n
combat. I can't prove an _alibi_; and there's no other way to clear
myself."

"Bah!" retorts O'Meara; "there are several ways. Let us take the ground
that you are innocent; there must then be some one upon whom to fasten
the guilt. You have an enemy; some one has stolen your handkerchief and
your knife. Who is that enemy? Whom do you suspect?"

The prisoner shook his head. "I shall accuse no one," he said, briefly.

"What!" burst out Ray Vandyck; "you will not hunt down your enemy? This
is too much! Heath, I believe you could put your hand on the assassin."

No reply from the prisoner; he sits with his head bowed upon his hand, a
look of dogged resolution upon his face.

"Vandyck," says the little lawyer, who has been gazing fixedly at his
obstinate client, and who now turns two keen eyes upon the excited Ray;
"keep cool! keep cool, my lad! Heath, look here, sir, I'm bound to
defend your case--do you object to that?"

"On the contrary, O'Meara, you are my only hope; but, your success must
depend upon your own shrewdness. I can't give you any help."

Down went something in the lawyer's note book.

"That means you won't give me any help," writing briskly.

"It's an ungracious way of putting it," smiling slightly; "but--that's
about the way it stands."

"Just so," writing still; "you believe the handkerchief to have been
yours?"

"Yes."

"And the knife?"

"Yes. Stay, send Corliss with some one else, to my office; let them
examine my case of instruments, and see if the knife is among them;
this, for form's sake."

"It shall be attended to--for form's sake. Heath, who beside yourself
had access to your office?"

"My office was insecurely locked; any one might easily force an
entrance, and a common key would open my door."

Scratch, scratch; the lawyer seems not to notice the doctor's evasion of
the question.

"Ahem! As your lawyer, Heath, is there any truth in these stories about
a previous knowledge of Burrill?"

"Do you mean _my_ previous knowledge of the man?"

"Yes."

"I never knew the fellow; never saw him until I knocked him down in his
first wife's defence."

"Yet, he claimed to know you."

"So I am told."

"And you don't know _where_ he may have seen you?"

"All I know, you have heard in the evidence given to-day."

"And--" hesitating slightly; "is there nothing in your past life that
might weigh in your favor; nothing that will give the lie to these
hints so industriously scatter