f crime which has
just been discussed by a group of indifferent persons in the public
street,' and then had asked me where to look for the assassin, I should
have said: 'Search for that man who heard the discussion through, was
among the first to leave the group, and was the first to show himself
upon the scene of murder.' To be sure, when Byrd did come to me with
this story, I was silent, for the man who fulfilled these conditions was
Mr. Orcutt."

"Then," said Mr. Ferris, "you mean to say that you would have suspected
Mr. Orcutt of this crime long ago if he had not been a man of such
position and eminence?"

"Undoubtedly," was Mr. Gryce's reply.

If the expression was unequivocal, his air was still more so. Shocked
and disturbed, both gentlemen fell back. The detective at once advanced
and opened the door.

It was time. Mr. Byrd had been tapping upon it for some minutes, and now
hastily came in. His face told the nature of his errand before he
spoke.

"I am sorry to be obliged to inform you----" he began.

"Mr. Orcutt is dead?" quickly interposed Mr. Ferris.

The young detective solemnly bowed.

CHAPTER XL.

IN THE PRISON.

The jury passing on the prisoner's life,
May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two
Guiltier than him they try.
--MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

Such welcome and unwelcome things at once
'Tis hard to reconcile. --MACBETH.

MR. MANSELL sat in his cell, the prey of gloomy and perturbed thought.
He knew Mr. Orcutt was dead; he had been told of it early in the morning
by his jailer, but of the circumstances which attended that death he
knew nothing, save that the lawyer had been struck by a limb falling
from a tree in his own garden.

The few moments during which the court had met for the purpose of
re-adjournment had added but little to his enlightenment. A marked
reserve had characterized the whole proceedings; and though an
indefinable instinct had told him that in some mysterious way his cause
had been helped rather than injured by this calamity to his counsel, he
found no one ready to volunteer those explanations which his great
interest in the matter certainly demanded. The hour, therefore, which he
spent in solitude upon his return to prison was one of great anxiety,
and it was quite a welcome relief when the cell door opened and the
keeper ushered in a strange gentleman. Supposing it to be the new