yers and newspaper men use a weird type of logic. That is why
lawyers and newspaper men are as often right as wrong. Legal
logic, particularly, is something awful to contemplate."

"Legal logic," began McCall stiffly.

"Is precisely what I said," snapped the old man. "How can you
defend the logic of a judge who hands down a decision basing it on
the statement that a dining car is not a railroad car. There is
also the logic of a judge who handed down a decision basing it on
the hypothesis that an overcoat is real estate. That is legal
logic, Mr. McCall."

He paused and leaned forward earnestly.

"Truth, Mr. McCall, sometimes hangs on a very thin thread. Snap
the thread and--you have something other than truth.

"It is not a mere coincidence that Boyle was arrested, charged
with the killing of Miller and 'Fingy' Smith arrested, charged
with the killing of Schurman. It was a vital part of the entire
devilish pattern. Miller's death was a splendid imitation of
suicide. The revolver was placed in his hand before rigor mortis
set in leaving his fingerprints on the weapon.

"But the powder marks spoiled the picture of suicide for me. The
rest was merely a matter of routine. The same was true of the
Schurman affair. It was made to look to the casual observer like
suicide. If you did not accept the suicide theory, you were given
an alternative theory, the mode of entrance, the big meal, the
eggs, the nail file with positive fingerprints. The one thing that
spoiled that was the apple. Remember the apple?

"To satisfy me the murderer would have to be identified with the
apple. You see arresting 'Fingy' left the apple unaccounted for.
In the Miller case the murderer would have to be identified with a
rope that came from a farmyard that contained a boxwood hedge, a
sorrel horse, leghorn chickens, a collie dog and some other items.
He would also have to be identified with a hat factory."

"What do you mean by saying that these two men were arrested
charged with those murders?"

"I mean that it was a foregone conclusion that if the suicide
theory was exploded, these men would be charged with the crime?"

"A foregone conclusion in whose mind, Professor?"

"In the mind of the--murderer, Mr. McCall. You see, don't you, the
thin line of demarcation that lies between truth and falsehood?
When the difference between the two may mean the difference
between life and death it behooves me to be extremely careful. I
am not holding