inted: even Littell did not consider the missing
bills of much real importance. Their absence might do to juggle with as
a lesson to superficial talkers, but from a practical standpoint, it was
immaterial.

CHAPTER VIII

THE PROSECUTION AND THE PRISONER

The next day was Sunday, and I passed it in restless impatience over the
enforced idleness, occupying myself as far as I could with the newspaper
reports of the Coroner's hearing.

I found much to read, but little to please me in them. With few
exceptions they accepted the police version of the case, treating
Winters almost as a convicted criminal and praising unstintedly, in some
cases fulsomely, the work of the Inspector's department.

It was only necessary to scan their columns to learn that:

Winters bore a bad reputation, and had long been known to the police;
that:

It was one of the most brutal murders in the annals of crime; that:

"The assassin coolly scanned his sleeping prey"--with an illustration
of Winters peering in the window at White asleep on the divan; that:

"The foul deed was perpetrated while the unconscious victim slept"--with
illustration; that:

"The prisoner stood mute under the fearful accusation"--with
illustration; that:

It would be the first execution by the new sheriff, etc.

The maxim of the law--"that each man shall be deemed innocent till
proved guilty"--was entirely disregarded by these tribunes of the
people. Like bloodhounds on the trail, they gave tongue to notes that
incited all men to the chase, including those who were to sit as judges
without prejudice on the life of the quarry: they assumed Winters guilty
till proved innocent and the possibility of such a contingency they did
not even suggest.

I finally pushed the papers away from me in angry protest and spent the
remainder of the day in vain effort to forget the subject.

Early Monday morning I hurried to the office eager to resume my work on
the case.

I found awaiting me there a member of a law firm who gave me the not
very welcome news that White had made me the sole executor of his will,
a copy of which he handed me. I made an appointment with him to submit
it for probate, and he left me to its perusal.

A few minutes sufficed for this, as it was simple and brief. After the
usual clause, providing for payment of his debts, etc., he left all the
rest of his property unconditionally to his cousin, Henry Winters, and
then followed the unusual exp