no reply to make to this, and Mr. Byrd's thoughts being thus
carried back to Imogene Dare and the unhappy revelations she had been
led to make, he walked on in a dreary silence his companion had
sufficient discretion not to break.

XIX.

MR. FERRIS.

Which of you have done this?--MACBETH.

What have we here?--TEMPEST.

MR. FERRIS sat in his office in a somewhat gloomy frame of mind. There
had been bad news from the jail that morning. Mr. Hildreth had attempted
suicide the night before, and was now lying in a critical condition at
the hospital.

Mr. Ferris himself had never doubted this man's guilt. From Hildreth's
first appearance at the inquest, the District Attorney had fixed upon
him as the murderer of Mrs. Clemmens, and up to this time he had seen no
good and substantial reason for altering his opinion.

Even the doubts expressed by Mr. Byrd had moved him but little. Mr. Byrd
was an enthusiast, and, naturally enough, shrank from believing a
gentleman capable of such a crime. But the other detective's judgment
was unswayed, and he considered Hildreth guilty. It was not astonishing,
then, that the opinion of Mr. Ferris should coincide with that of the
older and more experienced man.

But the depth of despair or remorse which had led Mr. Hildreth to this
desperate attempt upon his own life had struck the District Attorney
with dismay. Though not over-sensitive by nature, he could not help
feeling sympathy for the misery that had prompted such a deed, and while
secretly regarding this unsuccessful attempt at suicide as an additional
proof of guilt, he could not forbear satisfying himself by a review of
the evidence elicited at the inquest, that the action of the authorities
in arresting this man had been both warrantable and necessary.

The result was satisfactory in all but one point. When he came to the
widow's written accusation against one by the name of Gouverneur
Hildreth, he was impressed by a fact that had hitherto escaped his
notice. This was the yellowness of the paper upon which the words were
written. If they had been transcribed a dozen years before, they would
not have looked older, nor would the ink have presented a more faded
appearance. Now, as the suspected man was under twenty-five years of
age, and must, therefore, have been a mere child when the paper was
drawn up, the probability was that the Gouverneur intended was the
prisoner's father, their names being ide