ather than you do."

"Do you know about the ha'nt?"

"Yes," he said desperately, "I do; but it is not connected with either
the robbery or the murder and I cannot talk about it."

I argued and pleaded but to no effect. He sat on his cot, his head in
his hands staring at the floor, stubbornly refusing to open his lips. I
gave over pleading and stormed.

"It's no use, Arnold," he said finally. "I won't tell you anything about
the ha'nt; it doesn't enter into the case."

I sat down again and patiently outlined my theory in regard to Mose.

"It is impossible," he declared. "I have known Mose all my life, and I
have never yet known him to betray a trust. He loved my father as much
as I did, and if my life defended on it, I should swear that he was
faithful."

"Rad," I beseeched, "I am not only your attorney, I am your friend;
whatever you say to me is as if it had never been said. I _must_ know
the truth."

He shook his head.

"I have nothing to say."

"You have _got_ to have something to say," I cried. "You have got to go
on the stand and make an absolutely open and straightforward statement
of everything bearing on the case. You have got to appear anxious to
find and punish the man who murdered your father. You have got to gain
public sympathy, and before you go on the stand you owe it to yourself
and me to leave nothing unexplained between us."

He raised his eyes miserably to mine.

"Must I go on?" he asked. "Can't I refuse to testify--I don't see that
they can punish me for contempt of court; I'm already in prison."

"They can hang you," said I, bluntly.

He buried his face in his hands with a groan.

"Arnold," he pleaded, "don't make me face all those people. You can see
what a state my nerves are in; I haven't slept for three nights." He
held out his hand to show me how it trembled. "I can't talk--I don't
know what I'm saying. You don't know what you're urging me to do."

My anger at his stubbornness vanished in a sudden spasm of pity. The
poor fellow was scarcely more than a boy! Though I was completely in the
dark as to what he was holding back and why he was doing it, yet I felt
instinctively that his motives were honorable.

"Rad," I said, "it would help your cause to be open with me, and if you
are remanded for trial before the grand jury you must in the end tell me
everything. But now I will not insist. Probably nothing will come up
about the ha'nt. I can of course refuse to let you speak on