ven't a bit more evidence than they had at
first when they held Mr. Bartlett."

"Does that mean Harry will be released?"

"I think so."

"Does it mean he will be proved innocent?"

"That I can't say. I hardly think the verdict will be conclusive in any
case. But they haven't any more evidence than at first--that he had a
quarrel with your father just before the fatal end. As to the nature
of the quarrel, Harry is silent--obstinately silent even to his own
counsel; and in this I can not uphold him. However, that is his affair."

"But I'm sure, Colonel, that he had nothing to do with my father's
death; aren't you?"

"If I said I was sure, my dear, and afterward, through force of evidence
and circumstance, were forced to change my opinion, you would not thank
me for now saying what you want me to say," was the reply. "It is better
for me to say that I do not know. I trust for the best. I hope, for your
sake and his, that he had nothing to do with the terrible crime. I want
to see the guilty person discovered and punished, and to that end I
am working night and day. And if I find out who it is, I will disclose
him--or her--no matter what anguish it costs me personally--no matter
what anguish it may bring to others. I would not be doing my full duty
otherwise."

"No, I realize that, Colonel. Oh, it is hard--so hard! If we only knew!"

"We may know," said the colonel gently.

"Soon?" she asked hopefully.

"Sooner than you expect," he answered with a smile. "Now I must attend
the jury session."

It was brief, and not at all sensational, much to the regret of
the reporters for the New York papers who flocked to the quiet and
fashionable seaside resort. The upshot of the matter was that the
chemists for the state reported that Mr. Carwell had met his death
from the effects of some violent poison, the nature of which resembled
several kinds, but which did not analyze as being any particular one
with which they were, at present, familiar.

There were traces of both arsenic and strychnine, but mingled with
them was some narcotic of strange composition, which was deadly in its
effect, as had been proved on guinea pigs, some of the residue from
the stomach and viscera of the dead man having been injected into the
hapless animals.

Harry Bartlett was not called to the stand, but, pale from his
confinement, sat an interested and vital spectator of the proceedings.

The prosecutor announced that the efforts of his dete