ad at first nervously, and then indignantly, protested his
innocence, King continually doing the latter. Naturally there
followed, even with the faint suspicions so far engendered, the
question as to what the possible object for the crime could have been,
presuming either man had been involved.

It was known that King was constantly in debt, in spite of his
allowance and the more substantial advances he received from time to
time. He had patronized the jewelry store, and he admitted owing Mrs.
Darcy quite a large sum for a brooch he had purchased for his wife some
time before. It was, of course, possible, that he had, in his drunken
state, gone to the store to get the paper cutter, which some peculiar
kink or twist in his drink-inflamed brain had caused him to remember at
an odd time. Or perhaps he had run short of money when playing cards,
and have gone to Mrs. Darcy's store to borrow or see if he could not
get something on which he might raise cash.

Harry King was known to have been gambling the night before, the game
lasting until nearly morning, and at one stage, when King was "broke,"
he had excused himself, gone out into the night alone, and had come
back well supplied with funds. Asked jokingly by his cronies where he
had got the money, he had said "a lady" gave it to him. He resumed
play, only to lose, and had staggered out into the gray dawn, which was
the last his companions had seen of him. He next appeared at the
jewelry store after the murder.

Sobered, King's explanation was that "a lady" had really given him the
money, but who she was, or why she gave him funds at two o'clock in the
morning, he would not say. He admitted calling at the jewelry store
somewhere around eleven o'clock at night for the purpose of seeing if
the engraving on the paper cutter had been finished. King was not so
very drunk then, he said. He was just "starting in."

The store was closed, he said, but he added a bit of testimony that
caused Colonel Ashley, and others, to think a bit.

King said that, though the front doors to the store were locked, he,
knowing the place well, had gone around to the side door in the alley,
thinking that might not yet be fastened. He hoped, he said, to be able
to get in and procure the present for his wife. But this door, too,
was locked, though, through the glass he could see a light in the rear
room. And he could hear voices, which were raised louder than ordinary.

The voices, Ki