followed it closely since. I knew you were ostensibly on the
wrong track and as a matter of self-preservation I determined to keep my
mouth shut unless it happened that the wrong person was accused. Had you
charged someone else with the killing I assure you I would have come
forward. But meanwhile--not even knowing the identity of the woman in the
taxi--there seemed no necessity for running the risk. There was nothing
save my own word to prove self-defense, you see."

"There is now," said Carroll. Hazel started eagerly and he smiled upon
her. "The story of the woman who actually was in the taxicab
substantiates yours, Gresham. She had followed Warren into the yards to
talk to him. She saw the whole affair from a distance--and then went back
through the waiting room of the station and called the taxi in which you
had placed Warren's body."

"Then Garry will be freed?" cried the girl hopefully: "His plea of
self-defense will acquit him?"

"Undoubtedly," retorted Carroll. "Don't you think so, Leverage?"

"Surest thing you know," returned the chief heartily. "And I'm darned
glad of it!"

Garry faced his sister. "How did you know that I had killed him, Sis?"

"I didn't," she answered quietly. "Not at first, anyway. But, if you
remember, you came in the house a little after eleven o'clock that night
and seemed excited. You came to my room--"

"I was thinking then," explained Garry, "that maybe _you_ were eloping
with Warren."

"Then you came home again a little after one o'clock. You waked me
then--and acted peculiarly."

"I was reassuring myself," he said, "that you really hadn't left
the house."

"The next morning while you were taking your shower I was putting up
your laundry," Hazel went on. "I found a revolver in your drawer. I
didn't think anything of it then--I hadn't even read the papers about
the--the--killing. But later, I remembered it. I went back to look for
the revolver--just why, I don't know--and it was gone. I questioned
you about it a couple of days later, and you denied that you had ever
had a revolver in the house. And I knew then, Garry--I knew that you
had done it."

He squeezed her hand. "We always did know more about each other than we
were told, didn't we, Little Sis? Because at that moment, too, I knew
that you knew!"

The young man turned back to the detectives--"And what now?" he
questioned.

"We'll have to hold you, Gresham. You'll have to go through the form of
a trial--but you'