property, my friend. Since you won't help
me, I won't disturb you farther. Come along, Vandyck."

Young Vandyck began at once to expostulate, to entreat, to argue; but
the little lawyer cut short the tide of his eloquence.

"Vandyck, be quiet! Can't you let a gentleman hang himself, if he sees
fit? No, I see you can't; it's against your nature. Well, come along; we
will see if we can't outwit this would-be suicide, and the hangman,
too." And he fairly forces poor, bewildered Ray from the room. Then,
turning again toward his uncommunicative client, he says:

"Oh, I'll attend to that knife business at once, Heath, and let you hear
the result."

"Stop a moment, O'Meara. There is one thing I can say, and that
is,--have the wounds in that body examined at once. As nearly as I could
observe, without a closer scrutiny, the knife that killed was not the
knife found with the body. It was a smaller, narrower bladed knife;
and--if an expert examines that knife, the one found, he will be
satisfied that it has never entered any body, animal or human. The
_point_ has never been dipped in blood."

"Oh! ho!" cries O'Meara, rubbing his hands together briskly. "So! we are
waking up! why didn't you mention all this before? But there's time
enough! time enough yet. I'll have the body examined; and by the best
surgeons, sir; and I'll see you to-morrow, _early_; good evening,
Heath."

"I'm blessed if I understand all this," burst out Ray Vandyck, when they
had gained the street. "Here you have kept me with my mouth stopped all
through this queer confab. I want a little light on this subject. What
the deuce ails Heath, that he won't lift his voice to defend himself?
And what the mischief do you let him throw away his best chances for? I
never heard of such foolhardiness."

"Young man," retorts the little lawyer, with a queer smile upon his
face, "just at present I have got no use for that tongue of yours. You
may be all eyes and ears, the more the better; but, I'm going to include
you in a very important private consultation; and, _don't you open your
mouth_ until somebody asks you to; and then mind you get it open quick
enough and wide enough."

CHAPTER XXXI.

BEGINNING THE INVESTIGATION.

"Well!"

It is Mr. Wedron, of the New York Bar, who utters this monosyllable. He
sits at the library table in the little lawyer's sanctum; opposite him
is his host, and a little farther away, stands Ray Vandyck; a living,
breathing,