ance. In his mind he was
procureur-general for Spring Valley. And in his mind still rankled the
thought of the fiasco in his courtroom but the day before, in which he
had made so small a figure.

"I want to ask you, Mr. Cowles," he said, turning to the sheriff, "if
you ever have seen this young man before."

"Only once," said the sheriff, standing up. "Last night or this morning,
just after the clock had struck one--say, two or three minutes or so
after one o'clock--I was going out of my office and going over to the
east side of the square. I met this young man then. As he says, he was
running--that is, he was coming back from this direction, and running
toward the southeast corner of the square, the direction of his own
home."

"Was he in a hurry--did he seem excited?"

"He was panting a little bit. He was running. He didn't seem to see me."

"Oh, yes, I did," said Don. "I remember you perfectly--that is, I
remember perfectly passing some man in the half darkness under the trees
as I came along that side of the square. As I said, it was warm."

"Now, gentlemen, we have thought it over for a long time," said the
coroner, after a solemn pause. "We must bring in our verdict before
long. It must either be 'party or parties unknown,' or we must hold
someone we do suspect.

"We have had no one here that we could suspect until now. Take this
young man--he is practically a stranger. He proves himself to be of
violent and ungovernable temper. Allowed to go once from the justice of
the law, he forgets that and goes violent again. He assaults a second
time one of our citizens, Mr. Adamson. He resists arrest once by a
officer of the law, and in the same afternoon he threatens that officer.
He says, 'I'll get you.'

"This young man is seen just before one o'clock running over in this
direction. Just a little ahead of him the victim of this crime was seen
walking. He was killed, as his daughter testifies, somewhere just about
one o'clock--it was at that time that he staggered into the house here.

"Just after one o'clock this young man is seen running--one of the
hottest nights we have had this summer--running away from the scene of
the crime, and toward his own home.

"I don't want to lead your own convictions in any way. I am willing to
say, however, that if we have not found a man to hold for this crime,
then we ain't apt to find him!"

"But, gentlemen, you don't mean"--poor Don began, his face pale for the
first ti