such a hold upon our
upper classes that gentlemen think it possible to meddle with such
matters. It is only when a student, a doctor, a lawyer, determines to
put aside from his path the secret stumbling-block to his desires or
his ambition that the true intellectual crime is developed. That brute
whom you see slouching along over the way is the type of the average
criminal of the day."

And he indicated with a nod a sturdy, ill-favored man, who, with pack on
his back, was just emerging from a grassy lane that opened out from the
street directly opposite the court-house.

"Such men are often seen in the dock," remarked Mr. Orcutt, of more than
local reputation as a criminal lawyer. "And often escape the penalty of
their crimes," he added, watching, with a curious glance, the lowering
brow and furtive look of the man who, upon perceiving the attention he
had attracted, increased his pace till he almost broke into a run.

"Looks as if he had been up to mischief," observed Judge Evans.

"Rather as if he had heard the sentence which was passed upon the last
tramp who paid his respects to this town," corrected Mr. Lord.

"Revenons a nos moutons," resumed the District Attorney. "Crime, as an
investment, does not pay in this country. The regular burglar leads a
dog's life of it; and when you come to the murderer, how few escape
suspicion if they do the gallows. I do not know of a case where a murder
for money has been really successful in this region."

"Then you must have some pretty cute detective work going on here,"
remarked a young man who had not before spoken.

"No, no--nothing to brag of. But the brutes are so clumsy--that is the
word, clumsy. They don't know how to cover up their tracks."

"The smart ones don't make tracks," interposed a rough voice near them,
and a large, red-haired, slightly hump-backed man, who, from the looks
of those about, was evidently a stranger in the place, shuffled forward
from the pillar against which he had been leaning, and took up the
thread of conversation.

"I tell you," he continued, in a gruff tone somewhat out of keeping with
the studied abstraction of his keen, gray eye, "that half the criminals
are caught because they do make tracks and then resort to such
extraordinary means to cover them up. The true secret of success in this
line lies in striking your blow with a weapon picked up on the spot, and
in choosing for the scene of your tragedy a thoroughfare where, in the