e of the house. Yes, there was a window, and
it was wide open.

But any doubt that the prisoner might have escaped through it was soon
quieted by the sound of his snore. Joe had thrown himself across the
bed, boots and all, and was already shoulder-deep in sleep. They decided
that, at daylight, Sol's son should ride to the county-seat, seven miles
distant, and notify the coroner.

During the time they spent between Joe's retirement and daybreak, Sol
improved the minutes by arraigning, convicting, and condemning Joe for
the murder of old Isom. He did it so impressively that he had Constable
Frost on edge over the tremendous responsibility that rested on his
back. Bill was in a sweat, although the night was cool. He tiptoed
around, listening, spying, prying; he stood looking up at Joe's window
until his neck ached; he explored the yard for hidden weapons and
treasure, and he peered and poked with a rake-handle into shrubbery and
vines.

They could hear the women upstairs talking once in a while, and now and
again they caught the sound of a piteous moan.

"She ain't seen him," said Sol; "I wouldn't let her come down. She may
not be in no condition to look on a muss like that, her a young woman
and only married a little while."

Bill agreed on that, as he agreed on every hypothesis which Sol
propounded out of his wisdom, now that his official heat had been
raised.

"If I hadn't got here when I did he'd 'a' skinned out with all of that
money," said Sol. "He was standin' there with his hat in his hand, all
ready to scoop it up."

"How'd he come to go after me?" asked Bill.

"Well, folks don't always do things on their own accord," said Sol,
giving Bill an unmistakable look.

"Oh, that was the way of it," nodded Bill. "I thought it was funny if
he----"

"He knowed he didn't have a ghost of a chance to git away between me and
you," said Sol.

Morning came, and with it rode Sol's son to fetch the coroner.

Sol had established himself in the case so that he would lose very
little glory in the day's revelations, and there remained one pleasant
duty yet which he proposed to take upon himself. That was nothing less
than carrying the news of the tragedy and Joe's arrest to Mrs. Newbolt
in her lonely home at the foot of the hill.

Sol's son spread the news as he rode through the thin morning to the
county-seat, drawing up at barn-yard gates, hailing the neighbors on the
way to their fields, pouring the amazing story