have
+shown it, and, as you admit, Mr. Ferris, if I show _that_, he is
+innocent."
+
+"Yes," said Byrd, speaking for the first time; "but we have heard of
+people manufacturing evidence in their own behalf."
+
+"Come, Byrd," replied Hickory, "you don't seriously mean to attack my
+position with that suggestion. How could a man dream of manufacturing
+evidence of such a character? A murderer manufactures evidence to throw
+suspicion on other people. No fool could suppose that scratching out the
+face of a girl in a photograph and locking it up in his own desk, would
+tend to bring her to the scaffold, or save him from it."
+
+"And, yet," rejoined Byrd, "that very act acquits him in your eyes. All
+that is necessary is to give him credit for being smart enough to
+foresee that it would have such a tendency in the eyes of any person who
+discovered the picture."
+
+"Then," said Hickory, "he would also have to foresee that she would
+accuse herself of murder when he was on trial for it, and that he would
+thereupon withdraw his defence. Byrd, you are foreseeing too much. My
+friend Mansell possesses no such power of looking into the future as
+that."
+
+"Your friend Mansell!" repeated Mr. Ferris, with a smile. "If you were
+on his jury, I suppose your bias in his favor would lead you to acquit
+him of this crime?"
+
+"I should declare him 'Not guilty,' and stick to it, if I had to be
+locked up for a year."
+
+Mr. Ferris sank into an attitude of profound thought. Horace Byrd,
+impressed by this, looked at him anxiously.
+
+"Have your convictions been shaken by Hickory's ingenious theory?" he
+ventured to inquire at last.
+
+Mr. Ferris abstractedly replied:
+
+"This is no time for me to state my convictions. It is enough that you
+comprehend my perplexity." And, relapsing into his former condition, he
+remained for a moment wrapped in silence, then he said: "Byrd, how comes
+it that the humpback who excited so much attention on the day of the
+murder was never found?"
+
+Byrd, astonished, surveyed the District Attorney with a doubtful look
+that gradually changed into one of quiet satisfaction as he realized the
+significance of this recurrence to old theories and suspicions. His
+answer, however, was slightly embarrassed in tone, though frank enough
+to remind one of Hickory's blunt-spoken admissions.
+
+"Well," said he, "I suppose the main reason is that I made no attempt to
+find him."
+
+"Do you think that you were wise in that, Mr. Byrd?" inquired Mr.
+Ferris, with some severity.
+
+Horace laughed.
+
+"I can find him for you to-day, if you want him," he declared.
+
+"You can? You know him, then?"
+
+"Very well. Mr. Ferris," he courteously remarked, "I perhaps should have
+explained to you at the time, that I recognized this person and knew him
+to be an honest man; but the habits of secrecy in our profession are so
+fostered by the lives we lead, that we sometimes hold our tongue when it
+would be better for us to speak. The humpback who talked with us on the
+court-house steps the morning Mrs. Clemmens was murdered, was not what
+he seemed, sir. He was a detective; a detective in disguise; a man with
+whom I never presume to meddle--in other words, our famous Mr. Gryce."
+
+"Gryce!--that man!" exclaimed Mr. Ferris, astounded.
+
+"Yes, sir. He was in disguise, probably for some purpose of his own, but
+I knew his eye. Gryce's eye isn't to be mistaken by any one who has much
+to do with him."
+
+"And that famous detective was actually on the spot at the time this
+murder was discovered, and you let him go without warning me of his
+presence?"
+
+"Sir," returned Mr. Byrd, "neither you nor I nor any one at that time
+could foresee what a serious and complicated case this was going to be.
+Besides, he did not linger in this vicinity, but took the cars only a
+few minutes after he parted from us. I did not think he wanted to be
+dragged into this affair unless it was necessary. He had important
+matters of his own to look after. However, if suspicion had continued to
+follow him, I should have notified him of the fact, and let him speak
+for himself. But it vanished so quickly in the light of other
+developments, I just let the matter drop."
+
+The impatient frown with which Mr. Ferris received this acknowledgment
+showed he was not pleased.
+
+"I think you made a mistake," said he. Then, after a minute's thought,
+added: "You have seen Gryce since?"
+
+"Yes, sir; several times."
+
+"And he acknowledged himself to have been the humpback?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You must have had some conversation with him, then, about this murder?
+He was too nearly concerned in it not to take some interest in the
+affair?"
+
+"Yes, sir; Gryce takes an interest in all murder cases."
+
+"Well, then, what did he have to say about this one? He gave an opinion,
+I suppose?"
+
+"No, sir. Gryce never gives an opinion without study, and we detectives
+have no time to study up an affair not our own. If you want to know what
+Gryce thinks about a crime, you have got to put the case into his
+hands."
+
+Mr. Ferris paused and seemed to ruminate. Seeing this, Mr. Byrd flushed
+and cast a side glance at Hickory, who returned him an expressive shrug.
+
+"Mr. Ferris," ventured the former, "if you wish to consult with Mr.
+Gryce on this matter, do not hesitate because of us. Both Hickory and
+myself acknowledge we are more or less baffled by this case, and Gryce's
+judgment is a good thing to have in a perplexity."
+
+"You think so?" queried the District Attorney.
+
+"I do," said Byrd.
+
+Mr. Ferris glanced at Hickory.
+
+"Oh, have the old man here if you want him," was that detective's blunt
+reply. "I have nothing to say against your getting all the light you can
+on this affair."
+
+"Very good," returned Mr. Ferris. "You may give me his address before
+you go."
+
+"His address for to-night is Utica," observed Byrd. "He could be here
+before morning, if you wanted him."
+
+"I am in no such hurry as that," returned Mr. Ferris, and he sank again
+into thought.
+
+The detectives took advantage of his abstraction to utter a few private
+condolences in each other's ears.
+
+"So it seems we are to be laid on the shelf," whispered Hickory.
+
+"Yes, for which let us be thankful," answered Byrd.
+
+"Why? Are you getting tired of the affair?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+A humorous twinkle shone for a minute in Hickory's eye.
+
+"Pooh!" said he, "it's just getting interesting."
+
+"Opinions differ," quoth Byrd.
+
+"Not much," retorted Hickory.
+
+Something in the way he said this made Byrd look at him more intently.
+He instantly changed his tone.
+
+"Old fellow," said he, "you don't believe Miss Dare committed this crime
+any more than I do."
+
+A sly twinkle answered him from the detective's half-shut eye.
+
+"All that talk of having seen through your disguise in the hut is just
+nonsense on your part to cover up your real notion about it. What is
+that notion, Hickory? Come, out with it; let us understand each other
+thoroughly at last."
+
+"Do I understand you?"
+
+"You shall, when you tell me just what your convictions are in this
+matter."
+
+"Well, then," replied Hickory, with a short glance at Mr. Ferris, "I
+believe (it's hard as pulling teeth to own it) that neither of them did
+it: that she thought him guilty and he thought her so, but that in
+reality the crime lies at the door of some third party totally
+disconnected with either of them."
+
+"Such as Gouverneur Hildreth?" whispered Byrd.
+
+"Such--as--Gouverneur Hildreth," drawled Hickory.
+
+The two detectives eyed each other, smiled, and turned with relieved
+countenances toward the District Attorney. He was looking at them with
+great earnestness.
+
+"That is your joint opinion?" he remarked.
+
+"It is mine," cried Hickory, bringing his fist down on the table with a
+vim that made every individual article on it jump.
+
+"It is and it is not mine," acquiesced Byrd, as the eye of Mr. Ferris
+turned in his direction. "Mr. Mansell may be innocent--indeed, after
+hearing Hickory's explanation of his conduct, I am ready to believe he
+is--but to say that Gouverneur Hildreth is guilty comes hard to me after
+the long struggle I have maintained in favor of his innocence. Yet, what
+other conclusion remains after an impartial view of the subject? None.
+Then why should I shrink from acknowledging I was at fault, or hesitate
+to admit a defeat where so many causes combined to mislead me?"
+
+"Which means you agree with Hickory?" ventured the District Attorney.
+
+Mr. Byrd slowly bowed.
+
+Mr. Ferris continued for a moment looking alternately from one to the
+other; then he observed:
+
+"When two such men unite in an opinion, it is at least worthy of
+consideration." And, rising, he took on an aspect of sudden
+determination. "Whatever may be the truth in regard to this matter,"
+said he, "one duty is clear. Miss Dare, as you inform me, has been--with
+but little idea of the consequences, I am sure--allowed to remain under
+the impression that the interview which she held in the hut was with her
+lover. As her belief in the prisoner's guilt doubtless rests upon the
+admissions which were at that time made in her hearing, it is palpable
+that a grave injustice has been done both to her and to him by leaving
+this mistake of hers uncorrected. I therefore consider it due to Miss
+Dare, as well as to the prisoner, to undeceive her on this score before
+another hour has passed over our heads. I must therefore request you,
+Mr. Byrd, to bring the lady here. You will find her still in the
+court-house, I think, as she requested leave to remain in the room below
+till the crowd had left the streets."
+
+Mr. Byrd, who, in the new light which had been thrown on the affair by
+his own and Hickory's suppositions, could not but see the justice of
+this, rose with alacrity to obey.
+
+"I will bring her if she is in the building," he declared, hurriedly
+leaving the room.
+
+"And if she is not," Mr. Ferris remarked, with a glance at the
+consciously rebuked Hickory, "we shall have to follow her to her home,
+that is all. I am determined to see this woman's mind cleared of all
+misapprehensions before I take another step in the way of my duty."
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI.
+
+A MISTAKE RECTIFIED.
+
+          If circumstances lead me, I will find
+          Where truth is hid, though it were hid, indeed,
+          Within the centre.               --HAMLET.
+
+
+IF Mr. Ferris, in seeking this interview with Miss Dare, had been
+influenced by any hope of finding her in an unsettled and hesitating
+state of mind, he was effectually undeceived, when, after a few minutes'
+absence, Mr. Byrd returned with her to his presence. Though her physical
+strength was nearly exhausted, and she looked quite pale and worn, there
+was a steady gleam in her eye, which spoke of an unshaken purpose.
+
+Seeing it, and noting the forced humility with which she awaited his
+bidding at the threshold, the District Attorney, for the first time
+perhaps, realized the power of this great, if perverted, nature, and
+advancing with real kindness to the door, he greeted her with as much
+deference as he ever showed to ladies, and gravely pushed toward her a
+chair.
+
+She did not take it. On the contrary, she drew back a step, and looked
+at him in some doubt, but a sudden glimpse of Hickory's sturdy figure in
+the corner seemed to reassure her, and merely stopping to acknowledge
+Mr. Ferris' courtesy by a bow, she glided forward and took her stand by
+the chair he had provided.
+
+A short and, on his part, somewhat embarrassing pause followed. It was
+broken by her.
+
+"You sent for me," she suggested. "You perhaps want some explanation of
+my conduct, or some assurance that the confession I made before the
+court to-day was true?"
+
+If Mr. Ferris had needed any further proof than he had already received
+that Imogene Dare, in presenting herself before the world as a criminal,
+had been actuated by a spirit of devotion to the prisoner, he would have
+found it in the fervor and unconscious dignity with which she uttered
+these few words. But he needed no such proof. Giving her, therefore, a
+look full of grave significance, he replied:
+
+"No, Miss Dare. After my experience of the ease with which you can
+contradict yourself in matters of the most serious import, you will
+pardon me if I say that the truth or falsehood of your words must be
+arrived at by some other means than any you yourself can offer. My
+business with you at this time is of an entirely different nature.
+Instead of listening to further confessions from you, it has become my
+duty to offer one myself. Not on my own behalf," he made haste to
+explain, as she looked up, startled, "but on account of these men, who,
+in their anxiety to find out who murdered Mrs. Clemmens, made use of
+means and resorted to deceptions which, if their superiors had been
+consulted, would not have been countenanced for a moment."
+
+"I do not understand," she murmured, looking at the two detectives with
+a wonder that suddenly merged into alarm as she noticed the
+embarrassment of the one and the decided discomfiture of the other.
+
+Mr. Ferris at once resumed:
+
+"In the weeks that have elapsed since the commission of this crime, it
+has been my lot to subject you to much mental misery, Miss Dare.
+Provided by yourself with a possible clue to the murder, I have probed
+the matter with an unsparing hand. Heedless of the pain I was
+inflicting, or the desperation to which I was driving you, I asked you
+questions and pressed you for facts as long as there seemed questions to
+ask or facts to be gained. My duty and the claims of my position
+demanded this, and for it I can make no excuse, notwithstanding the
+unhappy results that have ensued. But, Miss Dare, whatever anxiety I may
+have shown in procuring the conviction of a man I believed to be a
+criminal, I have never wished to win my case at the expense of justice
+and right; and had I been told before you came to the stand that you had
+been made the victim of a deception calculated to influence your
+judgment, I should have hastened to set you right with the same anxiety
+as I do now."
+
+"Sir--sir----" she began.
+
+But Mr. Ferris would not listen.
+
+"Miss Dare," he proceeded with all the gravity of conviction, "you have
+uttered a deliberate perjury in the court-room to-day. You said that you
+alone were responsible for the murder of Mrs. Clemmens, whereas you not
+only did not commit the crime yourself but were not even an accessory to
+it. Wait!" he commanded, as she flashed upon him a look full of denial,
+"I would rather you did not speak. The motive for this calumny you
+uttered upon yourself lies in a fact which may be modified by what I
+have to reveal. Hear me, then, before you stain yourself still further
+by a falsehood you will not only be unable to maintain, but which you
+may no longer see reason for insisting upon. Hickory, turn around so
+Miss Dare can see your face. Miss Dare, when you saw fit to call upon
+this man to upbear you in the extraordinary statements you made to-day,
+did you realize that in doing this you appealed to the one person best
+qualified to prove the falsehood of what you had said? I see you did
+not; yet it is so. He if no other can testify that a few weeks ago, no
+idea of taking this crime upon your own shoulders had ever crossed your
+mind; that, on the contrary, your whole heart was filled with sorrow for
+the supposed guilt of another, and plans for inducing that other to make
+a confession of his guilt before the world."
+
+"This man!" was her startled exclamation. "It is not possible; I do not
+know him; he does not know me. I never talked with him but once in my
+life, and that was to say words I am not only willing but anxious for
+him to repeat."
+
+"Miss Dare," the District Attorney pursued, "when you say this you show
+how completely you have been deceived. The conversation to which you
+allude is not the only one which has passed between you two. Though you
+did not know it, you held a talk with this man at a time in which you so
+completely discovered the secrets of your heart, you can never hope to
+deceive us or the world by any story of personal guilt which you may see
+fit to manufacture."
+
+"I reveal my heart to this man!" she repeated, in a maze of doubt and
+terror that left her almost unable to stand. "You are playing with my
+misery, Mr. Ferris."
+
+The District Attorney took a different tone.
+
+"Miss Dare," he asked, "do you remember a certain interview you held
+with a gentleman in the hut back of Mrs. Clemmens' house, a short time
+after the murder?"
+
+"Did this man overhear my words that day?" she murmured, reaching out
+her hand to steady herself by the back of the chair near which she was
+standing.
+
+"Your words that day were addressed to this man."
+
+"To him!" she repeated, staggering back.
+
+"Yes, to him, disguised as Craik Mansell. With an unjustifiable zeal to
+know the truth, he had taken this plan for surprising your secret
+thoughts, and he succeeded, Miss Dare, remember that, even if he did you
+and your lover the cruel wrong of leaving you undisturbed in the
+impression that Mr. Mansell had admitted his guilt in your presence."
+
+But Imogene, throwing out her hands, cried impetuously:
+
+"It is not so; you are mocking me. This man never could deceive me like
+that!"
+
+But even as she spoke she recoiled, for Hickory, with ready art, had
+thrown his arms and head forward on the table before which he sat, in
+the attitude and with much the same appearance he had preserved on the
+day she had come upon him in the hut. Though he had no assistance from
+disguise and all the accessories were lacking which had helped forward
+the illusion on the former occasion, there was still a sufficient
+resemblance between this bowed figure and the one that had so impressed
+itself upon her memory as that of her wretched and remorseful lover,
+that she stood rooted to the ground in her surprise and dismay.
+
+"You see how it was done, do you not?" inquired Mr. Ferris. Then, as he
+saw she did not heed, added: "I hope you remember what passed between
+you two on that day?"
+
+As if struck by a thought which altered the whole atmosphere of her
+hopes and feelings, she took a step forward with a power and vigor that
+recalled to mind the Imogene of old.
+
+"Sir," she exclaimed, "let that man turn around and face me!"
+
+Hickory at once rose.
+
+"Tell me," she demanded, surveying him with a look it took all his
+well-known hardihood to sustain unmoved, "was it all false--all a trick
+from the beginning to the end? I received a letter--was that written by
+your hand too? Are you capable of forgery as well as of other
+deceptions?"
+
+The detective, who knew no other way to escape from his embarrassment,
+uttered a short laugh. But finding a reply was expected of him, answered
+with well-simulated indifference:
+
+"No, only the address on the envelope was mine; the letter was one which
+Mr. Mansell had written but never sent. I found it in his waste-paper
+basket in Buffalo."
+
+"Ah! and you could make use of that?"
+
+"I know it was a mean trick," he acknowledged, dropping his eyes from
+her face. "But things do look different when you are in the thick of 'em
+than when you take a stand and observe them from the outside. I--I was
+ashamed of it long ago, Miss Dare"--this was a lie; Hickory never was
+really ashamed of it--"and would have told you about it, but I thought
+'mum' was the word after a scene like that."
+
+She did not seem to hear him.
+
+"Then Mr. Mansell did not send me the letter inviting me to meet him in
+the hut on a certain day, some few weeks after Mrs. Clemmens was
+murdered?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor know that such a letter had been sent?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor come, as I supposed he did, to Sibley? nor admit what I supposed he
+admitted in my hearing? nor listen, as I supposed he did, to the
+insinuations I made use of in the hut?"
+
+"No."
+
+Imbued with sudden purpose and energy, she turned upon the District
+Attorney.
+
+"Oh, what a revelation to come to me now!" she murmured.
+
+Mr. Ferris bowed.
+
+"You are right," he assented; "it should have come to you before. But I
+can only repeat what I have previously said, that if I had known of this
+deception myself, you would have been notified of it previous to going
+upon the stand. For your belief in the prisoner's guilt has necessarily
+had its effect upon the jury, and I cannot but see how much that belief
+must have been strengthened, if it was not actually induced, by the
+interview which we have just been considering."
+
+Her eyes took on fresh light; she looked at Mr. Ferris as if she would
+read his soul.
+
+"Can it be possible----" she breathed, but stopped as suddenly as she
+began. The District Attorney was not the man from whom she could hope to
+obtain any opinion in reference to the prisoner's innocence.
+
+Mr. Ferris, noting her hesitation and understanding it too, perhaps,
+moved toward her with a certain kindly dignity, saying:
+
+"I should be glad to utter words that would give you some comfort, Miss
+Dare, but in the present state of affairs I do not feel as if I could go
+farther than bid you trust in the justice and wisdom of those who have
+this matter in charge. As for your own wretched and uncalled-for action
+in court to-day, it was a madness which I hope will be speedily
+forgotten, or, if not forgotten, laid to a despair almost too heavy for
+mortal strength to endure."
+
+"Thank you," she murmured; but her look, the poise of her head, the
+color that quivered through the pallor of her cheek, showed she was not
+thinking of herself. Doubt, the first which had visited her since she
+became convinced that Craik Mansell was the destroyer of his aunt's
+life, had cast a momentary gleam over her thoughts, and she was
+conscious of but one wish, and that was to understand the feelings of
+the men before her.
+
+But she soon saw the hopelessness of this, and, sinking back again into
+her old distress as she realized how much reason she still had for
+believing Craik Mansell guilty, she threw a hurried look toward the door
+as if anxious to escape from the eyes and ears of men interested, as she
+knew, in gleaning her every thought and sounding her every impulse.
+
+Mr. Ferris at once comprehended her intention, and courteously advanced.
+
+"Do you wish to return home?" he asked.
+
+"If a carriage can be obtained."
+
+"There can be no difficulty about that," he answered; and he gave
+Hickory a look, and whispered a word to Mr. Byrd, that sent them both
+speedily from the room.
+
+When he was left alone with her, he said:
+
+"Before you leave my presence, Miss Dare, I wish to urge upon you the
+necessity of patience. Any sudden or violent act on your part now would
+result in no good, and lead to much evil. Let me, then, pray you to
+remain quiet in your home, confident that Mr. Orcutt and myself will do
+all in our power to insure justice and make the truth evident."
+
+She bowed, but did not speak; while her impatient eye, resting
+feverishly on the door, told of her anxiety to depart.
+
+"She will need watching," commented Mr. Ferris to himself, and he, too,
+waited impatiently for the detectives' return. When they came in he gave
+Imogene to their charge, but the look he cast Byrd contained a hint
+which led that gentleman to take his hat when he went below to put Miss
+Dare into her carriage.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII.
+
+UNDER THE GREAT TREE.
+
+                                We but teach
+          Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
+          To plague the inventor. This even-handed justice
+          Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice
+          To our own lips.             --MACBETH.
+
+
+IMOGENE went to her home. Confused, disordered, the prey of a thousand
+hopes and a thousand fears, she sought for solitude and found it within
+the four walls of the small room which was now her only refuge.
+
+The two detectives who had followed her to the house--the one in the
+carriage, the other on foot--met, as the street-door closed upon her
+retreating form, and consulted together as to their future course.
+
+"Mr. Ferris thinks we ought to keep watch over the house, to make sure
+she does not leave it again," announced Mr. Byrd.
+
+"Does he? Well, then, I am the man for that job," quoth Hickory. "I was
+on this very same beat last night."
+
+"Good reason why you should rest and give me a turn at the business,"
+declared the other.
+
+"Do you want it?"
+
+"I am willing to take it," said Byrd.
+
+"Well, then, after nine o'clock you shall."
+
+"Why after nine?"
+
+"Because if she's bent on skylarking, she'll leave the house before
+then," laughed the other.
+
+"And you want to be here if she goes out?"
+
+"Well, yes, _rather_!"
+
+They compromised matters by both remaining, Byrd within view of the
+house and Hickory on a corner within hail. Neither expected much from
+this effort at surveillance, there seeming to be no good reason why she
+should venture forth into the streets again that night. But the
+watchfulness of the true detective mind is unceasing.
+
+Several hours passed. The peace of evening had come at last to the
+troubled town. In the streets, especially, its gentle influence was
+felt, and regions which had seethed all day with a restless and
+impatient throng were fast settling into their usual quiet and solitary
+condition. A new moon hung in the west, and to Mr. Byrd, pacing the walk
+in front of Imogene's door, it seemed as if he had never seen the town
+look more lovely or less like the abode of violence and crime. All was
+so quiet, especially in the house opposite him, he was fast becoming
+convinced that further precautions were needless, and that Imogene had
+no intention of stirring abroad again, when the window where her light
+burned suddenly became dark, and he perceived the street door cautiously
+open, and her tall, vailed figure emerge and pass rapidly up the street.
+Merely stopping to give the signal to Hickory, he hastened after her
+with rapid but cautious steps.
+
+She went like one bound on no uncertain errand. Though many of the walks
+were heavily shaded, and the light of the lamps was not brilliant, she
+speeded on from corner to corner, threading the business streets with
+rapidity, and emerging upon the large and handsome avenue that led up
+toward the eastern district of the town before Hickory could overtake
+Byrd, and find sufficient breath to ask:
+
+"Where is she bound for? Who lives up this way?"
+
+"I don't know," answered Byrd, lowering his voice in the fear of
+startling her into a knowledge of their presence. "It may be she is
+going to Miss Tremaine's; the High School is somewhere in this
+direction."
+
+But even as they spoke, the gliding figure before them turned into
+another street, and before they knew it, they were on the car-track
+leading out to Somerset Park.
+
+"Ha! I know now," whispered Hickory. "It is Orcutt she is after." And
+pressing the arm of Byrd in his enthusiasm, he speeded after her with
+renewed zeal.
+
+Byrd, seeing no reason to dispute a fact that was every moment becoming
+more evident, hurried forward also, and after a long and breathless
+walk--for she seemed to be urged onward by flying feet--they found
+themselves within sight of the grand old trees that guarded the entrance
+to the lawyer's somewhat spacious grounds.
+
+"What are we going to do now?" asked Byrd, stopping, as they heard the
+gate click behind her.
+
+"Wait and watch," said Hickory. "She has not led us this wild-goose
+chase for nothing." And leaping the hedge, he began creeping up toward
+the house, leaving his companion to follow or not, as he saw fit.
+
+Meantime Imogene had passed up the walk and paused before the front
+door. But a single look at it seemed to satisfy her, for, moving
+hurriedly away, she flitted around the corner of the house and stopped
+just before the long windows whose brightly illumined sashes proclaimed
+that the master of the house was still in his library.
+
+She seemed to feel relieved at this sight. Pausing, she leaned against
+the frame of a trellis-work near by to gather up her courage or regain
+her breath before proceeding to make her presence known to the lawyer.
+As she thus leaned, the peal of the church clock was heard, striking the
+hour of nine. She started, possibly at finding it so late, and bending
+forward, looked at the windows before her with an anxious eye that soon
+caught sight of a small opening left by the curtains having been drawn
+together by a too hasty or a too careless hand, and recognizing the
+opportunity it afforded for a glimpse into the room before her, stepped
+with a light tread upon the piazza and quietly peered within.
+
+The sight she saw never left her memory.
+
+Seated before a deadened fire, she beheld Mr. Orcutt. He was neither
+writing nor reading, nor, in the true sense of the word, thinking. The
+papers he had evidently taken from his desk, lay at his side
+undisturbed, and from one end of the room to the other, solitude,
+suffering, and despair seemed to fill the atmosphere and weigh upon its
+dreary occupant, till the single lamp which shone beside him burned
+dimmer and dimmer, like a life going out or a purpose vanishing in the
+gloom of a stealthily approaching destiny.
+
+Imogene, who had come to this place thus secretly and at this late hour
+of the day with the sole intent of procuring the advice of this man
+concerning the deception which had been practised upon her before the
+trial, felt her heart die within her as she surveyed this rigid figure
+and realized all it implied. Though his position was such she could not
+see his face, there was that in his attitude which bespoke hopelessness
+and an utter weariness of life, and as ash after ash fell from the
+grate, she imagined how the gloom deepened on the brow which till this
+hour had confronted the world with such undeviating courage and
+confidence.
+
+It was therefore a powerful shock to her when, in another moment, he
+looked up, and, without moving his body, turned his head slowly around
+in such a way as to afford her a glimpse of his face. For, in all her
+memory of it--and she had seen it distorted by many and various emotions
+during the last few weeks--she had never beheld it wear such a look as
+now. It gave her a new idea of the man; it filled her with dismay, and
+sent the life-blood from her cheeks. It fascinated her, as the glimpse
+of any evil thing fascinates, and held her spell-bound long after he
+had turned back again to his silent contemplation of the fire and its
+ever-drifting ashes. It was as if a vail had been rent before her eyes,
+disclosing to her a living soul writhing in secret struggle with its own
+worst passions; and horrified at the revelation, more than horrified at
+the remembrance that it was her own action of the morning which had
+occasioned this change in one she had long reverenced, if not loved, she
+sank helplessly upon her knees and pressed her face to the window in a
+prayer for courage to sustain this new woe and latest, if not heaviest,
+disappointment.
+
+It came while she was kneeling--came in the breath of the cold night
+wind, perhaps; for, rising up, she turned her forehead gratefully to the
+breeze, and drew in long draughts of it before she lifted her hand and
+knocked upon the window.
+
+The sharp, shrill sound made by her fingers on the pane reassured her as
+much as it startled him. Gathering up her long cloak, which had fallen
+apart in her last hurried movement, she waited with growing
+self-possession for his appearance at the window.
+
+He came almost immediately--came with his usual hasty step and with much
+of his usual expression on his well-disciplined features. Flinging aside
+the curtains, he cried impatiently: "Who is there?" But at sight of the
+tall figure of Imogene standing upright and firm on the piazza without,
+he drew back with a gesture of dismay, which was almost forbidding in
+its character.
+
+She saw it, but did not pause. Pushing up the window, she stepped into
+the room; then, as he did not offer to help her, turned and shut the
+window behind her and carefully arranged the curtains. He meantime stood
+watching her with eyes in whose fierce light burned equal love and equal
+anger.
+
+When all was completed, she faced him. Instantly a cry broke from his
+lips:
+
+"You here!" he exclaimed, as if her presence were more than he could
+meet or stand. But in another moment the forlornness of her position
+seemed to strike him, and he advanced toward her, saying in a voice
+husky with passion: "Wretched woman, what have you done? Was it not
+enough that for weeks, months now, you have played with my love and
+misery as with toys, that you should rise up at the last minute and
+crush me before the whole world with a story, mad as it is false, of
+yourself being a criminal and the destroyer of the woman for whose death
+your miserable lover is being tried? Had you no consideration, no pity,
+if not for yourself, ruined by this day's work, for me, who have
+sacrificed every thing, done every thing the most devoted man or lawyer
+could do to save this fellow and win you for my wife?"
+
+"Sir," said she, meeting the burning anger of his look with the coldness
+of a set despair, as if in the doubt awakened by his changed demeanor
+she sought to probe his mind for its hidden secret, "I did what any
+other woman would have done in my place. When we are pushed to the wall
+we tell the truth."
+
+"The truth!" Was that his laugh that rang startlingly through the room?
+"The truth! You told the truth! Imogene, Imogene, is any such farce
+necessary with me?"
+
+Her lips, which had opened, closed again, and she did not answer for a
+moment; then she asked:
+
+"How do you know that what I said was not the truth?"
+
+"How do I know?" He paused as if to get his breath. "How do I know?" he
+repeated, calling up all his self-control to sustain her gaze unmoved.
+"Do you think I have lost my reason, Imogene, that you put me such a
+question as that? How do I know you are innocent? Recall your own words
+and acts since the day we met at Mrs. Clemmens' house, and tell me how
+it would be possible for me to think any thing else of you?"
+
+But her purpose did not relax, neither did she falter as she returned:
+
+"Mr. Orcutt, will you tell me what has ever been said by me or what you
+have ever known me to do that would make it certain I did not commit
+this crime myself?"
+
+His indignation was too much for his courtesy.
+
+"Imogene," he commanded, "be silent! I will not listen to any further
+arguments of this sort. Isn't it enough that you have destroyed my
+happiness, that you should seek to sport with my good-sense? I say you
+are innocent as a babe unborn, not only of the crime itself but of any
+complicity in it. Every word you have spoken, every action you have
+taken, since the day of Mrs. Clemmens' death, proves you to be the
+victim of a fixed conviction totally at war with the statement you were
+pleased to make to-day. Only your belief in the guilt of another and
+your--your----"
+
+He stopped, choked. The thought of his rival maddened him.
+
+She immediately seized the opportunity to say:
+
+"Mr. Orcutt, I cannot argue about what I have done. It is over and
+cannot be remedied. It is true I have destroyed myself, but this is no
+time to think of that. All I can think of or mourn over now is that, by
+destroying myself, I have not succeeded in saving Craik Mansell."
+
+If her purpose was to probe the lawyer's soul for the deadly wound that
+had turned all his sympathies to gall, she was successful at last.
+Turning upon her with a look in which despair and anger were strangely
+mingled, he cried:
+
+"And me, Imogene--have you no thought for me?"
+
+"Sir," said she, "any thought from one disgraced as I am now, would be
+an insult to one of your character and position."
+
+It was true. In the eyes of the world Tremont Orcutt and Imogene Dare
+henceforth stood as far apart as the poles. Realizing it only too well,
+he uttered a half-inarticulate exclamation, and trod restlessly to the
+other end of the room. When he came back, it was with more of the
+lawyer's aspect and less of the baffled lover's.
+
+"Imogene," he said, "what could have induced you to resort to an
+expedient so dreadful? Had you lost confidence in me? Had I not told you
+I would save this man from his threatened fate?"
+
+"You cannot do every thing," she replied. "There are limits even to a
+power like yours. I knew that Craik was lost if I gave to the court the
+testimony which Mr. Ferris expected from me."
+
+"Ah, then," he cried, seizing with his usual quickness at the admission
+which had thus unconsciously, perhaps, slipped from her, "you
+acknowledge you uttered a perjury to save yourself from making
+declarations you believed to be hurtful to the prisoner?"
+
+A faint smile crossed her lips, and her whole aspect suddenly changed.
+
+"Yes," she said; "I have no motive for hiding it from you now. I
+perjured myself to escape destroying Craik Mansell. I was scarcely the
+mistress of my own actions. I had suffered so much I was ready to do any
+thing to save the man I had so relentlessly pushed to his doom. I forgot
+that God does not prosper a lie."
+
+The jealous gleam which answered her from the lawyer's eyes was a
+revelation.
+
+"You regret, then," he said, "that you tossed my happiness away with a
+breath of your perjured lips?"
+
+"I regret I did not tell the truth and trust God."
+
+At this answer, uttered with the simplicity of a penitent spirit, Mr.
+Orcutt unconsciously drew back.
+
+"And, may I ask, what has caused this sudden regret?" he inquired, in a
+tone not far removed from mockery; "the generous action of the prisoner
+in relieving you from your self-imposed burden of guilt by an
+acknowledgment that struck at the foundation of the defence I had so
+carefully prepared?"
+
+"No," was her short reply; "that could but afford me joy. Of whatever
+sin he may be guilty, he is at least free from the reproach of accepting
+deliverance at the expense of a woman. I am sorry I said what I did
+to-day, because a revelation has since been made to me, which proves I
+could never have sustained myself in the position I took, and that it
+was mere suicidal folly in me to attempt to save Craik Mansell by such
+means."
+
+"A revelation?"
+
+"Yes." And, forgetting all else in the purpose which had actuated her in
+seeking this interview, Imogene drew nearer to the lawyer and earnestly
+said: "There have been some persons--I have perceived it--who have
+wondered at my deep conviction of Craik Mansell's guilt. But the reasons
+I had justified it. They were great, greater than any one knew, greater
+even than _you_ knew. His mother--were she living--must have thought as
+I did, had she been placed beside me and seen what I have seen, and
+heard what I have heard from the time of Mrs. Clemmens' death. Not only
+were all the facts brought against him in the trial known to me, but I
+saw him--saw him with my own eyes, running from Mrs. Clemmens'
+dining-room door at the very time we suppose the murder to have been
+committed; that is, at five minutes before noon on the fatal day."
+
+"Impossible!" exclaimed Mr. Orcutt, in his astonishment. "You are
+playing with my credulity, Imogene."
+
+But she went on, letting her voice fall in awe of the lawyer's startled
+look.
+
+"No," she persisted; "I was in Professor Darling's observatory. I was
+looking through a telescope, which had been pointed toward the town.
+Mrs. Clemmens was much in my mind at the time, and I took the notion to
+glance at her house, when I saw what I have described to you. I could
+not help remembering the time," she added, "for I had looked at the
+clock but a moment before."
+
+"And it was five minutes before noon?" broke again from the lawyer's
+lips, in what was almost an awe-struck tone.
+
+Troubled at an astonishment which seemed to partake of the nature of
+alarm, she silently bowed her head.
+
+"And you were looking at him--actually looking at him--that very moment
+through a telescope perched a mile or so away?"
+
+"Yes," she bowed again.
+
+Turning his face aside, Mr. Orcutt walked to the hearth and began
+kicking the burnt-out logs with his restless foot. As he did so, Imogene
+heard him mutter between his set teeth:
+
+"It is almost enough to make one believe in a God!"
+
+Struck, horrified, she glided anxiously to his side.
+
+"Do not you believe in a God?" she asked.
+
+He was silent.
+
+Amazed, almost frightened, for she had never heard him breathe a word of
+scepticism before,--though, to be sure, he had never mentioned the name
+of the Deity in her presence,--she stood looking at him like one who had
+received a blow; then she said:
+
+"I believe in God. It is my punishment that I do. It is He who wills
+blood for blood; who dooms the guilty to a merited death. Oh, if He only
+would accept the sacrifice I so willingly offer!--take the life I so
+little value, and give me in return----"
+
+"Mansell's?" completed the lawyer, turning upon her in a burst of fury
+he no longer had power to suppress. "Is that your cry--always and
+forever your cry? You drive me too far, Imogene. This mad and senseless
+passion for a man who no longer loves you----"
+
+"Spare me!" rose from her trembling lips. "Let me forget that."
+
+But the great lawyer only laughed.
+
+"You make it worth my while to save you the bitterness of such a
+remembrance," he cried. Then, as she remained silent, he changed his
+tone to one of careless inquiry, and asked:
+
+"Was it to tell this story of the prisoner having fled from his aunt's
+house that you came here to-night?"
+
+Recalled to the purpose of the hour, she answered, hurriedly:
+
+"Not entirely; that story was what Mr. Ferris expected me to testify to
+in court this morning. You see for yourself in what a position it would
+have put the prisoner."
+
+"And the revelation you have received?" the lawyer coldly urged.
+
+"Was of a deception that has been practised upon me--a base deception by
+which I was led to think long ago that Craik Mansell had admitted his
+guilt and only trusted to the excellence of his defence to escape
+punishment."
+
+"I do not understand," said Mr. Orcutt. "Who could have practised such
+deception upon you?"
+
+"The detectives," she murmured; "that rough, heartless fellow they call
+Hickory." And, in a burst of indignation, she told how she had been
+practised upon, and what the results had been upon her belief, if not
+upon the testimony which grew out of that belief.
+
+The lawyer listened with a strange apathy. What would once have aroused
+his fiercest indignation and fired him to an exertion of his keenest
+powers, fell on him now like the tedious repetition of an old and
+worn-out tale. He scarcely looked up when she was done; and despair--the
+first, perhaps, she had ever really felt--began to close in around her
+as she saw how deep a gulf she had dug between this man and herself by
+the inconsiderate act which had robbed him of all hope of ever making
+her his wife. Moved by this feeling, she suddenly asked:
+
+"Have you lost all interest in your client, Mr. Orcutt? Have you no wish
+or hope remaining of seeing him acquitted of this crime?"
+
+"My client," responded the lawyer, with bitter emphasis, "has taken his
+case into his own hands. It would be presumptuous in me to attempt any
+thing further in his favor."
+
+"Mr. Orcutt!"
+
+"Ah!" he scornfully laughed, with a quick yielding to his passion as
+startling as it was unexpected, "you thought you could play with me as
+you would; use my skill and ignore the love that prompted it. You are a
+clever woman, Imogene, but you went too far when you considered my
+forbearance unlimited."
+
+"And you forsake Craik Mansell, in the hour of his extremity?"
+
+"Craik Mansell has forsaken me."
+
+This was true; for her sake her lover had thrown his defence to the
+winds and rendered the assistance of his counsel unavailable. Seeing her
+droop her head abashed, Mr. Orcutt dryly proceeded.
+
+"I do not know what may take place in court to-morrow," said he. "It is
+difficult to determine what will be the outcome of so complicated a
+case. The District Attorney, in consideration of the deception which has
+been practised upon you, may refuse to prosecute any further; or, if the
+case goes on and the jury is called upon for a verdict, they may or may
+not be moved by its peculiar aspects to acquit a man of such generous
+dispositions. If they are, I shall do nothing to hinder an acquittal;
+but ask for no more active measures on my part. I cannot plead for the
+lover of the woman who has disgraced me."
+
+This decision, from one she had trusted so implicitly, seemed to crush
+her.
+
+"Ah," she murmured, "if you did not believe him guilty you would not
+leave him thus to his fate."
+
+He gave her a short, side-long glance, half-mocking, half-pitiful.
+
+"If," she pursued, "you had felt even a passing gleam of doubt, such as
+came to me when I discovered that he had never really admitted his
+guilt, you would let no mere mistake on the part of a woman turn you
+from your duty as counsellor for a man on trial for his life."
+
+His glance lost its pity and became wholly mocking.
+
+"And do _you_ cherish but passing gleams?" he sarcastically asked.
+
+She started back.
+
+"I laugh at the inconsistency of women," he cried. "You have sacrificed
+every thing, even risked your life for a man you really believe guilty
+of crime; yet if another man similarly stained asked you for your
+compassion only, you would fly from him as from a pestilence."
+
+But no words he could utter of this sort were able to raise any emotion
+in her now.
+
+"Mr. Orcutt," she demanded, "do _you_ believe Craik Mansell innocent?"
+
+His old mocking smile came back.
+
+"Have I conducted his case as if I believed him guilty?" he asked.
+
+"No, no; but you are his lawyer; you are bound not to let your real
+thoughts appear. But in your secret heart you did not, could not,
+believe he was free from a crime to which he is linked by so many
+criminating circumstances?"
+
+But his strange smile remaining unchanged, she seemed to waken to a
+sudden doubt, and leaping impetuously to his side, laid her hand on his
+arm and exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, sir, if you have ever cherished one hope of his innocence, no
+matter how faint or small, tell me of it, even if this last disclosure
+has convinced you of its folly!"
+
+Giving her an icy look, he drew his arm slowly from her grasp and
+replied:
+
+"Mr. Mansell has never been considered guilty by me."
+
+"Never?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Not even now?"
+
+"Not even now."
+
+It seemed as if she could not believe his words.
+
+"And yet you know all there is against him; all that I do now!"
+
+"I know he visited his aunt's house at or after the time she was
+murdered, but that is no proof he killed her, Miss Dare."
+
+"No," she admitted with slow conviction, "no. But why did he fly in that
+wild way when he left it? Why did he go straight to Buffalo and not wait
+to give me the interview he promised?"
+
+"Shall I tell you?" Mr. Orcutt inquired, with a dangerous sneer on his
+lips. "Do you wish to know why this man--the man you have so loved--the
+man for whom you would die this moment, has conducted himself with such
+marked discretion?"
+
+"Yes," came like a breath from between Imogene's parted lips.
+
+"Well," said the lawyer, dropping his words with cruel clearness, "Mr.
+Mansell has a great faith in women. He has such faith in you, Imogene
+Dare, he thinks you are all you declare yourself to be; that in the hour
+you stood up before the court and called yourself a murderer, you spoke
+but the truth; that----" He stopped; even his scornful _aplomb_ would
+not allow him to go on in the face of the look she wore.
+
+"Say--say those words again!" she gasped. "Let me hear them once more.
+He thinks what?"
+
+"That you are what you proclaimed yourself to be this day, the actual
+assailant and murderer of Mrs. Clemmens. He has thought so all along,
+Miss Dare, why, I do not know. Whether he saw any thing or heard any
+thing in that house from which you saw him fly so abruptly, or whether
+he relied solely upon the testimony of the ring, which you must remember
+he never acknowledged having received back from you, I only know that
+from the minute he heard of his aunt's death, his suspicions flew to
+you, and that, in despite of such suggestions as I felt it judicious to
+make, they have never suffered shock or been turned from their course
+from that day to this. _Such_ honor," concluded Mr. Orcutt, with dry
+sarcasm, "does the man you love show to the woman who has sacrificed for
+his sake all that the world holds dear."
+
+"I--I cannot believe it. You are mocking me," came inarticulately from
+her lips, while she drew back, step by step, till half the room lay
+between them.
+
+"Mocking you? Miss Dare, he has shown his feelings so palpably, I have
+often trembled lest the whole court should see and understand them."
+
+"You have trembled"--she could scarcely speak, the rush of her emotion
+was so great--"_you_ have trembled lest the whole court should see he
+suspected me of this crime?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then," she cried, "you must have been convinced,--Ah!" she hurriedly
+interposed, with a sudden look of distrust, "you are not amusing
+yourself with me, are you, Mr. Orcutt? So many traps have been laid for
+me from time to time, I dare not trust the truth of my best friend.
+Swear you believe Craik Mansell to have thought this of me! Swear you
+have seen this dark thing lying in his soul, or I----"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Will confront him myself with the question, if I have to tear down the
+walls of the prison to reach him. His mind I must and will know."
+
+"Very well, then, you do. I have told you," declared Mr. Orcutt.
+"Swearing would not make it any more true."
+
+Lifting her face to heaven, she suddenly fell on her knees.
+
+"O God!" she murmured, "help me to bear this great joy!"
+
+"_Joy!_"
+
+The icy tone, the fierce surprise it expressed, started her at once to
+her feet.
+
+"Yes," she murmured, "joy! Don't you see that if he thinks me guilty, he
+_must_ be innocent? I am willing to perish and fall from the ranks of
+good men and honorable women to be sure of a fact like this!"
+
+"Imogene, Imogene, would you drive me mad?"
+
+She did not seem to hear.
+
+"Craik, are you guiltless, then?" she was saying. "Is the past all a
+dream! Are we two nothing but victims of dread and awful circumstances?
+Oh, we will see; life is not ended yet!" And with a burst of hope that
+seemed to transfigure her into another woman, she turned toward the
+lawyer with the cry: "If he is innocent, he can be saved. Nothing that
+has been done by him or me can hurt him if this be so. God who watches
+over this crime has His eye on the guilty one. Though his sin be hidden
+under a mountain of deceit, it will yet come forth. Guilt like his
+cannot remain hidden."
+
+"You did not think this when you faced the court this morning with
+perjury on your lips," came in slow, ironical tones from her companion.
+
+"Heaven sometimes accepts a sacrifice," she returned. "But who will
+sacrifice himself for a man who could let the trial of one he knew to be
+innocent go on unhindered?"
+
+"Who, indeed!" came in almost stifled tones from the lawyer's lips.
+
+"If a stranger and not Craik Mansell slew Mrs. Clemmens," she went on,
+"and nothing but an incomprehensible train of coincidences unites him
+and me to this act of violence, then may God remember the words of the
+widow, and in His almighty power call down such a doom----"
+
+She ended with a gasp. Mr. Orcutt, with a sudden movement, had laid his
+hand upon her lips.
+
+"Hush!" he said, "let no curses issue from _your_ mouth. The guilty can
+perish without that."
+
+Releasing herself from him in alarm, she drew back, her eyes slowly
+dilating as she noted the dead whiteness that had settled over his face,
+and taken even the hue of life from his nervously trembling lip.
+
+"Mr. Orcutt," she whispered, with a solemnity which made them heedless
+that the lamp which had been burning lower and lower in its socket was
+giving out its last fitful rays, "if Craik Mansell did not kill the
+Widow Clemmens who then did?"
+
+Her question--or was it her look and tone?--seemed to transfix Mr.
+Orcutt. But it was only for a moment. Turning with a slight gesture to
+the table at his side, he fumbled with his papers, still oblivious of
+the flaring lamp, saying slowly:
+
+"I have always supposed Gouverneur Hildreth to be the true author of
+this crime."
+
+"Gouverneur Hildreth?"
+
+Mr. Orcutt bowed.
+
+"I do not agree with you," she returned, moving slowly toward the
+window. "I am no reader of human hearts, as all my past history shows,
+but something--is it the voice of God in my breast?--tells me that
+Gouverneur Hildreth is as innocent as Craik Mansell, and that the true
+murderer of Mrs. Clemmens----" Her words ended in a shriek. The light,
+which for so long a time had been flickering to its end, had given one
+startling flare in which the face of the man before her had flashed on
+her view in a ghastly flame that seemed to separate it from all
+surrounding objects, then as suddenly gone out, leaving the room in
+total darkness.
+
+In the silence that followed, a quick sound as of rushing feet was
+heard, then the window was pushed up and the night air came moaning in.
+Imogene had fled.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Horace Byrd had not followed Hickory in his rush toward the house. He
+had preferred to await results under the great tree which, standing just
+inside the gate, cast its mysterious and far-reaching shadow widely over
+the wintry lawn. He was, therefore, alone during most of the interview
+which Miss Dare held with Mr. Orcutt in the library, and, being alone,
+felt himself a prey to his sensations and the weirdness of the situation
+in which he found himself.
+
+Though no longer a victim to the passion with which Miss Dare had at
+first inspired him, he was by no means without feeling for this grand if
+somewhat misguided woman, and his emotions, as he stood there awaiting
+the issue of her last desperate attempt to aid the prisoner, were strong
+enough to make any solitude welcome, though this solitude for some
+reason held an influence which was any thing but enlivening, if it was
+not actually depressing, to one of his ready sensibilities.
+
+The tree under which he had taken his stand was, as I have intimated, an
+old one. It had stood there from time immemorial, and was, as I have
+heard it since said, at once the pride of Mr. Orcutt's heart and the
+chief ornament of his grounds. Though devoid of foliage at the time,
+its vast and symmetrical canopy of interlacing branches had caught Mr.
+Byrd's attention from the first moment of his entrance beneath it, and,
+preoccupied as he was, he could not prevent his thoughts from reverting
+now and then with a curious sensation of awe to the immensity of those
+great limbs which branched above him. His imagination was so powerfully
+affected at last, he had a notion of leaving the spot and seeking a
+nearer look-out in the belt of evergreens that hid the crouching form of
+Hickory; but a spell seemed to emanate from the huge trunk against which
+he leaned that restrained him when he sought to go, and noticing almost
+at the same moment that the path which Miss Dare would have to take in
+her departure ran directly under this tree, he yielded to the apathy of
+the moment and remained where he was.
+
+Soon after he was visited by Hickory.
+
+"I can see nothing and hear nothing," was that individual's hurried
+salutation. "She and Mr. Orcutt are evidently still in the library, but
+I cannot get a clue to what is going on. I shall keep up my watch,
+however, for I want to catch a glimpse of her face as she steps from the
+window." And he was off again before Byrd could reply.
+
+But the next instant he was back, panting and breathless.
+
+"The light is out in the library," he cried; "we shall see her no more
+to-night."
+
+But scarcely had the words left his lips when a faint sound was heard
+from the region of the piazza, and looking eagerly up the path, they saw
+the form of Miss Dare coming hurriedly toward them.
+
+To slip around into the deepest shadow cast by the tree was but the work
+of a moment. Meantime, the moon shone brightly on the walk down which
+she was speeding, and as, in the agitation of her departure, she had
+forgotten to draw down her veil, they succeeded in obtaining a view of
+her face. It was pale, and wore an expression of fear, while her feet
+hasted as though she were only filled with thoughts of escape.
+
+Seeing this, the two detectives held their breaths, preparing to follow
+her as soon as she had passed the tree. But she did not pass the tree.
+Just as she got within reach of its shadow, a commanding voice was heard
+calling upon her to stop, and Mr. Orcutt came hurrying, in his turn,
+down the path.
+
+"I cannot let you go thus," he cried, pausing beside her on the walk
+directly under the tree. "If you command me to save Craik Mansell I must
+do it. What you wish must be done, Imogene."
+
+"My wishes should not be needed to lead you to do your duty by the man
+you believe to be innocent of the charge for which he is being tried,"
+was her earnest and strangely cold reply.
+
+"Perhaps not," he muttered, bitterly; "but--ah, Imogene," he suddenly
+broke forth, in a way to startle these two detectives, who, however
+suspicious they had been of his passion, had never before had the
+opportunity of seeing him under its control, "what have you made of me
+with your bewildering graces and indomitable soul? Before I knew you,
+life was a round of honorable duties and serene pleasures. I lived in my
+profession, and found my greatest delight in its exercise. But now----"
+
+"What now?" she asked.
+
+"I seem"--he said, and the hard, cold selfishness that underlay all his
+actions, however generous they may have been in appearance, was apparent
+in his words and tones,--"I seem to forget every thing, even my standing
+and fame as a lawyer, in the one fear that, although lost to me, you
+will yet live to give yourself to another."
+
+"If you fear that I shall ever be so weak as to give myself to Craik
+Mansell," was her steady reply, "you have only to recall the promise I
+made you when you undertook his case."
+
+"Yes," said he, "but that was when you yourself believed him guilty."
+
+"I know," she returned; "but if he were not good enough for me then, I
+am not good enough for him now. Do you forget that I am blotted with a
+stain that can never be effaced? When I stood up in court to-day and
+denounced myself as guilty of crime, I signed away all my chances of
+future happiness."
+
+There was a pause; Mr. Orcutt seemed to be thinking. From the position
+occupied by the two detectives his shadow could be seen oscillating to
+and fro on the lawn, then, amid the hush of night--a deathly
+hush--undisturbed, as Mr. Byrd afterward remarked, by so much as the
+cracking of a twig, his voice rose quiet, yet vaguely sinister, in the
+words:
+
+"You have conquered. If any man suffers for this crime it shall not be
+Craik Mansell, but----"
+
+The sentence was never finished. Before the words could leave his mouth
+a sudden strange and splitting sound was heard above their heads, then a
+terrifying rush took place, and a great limb lay upon the walk where but
+a moment before the beautiful form of Imogene Dare lifted itself by the
+side of the eminent lawyer.
+
+When a full sense of the terrible nature of the calamity which had just
+occurred swept across the minds of the benumbed detectives, Mr. Byrd,
+recalling the words and attitude of Imogene in face of a similar, if
+less fatal, catastrophe at the hut, exclaimed under his breath:
+
+"It is the vengeance of Heaven! Imogene Dare must have been more guilty
+than we believed."
+
+But when, after a superhuman exertion of strength, and the assistance of
+many hands, the limb was at length raised, it was found that, although
+both had been prostrated by its weight, only one remained stretched and
+senseless upon the ground, and that was not Imogene Dare, but the great
+lawyer, Mr. Orcutt.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVIII.
+
+UNEXPECTED WORDS.
+
+          It will have blood: they say, blood will have blood.
+          Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;
+          Augurs and understood relations have,
+          By magot-pies and choughs and rooks, brought forth
+          The secret'st man of blood.
+
+                 *       *       *       *       *
+
+          Foul whisperings are abroad; unnatural deeds
+          Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds
+          To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.    --MACBETH.
+
+
+"MR. ORCUTT dead?"
+
+"Dying, sir."
+
+"How, when, where?"
+
+"In his own house, sir. He has been struck down by a falling limb."
+
+The District Attorney, who had been roused from his bed to hear these
+evil tidings, looked at the perturbed face of the messenger before
+him--who was none other than Mr. Byrd--and with difficulty restrained
+his emotion.
+
+"I sympathize with your horror and surprise," exclaimed the detective,
+respectfully. Then, with a strange mixture of embarrassment and
+agitation, added: "It is considered absolutely necessary that you come
+to the house. He may yet speak--and--and--you will find Miss Dare
+there," he concluded, with a peculiarly hesitating glance and a rapid
+movement toward the door.
+
+Mr. Ferris, who, as we know, cherished a strong feeling of friendship
+for Mr. Orcutt, stared uneasily at the departing form of the detective.
+
+"What do you say?" he repeated. "Miss Dare there, in Mr. Orcutt's
+house?"
+
+The short "Yes," and the celerity with which Mr. Byrd vanished, gave him
+the appearance of one anxious to escape further inquiries.
+
+Astonished, as well as greatly distressed, the District Attorney made
+speedy preparations for following him, and soon was in the street. He
+found it all alive with eager citizens, who, notwithstanding the
+lateness of the hour, were rushing hither and thither in search of
+particulars concerning this sudden calamity; and upon reaching the house
+itself, found it wellnigh surrounded by an agitated throng of neighbors
+and friends.
+
+Simply pausing at the gate to cast one glance at the tree and its fallen
+limb, he made his way to the front door. It was immediately opened. Dr.
+Tredwell, whose face it was a shock to encounter in this place, stood
+before him, and farther back a group of such favored friends as had been
+allowed to enter the house. Something in the look of the coroner, as he
+silently reached forth his hand in salutation, added to the mysterious
+impression which had been made upon Mr. Ferris by the manner, if not
+words, of Mr. Byrd. Feeling that he was losing his self-command, the
+District Attorney grasped the hand that was held out to him, and huskily
+inquired if Mr. Orcutt was still alive.
+
+The coroner, who had been standing before him with a troubled brow and
+lowered eyes, gravely bowed, and quietly leading the way, ushered him
+forward to Mr. Orcutt's bedroom door. There he paused and looked as if
+he would like to speak, but hastily changing his mind, opened the door
+and motioned the District Attorney in. As he did so, he cast a meaning
+and solemn look toward the bed, then drew back, watching with evident
+anxiety what the effect of the scene before him would have upon this new
+witness.
+
+A stupefying one it seemed, for Mr. Ferris, pausing in his approach,
+looked at the cluster of persons about the bed, and then drew his hand
+across his eyes like a man in a maze. Suddenly he turned upon Dr.
+Tredwell with the same strange look he had himself seen in the eyes of
+Byrd, and said, almost as if the words were forced from his lips:
+
+"This is no new sight to us, doctor; we have been spectators of a scene
+like this before."
+
+That was it. As nearly as the alteration in circumstances and
+surroundings would allow, the spectacle before him was the same as that
+which he had encountered months before in a small cottage at the other
+end of the town. On the bed a pallid, senseless, but slowly breathing
+form, whose features, stamped with the approach of death, stared at
+them with marble-like rigidity from beneath the heavy bandages which
+proclaimed the injury to be one to the head. At his side the doctor--the
+same one who had been called in to attend Mrs. Clemmens--wearing, as he
+did then, a look of sombre anticipation which Mr. Ferris expected every
+instant to see culminate in the solemn gesture which he had used at the
+widow's bedside before she spoke. Even the group of women who clustered
+about the foot of the couch wore much the same expression as those who
+waited for movement on the part of Mrs. Clemmens; and had it not been
+for the sight of Imogene Dare sitting immovable and watchful on the
+farther side of the bed, he might almost have imagined he was
+transported back to the old scene, and that all this new horror under
+which he was laboring was a dream from which he would speedily be
+awakened.
+
+But Imogene's face, her look, her air of patient waiting, were not to be
+mistaken. Attention once really attracted to her, it was not possible
+for it to wander elsewhere. Even the face of the dying man and the
+countenance of the watchful physician paled in interest before that
+fixed look which, never wavering, never altering, studied the marble
+visage before her, for the first faint signs of reawakening
+consciousness. Even his sister, who, if weak of mind, was most certainly
+of a loving disposition, seemed to feel the force of the tie that bound
+Imogene to that pillow; and, though she hovered nearer and nearer the
+beloved form as the weariful moments sped by, did not presume to
+interpose her grief or her assistance between the burning eye of Imogene
+and the immovable form of her stricken brother.
+
+The hush that lay upon the room was unbroken save by the agitated
+breaths of all present.
+
+"Is there no hope?" whispered Mr. Ferris to Dr. Tredwell, as, seeing no
+immediate prospect of change, they sought for seats at the other side of
+the room.
+
+"No; the wound is strangely like that which Mrs. Clemmens received. He
+will rouse, probably, but he will not live. Our only comfort is that in
+this case it is not a murder."
+
+The District Attorney made a gesture in the direction of Imogene.
+
+"How came she to be here?" he asked.
+
+Dr. Tredwell rose and drew him from the room.
+
+"It needs some explanation," he said; and began to relate to him how Mr.
+Orcutt was escorting Miss Dare to the gate when the bough fell which
+seemed likely to rob him of his life.
+
+Mr. Ferris, through whose mind those old words of the widow were running
+in a way that could only be accounted for by the memories which the
+scene within had awakened--"May the vengeance of Heaven light upon the
+head of him who has brought me to this pass! May the fate that has come
+upon me be visited upon him, measure for measure, blow for blow, death
+for death!"--turned with impressive gravity and asked if Miss Dare had
+not been hurt.
+
+But Dr. Tredwell shook his head.
+
+"She is not even bruised," said he.
+
+"And yet was on his arm?"
+
+"Possibly, though I very much doubt it."
+
+"She was standing at his side," uttered the quiet voice of Mr. Byrd in
+their ear; "and disappeared when he did, under the falling branch. She
+must have been bruised, though she says not. I do not think she is in a
+condition to feel her injuries."
+
+"You were present, then," observed Mr. Ferris, with a meaning glance at
+the detective.
+
+"I was present," he returned, with a look the District Attorney did not
+find it difficult to understand.
+
+"Is there any thing you ought to tell me?" Mr. Ferris inquired, when a
+moment or so later the coroner had been drawn away by a friend.
+
+"I do not know," said Byrd. "Of the conversation that passed between
+Miss Dare and Mr. Orcutt, but a short portion came to our ears. It is
+her manner, her actions, that have astonished us, and made us anxious to
+have you upon the spot." And he told with what an expression of fear she
+had fled from her interview with Mr. Orcutt in the library, and then
+gave, as nearly as he could, an account of what had passed between them
+before the falling of the fatal limb. Finally he said: "Hickory and I
+expected to find her lying crushed and bleeding beneath, but instead of
+that, no sooner was the bough lifted than she sprang to her knees, and
+seeing Mr. Orcutt lying before her insensible, bent over him with that
+same expression of breathless awe and expectation which you see in her
+now. It looks as if she were waiting for him to rouse and finish the
+sentence that was cut short by this catastrophe."
+
+"And what was that sentence?"
+
+"As near as I can recollect, it was this: 'If any man suffers for this
+crime it shall not be Craik Mansell, but----' He did not have time to
+say whom."
+
+"My poor friend!" ejaculated Mr. Ferris, "cut down in the exercise of
+his duties! It is a mysterious providence--a very mysterious
+providence!" And crossing again to the sick-room, he went sadly in.
+
+He found the aspect unchanged. On the pillow the same white, immovable
+face; at the bedside the same constant and expectant watchers. Imogene
+especially seemed scarcely to have made a move in all the time of his
+absence. Like a marble image watching over a form of clay she sat
+silent, breathless, intent--a sight to draw all eyes and satisfy none;
+for her look was not one of grief, nor of awe, nor of hope, yet it had
+that within it which made her presence there seem a matter of right even
+to those who did not know the exact character of the bond which united
+her to the unhappy sufferer.
+
+Mr. Ferris, who had been only too ready to accept Mr. Byrd's explanation
+of her conduct, allowed himself to gaze at her unhindered.
+
+Overwhelmed, as he was, by the calamity which promised to rob the Bar
+of one of its most distinguished advocates, and himself of a long-tried
+friend, he could not but feel the throb of those deep interests which,
+in the estimation of this woman at least, hung upon a word which those
+dying lips might utter. And swayed by this feeling, he unconsciously
+became a third watcher, though for what, and in hope of what, he could
+scarcely have told, so much was he benumbed by the suddenness of this
+great catastrophe, and the extraordinary circumstances by which it was
+surrounded.
+
+And so one o'clock came and passed.
+
+It was not the last time the clock struck before a change came. The hour
+of two went by, then that of three, and still, to the casual eye, all
+remained the same. But ere the stroke of four was heard, Mr. Ferris, who
+had relaxed his survey of Imogene to bestow a fuller attention upon his
+friend, felt an indefinable sensation of dismay assail him, and rising
+to his feet, drew a step or so nearer the bed, and looked at its silent
+occupant with the air of a man who would fain shut his eyes to the
+meaning of what he sees before him. At the same moment Mr. Byrd, who had
+just come in, found himself attracted by the subtle difference he
+observed in the expression of Miss Dare. The expectancy in her look was
+gone, and its entire expression was that of awe. Advancing to the side
+of Mr. Ferris, he glanced down at the dying lawyer. He at once saw what
+it was that had so attracted and moved the District Attorney. A change
+had come over Mr. Orcutt's face. Though rigid still, and unrelieved by
+any signs of returning consciousness, it was no longer that of the man
+they knew, but a strange face, owning the same features, but
+distinguished now by a look sinister as it was unaccustomed, filling the
+breasts of those who saw it with dismay, and making any contemplation of
+his countenance more than painful to those who loved him. Nor did it
+decrease as they watched him. Like that charmed writing which appears on
+a blank paper when it is subjected to the heat, the subtle, unmistakable
+lines came out, moment by moment, on the mask of his unconscious face,
+till even Imogene trembled, and turned an appealing glance upon Mr.
+Ferris, as if to bid him note this involuntary evidence of nature
+against the purity and good intentions of the man who had always stood
+so high in the world's regard. Then, satisfied, perhaps, with the
+expression she encountered on the face of the District Attorney, she
+looked back; and the heavy minutes went on, only more drearily, and
+perhaps more fearfully, than before.
+
+Suddenly--was it at a gesture of the physician, or a look from
+Imogene?--a thrill of expectation passed through the room, and Dr.
+Tredwell, Mr. Ferris, and a certain other gentleman who had but just
+entered at a remote corner of the apartment, came hurriedly forward and
+stood at the foot of the bed. At the same instant Imogene rose, and
+motioning them a trifle aside, with an air of mingled entreaty and
+command, bent slowly down toward the injured man. A look of recognition
+answered her from the face upon the pillow, but she did not wait to meet
+it, nor pause for the word that evidently trembled on his momentarily
+conscious lip. Shutting out with her form the group of anxious watchers
+behind her, she threw all her soul into the regard with which she held
+him enchained; then slowly, solemnly, but with unyielding determination,
+uttered these words, which no one there could know were but a repetition
+of a question made a few eventful hours ago: "If Craik Mansell is not
+the man who killed Mrs. Clemmens, do you, Mr. Orcutt, tell us who is!"
+and, pausing, remained with her gaze fixed demandingly on that of the
+lawyer, undeterred by the smothered exclamations of those who witnessed
+this scene and missed its clue or found it only in the supposition that
+this last great shock had unsettled her mind.
+
+The panting sufferer just trembling on the verge of life thrilled all
+down his once alert and nervous frame, then searching her face for one
+sign of relenting, unclosed his rigid lips and said, with emphasis:
+
+"Has not Fate spoken?"
+
+Instantly Imogene sprang erect, and, amid the stifled shrieks of the
+women and the muttered exclamations of the men, pointed at the recumbent
+figure before them, saying:
+
+"You hear! Tremont Orcutt declares upon his death-bed that it is the
+voice of Heaven which has spoken in this dreadful calamity. You who were
+present when Mrs. Clemmens breathed her imprecations on the head of her
+murderer, must know what that means."
+
+Mr. Ferris, who of all present, perhaps, possessed the greatest regard
+for the lawyer, gave an ejaculation of dismay at this, and bounding
+forward, lifted her away from the bedside he believed her to have basely
+desecrated.
+
+"Madwoman," he cried, "where will your ravings end? He will tell no such
+tale to me."
+
+But when he bent above the lawyer with the question forced from him by
+Miss Dare's words, he found him already lapsed into that strange
+insensibility which was every moment showing itself more and more to be
+the precursor of death.
+
+The sight seemed to rob Mr. Ferris of his last grain of self-command.
+Rising, he confronted the dazed faces of those about him with a severe
+look.
+
+"This charge," said he, "is akin to that which Miss Dare made against
+herself in the court yesterday morning. When a woman has become crazed
+she no longer knows what she says."
+
+But Imogene, strong in the belief that the hand of Heaven had pointed
+out the culprit for whom they had so long been searching, shook her head
+in quiet denial, and simply saying, "None of you know this man as I do,"
+moved quietly aside to a dim corner, where she sat down in calm
+expectation of another awakening on the part of the dying lawyer.
+
+It came soon--came before Mr. Ferris had recovered himself, or Dr.
+Tredwell had had a chance to give any utterance to the emotions which
+this scene was calculated to awaken.
+
+Rousing as the widow had done, but seeming to see no one, not even the
+physician who bent close at his side, Mr. Orcutt lifted his voice again,
+this time in the old stentorian tones which he used in court, and
+clearly, firmly exclaimed:
+
+"Blood will have blood!" Then in lower and more familiar accents, cried:
+"Ah, Imogene, Imogene, it was all for you!" And with her name on his
+lips, the great lawyer closed his eyes again, and sank for the last time
+into a state of insensibility.
+
+Imogene at once rose.
+
+"I must go," she murmured; "my duty in this place is done." And she
+attempted to cross the floor.
+
+But the purpose which had sustained her being at an end, she felt the
+full weight of her misery, and looking in the faces about her, and
+seeing nothing there but reprobation, she tottered and would have fallen
+had not a certain portly gentleman who stood near by put forth his arm
+to sustain her. Accepting the support with gratitude, but scarcely
+pausing to note from what source it came, she turned for an instant to
+Mr. Ferris.
+
+"I realize," said she, "with what surprise you must have heard the
+revelation which has just come from Mr. Orcutt's lips. So unexpected is
+it that you cannot yet believe it, but the time will come when, of all
+the words I have spoken, these alone will be found worthy your full
+credit: that not Craik Mansell, not Gouverneur Hildreth, not even
+unhappy Imogene Dare herself, could tell you so much of the real cause
+and manner of Mrs. Clemmens' death as this man who lies stricken here a
+victim of Divine justice."
+
+And merely stopping to cast one final look in the direction of the bed,
+she stumbled from the room. A few minutes later and she reached the
+front door; but only to fall against the lintel with the moan:
+
+"My words are true, but who will ever believe them?"
+
+"Pardon me," exclaimed a bland and fatherly voice over her shoulder, "I
+am a man who can believe in any thing. Put your confidence in me, Miss
+Dare, and we will see--we will see."
+
+Startled by her surprise into new life, she gave one glance at the
+gentleman who had followed her to the door. It was the same who had
+offered her his arm, and whom she supposed to have remained behind her
+in Mr. Orcutt's room. She saw before her a large comfortable-looking
+personage of middle age, of no great pretensions to elegance or culture,
+but bearing that within his face which oddly enough baffled her
+understanding while it encouraged her trust. This was the more peculiar
+in that he was not looking at her, but stood with his eyes fixed on the
+fading light of the hall-lamp, which he surveyed with an expression of
+concern that almost amounted to pity.
+
+"Sir, who are you?" she tremblingly asked.
+
+Dropping his eyes from the lamp, he riveted them upon the veil she held
+tightly clasped in her right hand.
+
+"If you will allow me the liberty of whispering in your ear, I will soon
+tell you," said he.
+
+She bent her weary head downward; he at once leaned toward her and
+murmured a half-dozen words that made her instantly start erect with new
+light in her eyes.
+
+"And you will help me?" she cried.
+
+"What else am I here for?" he answered.
+
+And turning toward a quiet figure which she now saw for the first time
+standing on the threshold of a small room near by, he said with the
+calmness of a master:
+
+"Hickory, see that no one enters or leaves the sick-room till I return."
+And offering Imogene his arm, he conducted her into the library, the
+door of which he shut to behind them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+MR. GRYCE.
+
+          What you have spoke, it may be so, perchance.
+          This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,
+          Was once thought honest.                 --MACBETH.
+
+
+AN hour later, as Mr. Ferris was leaving the house in company with Dr.
+Tredwell, he felt himself stopped by a slight touch on his arm. Turning
+about he saw Hickory.
+
+"Beg pardon, sirs," said the detective, with a short bow, "but there's a
+gentleman, in the library who would like to see you before you go."
+
+They at once turned to the room indicated. But at sight of its
+well-known features--its huge cases of books, its large centre-table
+profusely littered with papers, the burnt-out grate, the empty
+arm-chair--they paused, and it was with difficulty they could recover
+themselves sufficiently to enter. When they did, their first glance was
+toward the gentleman they saw standing in a distant window, apparently
+perusing a book.
+
+"Who is it?" inquired Mr. Ferris of his companion.
+
+"I cannot imagine," returned the other.
+
+Hearing voices, the gentleman advanced.
+
+"Ah," said he, "allow me to introduce myself. I am Mr. Gryce, of the New
+York Detective Service."
+
+"Mr. Gryce!" repeated the District Attorney, in astonishment.
+
+The famous detective bowed. "I have come," said he, "upon a summons
+received by me in Utica not six hours ago. It was sent by a subordinate
+of mine interested in the trial now going on before the court. Horace
+Byrd is his name. I hope he is well liked here and has your confidence."
+
+"Mr. Byrd is well enough liked," rejoined Mr. Ferris, "but I gave him no
+orders to send for you. At what hour was the telegram dated?"
+
+"At half-past eleven; immediately after the accident to Mr. Orcutt."
+
+"I see."
+
+"He probably felt himself inadequate to meet this new emergency. He is a
+young man, and the affair is certainly a complicated one."
+
+The District Attorney, who had been studying the countenance of the able
+detective before him, bowed courteously.
+
+"I am not displeased to see you," said he. "If you have been in the room
+above----"
+
+The other gravely bowed.
+
+"You know probably of the outrageous accusation which has just been made
+against our best lawyer and most-esteemed citizen. It is but one of many
+which this same woman has made; and while it is to be regarded as the
+ravings of lunacy, still your character and ability may weigh much in
+lifting the opprobrium which any such accusation, however unfounded, is
+calculated to throw around the memory of my dying friend."
+
+"Sir," returned Mr. Gryce, shifting his gaze uneasily from one small
+object to another in that dismal room, till all and every article it
+contained seemed to partake of his mysterious confidence, "this is a
+world of disappointment and deceit. Intellects we admired, hearts in
+which we trusted, turn out frequently to be the abodes of falsehood and
+violence. It is dreadful, but it is true."
+
+Mr. Ferris, struck aghast, looked at the detective with severe
+disapprobation.
+
+"Is it possible," he asked, "that you have allowed yourself to give any
+credence to the delirious utterances of a man suffering from a wound on
+the head, or to the frantic words of a woman who has already abused the
+ears of the court by a deliberate perjury?" While Dr. Tredwell, equally
+indignant and even more impatient, rapped with his knuckles on the table
+by which he stood, and cried:
+
+"Pooh, pooh, the man cannot be such a fool!"
+
+A solemn smile crossed the features of the detective.
+
+"Many persons have listened to the aspersion you denounce. Active
+measures will be needed to prevent its going farther."
+
+"I have commanded silence," said Dr. Tredwell. "Respect for Mr. Orcutt
+will cause my wishes to be obeyed."
+
+"Does Mr. Orcutt enjoy the universal respect of the town?"
+
+"He does," was the stern reply.
+
+"It behooves us, then," said Mr. Gryce, "to clear his memory from every
+doubt by a strict inquiry into his relations with the murdered woman."
+
+"They are known," returned Mr. Ferris, with grim reserve. "They were
+such as any man might hold with the woman at whose house he finds it
+convenient to take his daily dinner. She was to him the provider of a
+good meal."
+
+Mr. Gryce's eye travelled slowly toward Mr. Ferris' shirt stud.
+
+"Gentlemen," said he, "do you forget that Mr. Orcutt was on the scene of
+murder some minutes before the rest of you arrived? Let the attention of
+people once be directed toward him as a suspicious party, and they will
+be likely to remember this fact."
+
+Astounded, both men drew back.
+
+"What do you mean by that remark?" they asked.
+
+"I mean," said Mr. Gryce, "that Mr. Orcutt's visit to Mrs. Clemmens'
+house on the morning of the murder will be apt to be recalled by persons
+of a suspicious tendency as having given him an opportunity to commit
+the crime."
+
+"People are not such fools," cried Dr. Tredwell; while Mr. Ferris, in a
+tone of mingled incredulity and anger, exclaimed:
+
+"And do you, a reputable detective, and, as I have been told, a man of
+excellent judgment, presume to say that there could be found any one in
+this town, or even in this country, who could let his suspicions carry
+him so far as to hint that Mr. Orcutt struck this woman with his own
+hand in the minute or two that elapsed between his going into her house
+and his coming out again with tidings of her death?"
+
+"Those who remember that he had been a participator in the lengthy
+discussion which had just taken place on the court-house steps as to how
+a man might commit a crime without laying himself open to the risk of
+detection, might--yes, sir."
+
+Mr. Ferris and the coroner, who, whatever their doubts or fears, had
+never for an instant seriously believed the dying words of Mr. Orcutt to
+be those of confession, gazed in consternation at the detective, and
+finally inquired:
+
+"Do you realize what you are saying?"
+
+Mr. Gryce drew a deep breath, and shifted his gaze to the next stud in
+Mr. Ferris' shirt-front.
+
+"I have never been accused of speaking lightly," he remarked. Then, with
+quiet insistence, asked: "Where was Mrs. Clemmens believed to get the
+money she lived on?"
+
+"It is not known," rejoined the District Attorney.
+
+"Yet she left a nice little sum behind her?"
+
+"Five thousand dollars," declared the coroner.
+
+"Strange that, in a town like this, no one should know where it came
+from?" suggested the detective.
+
+The two gentlemen were silent.
+
+"It was a good deal to come from Mr. Orcutt in payment of a single meal
+a day!" continued Mr. Gryce.
+
+"No one has ever supposed it did come from Mr. Orcutt," remarked Mr.
+Ferris, with some severity.
+
+"But does any one know it did not?" ventured the detective.
+
+Dr. Tredwell and the District Attorney looked at each other, but did not
+reply.
+
+"Gentlemen," pursued Mr. Gryce, after a moment of quiet waiting, "this
+is without exception the most serious moment of my life. Never in the
+course of my experience--and that includes much--have I been placed in a
+more trying position than now. To allow one's self to doubt, much less
+to question, the integrity of so eminent a man, seems to me only less
+dreadful than it does to you; yet, for all that, were I his friend, as I
+certainly am his admirer, I would say: 'Sift this matter to the bottom;
+let us know if this great lawyer has any more in favor of his innocence
+than the other gentlemen who have been publicly accused of this crime.'"
+
+"But," protested Dr. Tredwell, seeing that the District Attorney was too
+much moved to speak, "you forget the evidences which underlay the
+accusation of these _other_ gentlemen; also that of all the persons who,
+from the day the widow was struck till now, have been in any way
+associated with suspicion, Mr. Orcutt is the only one who could have had
+no earthly motive for injuring this humble woman, even if he were all
+he would have to be to first perform such a brutal deed and then carry
+out his hypocrisy to the point of using his skill as a criminal lawyer
+to defend another man falsely accused of the crime."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," said the detective, "but I forget nothing. I
+only bring to the consideration of this subject a totally unprejudiced
+mind and an experience which has taught me never to omit testing the
+truth of a charge because it seems at first blush false, preposterous,
+and without visible foundation. If you will recall the conversation to
+which I have just alluded as having been held on the court-house steps
+on the morning Mrs. Clemmens was murdered, you will remember that it was
+the intellectual crime that was discussed--the crime of an intelligent
+man, safe in the knowledge that his motive for doing such a deed was a
+secret to the world."
+
+"My God!" exclaimed Mr. Ferris, under his breath, "the man seems to be
+in earnest!"
+
+"Gentlemen," pursued Mr. Gryce, with more dignity than he had hitherto
+seen fit to assume, "it is not my usual practice to express myself as
+openly as I have done here to-day. In all ordinary cases I consider it
+expedient to reserve intact my suspicions and my doubts till I have
+completed my discoveries and arranged my arguments so as to bear out
+with some show of reason whatever statement I may feel obliged to make.
+But the extraordinary features of this affair, and the fact that so
+many were present at the scene we have just left, have caused me to
+change my usual tactics. Though far from ready to say that Mr. Orcutt's
+words were those of confession, I still see much reason to doubt his
+innocence, and, feeling thus, am quite willing you should know it in
+time to prepare for the worst."
+
+"Then you propose making what has occurred here public?" asked Mr.
+Ferris, with emotion.
+
+"Not so," was the detective's ready reply. "On the contrary, I was about
+to suggest that you did something more than lay a command of silence
+upon those who were present."
+
+The District Attorney, who, as he afterward said, felt as if he were
+laboring under some oppressive nightmare, turned to the coroner and
+said:
+
+"Dr. Tredwell, what do you advise me to do? Terrible as this shock has
+been, and serious as is the duty it possibly involves, I have never
+allowed myself to shrink from doing what was right simply because it
+afforded suffering to myself or indignity to my friends. Do you think I
+am called upon to pursue this matter?"
+
+The coroner, troubled, anxious, and nearly as much overwhelmed as the
+District Attorney, did not immediately reply. Indeed, the situation was
+one to upset any man of whatever calibre. Finally he turned to Mr.
+Gryce.
+
+"Mr. Gryce," said he, "we are, as you have observed, friends of the
+dying man, and, being so, may miss our duty in our sympathy. What do you
+think ought to be done, in justice to him, the prisoner, and the
+positions which we both occupy?"
+
+"Well, sirs," rejoined Mr. Gryce, "it is not usual, perhaps, for a man
+in my position to offer actual advice to gentlemen in yours; but if you
+wish to know what course I should pursue if I were in your places, I
+should say: First, require the witnesses still lingering around the
+dying man to promise that they will not divulge what was there said till
+a week has fully elapsed; next, adjourn the case now before the court
+for the same decent length of time; and, lastly, trust me and the two
+men you have hitherto employed, to find out if there is any thing in Mr.
+Orcutt's past history of a nature to make you tremble if the world hears
+of the words which escaped him on his death-bed. We shall probably need
+but a week."
+
+"And Miss Dare?"
+
+"Has already promised secrecy."
+
+There was nothing in all this to alarm their fears; every thing, on the
+contrary, to allay them.
+
+The coroner gave a nod of approval to Mr. Ferris, and both signified
+their acquiescence in the measures proposed.
+
+Mr. Gryce at once assumed his usual genial air.
+
+"You may trust me," said he, "to exercise all the discretion you would
+yourselves show under the circumstances. I have no wish to see the name
+of such a man blasted by an ineffaceable stain." And he bowed as if
+about to leave the room.
+
+But Mr. Ferris, who had observed this movement with an air of some
+uneasiness, suddenly stepped forward and stopped him.
+
+"I wish to ask," said he, "whether superstition has had any thing to do
+with this readiness on your part to impute the worst meaning to the
+chance phrases which have fallen from the lips of our severely injured
+friend. Because his end seems in some regards to mirror that of the
+widow, have you allowed a remembrance of the words she made use of in
+the face of death to influence your good judgment as to the identity of
+Mr. Orcutt with her assassin?"
+
+The face of Mr. Gryce assumed its grimmest aspect.
+
+"Do you think this catastrophe was necessary to draw my attention to Mr.
+Orcutt? To a man acquainted with the extraordinary coincidence that
+marked the discovery of Mrs. Clemmens' murder, the mystery must be that
+Mr. Orcutt has gone unsuspected for so long." And assuming an
+argumentative air, he asked:
+
+"Were either of you two gentlemen present at the conversation I have
+mentioned as taking place on the court-house steps the morning Mrs.
+Clemmens was murdered?"
+
+"I was," said the District Attorney.
+
+"You remember, then, the hunchback who was so free with his views?"
+
+"Most certainly."
+
+"And know, perhaps, who that hunchback was?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You will not be surprised, then, if I recall to you the special
+incidents of that hour. A group of lawyers, among them Mr. Orcutt, are
+amusing themselves with an off-hand chat concerning criminals and the
+clumsy way in which, as a rule, they plan and execute their crimes. All
+seem to agree that a murder is usually followed by detection, when
+suddenly a stranger speaks and tells them that the true way to make a
+success of the crime is to choose a thoroughfare for the scene of
+tragedy, and employ a weapon that has been picked up on the spot. What
+happens? Within five minutes after this piece of gratuitous information,
+or as soon as Mr. Orcutt can cross the street, Mrs. Clemmens is found
+lying in her blood, struck down by a stick of wood picked up from her
+own hearth-stone. Is this chance? If so, 'tis a very curious one."
+
+"I don't deny it," said Doctor Tredwell.
+
+"I believe you never did deny it," quickly retorted the detective. "Am I
+not right in saying that it struck you so forcibly at the time as to
+lead you into supposing some collusion between the hunchback and the
+murderer?"
+
+"It certainly did," admitted the coroner.
+
+"Very well," proceeded Mr. Gryce. "Now as there could have been no
+collusion between these parties, the hunchback being no other person
+than myself, what are we to think of this murder? That it was a
+coincidence, or an actual result of the hunchback's words?"
+
+Dr. Tredwell and Mr. Ferris were both silent.
+
+"Sirs," continued Mr. Gryce, feeling, perhaps, that perfect openness was
+necessary in order to win entire confidence, "I am not given to boasting
+or to a too-free expression of my opinion, but if I had been ignorant of
+this affair, and one of my men had come to me and said: 'A mysterious
+murder has just taken place, marked by this extraordinary feature, that
+it is a precise reproduction of a supposable case of crime which has
+just been discussed by a group of indifferent persons in the public
+street,' and then had asked me where to look for the assassin, I should
+have said: 'Search for that man who heard the discussion through, was
+among the first to leave the group, and was the first to show himself
+upon the scene of murder.' To be sure, when Byrd did come to me with
+this story, I was silent, for the man who fulfilled these conditions was
+Mr. Orcutt."
+
+"Then," said Mr. Ferris, "you mean to say that you would have suspected
+Mr. Orcutt of this crime long ago if he had not been a man of such
+position and eminence?"
+
+"Undoubtedly," was Mr. Gryce's reply.
+
+If the expression was unequivocal, his air was still more so. Shocked
+and disturbed, both gentlemen fell back. The detective at once advanced
+and opened the door.
+
+It was time. Mr. Byrd had been tapping upon it for some minutes, and now
+hastily came in. His face told the nature of his errand before he
+spoke.
+
+"I am sorry to be obliged to inform you----" he began.
+
+"Mr. Orcutt is dead?" quickly interposed Mr. Ferris.
+
+The young detective solemnly bowed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+IN THE PRISON.
+
+          The jury passing on the prisoner's life,
+          May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two
+          Guiltier than him they try.
+                    --MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
+
+          Such welcome and unwelcome things at once
+          'Tis hard to reconcile.          --MACBETH.
+
+
+MR. MANSELL sat in his cell, the prey of gloomy and perturbed thought.
+He knew Mr. Orcutt was dead; he had been told of it early in the morning
+by his jailer, but of the circumstances which attended that death he
+knew nothing, save that the lawyer had been struck by a limb falling
+from a tree in his own garden.
+
+The few moments during which the court had met for the purpose of
+re-adjournment had added but little to his enlightenment. A marked
+reserve had characterized the whole proceedings; and though an
+indefinable instinct had told him that in some mysterious way his cause
+had been helped rather than injured by this calamity to his counsel, he
+found no one ready to volunteer those explanations which his great
+interest in the matter certainly demanded. The hour, therefore, which he
+spent in solitude upon his return to prison was one of great anxiety,
+and it was quite a welcome relief when the cell door opened and the
+keeper ushered in a strange gentleman. Supposing it to be the new
+counsel he had chosen at haphazard from a list of names that had been
+offered him, Mr. Mansell rose. But a second glance assured him he had
+made a mistake in supposing this person to be a lawyer, and stepping
+back he awaited his approach with mingled curiosity and reserve.
+
+The stranger, who seemed to be perfectly at home in the narrow quarters
+in which he found himself, advanced with a frank air.
+
+"My name is Gryce," said he, "and I am a detective. The District
+Attorney, who, as you know, has been placed in a very embarrassing
+situation by the events of the last two days, has accepted my services
+in connection with those of the two men already employed by him, in the
+hope that my greater experience may assist him in determining which, of
+all the persons who have been accused, or who have accused themselves,
+of murdering Mrs. Clemmens, is the actual perpetrator of that deed. Do
+you require any further assurance of my being in the confidence of Mr.
+Ferris than the fact that I am here, and in full liberty to talk with
+you?"
+
+"No," returned the other, after a short but close study of his visitor.
+
+"Very well, then," continued the detective, with a comfortable air of
+ease, "I will speak to the point; and the first thing I will say is,
+that upon looking at the evidence against you, and hearing what I have
+heard from various sources since I came to town, I know you are not the
+man who killed Mrs. Clemmens. To be sure, you have declined to explain
+certain points, but I think you can explain them, and if you will only
+inform me----"
+
+"Pardon me," interrupted Mr. Mansell, gravely; "but you say you are a
+detective. Now, I have no information to give a detective."
+
+"Are you sure?" was the imperturbable query.
+
+"Quite," was the quick reply.
+
+"You are then determined upon going to the scaffold, whether or no?"
+remarked Mr. Gryce, somewhat grimly.
+
+"Yes, if to escape it I must confide in a detective."
+
+"Then you do wrong," declared the other; "as I will immediately proceed
+to show you. Mr. Mansell, you are, of course, aware of the manner of Mr.
+Orcutt's death?"
+
+"I know he was struck by a falling limb."
+
+"Do you know what he was doing when this occurred?"
+
+"No."
+
+"He was escorting Miss Dare down to the gate."
+
+The prisoner, whose countenance had brightened at the mention of his
+lawyer, turned a deadly white at this.
+
+"And--and was Miss Dare hurt?" he asked.
+
+The detective shook his head.
+
+"Then why do you tell me this?"
+
+"Because it has much to do with the occasion of my coming here, Mr.
+Mansell," proceeded Mr. Gryce, in that tone of completely understanding
+himself which he knew so well how to assume with men of the prisoner's
+stamp. "I am going to speak to you without circumlocution or disguise. I
+am going to put your position before you just as it is. You are on trial
+for a murder of which not only yourself, but another man, was suspected.
+Why are you on trial instead of him? Because you were reticent in regard
+to certain matters which common-sense would say you ought to be able to
+explain. Why were you reticent? There can be but one answer. Because you
+feared to implicate another person, for whose happiness and honor you
+had more regard than for your own. Who was that other person? The woman
+who stood up in court yesterday and declared she had herself committed
+this crime. What is the conclusion? You believe, and have always
+believed, Miss Dare to be the assassin of Mrs. Clemmens."
+
+The prisoner, whose pallor had increased with every word the detective
+uttered, leaped to his feet at this last sentence.
+
+"You have no right to say that!" he vehemently asseverated. "What do you
+know of my thoughts or my beliefs? Do I carry my convictions on my
+sleeve? I am not the man to betray my ideas or feelings to the world."
+
+Mr. Gryce smiled. To be sure, this expression of silent complacency was
+directed to the grating of the window overhead, but it was none the less
+effectual on that account. Mr. Mansell, despite his self-command, began
+to look uneasy.
+
+"Prove your words!" he cried. "Show that these have been my
+convictions!"
+
+"Very well," returned Mr. Gryce. "Why were you so long silent about the
+ring? Because you did not wish to compromise Miss Dare by declaring she
+did not return it to you, as she had said. Why did you try to stop her
+in the midst of her testimony yesterday? Because you saw it was going to
+end in confession. Finally, why did you throw aside your defence, and
+instead of proclaiming yourself guilty, simply tell how you were able to
+reach Monteith Quarry Station in ninety minutes? Because you feared her
+guilt would be confirmed if her statements were investigated, and were
+willing to sacrifice every thing but the truth in order to save her."
+
+"You give me credit for a great deal of generosity," coldly replied the
+prisoner. "After the evidence brought against me by the prosecution, I
+should think my guilt would be accepted as proved the moment I showed
+that I had not left Mrs. Clemmens' house at the time she was believed to
+be murdered."
+
+"And so it would," responded Mr. Gryce, "if the prosecution had not seen
+reason to believe that the moment of Mrs. Clemmens' death has been put
+too early. We now think she was not struck till some time after twelve,
+instead of five minutes before."
+
+"Indeed?" said Mr. Mansell, with stern self-control.
+
+Mr. Gryce, whose carelessly roving eye told little of the close study
+with which he was honoring the man before him, nodded with grave
+decision.
+
+"You could add very much to our convictions on this point," he observed,
+"by telling what it was you saw or heard in Mrs. Clemmens' house at the
+moment you fled from it so abruptly."
+
+"How do you know I fled from it abruptly?"
+
+"You were seen. The fact has not appeared in court, but a witness we
+might name perceived you flying from your aunt's door to the swamp as if
+your life depended upon the speed you made."
+
+"And with that fact added to all the rest you have against me, you say
+you believe me innocent?" exclaimed Mr. Mansell.
+
+"Yes; for I have also said I believe Mrs. Clemmens not to have been
+assaulted till after the hour of noon. You fled from the door at
+precisely five minutes before it."
+
+The uneasiness of Mr. Mansell's face increased, till it amounted to
+agitation.
+
+"And may I ask," said he, "what has happened to make you believe she was
+not struck at the moment hitherto supposed?"
+
+"Ah, now," replied the detective, "we come down to facts." And leaning
+with a confidential air toward the prisoner, he quietly said: "Your
+counsel has died, for one thing."
+
+Astonished as much by the tone as the tenor of these words, Mr. Mansell
+drew back from his visitor in some distrust. Seeing it, Mr. Gryce edged
+still farther forward, and calmly continued:
+
+"If no one has told you the particulars of Mr. Orcutt's death, you
+probably do not know why Miss Dare was at his house last evening?"
+
+The look of the prisoner was sufficient reply.
+
+"She went there," resumed Mr. Gryce, with composure, "to tell him that
+her whole evidence against you had been given under the belief that you
+were guilty of the crime with which you had been charged; that by a
+trick of my fellow-detectives, Hickory and Byrd, she had been deceived
+into thinking you had actually admitted your guilt to her; and that she
+had only been undeceived after she had uttered the perjury with which
+she sought to save you yesterday morning."
+
+"Perjury?" escaped involuntarily from Craik Mansell's lips.
+
+"Yes," repeated the detective, "perjury. Miss Dare lied when she said
+she had been to Mrs. Clemmens' cottage on the morning of the murder. She
+was not there, nor did she lift her hand against the widow's life. That
+tale she told to escape telling another which she thought would insure
+your doom."
+
+"You have been talking to Miss Dare?" suggested the prisoner, with
+subdued sarcasm.
+
+"I have been talking to my two men," was the unmoved retort, "to Hickory
+and to Byrd, and they not only confirm this statement of hers in regard
+to the deception they played upon her, but say enough to show she could
+not have been guilty of the crime, because at that time she honestly
+believed you to be so."
+
+"I do not understand you," cried the prisoner, in a voice that, despite
+his marked self-control, showed the presence of genuine emotion.
+
+Mr. Gryce at once went into particulars. He was anxious to have Craik
+Mansell's mind disabused of the notion that Imogene had committed this
+crime, since upon that notion he believed his unfortunate reticence to
+rest. He therefore gave him a full relation of the scene in the hut,
+together with all its consequences.
+
+Mr. Mansell listened like a man in a dream. Some fact in the past
+evidently made this story incredible to him.
+
+Seeing it, Mr. Gryce did not wait to hear his comments, but upon
+finishing his account, exclaimed, with a confident air:
+
+"Such testimony is conclusive. It is impossible to consider Miss Dare
+guilty, after an insight of this kind into the real state of her mind.
+Even she has seen the uselessness of persisting in her self-accusation,
+and, as I have already told you, went to Mr. Orcutt's house in order to
+explain to him her past conduct, and ask his advice for the future. She
+learned something else before her interview with Mr. Orcutt ended,"
+continued the detective, impressively. "She learned that she had not
+only been mistaken in supposing you had admitted your guilt, but that
+you could not have been guilty, because you had always believed her to
+be so. It has been a mutual case of suspicion, you see, and argues
+innocence on the part of you both. Or so it seems to the prosecution.
+How does it seem to you?"
+
+"Would it help my cause to say?"
+
+"It would help your cause to tell what sent you so abruptly from Mrs.
+Clemmens' house the morning she was murdered."
+
+"I do not see how," returned the prisoner.
+
+The glance of Mr. Gryce settled confidentially on his right hand where
+it lay outspread upon his ample knee.
+
+"Mr. Mansell," he inquired, "have you no curiosity to know any details
+of the accident by which you have unexpectedly been deprived of a
+counsel?"
+
+Evidently surprised at this sudden change of subject, Craik replied:
+
+"If I had not hoped you would understand my anxiety and presently
+relieve it, I could not have shown you as much patience as I have."
+
+"Very well," rejoined Mr. Gryce, altering his manner with a suddenness
+that evidently alarmed his listener. "Mr. Orcutt did not die immediately
+after he was struck down. He lived some hours; lived to say some words
+that have materially changed the suspicions of persons interested in the
+case he was defending."
+
+"Mr. Orcutt?"
+
+The tone was one of surprise. Mr. Gryce's little finger seemed to take
+note of it, for it tapped the leg beneath it in quite an emphatic manner
+as he continued: "It was in answer to a question put to him by Miss
+Dare. To the surprise of every one, she had not left him from the moment
+they were mutually relieved from the weight of the fallen limb, but had
+stood over him for hours, watching for him to rouse from his
+insensibility. When he did, she appealed to him in a way that showed she
+expected a reply, to tell her who it was that killed the Widow
+Clemmens."
+
+"And did Mr. Orcutt know?" was Mansell's half-agitated, half-incredulous
+query.
+
+"His answer seemed to show that he did. Mr. Mansell, have you ever had
+any doubts of Mr. Orcutt?"
+
+"Doubts?"
+
+"Doubts as to his integrity, good-heartedness, or desire to serve you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You will, then, be greatly surprised," Mr. Gryce went on, with
+increased gravity, "when I tell you that Mr. Orcutt's reply to Miss
+Dare's question was such as to draw attention to himself as the assassin
+of Widow Clemmens, and that his words and the circumstances under which
+they were uttered have so impressed Mr. Ferris, that the question now
+agitating his mind is not, 'Is Craik Mansell innocent, but was his
+counsel, Tremont Orcutt, guilty?'"
+
+The excited look which had appeared on the face of Mansell at the
+beginning of this speech, changed to one of strong disgust.
+
+"This is too much!" he cried. "I am not a fool to be caught by any such
+make-believe as this! Mr. Orcutt thought to be an assassin? You might as
+well say that people accuse Judge Evans of killing the Widow Clemmens."
+
+Mr. Gryce, who had perhaps stretched a point when he so unequivocally
+declared his complete confidence in the innocence of the man before him,
+tapped his leg quite affectionately at this burst of natural
+indignation, and counted off another point in favor of the prisoner. His
+words, however, were dry as sarcasm could make them.
+
+"No," said he, "for people know that Judge Evans was without the
+opportunity for committing this murder, while every one remembers how
+Mr. Orcutt went to the widow's house and came out again with tidings of
+her death."
+
+The prisoner's lip curled disdainfully.
+
+"And do you expect me to believe you regard this as a groundwork for
+suspicion? I should have given you credit for more penetration, sir."
+
+"Then you do not think Mr. Orcutt knew what he was saying when, in
+answer to Miss Dare's appeal for him to tell who the murderer was, he
+answered: 'Blood will have blood!' and drew attention to his own violent
+end?"
+
+"Did Mr. Orcutt say that?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"Very well, a man whose whole mind has for some time been engrossed with
+defending another man accused of murder, might say any thing while in a
+state of delirium."
+
+Mr. Gryce uttered his favorite "Humph!" and gave his leg another pat,
+but added, gravely enough: "Miss Dare believes his words to be those of
+confession."
+
+"You say Miss Dare once believed me to have confessed."
+
+"But," persisted the detective, "Miss Dare is not alone in her opinion.
+Men in whose judgment you must rely, find it difficult to explain the
+words of Mr. Orcutt by means of any other theory than that he is himself
+the perpetrator of that crime for which you are yourself being tried."
+
+"I find it difficult to believe that possible," quietly returned the
+prisoner. "What!" he suddenly exclaimed; "suspect a man of Mr. Orcutt's
+abilities and standing of a hideous crime--the very crime, too, with
+which his client is charged, and in defence of whom he has brought all
+his skill to bear! The idea is preposterous, unheard of!"
+
+"I acknowledge that," dryly assented Mr. Gryce; "but it has been my
+experience to find that it is the preposterous things which happen."
+
+For a minute the prisoner stared at the speaker incredulously; then he
+cried:
+
+"You really appear to be in earnest."
+
+"I was never more so in my life," was Mr. Gryce's rejoinder.
+
+Drawing back, Craik Mansell looked at the detective with an emotion that
+had almost the character of hope. Presently he said:
+
+"If you do distrust Mr. Orcutt, you must have weightier reasons for it
+than any you have given me. What are they? You must be willing I should
+know, or you would not have gone as far with me as you have."
+
+"You are right," Gryce assured him. "A case so complicated as this calls
+for unusual measures. Mr. Ferris, feeling the gravity of his position,
+allows me to take you into our confidence, in the hope that you will be
+able to help us out of our difficulty."
+
+"I help you! You'd better release me first."
+
+"That will come in time."
+
+"_If_ I help you?"
+
+"Whether you help or not, if we can satisfy ourselves and the world that
+Mr. Orcutt's words were a confession. You may hasten that conviction."
+
+"How?"
+
+"By clearing up the mystery of your flight from Mrs. Clemmens' house."
+
+The keen eyes of the prisoner fell; all his old distrust seemed on the
+point of returning.
+
+"That would not help you at all," said he.
+
+"_I_ should like to be the judge," said Mr. Gryce.
+
+The prisoner shook his head.
+
+"My word must go for it," said he.
+
+The detective had been the hero of too many such scenes to be easily
+discouraged. Bowing as if accepting this conclusion from the prisoner,
+he quietly proceeded with the recital he had planned. With a frankness
+certainly unusual to him, he gave the prisoner a full account of Mr.
+Orcutt's last hours, and the interview which had followed between
+himself and Miss Dare. To this he added his own reasons for doubting the
+lawyer, and, while admitting he saw no motive for the deed, gave it as
+his serious opinion, that the motive would be found if once he could get
+at the secret of Mr. Orcutt's real connection with the deceased. He was
+so eloquent, and so manifestly in earnest, Mr. Mansell's eye brightened
+in spite of himself, and when the detective ceased he looked up with an
+expression which convinced Mr. Gryce that half the battle was won. He
+accordingly said, in a tone of great confidence:
+
+"A knowledge of what went on in Mrs. Clemmens' house before he went to
+it would be of great help to us. With that for a start, all may be
+learned. I therefore put it to you for the last time whether it would
+not be best for you to explain yourself on this point. I am sure you
+will not regret it."
+
+"Sir," said Mansell, with undisturbed composure, "if your purpose is to
+fix this crime on Mr. Orcutt, I must insist upon your taking my word
+that I have no information to give you that can in any way affect him."
+
+"You could give us information, then, that would affect Miss Dare?" was
+the quick retort. "Now, I say," the astute detective declared, as the
+prisoner gave an almost imperceptible start, "that whatever your
+information is, Miss Dare is not guilty."
+
+"You say it!" exclaimed the prisoner. "What does your opinion amount to
+if you haven't heard the evidence against her?"
+
+"There is no evidence against her but what is purely circumstantial."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"Because she is innocent. Circumstantial evidence may exist alike
+against the innocent and the guilty; real evidence only against the
+guilty. I mean to say that as I am firmly convinced Miss Dare once
+regarded you as guilty of this crime, I must be equally convinced she
+didn't commit it herself. This is unanswerable."
+
+"You have stated that before."
+
+"I know it; but I want you to see the force of it; because, once
+convinced with me that Miss Dare is innocent, you will be willing to
+tell all you know, even what apparently implicates her."
+
+Silence answered this remark.
+
+"You didn't _see_ her strike the blow?"
+
+Mansell roused indignantly.
+
+"No, of course not!" he cried.
+
+"You did not see her with your aunt that moment you fled from the house
+immediately before the murder!"
+
+"I didn't _see_ her."
+
+That emphasis, unconscious, perhaps, was fatal. Gryce, who never lost
+any thing, darted on this small gleam of advantage as a hungry pike
+darts upon an innocent minnow.
+
+"But you thought you heard her," he cried; "her voice, or her laugh, or
+perhaps merely the rustle of her dress in another room?"
+
+"No," said Mansell, "I didn't _hear_ her."
+
+"Of course not," was the instantaneous reply. "But something said or
+done by somebody--a something which amounts to nothing as
+evidence--gives you to understand she was there, and so you hold your
+tongue for fear of compromising her."
+
+"Amounts to nothing as evidence?" echoed Mansell. "How do you know
+that?"
+
+"Because Miss Dare was not in the house with your aunt at that time.
+Miss Dare was in Professor Darling's observatory, a mile or so away."
+
+"Does she say that?"
+
+"We will _prove_ that."
+
+Aroused, excited, the prisoner turned his flashing blue eyes on the
+detective.
+
+"I should be glad to have you," he said.
+
+"But you must first tell me in what room you were when you received this
+intimation of Miss Dare's presence?"
+
+"I was in no room; I was on the stone step outside of the dining-room
+door. I did not go into the house at all that morning, as I believe I
+have already told Mr. Ferris."
+
+"_Very_ good! It will all be simpler than I thought. You came up to the
+house and went away again without coming in; ran away, I may say, taking
+the direction of the swamp."
+
+The prisoner did not deny it.
+
+"You remember all the incidents of that short flight?"
+
+The prisoner's lip curled.
+
+"Remember leaping the fence and stumbling a trifle when you came down?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Very well; now tell me how could Miss Dare see you do that from Mrs.
+Clemmens' house?"
+
+"Did Miss Dare tell you she saw me trip after I jumped the fence?"
+
+"She did."
+
+"And yet was in Professor Darling's observatory, a mile or so away?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+A satirical laugh broke from the prisoner.
+
+"I think," said he, "that instead of my telling you how she could have
+seen this from Mrs. Clemmens' house, you should tell me how she could
+have seen it from Professor Darling's observatory."
+
+"That is easy enough. She was looking through a telescope."
+
+"What?"
+
+"At the moment you were turning from Mrs. Clemmens' door, Miss Dare,
+perched in the top of Professor Darling's house, was looking in that
+very direction through a telescope."
+
+"I--I would like to believe that story," said the prisoner, with
+suppressed emotion. "It would----"
+
+"What?" urged the detective, calmly.
+
+"Make a new man of me," finished Mansell, with a momentary burst of
+feeling.
+
+"Well, then, call up your memories of the way your aunt's house is
+situated. Recall the hour, and acknowledge that, if Miss Dare was with
+her, she must have been in the dining-room."
+
+"There is no doubt about that."
+
+"Now, how many windows has the dining-room?"
+
+"One."
+
+"How situated?"
+
+"It is on the same side as the door."
+
+"There is none, then, which looks down to that place where you leaped
+the fence?"
+
+"No."
+
+"How account for her seeing that little incident, then, of your
+stumbling?"
+
+"She might have come to the door, stepped out, and so seen me."
+
+"Humph! I see you have an answer for every thing."
+
+Craik Mansell was silent.
+
+A look of admiration slowly spread itself over the detective's face.
+
+"We must probe the matter a little deeper," said he. "I see I have a
+hard head to deal with." And, bringing his glance a little nearer to the
+prisoner, he remarked:
+
+"If she had been standing there you could not have turned round without
+seeing her?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Now, did you see her standing there?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Yet you turned round?"
+
+"I did?"
+
+"Miss Dare says so."
+
+The prisoner struck his forehead with his hand.
+
+"And it _is_ so," he cried. "I remember now that some vague desire to
+know the time made me turn to look at the church clock. Go on. Tell me
+more that Miss Dare saw."
+
+His manner was so changed--his eye burned so brightly--the detective
+gave himself a tap of decided self-gratulation.
+
+"She saw you hurry over the bog, stop at the entrance of the wood, take
+a look at your watch, and plunge with renewed speed into the forest."
+
+"It is so. It is so. And, to have seen that, she must have had the aid
+of a telescope."
+
+"Then she describes your appearance. She says you had your pants turned
+up at the ankles, and carried your coat on your left arm."
+
+"_Left_ arm?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I think I had it on my right."
+
+"It was on the arm toward her, she declares. If she was in the
+observatory, it was your left side that she saw."
+
+"Yes, yes; but the coat was over the other arm. I remember using my left
+hand in vaulting over the fence when I came up to the house."
+
+"It is a vital point," said Mr. Gryce, with a quietness that concealed
+his real anxiety and chagrin. "If the coat was on the arm _toward_ her,
+the fact of its being on the right----"
+
+"Wait!" exclaimed Mr. Mansell, with an air of sudden relief. "I
+recollect now that I changed it from one arm to the other after I
+vaulted the fence. It was just at the moment I turned to come back to
+the side door, and, as she does not pretend to have seen me till after I
+left the door, of course the coat was, as she says, on my left arm."
+
+"I thought you could explain it," returned Mr. Gryce, with an air of
+easy confidence. "But what do you mean when you say that you changed it
+at the moment you turned to come back to the side door? Didn't you go at
+once to the dining-room door from the swamp?"
+
+"No. I had gone to the front door on my former visit, and was going to
+it this time; but when I got to the corner of the house I saw the tramp
+coming into the gate, and not wishing to encounter any one, turned round
+and came back to the dining-room door."
+
+"I see. And it was then you heard----"
+
+"What I heard," completed the prisoner, grimly.
+
+"Mr. Mansell," said the other, "are you not sufficiently convinced by
+this time that Miss Dare was not with Mrs. Clemmens, but in the
+observatory of Professor Darling's house, to tell me what that was?"
+
+"Answer me a question and I will reply. Can the entrance of the woods be
+seen from the position which she declares herself to have occupied?"
+
+"It can. Not two hours ago I tried the experiment myself, using the same
+telescope and kneeling in the same place where she did. I found I could
+not only trace the spot where you paused, but could detect quite readily
+every movement of my man Hickory, whom I had previously placed there to
+go through the motions. I should not have come here if I had not made
+myself certain on that point."
+
+Yet the prisoner hesitated.
+
+"I not only made myself sure of that," resumed Mr. Gryce, "but I also
+tried if I could see as much with my naked eye from Mrs. Clemmens' side
+door. I found I could not, and my sight is very good."
+
+"Enough," said Mansell; "hard as it is to explain, I must believe Miss
+Dare was not where I thought her."
+
+"Then you will tell me what you heard?"
+
+"Yes; for in it may lie the key to this mystery, though how, I cannot
+see, and doubt if you can. I am all the more ready to do it," he
+pursued, "because I can now understand how she came to think me guilty,
+and, thinking so, conducted herself as she has done from the beginning
+of my trial. All but the fact of her denouncing herself yesterday; that
+I cannot comprehend."
+
+"A woman in love can do any thing," quoth Mr. Gryce. Then admonished by
+the flush of the prisoner's cheek that he was treading on dangerous
+ground, he quickly added: "But she will explain all that herself some
+day. Let us hear what you have to tell me."
+
+Craik Mansell drooped his head and his brow became gloomy.
+
+"Sir," said he, "it is unnecessary for me to state that your surmise in
+regard to my past convictions is true. If Miss Dare was not with my aunt
+just before the murder, I certainly had reasons for thinking she was. To
+be sure, I did not see her or hear her voice, but I heard my aunt
+address her distinctly and by name."
+
+"You did?" Mr. Gryce's interest in the tattoo he was playing on his knee
+became intense.
+
+"Yes. It was just as I pushed the door ajar. The words were these: 'You
+think you are going to marry him, Imogene Dare; but I tell you you
+_never shall_, not while _I_ live.'"
+
+"Humph!" broke involuntarily from the detective's lips, and, though his
+face betrayed nothing of the shock this communication occasioned him,
+his fingers stopped an instant in their restless play.
+
+Mr. Mansell saw it and cast him an anxious look. The detective instantly
+smiled with great unconcern. "Go on," said he, "what else did you hear?"
+
+"Nothing else. In the mood in which I was this very plain intimation
+that Miss Dare had sought my aunt, had pleaded with her for me and
+failed, struck me as sufficient. I did not wait to hear more, but
+hurried away in a state of passion that was little short of frenzy. To
+leave the place and return to my work was now my one wish. When I found,
+then, that by running I might catch the train at Monteith, I ran, and so
+unconsciously laid myself open to suspicion."
+
+"I see," murmured the detective; "I see."
+
+"Not that I suspected any evil then," pursued Mr. Mansell, earnestly. "I
+was only conscious of disappointment and a desire to escape from my own
+thoughts. It was not till next day----"
+
+"Yes--yes," interrupted Mr. Gryce, abstractedly, "but your aunt's words!
+She said: 'You think you are going to marry him, Imogene Dare; but you
+never shall, not while I live.' Yet Imogene Dare was not there. Let us
+solve that problem."
+
+"You think you can?"
+
+"I think I must."
+
+"How? how?"
+
+The detective did not answer. He was buried in profound thought.
+Suddenly he exclaimed:
+
+"It is, as you say, the key-note to the tragedy. It must be solved." But
+the glance he dived deep into space seemed to echo that "How? how?" of
+the prisoner, with a gloomy persistence that promised little for an
+immediate answer to the enigma before them. It occurred to Mansell to
+offer a suggestion.
+
+"There is but one way _I_ can explain it," said he. "My aunt was
+speaking to herself. She was deaf and lived alone. Such people often
+indulge in soliloquizing."
+
+The slap which Mr. Gryce gave his thigh must have made it tingle for a
+good half-hour.
+
+"There," he cried, "who says extraordinary measures are not useful at
+times? You've hit the very explanation. Of course she was speaking to
+herself. She was just the woman to do it. Imogene Dare was in her
+thoughts, so she addressed Imogene Dare. If you had opened the door you
+would have seen her standing there alone, venting her thoughts into
+empty space."
+
+"I wish I had," said the prisoner.
+
+Mr. Gryce became exceedingly animated. "Well, that's settled," said he.
+"Imogene Dare was not there, save in Mrs. Clemmens' imagination. And now
+for the conclusion. She said: 'You think you are going to marry him,
+Imogene Dare; but you never shall, not while I live.' That shows her
+mind was running on you."
+
+"It shows more than that. It shows that, if Miss Dare was not with her
+then, she must have been there earlier in the day. For, when I left my
+aunt the day before, she was in entire ignorance of my attachment to
+Miss Dare, and the hopes it had led to."
+
+"Say that again," cried Gryce.
+
+Mr. Mansell repeated himself, adding: "That would account for the ring
+being found on my aunt's dining-room floor----"
+
+But Mr. Gryce waved that question aside.
+
+"What I want to make sure of is that your aunt had not been informed of
+your wishes as concerned Miss Dare."
+
+"Unless Miss Dare was there in the early morning and told her herself."
+
+"There were no neighbors to betray you?"
+
+"There wasn't a neighbor who knew any thing about the matter."
+
+The detective's eye brightened till it vied in brilliancy with the stray
+gleam of sunshine which had found its way to the cell through the narrow
+grating over their heads.
+
+"A clue!" he murmured; "I have received a clue," and rose as if to
+leave.
+
+The prisoner, startled, rose also.
+
+"A clue to what?" he cried.
+
+But Mr. Gryce was not the man to answer such a question.
+
+"You shall hear soon. Enough that you have given me an idea that may
+eventually lead to the clearing up of this mystery, if not to your own
+acquittal from a false charge of murder."
+
+"And Miss Dare?"
+
+"Is under no charge, and never will be."
+
+"And Mr. Orcutt?"
+
+"Wait," said Mr. Gryce--"wait."
+
+
+
+
+XLI.
+
+A LINK SUPPLIED.
+
+          Upon his bloody finger he doth wear
+          A precious ring.
+                            --TITUS ANDRONICUS.
+
+          Make me to see it; or at the least so prove it,
+          That the probation bear no hinge nor loop
+          To hang a doubt on.
+                                     --OTHELLO.
+
+
+MR. GRYCE did not believe that Imogene Dare had visited Mrs. Clemmens
+before the assault, or, indeed, had held any communication with her.
+Therefore, when Mansell declared that he had never told his aunt of the
+attachment between himself and this young lady, the astute detective at
+once drew the conclusion that the widow had never known of that
+attachment, and consequently that the words which the prisoner had
+overheard must have referred, not to himself, as he supposed, but to
+some other man, and, if to some other man--why to the only one with whom
+Miss Dare's name was at that time associated; in other words, to Mr.
+Orcutt!
+
+Now it was not easy to measure the importance of a conclusion like this.
+For whilst there would have been nothing peculiar in this solitary
+woman, with the few thousands in the bank, boasting of her power to
+separate her nephew from the lady of his choice, there was every thing
+that was significant in her using the same language in regard to Miss
+Dare and Mr. Orcutt. Nothing but the existence of some unsuspected bond
+between herself and the great lawyer could have accounted, first, for
+her feeling on the subject of his marriage; and, secondly, for the
+threat of interference contained in her very emphatic words,--a bond
+which, while evidently not that of love, was still of a nature to give
+her control over his destiny, and make her, in spite of her lonely
+condition, the selfish and determined arbitrator of his fate.
+
+What was that bond? A secret shared between them? The knowledge on her
+part of some fact in Mr. Orcutt's past life, which, if revealed, might
+serve as an impediment to his marriage? In consideration that the great
+mystery to be solved was what motive Mr. Orcutt could have had for
+killing this woman, an answer to this question was manifestly of the
+first importance.
+
+But before proceeding to take any measures to insure one, Mr. Gryce sat
+down and seriously asked himself whether there was any known fact,
+circumstantial or otherwise, which refused to fit into the theory that
+Mr. Orcutt actually committed this crime with his own hand, and at the
+time he was seen to cross the street and enter Mrs. Clemmens' house.
+For, whereas the most complete chain of circumstantial evidence does not
+necessarily prove the suspected party to be guilty of a crime, the
+least break in it is fatal to his conviction. And Mr. Gryce wished to be
+as fair to the memory of Mr. Orcutt as he would have been to the living
+man.
+
+Beginning, therefore, with the earliest incidents of the fatal day, he
+called up, first, the letter which the widow had commenced but never
+lived to finish. It was a suggestive epistle. It was addressed to her
+most intimate friend, and showed in the few lines written a certain
+foreboding or apprehension of death remarkable under the circumstances.
+Mr. Gryce recalled one of its expressions. "There are so many," wrote
+she, "to whom my death would be more than welcome." So many! Many is a
+strong word; many means more than one, more than two; many means _three_
+at least. Now where were the three? Hildreth, of course, was one,
+Mansell might very properly be another, but who was the third? To Mr.
+Gryce, but one name suggested itself in reply. So far, then, his theory
+stood firm. Now what was the next fact known? The milkman stopped with
+his milk; that was at half-past eleven. He had to wait a few minutes,
+from which it was concluded she was up-stairs when he rapped. Was it at
+this time she was interrupted in her letter-writing? If so, she probably
+did not go back to it, for when Mr. Hildreth called, some fifteen
+minutes later, she was on the spot to open the door. Their interview was
+short; it was also stormy. Medicine was the last thing she stood in need
+of; besides, her mind was evidently preoccupied. Showing him the door,
+she goes back to her work, and, being deaf, does not notice that he does
+not leave the house as she expected. Consequently her thoughts go on
+unhindered, and, her condition being one of anger, she mutters aloud and
+bitterly to herself as she flits from dining-room to kitchen in her
+labor of serving up her dinner. The words she made use of have been
+overheard, and here another point appears. For, whereas her temper must
+have been disturbed by the demand which had been made upon her the day
+before by her favorite relative and heir, her expressions of wrath at
+this moment were not levelled against him, but against a young lady who
+is said to have been a stranger to her, her language being: "You think
+you are going to marry him, Imogene Dare; but I tell you you never
+shall, not while I live." Her chief grievance, then, and the one thing
+uppermost in her thoughts, even at a time when she felt that there were
+many who desired her death, lay in this fact that a young and beautiful
+woman had manifested, as she supposed, a wish to marry Mr. Orcutt, the
+word _him_ which she had used, necessarily referring to the lawyer, as
+she knew nothing of Imogene's passion for her nephew.
+
+But this is not the only point into which it is necessary to inquire.
+For to believe Mr. Orcutt guilty of this crime one must also believe
+that all the other persons who had been accused of it were truthful in
+the explanations which they gave of the events which had seemingly
+connected them with it. Now, were they? Take the occurrences of that
+critical moment when the clock stood at five minutes to twelve. If Mr.
+Hildreth is to be believed, he was at that instant in the widow's front
+hall musing on his disappointment and arranging his plans for the
+future; the tramp, if those who profess to have watched him are to be
+believed, was on the kitchen portico; Craik Mansell on the dining-room
+door-step; Imogene Dare before her telescope in Professor Darling's
+observatory. Mr. Hildreth, with two doors closed between him and the
+back of the house, knew nothing of what was said or done there, but the
+tramp heard loud talking, and Craik Mansell the actual voice of the
+widow raised in words which were calculated to mislead him into thinking
+she was engaged in angry altercation with the woman he loved. What do
+all three do, then? Mr. Hildreth remains where he is; the tramp skulks
+away through the front gate; Craik Mansell rushes back to the woods. And
+Imogene Dare? She has turned her telescope toward Mrs. Clemmens'
+cottage, and, being on the side of the dining-room door, sees the flying
+form of Craik Mansell, and marks it till it disappears from her sight.
+Is there any thing contradictory in these various statements? No. Every
+thing, on the contrary, that is reconcilable.
+
+Let us proceed then. What happens a few minutes later? Mr. Hildreth,
+tired of seclusion and anxious to catch the train, opens the front door
+and steps out. The tramp, skulking round some other back door, does not
+see him; Imogene, with her eye on Craik Mansell, now vanishing into the
+woods, does not see him; nobody sees him. He goes, and the widow for a
+short interval is as much alone as she believed herself to be a minute
+or two before when three men stood, unseen by each other, at each of the
+three doors of her house. What does she do now?
+
+Why, she finishes preparing her dinner, and then, observing that the
+clock is slow, proceeds to set it right. Fatal task! Before she has had
+an opportunity to finish it, the front door has opened again, Mr. Orcutt
+has come in, and, tempted perhaps by her defenceless position, catches
+up a stick of wood from the fireplace and, with one blow, strikes her
+down at his feet, and rushes forth again with tidings of her death.
+
+Now, is there any thing in all _this_ that is contradictory? No; there
+is only something left out. In the whole of this description of what
+went on in the widow's house, there has been no mention made of the
+ring--the ring which it is conceded was either in Craik Mansell's or
+Imogene Dare's possession the evening before the murder, and which was
+found on the dining-room floor within ten minutes after the assault took
+place. If Mrs. Clemmens' exclamations are to be taken as an attempt to
+describe her murderer, then this ring must have been on the hand which
+was raised against her, and how could that have been if the hand was
+that of Mr. Orcutt? Unimportant as it seemed, the discovery of this
+ring on the floor, taken with the exclamations of the widow, make a
+break in the chain that is fatal to Mr. Gryce's theory. Yet does it? The
+consternation displayed by Mr. Orcutt when Imogene claimed the ring and
+put it on her finger may have had a deeper significance than was thought
+at the time. Was there any way in which he could have come into
+possession of it before she did? and could it have been that he had had
+it on his hand when he struck the blow? Mr. Gryce bent all his energies
+to inquire.
+
+First, where was the ring when the lovers parted in the wood the day
+before the murder? Evidently in Mr. Mansell's coat-pocket. Imogene had
+put it there, and Imogene had left it there. But Mansell did not know it
+was there, so took no pains to look after its safety. It accordingly
+slipped out; but when? Not while he slept, or it would have been found
+in the hut. Not while he took the path to his aunt's house, or it would
+have been found in the lane, or, at best, on the dining-room door-step.
+When, then? Mr. Gryce could think of but one instant, and that was when
+the young man threw his coat from one arm to the other at the corner of
+the house toward the street. If it rolled out then it would have been
+under an impetus, and, as the coat was flung from the right arm to the
+left, the ring would have flown in the direction of the gate and fallen,
+perhaps, directly on the walk in front of the house. If it had, its
+presence in the dining-room seemed to show it had been carried there by
+Mr. Orcutt, since he was the next person who went into the house.
+
+But did it fall there? Mr. Gryce took the only available means to find
+out.
+
+Sending for Horace Byrd, he said to him:
+
+"You were on the court-house steps when Mr. Orcutt left and crossed over
+to the widow's house?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Were you watching him? Could you describe his manner as he entered the
+house; how he opened the gate; or whether he stopped to look about him
+before going in?"
+
+"No, sir," returned Byrd; "my eyes may have been on him, but I don't
+remember any thing especial that he did."
+
+Somewhat disappointed, Mr. Gryce went to the District Attorney and put
+to him the same question. The answer he received from him was different.
+With a gloomy contraction of his brow, Mr. Ferris said:
+
+"Yes, I remember his look and appearance very well. He stepped briskly,
+as he always did, and carried his head---- Wait!" he suddenly exclaimed,
+giving the detective a look in which excitement and decision were
+strangely blended. "You think Mr. Orcutt committed this crime; that he
+left us standing on the court-house steps and crossed the street to Mrs.
+Clemmens' house with the deliberate intention of killing her, and
+leaving the burden of his guilt to be shouldered by the tramp. Now, you
+have called up a memory to me that convinces me this could not have
+been. Had he had any such infernal design in his breast he would not
+have been likely to have stopped as he did to pick up something which he
+saw lying on the walk in front of Mrs. Clemmens' house."
+
+"And did Mr. Orcutt do that?" inquired Mr. Gryce, with admirable
+self-control.
+
+"Yes, I remember it now distinctly. It was just as he entered the gate.
+A man meditating a murder of this sort would not be likely to notice a
+pin lying in his path, much less pause to pick it up."
+
+"How if it were a diamond ring?"
+
+"A diamond ring?"
+
+"Mr. Ferris," said the detective, gravely, "you have just supplied a
+very important link in the chain of evidence against Mr. Orcutt. The
+question is, how could the diamond ring which Miss Dare is believed to
+have dropped into Mr. Mansell's coat-pocket have been carried into Mrs.
+Clemmens' house without the agency of either herself or Mr. Mansell? I
+think you have just shown." And the able detective, in a few brief
+sentences, explained the situation to Mr. Ferris, together with the
+circumstances of Mansell's flight, as gleaned by him in his conversation
+with the prisoner.
+
+The District Attorney was sincerely dismayed. The guilt of the renowned
+lawyer was certainly assuming positive proportions. Yet, true to his
+friendship for Mr. Orcutt, he made one final effort to controvert the
+arguments of the detective, and quietly said:
+
+"You profess to explain how the ring might have been carried into Mrs.
+Clemmens' house, but how do you account for the widow having used an
+exclamation which seems to signify it was _on_ the hand which she saw
+lifted against her life?"
+
+"By the fact that it was on that hand."
+
+"Do you think that probable if the hand was Mr. Orcutt's?"
+
+"Perfectly so. Where else would he be likely to put it in the
+preoccupied state of mind in which he was? In his pocket? The tramp
+might have done that, but not the gentleman."
+
+Mr. Ferris looked at the detective with almost an expression of fear.
+
+"And how came it to be on the floor if Mr. Orcutt put it on his finger?"
+
+"By the most natural process in the world. The ring made for Miss Dare's
+third finger was too large for Mr. Orcutt's little finger, and so
+slipped off when he dropped the stick of wood from his hand."
+
+"And he left it lying where it fell?"
+
+"He probably did not notice its loss. If, as I suppose, he had picked it
+up and placed it on his finger, mechanically, its absence at such a
+moment would not be observed. Besides, what clue could he suppose a
+diamond ring he had never seen before, and which he had had on his
+finger but an instant, would offer in a case like this?"
+
+"You reason close," said the District Attorney; "too close," he added,
+as he recalled, with painful distinctness, the look and attitude of Mr.
+Orcutt at the time this ring was first brought into public notice, and
+realized that so might a man comport himself who, conscious of this
+ring's association with the crime he had just secretly perpetrated, sees
+it claimed and put on the finger of the woman he loves.
+
+Mr. Gryce, with his usual intuition, seemed to follow the thoughts of
+the District Attorney.
+
+"If our surmises are correct," he remarked, "it was a grim moment for
+the lawyer when, secure in his immunity from suspicion, he saw Miss Dare
+come upon the scene with eager inquiries concerning this murder. To you,
+who had not the clue, it looked as if he feared she was not as innocent
+as she should be; but, if you will recall the situation now, I think you
+will see that his agitation can only be explained by his apprehension of
+her intuitions and an alarm lest her interest sprang from some
+mysterious doubt of himself."
+
+Mr. Ferris shook his head with a gloomy air, but did not respond.
+
+"Miss Dare tells me," the detective resumed, "that his first act upon
+their meeting again at his house was to offer himself to her in
+marriage. Now you, or any one else, would say this was to show he did
+not mistrust her, but I say it was to find out if she mistrusted him."
+
+Still Mr. Ferris remained silent.
+
+"The same reasoning will apply to what followed," continued Mr. Gryce.
+"You cannot reconcile the thought of his guilt with his taking the case
+of Mansell and doing all he could to secure his acquittal. But you will
+find it easier to do so when I tell you that, without taking into
+consideration any spark of sympathy which he might feel for the man
+falsely accused of his crime, he knew from Imogene's lips that she would
+not survive the condemnation of her lover, and that, besides this, his
+only hope of winning her for his wife lay in the gratitude he might
+awaken in her if he succeeded in saving his rival."
+
+"You are making him out a great villain," murmured Mr. Ferris, bitterly.
+
+"And was not that the language of his own countenance as he lay dying?"
+inquired the detective.
+
+Mr. Ferris could not say No. He had himself been too deeply impressed by
+the sinister look he had observed on the face of his dying friend. He
+therefore confined himself to remarking, not without sarcasm:
+
+"And now for the motive of this hideous crime--for I suppose your
+ingenuity has discovered one before this."
+
+"It will be found in his love for Miss Dare," returned the detective;
+"but just how I am not prepared to-day to say."
+
+"His love for Miss Dare? What had this plain and homespun Mrs. Clemmens
+to do with his love for Miss Dare?"
+
+"She was an interference."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Ah, that, sir, is the question."
+
+"So then you do not know?"
+
+Mr. Gryce was obliged to shake his head.
+
+The District Attorney drew himself up. "Mr. Gryce," said he, "the charge
+which has been made against this eminent man demands the very strongest
+proof in order to substantiate it. The motive, especially, must be shown
+to have been such as to offer a complete excuse for suspecting him. No
+trivial or imaginary reason for his wishing this woman out of the world
+will answer in his case. You must prove that her death was absolutely
+necessary to the success of his dearest hopes, or your reasoning will
+only awaken distrust in the minds of all who hear it. The fame of a man
+like Mr. Orcutt is not to be destroyed by a passing word of delirium, or
+a specious display of circumstantial evidence such as you evolve from
+the presence of the ring on the scene of murder."
+
+"I know it," allowed Mr. Gryce, "and that is why I have asked for a
+week."
+
+"Then you still believe you can find such a motive?"
+
+The smile which Mr. Gryce bestowed upon the favored object then honored
+by his gaze haunted the District Attorney for the rest of the week.
+
+
+
+
+XLII.
+
+CONSULTATIONS.
+
+          That he should die is worthy policy;
+          But yet we want a color for his death;
+          'Tis meet he be condemned by course of law.
+                                        --HENRY VI.
+
+
+MR. GRYCE was perfectly aware that the task before him was a difficult
+one. To be himself convinced that Mr. Orcutt had been in possession of a
+motive sufficient to account for, if not excuse, this horrible crime was
+one thing; to find out that motive and make it apparent to the world was
+another. But he was not discouraged. Summoning his two subordinates, he
+laid the matter before them.
+
+"I am convinced," said he, "that Mrs. Clemmens was a more important
+person to Mr. Orcutt than her plain appearance and humble manner of life
+would suggest. Do either of you know whether Mr. Orcutt's name has ever
+been associated with any private scandal, the knowledge of which might
+have given her power over him?"
+
+"I do not think he was that kind of a man," said Byrd. "Since morning I
+have put myself in the way of such persons as I saw disposed to converse
+about him, and though I have been astonished to find how many there are
+who say they never quite liked or altogether trusted this famous
+lawyer, I have heard nothing said in any way derogatory to his private
+character. Indeed, I believe, as far as the ladies were concerned, he
+was particularly reserved. Though a bachelor, he showed no disposition
+to marry, and until Miss Dare appeared on the scene was not known to be
+even attentive to one of her sex."
+
+"Some one, however, I forget who, told me that for a short time he was
+sweet on a certain Miss Pratt," remarked Hickory.
+
+"Pratt? Where have I heard that name?" murmured Byrd to himself.
+
+"But nothing came of it," Hickory continued. "She was not over and above
+smart they say, and though pretty enough, did not hold his fancy. Some
+folks declare she was so disappointed she left town."
+
+"Pratt, Pratt!" repeated Byrd to himself. "Ah! I know now," he suddenly
+exclaimed. "While I stood around amongst the crowd, the morning Mrs.
+Clemmens was murdered, I remember overhearing some one say how hard she
+was on the Pratt girl."
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated Mr. Gryce. "The widow was hard on any one Mr. Orcutt
+chose to admire."
+
+"I don't understand it," said Byrd.
+
+"Nor I," rejoined Mr. Gryce; "but I intend to before the week is out."
+Then abruptly: "When did Mrs. Clemmens come to this town?"
+
+"Fifteen years ago," replied Byrd.
+
+"And Orcutt--when did he first put in an appearance here?"
+
+"At very much the same time, I believe."
+
+"Humph! And did they seem to be friends at that time?"
+
+"Some say Yes, some say No."
+
+"Where did he come from--have you learned?"
+
+"From some place in Nebraska, I believe."
+
+"And she?"
+
+"Why, she came from some place in Nebraska too!"
+
+"The _same_ place?"
+
+"That we must find out."
+
+Mr. Gryce mused for a minute; then he observed:
+
+"Mr. Orcutt was renowned in his profession. Do you know any thing about
+his career--whether he brought a reputation for ability with him, or
+whether his fame was entirely made in this place?"
+
+"I think it was made here. Indeed, I have heard that it was in this
+court he pleaded his first case. Don't you know more about it, Hickory?"
+
+"Yes; Mr. Ferris told me this morning that Orcutt had not opened a
+law-book when he came to this town. That he was a country schoolmaster
+in some uncivilized district out West, and would never have been any
+thing more, perhaps, if the son of old Stephen Orcutt had not died, and
+thus made a vacancy in the law-office here which he was immediately sent
+for to fill."
+
+"Stephen Orcutt? He was the uncle of this man, wasn't he?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And quite a lawyer too?"
+
+"Yes, but nothing like Tremont B. _He_ was successful from the start.
+Had a natural aptitude, I suppose--must have had, to pick up the
+profession in the way he did."
+
+"Boys," cried Mr. Gryce, after another short ruminative pause, "the
+secret we want to know is of long standing; indeed, I should not be
+surprised if it were connected with his life out West. I will tell you
+why I think so. For ten years Mrs. Clemmens has been known to put money
+in the bank regularly every week. Now, where did she get that money?
+From Mr. Orcutt, of course. What for? In payment for the dinner he
+usually took with her? No, in payment of her silence concerning a past
+he desired kept secret."
+
+"But they have been here fifteen years and she has only received money
+for ten."
+
+"She has only put money in the bank for ten; she may have been paid
+before that and may not. I do not suppose he was in a condition to be
+very lavish at the outset of his career."
+
+"You advise us, then, to see what we can make out of his early life out
+West?"
+
+"Yes; and I will see what I can make out of hers. The link which
+connects the two will be found. Mr. Orcutt did not say: 'It was all for
+you, Imogene,' for nothing."
+
+And, dismissing the two young men, Mr. Gryce proceeded to the house of
+Mr. Orcutt, where he entered upon an examination of such papers and
+documents as were open to his inspection, in the hope of discovering
+some allusion to the deceased lawyer's early history. But he was not
+successful. Neither did a like inspection of the widow's letters bring
+any new facts to light. The only result which seemed to follow these
+efforts was an increased certainty on his part that some dangerous
+secret lurked in a past that was so determinedly hidden from the world,
+and resorting to the only expedient now left to him, he resolved to
+consult Miss Firman, as being the only person who professed to have had
+any acquaintance with Mrs. Clemmens before she came to Sibley. To be
+sure, she had already been questioned by the coroner, but Mr. Gryce was
+a man who had always found that the dryest well could be made to yield a
+drop or two more of water if the bucket was dropped by a dexterous hand.
+He accordingly prepared himself for a trip to Utica.
+
+
+
+
+XLIII.
+
+MRS. FIRMAN.
+
+          Hark! she speaks. I will set down what comes from her....
+          Heaven knows what she has known.--MACBETH.
+
+
+"MISS FIRMAN, I believe?" The staid, pleasant-faced lady whom we know,
+but who is looking older and considerably more careworn than when we saw
+her at the coroner's inquest, rose from her chair in her own cozy
+sitting-room, and surveyed her visitor curiously. "I am Mr. Gryce," the
+genial voice went on. "Perhaps the name is not familiar?"
+
+"I never heard it before," was the short but not ungracious reply.
+
+"Well, then, let me explain," said he. "You are a relative of the Mrs.
+Clemmens who was so foully murdered in Sibley, are you not? Pardon me,
+but I see you are; your expression speaks for itself." How he could have
+seen her expression was a mystery to Miss Firman, for his eyes, if not
+attention, were seemingly fixed upon some object in quite a different
+portion of the room. "You must, therefore," he pursued, "be in a state
+of great anxiety to know who her murderer was. Now, I am in that same
+state, madam; we are, therefore, in sympathy, you see."
+
+The respectful smile and peculiar intonation with which these last words
+were uttered, robbed them of their familiarity and allowed Miss Firman
+to perceive his true character.
+
+"You are a detective," said she, and as he did not deny it, she went on:
+"You say I must be anxious to know who my cousin's murderer was. Has
+Craik Mansell, then, been acquitted?"
+
+"A verdict has not been given," said the other. "His trial has been
+adjourned in order to give him an opportunity to choose a new counsel."
+
+Miss Firman motioned her visitor to be seated, and at once took a chair
+herself.
+
+"What do you want with me?" she asked, with characteristic bluntness.
+
+The detective was silent. It was but for a moment, but in that moment he
+seemed to read to the bottom of this woman's mind.
+
+"Well," said he, "I will tell you. You believe Craik Mansell to be
+innocent?"
+
+"I do," she returned.
+
+"Very well; so do I."
+
+"Let me shake hands with you," was her abrupt remark. And without a
+smile she reached forth her hand, which he took with equal gravity.
+
+This ceremony over, he remarked, with a cheerful mien:
+
+"We are fortunately not in a court of law, and so can talk freely
+together. Why do you think Mansell innocent? I am sure the evidence has
+not been much in his favor."
+
+"Why do _you_ think him innocent?" was the brisk retort.
+
+"I have talked with him."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"I have talked with Miss Dare."
+
+A different "Ah!" this time.
+
+"And I was present when Mr. Orcutt breathed his last."
+
+The look she gave was like cold water on Mr. Gryce's secretly growing
+hopes.
+
+"What has that to do with it?" she wonderingly exclaimed.
+
+The detective took another tone.
+
+"You did not know Mr. Orcutt then?" he inquired.
+
+"I had not that honor," was the formal reply.
+
+"You have never, then, visited your cousin in Sibley?"
+
+"Yes, I was there once; but that did not give me an acquaintance with
+Mr. Orcutt."
+
+"Yet he went almost every day to her house."
+
+"And he came while I was there, but _that_ did not give me an
+acquaintance with him."
+
+"He was reserved, then, in his manners, uncommunicative, possibly
+morose?"
+
+"He was just what I would expect such a gentleman to be at the table
+with women like my cousin and myself."
+
+"Not morose, then; only reserved."
+
+"Exactly," the short, quick bow of the amiable spinster seemed to
+assert.
+
+Mr. Gryce drew a deep breath. This well seemed to be destitute of even a
+drop of moisture.
+
+"Why do you ask me about Mr. Orcutt? Has his death in any way affected
+young Mansell's prospects?"
+
+"That is what I want to find out," declared Mr. Gryce. Then, without
+giving her time for another question, said: "Where did Mrs. Clemmens
+first make the acquaintance of Mr. Orcutt? Wasn't it in some town out
+West?"
+
+"Out West? Not to my knowledge, sir. I always supposed she saw him first
+in Sibley."
+
+This well was certainly very dry.
+
+"Yet you are not positive that this is so, are you?" pursued the patient
+detective. "She came from Nebraska, and so did he; now, why may they not
+have known each other there?"
+
+"I did not know that he came from Nebraska."
+
+"She has never talked about him then?"
+
+"Never."
+
+Mr. Gryce drew another deep breath and let down his bucket again.
+
+"I thought your cousin spent her childhood in Toledo?"
+
+"She did, sir."
+
+"How came she to go to Nebraska then?"
+
+"Well, she was left an orphan and had to look out for herself. A
+situation in some way opened to her in Nebraska, and she went there to
+take it."
+
+"A situation at what?"
+
+"As waitress in some hotel."
+
+"Humph! And was she still a waitress when she married?"
+
+"Yes, I think so, but I am not sure about it or any thing else in
+connection with her at that time. The subject was so painful we never
+discussed it."
+
+"Why painful?"
+
+"She lost her husband so soon."
+
+"But you can tell me the name of the town in which this hotel was, can
+you not?"
+
+"It was called Swanson then, but that was fifteen years ago. Its name
+may have been changed since."
+
+Swanson! This was something to learn, but not much. Mr. Gryce returned
+to his first question. "You have not told me," said he, "why _you_
+believe Craik Mansell to be innocent?"
+
+"Well," replied she, "_I_ believe Craik Mansell to be innocent because
+he is the son of his mother. I think I know _him_ pretty well, but I am
+certain I knew _her_. She was a woman who would go through fire and
+water to attain a purpose she thought right, but who would stop in the
+midst of any project the moment she felt the least doubt of its being
+just or wise. Craik has his mother's forehead and eyes, and no one will
+ever make me believe he has not her principles also."
+
+"I coincide with you, madam," remarked the attentive detective.
+
+"I hope the jury will," was her energetic response.
+
+He bowed and was about to attempt another question, when an interruption
+occurred. Miss Firman was called from the room, and Mr. Gryce found
+himself left for a few moments alone. His thoughts, as he awaited her
+return, were far from cheerful, for he saw a long and tedious line of
+inquiry opening before him in the West, which, if it did not end in
+failure, promised to exhaust not only a week, but possibly many months,
+before certainty of any kind could be obtained. With Miss Dare on the
+verge of a fever, and Mansell in a position calling for the utmost nerve
+and self-control, this prospect looked any thing but attractive to the
+benevolent detective; and, carried away by his impatience, he was about
+to give utterance to an angry ejaculation against the man he believed to
+be the author of all this mischief, when he suddenly heard a voice
+raised from some unknown quarter near by, saying in strange tones he was
+positive did not proceed from Miss Firman:
+
+"Was it Clemmens or was it Orcutt? Clemmens or Orcutt? I cannot
+remember."
+
+Naturally excited and aroused, Mr. Gryce rose and looked about him. A
+door stood ajar at his back. Hastening toward it, he was about to lay
+his hand on the knob when Miss Firman returned.
+
+"Oh, I beg you," she entreated. "That is my mother's room, and she is
+not at all well."
+
+"I was going to her assistance," asserted the detective, with grave
+composure. "She has just uttered a cry."
+
+"Oh, you don't say so!" exclaimed the unsuspicious spinster, and
+hurrying forward, she threw open the door herself. Mr. Gryce
+benevolently followed. "Why, she is asleep," protested Miss Firman,
+turning on the detective with a suspicious look.
+
+Mr. Gryce, with a glance toward the bed he saw before him, bowed with
+seeming perplexity.
+
+"She certainly appears to be," said he, "and yet I am positive she spoke
+but an instant ago; I can even tell you the words she used."
+
+"What were they?" asked the spinster, with something like a look of
+concern.
+
+"She said: 'Was it Clemmens or was it Orcutt? Clemmens or Orcutt? I
+cannot remember.'"
+
+"You don't say so! Poor ma! She was dreaming. Come into the other room
+and I will explain."
+
+And leading the way back to the apartment they had left, she motioned
+him again toward a chair, and then said:
+
+"Ma has always been a very hale and active woman for her years; but this
+murder seems to have shaken her. To speak the truth, sir, she has not
+been quite right in her mind since the day I told her of it; and I often
+detect her murmuring words similar to those you have just heard."
+
+"Humph! And does she often use his name?"
+
+"Whose name?"
+
+"Mr. Orcutt's."
+
+"Why, yes; but not with any understanding of whom she is speaking."
+
+"Are you _sure_?" inquired Mr. Gryce, with that peculiar impressiveness
+he used on great occasions.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean," returned the detective, dryly, "that I believe your mother
+does know what she is talking about when she links the name of Mr.
+Orcutt with that of your cousin who was murdered. They belong together;
+Mr. Orcutt was her murderer."
+
+"_Mr. Orcutt?_"
+
+"Hush!" cried Mr. Gryce, "you will wake up your mother."
+
+And, adapting himself to this emergency as to all others, he talked with
+the astounded and incredulous woman before him till she was in a
+condition not only to listen to his explanations, but to discuss the
+problem of a crime so seemingly without motive. He then said, with easy
+assurance:
+
+"Your mother does not know that Mr. Orcutt is dead?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"She does not even know he was counsel for Craik Mansell in the trial
+now going on."
+
+"How do you know that?" inquired Miss Firman, grimly.
+
+"Because I do not believe you have even told her that Craik Mansell was
+on trial."
+
+"Sir, you are a magician."
+
+"Have you, madam?"
+
+"No, sir, I have not."
+
+"Very good; what _does_ she know about Mr. Orcutt, then; and why should
+she connect his name with Mrs. Clemmens?"
+
+"She knows he was her boarder, and that he was the first one to discover
+she had been murdered."
+
+"That is not enough to account for her frequent repetition of his name."
+
+"You think not?"
+
+"I am sure not. Cannot your mother have some memories connected with his
+name of which you are ignorant?"
+
+"No, sir; we have lived together in this house for twenty-five years,
+and have never had a thought we have not shared together. Ma could not
+have known any thing about him or Mary Ann which I did not. The words
+she has just spoken sprang from mental confusion. She is almost like a
+child sometimes."
+
+Mr. Gryce smiled. If the cream-jug he happened to be gazing at on a tray
+near by had been full of cream, I am far from certain it would not have
+turned sour on the spot.
+
+"I grant the mental confusion," said he; "but why should she confuse
+those two names in preference to all others?" And, with quiet
+persistence, he remarked again: "She may be recalling some old fact of
+years ago. Was there never a time, even while you lived here together,
+when she could have received some confidence from Mrs. Clemmens----"
+
+"Mary Ann, Mary Ann!" came in querulous accents from the other room, "I
+wish you had not told me; Emily would be a better one to know your
+secret."
+
+It was a startling interruption to come just at that moment The two
+surprised listeners glanced toward each other, and Miss Firman colored.
+
+"That sounds as if your surmise was true," she dryly observed.
+
+"Let us make an experiment," said he, and motioned her to re-enter her
+mother's room, which she did with a precipitation that showed her
+composure had been sorely shaken by these unexpected occurrences.
+
+He followed her without ceremony.
+
+The old lady lay as before in a condition between sleeping and waking,
+and did not move as they came in. Mr. Gryce at once withdrew out of
+sight, and, with finger on his lip, put himself in the attitude of
+waiting. Miss Firman, surprised, and possibly curious, took her stand
+at the foot of the bed.
+
+A few minutes passed thus, during which a strange dreariness seemed to
+settle upon the room; then the old lady spoke again, this time repeating
+the words he had first heard, but in a tone which betrayed an increased
+perplexity.
+
+"_Was_ it Clemmens or _was_ it Orcutt? I wish somebody would tell me."
+
+Instantly Mr. Gryce, with his soft tread, drew near to the old lady's
+side, and, leaning over her, murmured gently:
+
+"I think it was Orcutt."
+
+Instantly the old lady breathed a deep sigh and moved.
+
+"Then her name was Mrs. Orcutt," said she, "and I thought you always
+called her Clemmens."
+
+Miss Firman, recoiling, stared at Mr. Gryce, on whose cheek a faint spot
+of red had appeared--a most unusual token of emotion with him.
+
+"Did she say it was Mrs. Orcutt," he pursued, in the even tones he had
+before used.
+
+"She said----" But here the old lady opened her eyes, and, seeing her
+daughter standing at the foot of her bed, turned away with a peevish
+air, and restlessly pushed her hand under the pillow.
+
+Mr. Gryce at once bent nearer.
+
+"She said----" he suggested, with careful gentleness.
+
+But the old lady made no answer. Her hand seemed to have touched some
+object for which she was seeking, and she was evidently oblivious to all
+else. Miss Firman came around and touched Mr. Gryce on the shoulder.
+
+"It is useless," said she; "she is awake now, and you won't hear any
+thing more; come!"
+
+And she drew the reluctant detective back again into the other room.
+
+"What does it all mean?" she asked, sinking into a chair.
+
+Mr. Gryce did not answer. He had a question of his own to put.
+
+"Why did your mother put her hand under her pillow?" he asked.
+
+"I don't know, unless it was to see if her big envelope was there."
+
+"Her big envelope?"
+
+"Yes; for weeks now, ever since she took to her bed, she has kept a
+paper in a big envelope under her pillow. What is in it I don't know,
+for she never seems to hear me when I inquire."
+
+"And have you no curiosity to find out?"
+
+"No, sir. Why should I? It might easily be my father's old letters
+sealed up, or, for that matter, be nothing more than a piece of blank
+paper. My mother is not herself, as I have said before."
+
+"I should like a peep at the contents of that envelope," he declared.
+
+"You?"
+
+"Is there any name written on the outside?"
+
+"No."
+
+"It would not be violating any one's rights, then, if you opened it."
+
+"Only my mother's, sir."
+
+"You say she is not in her right mind?"
+
+"All the more reason why I should respect her whims and caprices."
+
+"Wouldn't you open it if she were dead?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Will it be very different then from what it is now? A father's letters!
+a blank piece of paper! What harm would there be in looking at them?"
+
+"My mother would know it if I took them away. It might excite and injure
+her."
+
+"Put another envelope in the place of this one, with a piece of paper
+folded up in it."
+
+"It would be a trick."
+
+"I know it; but if Craik Mansell can be saved even by a trick, I should
+think you would be willing to venture on one."
+
+"Craik Mansell? What has he got to do with the papers under my mother's
+pillow?"
+
+"I cannot say that he has any thing to do with them; but if he has--if,
+for instance, that envelope should contain, not a piece of blank paper,
+or even the letters of your father, but such a document, say, as a
+certificate of marriage----"
+
+"A certificate of marriage?"
+
+"Yes, between Mrs. Clemmens and Mr. Orcutt, it would not take much
+perspicacity to prophesy an acquittal for Craik Mansell."
+
+"Mary Ann the wife of Mr. Orcutt! Oh, that is impossible!" exclaimed the
+agitated spinster. But even while making this determined statement, she
+turned a look full of curiosity and excitement toward the door which
+separated them from her mother's apartment.
+
+Mr. Gryce smiled in his wise way.
+
+"Less improbable things than that have been found to be true in this
+topsy-turvy world," said he. "Mrs. Clemmens might very well have been
+Mrs. Orcutt."
+
+"Do you really think so?" she asked; and yielding with sudden
+impetuosity to the curiosity of the moment, she at once dashed from his
+side and disappeared in her mother's room. Mr. Gryce's smile took on an
+aspect of triumph.
+
+It was some few moments before she returned, but when she did, her
+countenance was flushed with emotion.
+
+"I have it," she murmured, taking out a packet from under her apron and
+tearing it open with trembling fingers.
+
+A number of closely written sheets fell out.
+
+
+
+
+XLIV.
+
+THE WIDOW CLEMMENS.
+
+                      Discovered
+          The secret that so long had hovered
+          Upon the misty verge of Truth.--LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+"WELL, and what have you to say?" It was Mr. Ferris who spoke. The week
+which Mr. Gryce had demanded for his inquiries had fully elapsed, and
+the three detectives stood before him ready with their report.
+
+It was Mr. Gryce who replied.
+
+"Sir," said he, "our opinions have not been changed by the discoveries
+which we have made. It was Mr. Orcutt who killed Mrs. Clemmens, and for
+the reason already stated that she stood in the way of his marrying Miss
+Dare. Mrs. Clemmens was his wife."
+
+"His _wife_?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and, what is more, she has been so for years; before either
+of them came to Sibley, in fact."
+
+The District Attorney looked stunned.
+
+"It was while they lived West," said Byrd. "He was a poor school-master,
+and she a waitress in some hotel. She was pretty then, and he thought he
+loved her. At all events, he induced her to marry him, and then kept it
+secret because he was afraid she would lose her place at the hotel,
+where she was getting very good wages. You see, he had the makings in
+him of a villain even then."
+
+"And was it a real marriage?"
+
+"There is a record of it," said Hickory.
+
+"And did he never acknowledge it?"
+
+"Not openly," answered Byrd. "The commonness of the woman seemed to
+revolt him after he was married to her, and when in a month or so he
+received the summons East, which opened up before him the career of a
+lawyer, he determined to drop her and start afresh. He accordingly left
+town without notifying her, and actually succeeded in reaching the
+railway depot twenty miles away before he was stopped. But here, a delay
+occurring in the departure of the train, she was enabled to overtake
+him, and a stormy scene ensued. What its exact nature was, we, of
+course, cannot say, but from the results it is evident that he told her
+his prospects had changed, and with them his tastes and requirements;
+that she was not the woman he thought her, and that he could not and
+would not take her East with him as his wife: while she, on her side,
+displayed full as much spirit as he, and replied that if he could desert
+her like this he wasn't the kind of a man she could live with, and that
+he could go if he wished; only that he must acknowledge her claims upon
+him by giving her a yearly stipend, according to his income and success.
+At all events, some such compromise was effected, for he came East and
+she went back to Swanson. She did not stay there long, however; for the
+next we know she was in Sibley, where she set up her own little
+house-keeping arrangements under his very eye. More than that, she
+prevailed upon him to visit her daily, and even to take a meal at her
+house, her sense of justice seeming to be satisfied if he showed her
+this little attention and gave to no other woman the place he denied
+her. It was the weakness shown in this last requirement that doubtless
+led to her death. She would stand any thing but a rival. He knew this,
+and preferred crime to the loss of the woman he loved."
+
+"You speak very knowingly," said Mr. Ferris. "May I ask where you
+received your information?"
+
+It was Mr. Gryce who answered.
+
+"From letters. Mrs. Clemmens was one of those women who delight in
+putting their feelings on paper. Fortunately for us, such women are not
+rare. See here!" And he pulled out before the District Attorney a pile
+of old letters in the widow's well-known handwriting.
+
+"Where did you find these?" asked Mr. Ferris.
+
+"Well," said Mr. Gryce, "I found them in rather a curious place. They
+were in the keeping of old Mrs. Firman, Miss Firman's mother. Mrs.
+Clemmens, or, rather, Mrs. Orcutt, got frightened some two years ago at
+the disappearance of her marriage certificate from the place where she
+had always kept it hidden, and, thinking that Mr. Orcutt was planning to
+throw her off, she resolved to provide herself with a confidante capable
+of standing by her in case she wished to assert her rights. She chose
+old Mrs. Firman. Why, when her daughter would have been so much more
+suitable for the purpose, it is hard to tell; possibly the widow's pride
+revolted from telling a woman of her own years the indignities she had
+suffered. However that may be, it was to the old lady she told her story
+and gave these letters--letters which, as you will see, are not written
+to any special person, but are rather the separate leaves of a journal
+which she kept to show the state of her feelings from time to time."
+
+"And this?" inquired Mr. Ferris, taking up a sheet of paper written in a
+different handwriting from the rest.
+
+"This is an attempt on the part of the old lady to put on paper the
+story which had been told her. She evidently thought herself too old to
+be entrusted with a secret so important, and, fearing loss of memory, or
+perhaps sudden death, took this means of explaining how she came into
+possession of her cousin's letters. 'T was a wise precaution. Without it
+we would have missed the clue to the widow's journal. For the old lady's
+brain gave way when she heard of the widow's death, and had it not been
+for a special stroke of good-luck on my part, we might have remained
+some time longer in ignorance of what very valuable papers she secretly
+held in her possession."
+
+"I will read the letters," said Mr. Ferris.
+
+Seeing from his look that he only waited their departure to do so, Mr.
+Gryce and his subordinates arose.
+
+"I think you will find them satisfactory," drawled Hickory.
+
+"If you do not," said Mr. Gryce, "then give a look at this telegram. It
+is from Swanson, and notifies us that a record of a marriage between
+Benjamin Orcutt--Mr. Orcutt's middle name was Benjamin--and Mary Mansell
+can be found in the old town books."
+
+Mr. Ferris took the telegram, the shade of sorrow settling heavier and
+heavier on his brow.
+
+"I see," said he, "I have got to accept your conclusions. Well, there
+are those among the living who will be greatly relieved by these
+discoveries. I will try and think of that."
+
+Yet, after the detectives were gone, and he sat down in solitude before
+these evidences of his friend's perfidy, it was many long and dreary
+moments before he could summon up courage to peruse them. But when he
+did, he found in them all that Mr. Gryce had promised. As my readers may
+feel some interest to know how the seeming widow bore the daily trial of
+her life, I will give a few extracts from these letters. The first bears
+date of fourteen years back, and was written after she came to Sibley:
+
+          "NOVEMBER 8, 1867.--In the same town! Within a
+          stone's throw of the court-house, where, they tell
+          me, his business will soon take him almost every
+          day! Isn't it a triumph? and am I not to be
+          congratulated upon my bravery in coming here? He
+          hasn't seen me yet, but I have seen _him_. I crept
+          out of the house at nightfall on purpose. He was
+          sauntering down the street and he looked--it makes
+          my blood boil to think of it--he looked _happy_."
+
+          "NOVEMBER 10, 1867.--Clemmens, Clemmens--that is
+          my name, and I have taken the title of widow. What
+          a fate for a woman with a husband in the next
+          street! He saw _me_ to-day. I met him in the open
+          square, and I looked him right in the face. How he
+          did quail! It just does me good to think of it!
+          Perk and haughty as he is, he grew as white as a
+          sheet when he saw me, and though he tried to put
+          on airs and carry it off with a high hand, he
+          failed, just as I knew he would when he came to
+          meet me on even ground. Oh, I'll have my way now,
+          and if I choose to stay in this place where I can
+          keep my eye on him, he won't dare to say No. The
+          only thing I fear is that he will do me a secret
+          mischief some day. His look was just murderous
+          when he left me."
+
+          "FEBRUARY 24, 1868.--Can I stand it? I ask myself
+          that question every morning when I get up. Can I
+          stand it? To sit all alone in my little narrow
+          room and know that he is going about as gay as you
+          please with people who wouldn't look at me twice.
+          It's awful hard; but it would be worse still to be
+          where I couldn't see what he was up to. Then I
+          should imagine all sorts of things. No, I will
+          just grit my teeth and bear it. I'll get used to
+          it after a while."
+
+          "OCTOBER 7, 1868.--If he says he never loved me he
+          lies. He did, or why did he marry me? I never
+          asked him to. He teased me into it, saying my
+          saucy ways had bewitched him. A month after, it
+          was common ways, rude ways, such ways as he
+          wouldn't have in a wife. That's the kind of man he
+          is."
+
+          "MAY 11, 1869.--One thing I will say of him. He
+          don't pay no heed to women. He's too busy, I
+          guess. He don't seem to think of any thing but to
+          get along, and he does get along remarkable. I'm
+          awful proud of him. He's taken to defending
+          criminals lately. They almost all get off."
+
+          "OCTOBER 5, 1870.--He pays me but a pittance. How
+          can I look like any thing, or hold my head up with
+          the ladies here if I cannot get enough together to
+          buy me a new fall hat. I _will_ not go to church
+          looking like a farmer's wife, if I haven't any
+          education or any manners. I'm as good as anybody
+          here if they but knew it, and deserve to dress as
+          well. He _must_ give me more money."
+
+          "NOVEMBER 2, 1870.--No, he sha'n't give me a cent
+          more. If I can't go to church I will stay at home.
+          He sha'n't say I stood in his way of becoming a
+          great man. He _is_ too good for me. I saw it
+          to-day when he got up in the court to speak. I was
+          there with a thick veil over my face, for I was
+          determined to know whether he was as smart as
+          folks say or not. And he just is! Oh, how
+          beautiful he did look, and how everybody held
+          their breaths while he was speaking! I felt like
+          jumping up and saying: 'This is my husband; we
+          were married three years ago.' Wouldn't I have
+          raised a rumpus if I had! I guess the poor man he
+          was pleading for would not have been remembered
+          very long after that. My husband! the thought
+          makes me laugh. No other woman can call him that,
+          anyhow. He is mine, _mine_, _mine_, and I mean he
+          shall stay so."
+
+          "JANUARY 9, 1871.--I feel awful blue to-night. I
+          have been thinking about those Hildreths. How they
+          would like to have me dead! And so would Tremont,
+          though he don't say nothing. I like to call him
+          Tremont; it makes me feel as if he belonged to me.
+          What if that wicked Gouverneur Hildreth should
+          know I lived so much alone? I don't believe he
+          would stop at killing me! And my husband! He is
+          equal to telling him I have no protector. Oh, what
+          a dreadful wickedness it is in me to put that down
+          on paper! It isn't so--it isn't so; my husband
+          wouldn't do me any harm if he could. If ever I'm
+          found dead in my bed, it will be the work of that
+          Toledo man and of nobody else."
+
+          "MARCH 2, 1872.--I hope I am going to have some
+          comfort now. Tremont has begun to pay me more
+          money. He _had_ to. He isn't a poor man any more,
+          and when he moves into his big house, I am going
+          to move into a certain little cottage I have
+          found, just around the corner. If I can't have no
+          other pleasures, I will at least have a kitchen I
+          can call my own, and a parlor too. What if there
+          don't no company come to it; they would if they
+          _knew_. I've just heard from Adelaide; she says
+          Craik is getting to be a big boy, and is so
+          smart."
+
+          "JUNE 10, 1872.--What's the use of having a home?
+          I declare I feel just like breaking down and
+          crying. I don't want company: if women folks,
+          they're always talking about their husbands and
+          children; and if men, they're always saying: 'My
+          wife's this, and my wife's that.' But I do want
+          _him_. It's my right; what if I couldn't say three
+          words to him that was agreeable, I could look at
+          him and think: 'This splendid gentleman is my
+          husband, I ain't so much alone in the world as
+          folks think.' I'll put on my bonnet and run down
+          the street. Perhaps I'll see him sitting in the
+          club-house window!"
+
+          "EVENING.--I hate him. He has a hard, cruel,
+          wicked heart. When I got to the club-house window
+          he was sitting there, so I just went walking by,
+          and he saw me and came out and hustled me away
+          with terrible words, saying he wouldn't have me
+          hanging round where he was; that I had promised
+          not to bother him, and that I must keep my word,
+          or he would see me--he didn't say where, but it's
+          easy enough to guess. So--so! he thinks he'll put
+          an end to my coming to see him, does he? Well,
+          perhaps he can; but if he does, he shall pay for
+          it by coming to see me. I'll not sit day in and
+          day out alone without the glimpse of a face I
+          love, not while I have a husband in the same town
+          with me. He shall come, if it is only for a moment
+          each day, or I'll dare every thing and tell the
+          world I am his wife."
+
+          "JUNE 16, 1872.--He had to consent! Meek as I have
+          been, he knows it won't do to rouse me too much.
+          So to-day he came in to dinner, and he had to
+          acknowledge it was a good one. Oh, how I did feel
+          when I saw his face on the other side of the
+          table! I didn't know whether I hated him or loved
+          him. But I am sure now I hated him, for he
+          scarcely spoke to me all the time he was eating,
+          and when he was through, he went away just as a
+          stranger would have done. He means to act like a
+          boarder, and, goodness me, he's welcome to if he
+          isn't going to act like a husband! The hard,
+          selfish---- Oh, oh, I love him!"
+
+          "AUGUST 5, 1872.--It is no use; I'll never be a
+          happy woman. Tremont has been in so regularly to
+          dinner lately, and shown me such a kind face, I
+          thought I would venture upon a little familiarity.
+          It was only to lay my hand upon his arm, but it
+          made him very angry, and I thought he would strike
+          me. Am I then actually hateful to him? or is he so
+          proud he cannot bear the thought of my having the
+          right to touch him? I looked in the glass when he
+          went out. I _am_ plain and homespun, that's a
+          fact. Even my red cheeks are gone, and the dimples
+          which once took his fancy. I shall never lay the
+          tip of a finger on him again."
+
+          "FEBRUARY 13, 1873.--What shall I cook for him
+          to-day? Some thing that he likes. It is my only
+          pleasure, to see how he does enjoy my meals. I
+          should think they would choke him; they do me
+          sometimes. But men are made of iron--ambitious
+          men, anyhow. Little they care what suffering they
+          cause, so long as they have a good time and get
+          all the praises they want. _He_ gets them more and
+          more every day. He will soon be as far above me as
+          if I had married the President himself. Oh,
+          sometimes when I think of it and remember he is my
+          own husband, I just feel as if some awful fate was
+          preparing for him or me!"
+
+          "JUNE 7, 1873.--Would he send for me if he was
+          dying? No. He hates me; he hates me."
+
+          "SEPTEMBER 8, 1874.--Craik was here to-day; he is
+          just going North to earn a few dollars in the
+          logging business. What a keen eye he has for a boy
+          of his years! I shouldn't wonder if he made a
+          powerful smart man some day. If he's only good,
+          too, and kind to his women-folks, I sha'n't mind.
+          But a smart man who is all for himself is an awful
+          trial to those who love him. Don't I know? Haven't
+          I suffered? Craik must never be like him."
+
+          "DECEMBER 21, 1875.--One thousand dollars. That's
+          a nice little sum to have put away in the bank. So
+          much I get out of my husband's fame, anyhow. I
+          think I will make my will, for I want Craik to
+          have what I leave. He's a fine lad."
+
+          "FEBRUARY 19, 1876.--I was thinking the other day,
+          suppose I did die suddenly. It would be dreadful
+          to have the name of Clemmens put on my tombstone!
+          But it would be. Tremont would never let the truth
+          be known, if he had to rifle my dead body for my
+          marriage certificate. What shall I do, then? Tell
+          anybody who I am? It seems just as if I couldn't.
+          Either the whole world must know it, or just
+          himself and me alone. Oh, I wish I had never been
+          born!"
+
+          "JUNE 17, 1876.--Why wasn't I made handsome and
+          fine and nice? Think where I would be if I was!
+          I'd be in that big house of his, curtesying to all
+          the grand folks as go there. I went to see it last
+          night. It was dark as pitch in the streets, and I
+          went into the gate and all around the house. I
+          walked upon the piazza too, and rubbed my hand
+          along the window-ledges and up and down the doors.
+          It's mighty nice, all of it, and there sha'n't lie
+          a square inch on that whole ground that my foot
+          sha'n't go over. I wish I could get inside the
+          house once."
+
+          "JULY 1, 1876.--I have done it. I went to see Mr.
+          Orcutt's sister. I had a right. Isn't he away, and
+          isn't he my boarder, and didn't I want to know
+          when he was coming home? She's a soft,
+          good-natured piece, and let me peek into the
+          library without saying a word. What a room it is!
+          I just felt like I'd been struck when I saw it and
+          spied his chair setting there and all those books
+          heaped around and the fine things on the
+          mantel-shelf and the pictures on the walls. What
+          would I do in such a place as that? I could keep
+          it clean, but so could any gal he might hire. Oh,
+          me! Oh, me! I wish he'd given me a chance. Perhaps
+          if he had loved me I might have learned to be
+          quiet and nice like that silly sister of his."
+
+          "JANUARY 12, 1877.--Some women would take a heap
+          of delight in having folks know they were the wife
+          of a great man, but I find lots of pleasure in
+          being so without folks knowing it. If I lived in
+          his big house and was called Mrs. Orcutt, why, he
+          would have nothing to be afraid of and might do as
+          he pleased; but now he has to do what _I_ please.
+          Sometimes, when I sit down of an evening in my
+          little sitting-room to sew, I think how this
+          famous man whom everybody is afraid of has to come
+          and go just as humble me wants him to; and it
+          makes me hug myself with pride. It's as if I had a
+          string tied round his little finger, which I can
+          pull now and then. I don't pull it much; but I do
+          sometimes."
+
+          "MARCH 30, 1877.--Gouverneur Hildreth is dead. I
+          shall never be his victim, at any rate. Shall I
+          ever be the victim of anybody? I don't feel as if
+          I cared now. For one kiss I would sell my life and
+          die happy.
+
+          "There is a young Gouverneur, but it will be years
+          before he will be old enough to make me afraid of
+          him."
+
+          "NOVEMBER 16, 1878.--I should think that Tremont
+          would be lonely in that big house of his. If he
+          had a heart he would. They say he reads all the
+          time. How can folks pore so over books? I can't.
+          I'd rather sit in my chair and think. What story
+          in all the books is equal to mine?"
+
+          "APRIL 23, 1879.--I am growing very settled in my
+          ways. Now that Tremont comes in almost every day,
+          I'm satisfied not to see any other company. My
+          house affairs keep me busy too. I like to have it
+          all nice for him. I believe I could almost be
+          happy if he'd only smile once in a while when he
+          meets my eye. But he never does. Oh, well, we all
+          have our crosses, and he's a very great man."
+
+          "JANUARY 18, 1880.--He went to a ball last night.
+          What does it mean? He never seemed to care for
+          things like that. Is there any girl he is after?"
+
+          "FEBRUARY 6, 1880.--Oh, he has been riding with a
+          lady, has he? It was in the next town, and he
+          thought I wouldn't hear. But there's little he
+          does that I don't know about; let him make himself
+          sure of that. I even know her name; it is Selina
+          Pratt. If he goes with her again, look out for a
+          disturbance. I'll not stand his making love to
+          another woman."
+
+          "MAY 26, 1880.--My marriage certificate is
+          missing. Can it be that Tremont has taken it? I
+          have looked all through the desk where I have kept
+          it for so many years, but I cannot find it. He was
+          left alone in the house a few minutes the other
+          day. Could he have taken the chance to rob me of
+          the only proof I have that we are man and wife? If
+          he has he is a villain at heart, and is capable of
+          doing any thing, even of marrying this Pratt girl
+          who he _has_ taken riding again. The worst is that
+          I dare not accuse him of having my certificate;
+          for if he didn't take it and should find out it is
+          gone, he'd throw me off just as quick as if he
+          had. What shall I do then? Something. He shall
+          _never_ marry another woman while I live."
+
+          "MAY 30, 1880.--The Pratt girl is gone. If he
+          cared for her it was only for a week, like an old
+          love I could mention. I think I feel safe again,
+          only I am convinced some one ought to know my
+          secret besides myself. Shall it be Emily? No. I'd
+          rather tell her mother."
+
+          "JUNE 9TH, 1880.--I am going to Utica. I shall
+          take these letters with me. Perhaps I shall leave
+          them. For the last time, then, let me say 'I am
+          the lawful wife of Tremont Benjamin Orcutt, the
+          lawyer, who lives in Sibley, New York.' We were
+          married in Swanson, Nevada, on the 3d of July,
+          1867, by a travelling minister, named George
+          Sinclair.
+
+                           "MARY ANN ORCUTT, Sibley, N. Y."
+
+
+
+
+XLV.
+
+MR. GRYCE SAYS GOOD-BYE.
+
+          There still are many rainbows in your sky.--BYRON.
+
+
+"HELEN?"
+
+"Yes, Imogene."
+
+"What noise is that? The people seem to be shouting down the street.
+What does it mean?"
+
+Helen Richmond--whom we better know as Helen Darling--looked at the
+worn, fever-flushed countenance of her friend, and for a moment was
+silent; then she whispered:
+
+"I have not dared to tell you before, you seemed so ill; but I can tell
+you now, because joyful news never hurts. The people shout because the
+long and tedious trial of an innocent man has come to an end. Craik
+Mansell was acquitted from the charge of murder this morning."
+
+"Acquitted! O Helen!"
+
+"Yes, dear. Since you have been ill, very strange and solemn revelations
+have come to light. Mr. Orcutt----"
+
+"Ah!" cried Imogene, rising up in the great arm-chair in which she was
+half-sitting and half-reclining. "I know what you are going to say. I
+was with Mr. Orcutt when he died. I heard him myself declare that fate
+had spoken in his death. I believe Mr. Orcutt to have been the murderer
+of Mrs. Clemmens, Helen."
+
+"Yes, there can be no doubt about that," was the reply.
+
+"It has been proved then?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Moved to the depths of her being, Imogene covered her face with her
+hands. Presently she murmured:
+
+"I do not understand it. Why should such a great man as he have desired
+the death of a woman like her? He said it was all for my sake. What did
+he mean, Helen?"
+
+"Don't you know?" questioned the other, anxiously.
+
+"How should I? It is the mystery of mysteries to me."
+
+"Ah, then you did not suspect that she was his wife?"
+
+"His wife!" Imogene rose in horror.
+
+"Yes," repeated the little bride with decision. "She was his lawfully
+wedded wife. They were married as long ago as when we were little
+children."
+
+"Married! And he dared to approach me with words of love! Dared to offer
+himself to me as a husband while his hands were still wet with the
+life-blood of his wife! O the horror of it! The amazing wickedness and
+presumption of it!"
+
+"He is dead," whispered the gentle little lady at her side.
+
+With a sigh of suppressed feeling, Imogene sank back.
+
+"I must not think of him," she cried. "I am not strong enough. I must
+think only of Craik. He has been acquitted, you say--acquitted."
+
+"Yes, and the whole town is rejoicing."
+
+A smile, exquisite as it was rare, swept like a sunbeam over Imogene's
+lips.
+
+"And I rejoice with the rest," she cried. Then, as if she felt all
+speech to be a mockery, she remained for a long time silent, gazing with
+ever-deepening expression into the space before her, till Helen did not
+know whether the awe she felt creeping over her sprang from admiration
+of her companion's suddenly awakened beauty or from a recognition of the
+depths of that companion's emotions. At last Imogene spoke:
+
+"How came Mr. Mansell to be _acquitted_? Mr. Gryce did not tell me to
+look for any such reinstatement as that. The most he bade me expect was
+that Mr. Ferris would decline to prosecute Mr. Mansell any further, in
+which event he would be discharged."
+
+"I know," said Helen, "but Mr. Mansell was not satisfied with that. He
+demanded a verdict from the jury. So Mr. Ferris, with great generosity,
+asked the Judge to recommend the jury to bring in a verdict of
+acquittal, and when the Judge hesitated to do this, the foreman of the
+jury himself rose, and intimated that he thought the jury were ready
+with their verdict. The Judge took advantage of this, and the result was
+a triumphant acquittal."
+
+"O Helen, Helen!"
+
+"That was just an hour ago," cried the little lady, brightly, "but the
+people are not through shouting yet. There has been a great excitement
+in town these last few days."
+
+"And I knew nothing of it!" exclaimed Imogene. Suddenly she looked at
+Helen. "How did you hear about what took place in the court-room
+to-day?" she asked.
+
+"Mr. Byrd told me."
+
+"Ah, Mr. Byrd?"
+
+"He came to leave a good-bye for you. He goes home this afternoon."
+
+"I should like to have seen Mr. Byrd," said Imogene.
+
+"Would you?" queried the little lady, quietly shaking her head. "I don't
+know; I think it is just as well you did not see him," said she.
+
+But she made no such demur when a little while later Mr. Gryce was
+announced. The fatherly old gentleman had evidently been in that house
+before, and Mrs. Richmond was not the woman to withstand a man like him.
+
+He came immediately into the room where Imogene was sitting. Evidently
+he thought as Helen did, that good news never hurts.
+
+"Well!" he cried, taking her trembling hand in his, with his most
+expressive smile. "What did I tell you? Didn't I say that if you would
+only trust me all would come right? And it has, don't you see? Right as
+a trivet."
+
+"Yes," she returned; "and I never can find words with which to express
+my gratitude. You have saved two lives, Mr. Gryce: his--and mine."
+
+"Pooh! pooh!" cried the detective, good-humoredly. "You mustn't think
+too much of any thing I have done. It was the falling limb that did the
+business. If Mr. Orcutt's conscience had not been awakened by the stroke
+of death, I don't know where we should have been to-day. Affairs were
+beginning to look pretty dark for Mansell."
+
+Imogene shuddered.
+
+"But I haven't come here to call up unpleasant memories," he continued.
+"I have come to wish you joy and a happy convalescence." And leaning
+toward her, he said, with a complete change of voice: "You know, I
+suppose, why Mr. Mansell presumed to think _you_ guilty of this crime?"
+
+"No," she murmured, wearily; "unless it was because the ring he believed
+me to have retained was found on the scene of murder."
+
+"Bah!" cried Mr. Gryce, "he had a much better reason than that."
+
+And with the air of one who wishes to clear up all misunderstandings, he
+told her the words which her lover had overheard Mrs. Clemmens say when
+he came up to her dining-room door.
+
+The effect on Imogene was very great. Hoping to hide it, she turned away
+her face, showing in this struggle with herself something of the
+strength of her old days. Mr. Gryce watched her with interest.
+
+"It is very strange," was her first remark. "I had such reasons for
+thinking him guilty; he such good cause for thinking me so. What wonder
+we doubted each other. And yet I can never forgive myself for doubting
+him; I can sooner forgive him for doubting me. If you see him----"
+
+"If _I_ see him?" interrupted the detective, with a smile.
+
+"Yes," said she. "If you see him tell him that Imogene Dare thanks him
+for his noble conduct toward one he believed to be stained by so
+despicable a crime, and assure him that I think he was much more
+justified in his suspicions than I was in mine, for there were
+weaknesses in my character which he had ample opportunities for
+observing, while all that I knew of him was to his credit."
+
+"Miss Dare," suggested the detective, "couldn't you tell him this much
+better yourself?"
+
+"I shall not have the opportunity," she said.
+
+"And why?" he inquired.
+
+"Mr. Mansell and I have met for the last time. A woman who has stained
+herself by such declarations as I made use of in court the last time I
+was called to the stand has created a barrier between herself and all
+earthly friendship. Even he for whom I perjured myself so basely cannot
+overleap the gulf I dug between us two that day."
+
+"But that is hard," said Mr. Gryce.
+
+"My life _is_ hard," she answered.
+
+The wise old man, who had seen so much of life and who knew the human
+heart so well, smiled, but did not reply. He turned instead to another
+subject.
+
+"Well," he declared, "the great case is over! Sibley, satisfied with
+having made its mark in the world, will now rest in peace. I quit the
+place with some reluctance myself. 'Tis a mighty pretty spot to do
+business in."
+
+"You are going?" she asked.
+
+"Immediately," was the reply. "We detectives don't have much time to
+rest." Then, as he saw how deep a shadow lay upon her brow, added,
+confidentially: "Miss Dare, we all have occasions for great regret. Look
+at me now. Honest as I hold myself to be, I cannot blind myself to the
+fact that I am the possible instigator of this crime. If I had not shown
+Mr. Orcutt how a man like himself might perpetrate a murder without
+rousing suspicion, he might never have summoned up courage to attempt
+it. For a detective with a conscience, that is a hard thought to bear."
+
+"But you were ignorant of what you were doing," she protested. "You had
+no idea there was any one present who was meditating crime."
+
+"True; but a detective shouldn't be ignorant. He ought to know men; he
+has opportunity enough to learn them. But I won't be caught again. Never
+in any company, not if it is composed of the highest dignitaries in the
+land, will I ever tell again how a crime of any kind can be perpetrated
+without risk. One always runs the chance of encountering an Orcutt."
+
+Imogene turned pale. "Do not speak of him," she cried. "I want to forget
+that such a man ever lived."
+
+Mr. Gryce smiled again.
+
+"It is the best thing you can do," said he. "Begin a new life, my child;
+begin a new life."
+
+And with this fatherly advice, he said good-bye, and she saw his wise,
+kind face no more.
+
+The hour that followed was a dreary one for Imogene. Her joy at knowing
+Craik Mansell was released could not blind her to the realization of her
+own ruined life. Indeed she seemed to feel it now as never before; and
+as the slow minutes passed, and she saw in fancy the strong figure of
+Mansell surrounded by congratulating admirers and friends, the full
+loneliness of her position swept over her, and she knew not whether to
+be thankful or not to the fever for having spared her blighted and
+dishonored life.
+
+Mrs. Richmond, seeing her so absorbed, made no attempt at consolation.
+She only listened, and when a step was heard, arose and went out,
+leaving the door open behind her.
+
+And Imogene mused on, sinking deeper and deeper into melancholy, till
+the tears, which for so long a time had been dried at their source,
+welled up to her eyes and fell slowly down her cheeks. Their touch
+seemed to rouse her. Starting erect, she looked quickly around as if to
+see if anybody was observing her. But the room seems quite empty, and
+she is about to sink back again with a sigh when her eyes fall on the
+door-way and she becomes transfixed. A sturdy form is standing there! A
+manly, eager form in whose beaming eyes and tender smile shine a love
+and a purpose which open out before her quite a different future from
+that which her fancy had been so ruthlessly picturing.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.
+
+
+  =THE LEAVENWORTH CASE.= A Lawyer's Story. By ANNA
+      KATHERINE GREEN. 16mo, paper, 60 cents; cloth, $1.00.
+
+          "In one respect at least, 'The Leavenworth Case'
+          is the peer of Gaboriau's best efforts--the
+          wonderful skill with which the author draws the
+          reader, now this way, now that, in the search for
+          the perpetrator of the mysterious crime with which
+          the story begins, and deludes him until he reaches
+          almost the last page."--_New Haven Palladium._
+
+          "Wilkie Collins, in his best period, never
+          invented a more ingeniously constructed plot, nor
+          held the reader in such suspense until the final
+          denouement. The most blase novel-reader will be
+          unable to put aside 'The Leavenworth Case' until
+          he has read the last sentence and mastered the
+          mystery which has baffled him from the
+          beginning."--_N. Y. Express._
+
+          "She has proved herself as well able to write an
+          interesting story of mysterious crime as any man
+          living."--_The Academy, (London.)_
+
+          "She has worked up a _cause celebre_ with a
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+          hardly second to Wilkie Collins or Edgar Allen
+          Poe."--_Christian Union._
+
+          "We have read no story for a long time which has
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+          Poe flavor of reality in the
+          telling."--_Congregationalist._
+
+          "We do not propose to give the plot of the work,
+          however, but merely to say that it is one of the
+          most ingenious of the kind we have ever
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+
+          "This is the sort of book to be eagerly read and
+          thoroughly enjoyed."--_St. Paul Pioneer._
+
+          "A new novel by a new writer, which enchains our
+          attention from the very first sentence of the
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+          with a force and power that indicate great
+          dramatic talent in the writer."--_St. Louis Post._
+
+          "Its interest is undoubted and it is thoroughly
+          well sustained."--_N. Y. Evening Post._
+
+          "The story is developed with great skill and shows
+          ingenuity of the highest order."--_Troy Times._
+
+          "A story of mystery and crime and is here narrated
+          with an artistic skill which inevitably holds the
+          interest of the reader, even to the point of the
+          highest tension, to the close of the last chapter.
+          * * * A real marvel of fiction."--_Davenport
+          Gazette._
+
+
+  =A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE.= By ANNA KATHARINE GREEN.
+      16mo, paper, 50 cents, cloth, $1.00.
+
+          "The plot is marked with striking originality, and
+          the story is narrated with a vigor and power
+          rarely met in modern novels. It is deeply
+          interesting from beginning to end, and holds the
+          reader entranced from the moment the first page is
+          read until the last sentence is reached. It is, in
+          fact, a revelation in American romance-writing,
+          and we heartily commend it to the
+          public."--_Baltimore Gazette._
+
+          "Catches the fancy and chains the interest of the
+          reader to such a degree that he is unwilling to
+          lay it down until every page is
+          devoured."--_Toledo Journal._
+
+          "The author has chosen a department of fiction
+          where only the best writers succeed, but she has
+          shown herself capable of sustaining her role with
+          wonderful vigor."--_Boston Evening Traveller._
+
+          "It is an ingenious plot, admirably worked up, and
+          told so straightforward as to be wholly
+          pleasing."--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._
+
+          "One of the best police detective stories written
+          in America."--_Hartford Courant._
+
+          "Wilkie Collins would not be ashamed of the
+          construction of this story. * * * It keeps
+          the reader's close attention from first to
+          last."--_N. Y. Evening Post._
+
+          "A most ingenious and absorbingly interesting
+          story. The readers are held spell-bound till the
+          last page."--_Cincinnati Commercial._
+
+          "Ingenious in construction, powerful in dramatic
+          interest, and artistic in development."--_Boston
+          Gazette._
+
+          "A most intensely interesting work of fiction. The
+          story is developed with skill, and the work
+          written in a strong, powerful style."--_Augusta
+          (Me.) Farmer._
+
+          "The plot is new and sparkling, and the story is
+          carried to its denouement with an ingenuity and
+          brightness of manner that makes it impossible to
+          lay the volume down until completed. * * * It is a
+          marvel of fiction."--_Columbus Sunday Capital._
+
+          "The plot is very ingenious. * * * The interest in
+          the tale is remarkably well sustained until its
+          conclusion, and the mystery which envelopes the
+          principal character is concealed with a great deal
+          of artistic skill. * * * Shows a spirit of patient
+          research that speaks well for the industry of the
+          writer, and an analytical faculty rarely seen in a
+          woman."--_Boston Courier._
+
+
+  =X. Y. Z.= A Detective Story. By ANNA KATHARINE GREEN. 16mo,
+      paper, 25 cents.
+
+          "Well written and extremely exciting and
+          captivating. * * * She is a perfect genius in the
+          construction of a plot."--_N. Y. Commercial
+          Advertiser._
+
+          "Will keep the sleepiest reader wide-awake from
+          title to finis."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+          "An extremely interesting story, * * * the
+          development of the plot is kept well in hand, and
+          the denouement is as dramatic as any that could be
+          desired."--_Albany Argus._
+
+
+  =THE DEFENCE OF THE BRIDE=, and Other Poems. By ANNA
+      KATHARINE GREEN. Sq. 16mo, flex. cloth, $1.00.
+
+          "Written with a spirit and force that are
+          impressive."--_Congregationalist._
+
+
+
+
+PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.
+
+
+BAYARD TAYLOR'S NOVELS.
+
+  I. =Hannah Thurston.= A STORY OF AMERICAN LIFE
+      12mo. Household edition,                         $1.50
+
+          "If Bayard Taylor has not placed himself, as we
+          are half inclined to suspect, in the front rank of
+          novelists, he has produced a very remarkable
+          book--a really original story, admirably told,
+          crowded with life-like characters full of delicate
+          and subtle sympathies, with ideas the most
+          opposite to his own, and lighted up throughout
+          with that playful humor which suggests always
+          wisdom rather than mere fun."--_London Spectator._
+
+  II. =John Godfrey's Fortunes.= RELATED BY HIMSELF
+      12mo. Household edition,                         $1.50
+
+          "'John Godfrey's Fortunes,' without being
+          melodramatic or morbid, is one of the most
+          fascinating novels which we have ever read. Its
+          portraiture of American social life, though not
+          flattering, is eminently truthful; its delineation
+          of character is delicate and natural; its English,
+          though sometimes careless, is singularly grateful
+          and pleasant."--_Cleveland Leader._
+
+  III. =The Story of Kennett.= 12mo. Household
+      edition,                                         $1.50
+
+          "Mr. Bayard Taylor's book is _delightful and
+          refreshing reading_, and great rest after the
+          crowded artistic effects and the conventional
+          interests of even the better kind of English
+          novels."--_London Spectator._
+
+          "As a picture of rural life, we think this novel
+          of Mr. Taylor's excels any of his previous
+          productions."--_N. Y. Evening Post._
+
+          "A tale of absorbing interest."--_Syracuse
+          Standard._
+
+
+  IV. =Joseph and his Friend.= A STORY OF PENNSYLVANIA
+          12mo. Household edition,                     $1.50
+
+          "In Bayard Taylor's happiest vein."--_Buffalo
+          Express._
+
+          "By far the best novel of the season."--_Cleveland
+          Leader._
+
+  V. =Beauty and the Beast= and =Tales of Home=. 12mo
+                    Household edition,                 $1.50
+
+
+Bayard Taylor's Complete Works.
+
+  =The Complete Works of Bayard Taylor.= In sixteen
+      volumes. Household edition,                     $24.00
+
+  =The Travels=, separate, eleven volumes. Household
+      edition,                                        $16.50
+
+  The Novels, separate, five volumes, boards.
+      Cedarcroft edition,                              $6.25
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+The original text had page v before pages iii and iv. This was
+rearranged in this edition. The List of Illustrations now follows the
+Table of Contents.
+
+The text uses both "vail" and "veil," "depot" and "depot."
+
+Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.
+
+Page 17, "have'nt" changed to "haven't" (that haven't much)
+
+Page 29, "vengance" changed to "vengeance" (May the vengeance of Heaven)
+
+Page 138, "yon" changed to "you" (you would be likely)
+
+Page 140, "notwithstandingt he" changed to "notwithstanding the"
+(notwithstanding the humiliating)
+
+Page 221, "infinitesmal" changed to "infinitesimal" (an infinitesimal
+chip from)
+
+Page 227, "obstancy" changed to "obstinacy" (selfishness and obstinacy)
+
+Page 235, "Ferrris" changed to "Ferris" (cried Mr. Ferris, looking)
+
+Page 267, "where" changed to "were" (you were when you)
+
+Page 288, "desparing" changed to "despairing" (The despairing influence)
+
+Page 326, "a" changed to "at" (I am boarding at present)
+
+Page 402, "band" changed to "hand" (lay his hand upon)
+
+Page 410, "unneccessary" changed to "unnecessary" (an unnecessary
+display)
+
+Page 417, "his" changed to "is" (he is trying his influence)
+
+Page 431, "disegarded" changed to "disregarded" (it shall be
+disregarded)
+
+Page 462, "Sueh" changed to "Such" (Such--as--Gouvernour)
+
+Page 526, "thumselves" changed to "themselves" (are amusing themselves)
+
+Page 552, "sor" changed to "for" (promised little for an)
+
+Page 558, "most" changed to "must" (one must also believe)
+
+Page 565, "Gyrce" changed to "Gryce" (Mr. Gryce, with his usual)
+
+Page 591, "surbordinates" changed to "subordinates" (his subordinates
+arose)
+
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #31681 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31681)