did the
murder, it was I."

The chief of police, who was present to see that everything was in
order, put several questions to the purveyor, who told him the whole
story of the death of the hunchback, and how he had carried the body to
the place where it had been found by the Christian merchant.

"You are going," he said to the chief of police, "to kill an innocent
man, for it is impossible that he should have murdered a creature who
was dead already. It is bad enough for me to have slain a Mussulman
without having it on my conscience that a Christian who is guiltless
should suffer through my fault."

Now the purveyor's speech had been made in a loud voice, and was heard
by all the crowd, and even if he had wished it, the chief of police
could not have escaped setting the merchant free.

"Loose the cords from the Christian's neck," he commanded, turning to
the executioner, "and hang this man in his place, seeing that by his
own confession he is the murderer."

The hangman did as he was bid, and was tying the cord firmly, when he
was stopped by the voice of the Jewish doctor beseeching him to pause,
for he had something very important to say. When he had fought his way
through the crowd and reached the chief of police,

"Worshipful sir," he began, "this Mussulman whom you desire to hang is
unworthy of death; I alone am guilty. Last night a man and a woman who
were strangers to me knocked at my door, bringing with them a patient
for me to cure. The servant opened it, but having no light was hardly
able to make out their faces, though she readily agreed to wake me and
to hand me the fee for my services. While she was telling me her story
they seem to have carried the sick man to the top of the staircase and
then left him there. I jumped up in a hurry without waiting for a
lantern, and in the darkness I fell against something, which tumbled
headlong down the stairs and never stopped till it reached the bottom.
When I examined the body I found it was quite dead, and the corpse was
that of a hunchback Mussulman. Terrified at what we had done, my wife
and I took the body on the roof and let it down the chimney of our
neighbour the purveyor, whom you were just about to hang. The
purveyor, finding him in his room, naturally thought he was a thief,
and struck him such a blow that the man fell down and lay motionless on
the floor. Stooping to examine him, and finding him stone dead, the
purveyor supposed that the