re-faced lie if one ever
had been spoken.

"Why----" Prale began.

"I do not care to discuss the matter further," the banker interrupted.
"I am a man of standing and cannot afford to be mixed up in a case of
this sort."

"You'll not be mixed up in it," the captain said. "I just wanted to show
Mr. Prale that there were some holes in his story. That is all, thank
you!"

The banker left the room quickly, and Prale sprang to his feet, his face
livid.

"That man lied!" he exclaimed. "You could read it in his face! I don't
know why he lied, but he did!"

"Sit down, Mr. Prale, and let's have more witnesses in," the captain
said.

Once more he spoke to the sergeant, and again the latter went out, this
time to return with the manager of the first hotel at which Prale
registered.

"Know this man?" the captain asked.

"He registered at my place as Sidney Prale, of Honduras."

"Well, what about it?"

"We furnished him with a suite on the fifth floor," the hotel manager
said. "But he gave it up."

"Gave it up!" Prale cried. "Why, you called me into your office and told
me to get out, that the suite has been reserved and that there was none
vacant in the house. The bell boy can testify that he called me into the
office."

"Certainly he called you into my office, and at my request," the manager
said. "I wanted to know why you were leaving, whether any of the
employees had treated you with discourtesy. You told me that you had
been served poorly in the dining room the evening before, and that you
were done with the hotel!"

Prale sprang to his feet. "That's a lie, and you know it!" he cried.

"Captain," said the hotel man, "do I have to sit here and be insulted by
a man charged with a heinous crime?"

"That will be all, thank you," the captain said.

The hotel manager hurried from the room, and the captain grinned at
Prale.

"So he lied, too, did he?" the captain asked.

"He did!" Prale cried.

"There seems to be an epidemic of falsehood, to hear you tell it.
However, let us get on with the affair."

Once more he instructed the sergeant, and this time the man brought in
the hotel detective who had witnessed the trouble between Prale and
Shepley.

The hotel detective told the story much as Prale himself had told it,
except that he made it appear that Prale had threatened Rufus Shepley on
the walk in front of the hotel before they separated.

"Did you pick up a fountain pen of mine after I had gone?" Pra