I have shown him
to you. He seems to the world full of pride and power, but he knows that
justice is pursuing him, and that it will overtake him; he trembles, he
cowers, he flees, but the avenging footsteps are behind him, and the
sound of them rings in his frightened ears like a death-knell to his
soul. A wall rises across his way. He can flee no farther; he turns back
from the wall, raises his terror-stricken eyes, and there before him the
hand of fate is raised; its finger points at him, and a terrible voice
proclaims, 'Thou art the guilty man!"

The form of Jimmy Grayson swelled and towered, his hand was raised, the
long forefinger pointed directly at the four who stood in the dazzling
light, and the hall resounded with the tremendous echoes of his cry,
"Thou art the guilty man!"

As if lifted by a common impulse, the great audience rose with an
indescribable sound and faced about, following Jimmy Grayson's long,
accusing finger.

The man Williams threw his arm before his face, as if to protect
himself, and, with a terrible cry, "Yes, I did it!" fell in a faint on
the floor.

They were all on the train the next day, and Harley was reading from a
copy of the Grayville _Argus_ an account of Boyd's release and the
ovation that the people had given him.

"How did you trace the crime to Williams, Hobart?" asked Harley.

"I didn't trace it; it was Jimmy Grayson who brought it out by giving
him 'the third degree,'" replied Hobart, though there was a quiet tone
of satisfied pride in his voice. "You know that in New York, when they
expose a man at Police Headquarters to some such supreme test, they call
it giving him 'the third degree,' and that's what we did here. It seems
that Williams was in the saloon when Boyd and his partner quarrelled,
and he knew they had a lot of gold from the claim in their cabin. His
object was robbery. When he saw Wofford go on ahead, he followed him
quickly to the cabin, and killed him with the knife which lay on a
table. He expected to have time to get the gold before Boyd came, but
Boyd arrived so soon that he was barely able to slip out. Then Williams,
cunning and bold enough, came back as if he were a chance passer-by, and
had been called by Metzger and Thorpe. The other two were as innocent as
you or I.

"I could not make up my mind which of the three was guilty, and I
induced Jimmy Grayson to help me. It was right in line with his
speech--no harm done even if the test had failed