ilant," suggested the District
Attorney.

"True, but I do not think he was mad--not from what you have told me.
But let us see what the commotion is. Some one has evidently arrived."

It was Mr. Byrd, who had entered by the front door, and deaf to the low
murmur of the impatient crowd without, stood waiting in silent patience
for an opportunity to report to the District Attorney the results of his
efforts.

Mr. Ferris at once welcomed him.

"What have you done? Did you find the constable or succeed in laying
hands on that scamp of a humpback?"

Mr. Byrd, who, to explain at once, was a young and intelligent
detective, who had been brought from New York for purposes connected
with the case then before the court, glanced carefully in the direction
of the coroner and quietly replied:

"The hump-backed scamp, as you call him, has disappeared. Whether he
will be found or not I cannot say. Hunt is on his track, and will report
to you in an hour. The tramp whom you saw slinking out of this street
while we stood on the court-house steps is doubtless the man whom you
most want, and him we have captured."

"You have?" repeated Mr. Ferris, eying, with good-natured irony, the
young man's gentlemanly but rather indifferent face. "And what makes you
think it is the tramp who is the guilty one in this case? Because that
ingenious stranger saw fit to make him such a prominent figure in his
suppositions?"

"No, sir," replied the detective, flushing with a momentary
embarrassment he however speedily overcame; "I do not found my opinions
upon any man's remarks. I only---- Excuse me," said he, with a quiet air
of self-control that was not without its effect upon the sensible man he
was addressing. "If you will tell me how, where, and under what
circumstances this poor murdered woman was found, perhaps I shall be
better able to explain my reasons for believing in the tramp as the
guilty party; though the belief, even of a detective, goes for but
little in matters of this kind, as you and these other gentlemen very
well know."

"Step here, then," signified Mr. Ferris, who, accompanied by the
coroner, had already passed around the table. "Do you see that clock?
She was winding it when she was struck, and fell almost at its foot.
The weapon which did the execution lies over there; it is a stick of
firewood, as you see, and was caught up from that pile on the hearth.
Now recall what that humpback said about choosing a thoroughfare fo