n him, but he was unmoved, kept his gaze on Russell.

Dr. Garnet, announcing that he would ask Mr. Otis to testify a little
later, handed Russell the weapon with which Mildred Brace had been
murdered.

"Have you ever seen that dagger before?" he asked.

Russell said he had not. Reminded that Sheriff Crown had testified to
searching the witness's room and had discovered that a nail file was
missing from his dressing case, a file which, judging by other articles
in the case, must have been the same size as the one used in making the
amateur dagger, Russell declared that his file had been lost for three
years. He had left it in a hotel room on the only trip he had ever taken
to New York.

He gave way to Mr. Otis, who described himself as a commission merchant
of Washington. Returning from a tour to Lynchburg, Virginia, he said, he
had been hailed last night by a man in the road and had agreed to take
him into town, a ride of six miles. Reaching Washington shortly before
midnight, he had dropped his passenger at Eleventh and F streets.

"Who was this passenger?" inquired Garnet.

"He told me," said Otis, "his name was Eugene Russell. I gave him my
name. That explains how he was able to find me this morning. When he
told me how he was situated, I agreed to come over here and give you
gentlemen the facts."

"Notice anything peculiar about Mr. Russell last night?"

"No; I think not."

"Was he agitated, disturbed?"

"He was out of breath. And he commented on that himself, said he'd been
walking fast. Oh, yes! He was bareheaded; and he explained that--said
the rain had ruined a cheap straw hat he had been wearing; the glue had
run out of the straw and down his neck, he had thrown the hat away."

"And the time? When did you pick him up?"

"It was twenty minutes past eleven o'clock. When I stopped, I glanced at
my machine clock; I carry a clock just above my speedometer."

Mr. Otis was positive in his statements. He realized, he said, that his
words might relieve one man of suspicion and bring it upon another.
Unless he had been absolutely certain of his facts, he would not have
stated them. He was sure, beyond the possibility of doubt, that he had
made no mistake when he looked at his automobile clock; it was running
when he stopped and when he reached Washington; yes, it was an accurate
timepiece.

Russell's alibi was established. His defence appealed to the jurymen as
unassailable. When, after a conference of l