jury had gotten through with the Captain, John
Sampson, an individual not unknown to the police, swore that Coughlin
had tried to hire him over a year before to waylay the physician as he
was returning from a meeting at McCoy's Hotel, and "do him up." This
evidence was corroborated, and it was further shown that Sampson,
actuated by a sense of gratitude--Dr. Cronin having at one time refused
to accept compensation for medical attendance upon one of his
(Sampson's) relatives--had informed the physician of his peril.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: JURORS EXAMINING BLOOD-STAINS IN THE PARLOR OF COTTAGE.]

But the most sensational features of the inquiry were yet to come.

ALEXANDER SULLIVAN AND DR. CRONIN.

Witness, after witness, many of them men of high standing in the
community, as well as of unimpeachable veracity, went upon the witness
stand and swore, that upon scores of occasions, the physician had
expressed the opinion that Alexander Sullivan was his mortal enemy, and
that he stood in eternal dread of the ex-Irish leader. Patrick McGarry
for instance, an honest homespun Irishman, who, by industry, had
accumulated considerable property, and who was one of the warmest
friends of the murdered man, testified that on numerous occasions the
physician had said to him, that Alexander Sullivan would be the
instigator of his death. Less than three weeks before his disappearance,
referring to the fact, that he had asked for an investigation of
Sullivan's accounts, he had said, "I am taking my life in my hands.
That may prove to have been a fatal night for me, but I am determined to
show up Alexander Sullivan's thievery and treachery to the Irish people,
even if my life is taken for it."

The buzz which invariably denotes the presence of suppressed excitement
went through the court-room when the witness made this statement, and,
catching the prevalent feeling, McGarry exclaimed with fervor:

"Thank God I don't belong to any organization of which that man is a
member. For I consider Alexander Sullivan to be the man who has brought
shame and disgrace on the Irish name in America."

To Joseph O'Byrne, the Senior guardian of Camp 234, of the Clan-na-Gael,
Dr. Cronin had said that he knew that he was to be sacrificed. To
Michael McNulty, another member of camp 234, he had insisted upon more
than one occasion, that he knew that Alexander Sullivan and Lawrence R.
Buckley, (the latter being a prominent member of the Cla