d her face in her handkerchief. She was sobbing
convulsively. Miss Burden also was crying, but silently. The coroner and
the police officials had hung breathlessly on each word uttered by
Beard. Everything he said had carried conviction. His manner was
straightforward and he had the bearing of a man deeply moved but
striving furiously to retain his self-control.

"What occurred after that, Lieutenant Britz has guessed pretty
accurately," Beard continued in a voice of diminishing strength. "I sent
for Mr. Whitmore's personal physician. He dressed the wound and told Mr.
Whitmore he could not live more than forty-eight hours. Mr. Whitmore had
remained conscious all the time, and when he learned there was no hope
for him, he showed the most remarkable self-possession I have ever seen
a human being display.

"'We must hide the scandal!' he said. 'The doctor will remain with me. I
want all you folks to go home and act as if nothing had occurred.
To-night, I want you to go to the opera--all of you.'

"Mrs. Collins and Ward protested but Mr. Whitmore insisted that he be
obeyed to the letter. And he sent me home with the Collinses and Mr.
Ward to see that his orders were carried out.

"Oh, it was a delightful opera party that night!" A wan smile appeared
on Beard's face at the recollection of it. "While we were gone Mr.
Whitmore consulted with Mr. Luckstone. I have no personal knowledge of
what transpired between them, but I presume that Mr. Luckstone outlined
the plan which was subsequently followed and by which it was meant to
establish an alibi for everyone present at the shooting.

"At any rate, Mr. Whitmore appeared in our box at the opera toward the
end of the performance. He must have been suffering terribly, but he hid
his sufferings from us. While I didn't know it then, I know now that he
appeared at the opera in order to make it seem that he must have been
shot sometime after he parted from us.

"I believe the doctor remained with him all night. In anticipation of
Mr. Whitmore's homecoming I had sent the servant away. We had deemed it
best that no one, except Mrs. Collins and Ward, should see him when he
arrived. It was at Mr. Whitmore's request that I spent the night at Mr.
Ward's house and the following morning Mr. Luckstone telephoned
instructions to us.

"The fact that Mr. Whitmore took a pistol to the office with him leaves
no doubt that he meant to make it appear he had committed suicide. He
was a man of