rding the circumstances under which your stories were originated."

"I will never retreat," was Long's reply. "I would drag no one else
through the mire of calumny I am now going through."

"How do you happen to know so much about Cronin's St. Louis record?" he
was asked.

"I was in St. Louis a little over a year ago and made inquiries about
him."

"What prompted you to do that?"

Long declined to answer, but said that he had a copy of the pamphlet
entitled, "Is It A Conspiracy?"

This was important, because it was known that a number of copies had
been sent to Starkey, whose name figured in the pamphlet as one of
Cronin's enemies.

Numerous Toronto Irishmen who were consulted expressed the opinion (some
of them to Long's face) that they believed his dispatches had been
manufactured out of whole cloth. A final effort was made to induce Long
to clear up the mystery surrounding the murder, by disclosing how he was
prompted to send the dispatches, and a suggestion was made that, upon
the existing facts, he stood in danger of being indicted by the Chicago
authorities. This, however, failed of its purpose, and, failing to
induce the reporter to unbosom himself in the cause of justice, the
matter was dropped.

Further investigations into the movements of William J. Starkey were
next made. It was found that the fugitive and a prominent Irish-American
from Chicago, had met in Windsor about eight months before, when the
Irish-American had paid over to Starkey $8,000 in cash, which had been
obtained for him from a Chicago corporation which was under obligations
to him. About the middle of February Starkey received a visit from a man
from Chicago who was possessed of brains of a high order, and after his
return to Chicago a regular correspondence ensued between this
individual and Starkey, which ceased only with the latter's departure
from Toronto to New York. This occurred on the Sunday morning,
following the Saturday night on which Dr. Cronin left his home forever.
Up to two weeks before this time Starkey's financial condition had been
very bad. Then he suddenly became "flush," and was enabled to invest
several thousand dollars through D. K. Mason, member of the great
fugitive colony, who, as has before been mentioned, had for five years
found it desirable to make his home in Toronto as the result of some
little irregularities in warehouse receipts which had transpired in
Louisville, his old home. Where Starkey had gon