tion, Mr. Hildreth. You have
said that upon quitting this house you went directly to the depot, where
you arrived barely in time to jump on the train as it was leaving the
station. Now, to walk from this place to the depot at any pace you would
be likely to use, would occupy--well, let us say seven minutes. At two
minutes before twelve, then, you were still in this house. Well!" he
ejaculated, interrupting himself as the other opened his lips, "have you
any thing to say?"

"No," was the dejected and hesitating reply.

The coroner at once resumed:

"But at five minutes before twelve, Mr. Hildreth, the tramp walked into
the widow's yard. Now, allowing only two minutes for your interview with
that lady, the conclusion remains that you were in the house when he
came up to it. Yet you declare that, although you stood in full view of
the yard, you did not see him."

"You figure closer than an astronomer calculating an eclipse," burst
from the young man's lips in a flash of that resolution which had for
the last few minutes animated him. "How do you know your witnesses have
been so exact to a second when they say this and that of the goings and
comings you are pleased to put into an arithmetical problem. A minute or
two one way or the other would make a sad discrepancy in your
calculations, Mr. Coroner."

"I know it," assented Dr. Tredwell, quietly ignoring the other's heat;
"but if the jury will remember, there were four witnesses, at least, who
testified to the striking of the town clock just as the tramp finally
issued from the lane, and one witness, of well-known accuracy in matters
of detail, who declared on oath that she had just dropped her eyes from
that same clock when she observed the tramp go into the widow's gate,
and that it was five minutes to twelve exactly. But, lest I do seem too
nice in my calculations," the coroner inexorably pursued, "I will take
the trouble of putting it another way. At what time did you leave the
hotel, Mr. Hildreth?"

"I don't know," was the testy response.

"Well, I can tell you," the coroner assured him. "It was about twenty
minutes to twelve, or possibly earlier, but no later. My reason for
saying this," he went on, drawing once more before him the fatal sheet
of paper, "is that Mrs. Dayton's children next door were out playing in
front of this house for some few minutes previous to the time the tramp
came into the lane. As you did not see them you must have arrived here
befo