rrogated her as to the disposition made
of the sweepings of the room. She in turn sought the hired girl, who
remembered "fixing up the room" and emptying the basket the morning
before White's death, but she had put the sweepings in the ash-can and
they had long since been removed in the usual way.

We deemed it of the greatest importance that we find the other pieces of
the letter if possible, and to that end Miles had sought out the ash-man
for the district, and had the dump where he unloaded his cart thoroughly
searched for them, but in vain. The rest of the letter was hopelessly
lost.

In it we both believed was contained a clue to the mystery we were
trying so hard to unravel, but we were compelled to accept the
inevitable in this instance and make the most of what we had secured. It
was a good deal, too, though very incomplete. It might not trace the
crime to any particular individual, but at least it showed a secret in
the life of the murdered man that affected him deeply and in which
another had an intimate share, and it showed, further, that all was not
in accord between the two. There had evidently been a bitter contest
going on, for how long or what about was not disclosed, but it had
existed and should be explained.

I had tried to complete the lines that were mutilated, but some of them
were so incomplete and susceptible of so many different interpretations
that the results were not sufficiently reliable to be useful or safe to
work upon. I did, however, satisfy myself that the substance of the
first seven lines had been something like the following (the words in
parentheses are supplied):

"longer, my conscience will not"
(let) "me rest--I must, I will"
(do) (so-) "mething about it in"
(spite of) or (stead of) or
(place of) "you;--If you will"
(oppose) or (thwart) or
(not help) "me, then I will"
(ask some one) or (appeal to some one)
or (confide in some one) or
(tell some one) "else--We"
(have been together in) "all this"

Further than this it was useless to try to fill in the broken sentences.

This much was all we had accomplished and the situation was critical.
With the day set for the trial less than a week distant, I had not only
failed to find definite evidence that could direct attention to any one
else than the prisoner, but so far had even failed to secure the
services of a lawyer to defend him. There were plenty to be had among
those who made