repute for intellect and learning,--I
might perhaps have ventured to startle the solicitor of I--with my
revelations. But the sole proof that all which the solicitor urged me
to confide was not a monstrous fiction or an insane delusion had
disappeared; and its disappearance was a part of the terrible mystery
that enveloped the whole. I answered therefore, as composedly as I
could, that "I could have no serious grudge against Sir Philip, whom I
had never seen before that evening; that the words which applied to
my supposed grudge were lightly said by Sir Philip, in reference to a
physiological dispute on matters connected with mesmerical phenomena;
that the deceased had declared his casket, which he had shown me at the
mayor's house, contained drugs of great potency in medicine; that I had
asked permission to test those drugs myself; and that when I said he
would repent of his refusal, I merely meant that he would repent of
his reliance on drugs not warranted by the experiments of professional
science."

My replies seemed to satisfy the lawyer so far, but "how could I account
for the casket and the knife being found in my room?"

"In no way but this; the window of my study is a door-window opening on
the lane, from which any one might enter the room. I was in the habit,
not only of going out myself that way, but of admitting through that
door any more familiar private acquaintance."

"Whom, for instance?"

I hesitated a moment, and then said, with a significance I could not
forbear, "Mr. Margrave! He would know the locale perfectly; he would
know that the door was rarely bolted from within during the daytime:
he could enter at all hours; he could place, or instruct any one to
deposit, the knife and casket in my bureau, which he knew I never kept
locked; it contained no secrets, no private correspondence,--chiefly
surgical implements, or such things as I might want for professional
experiments."

"Mr. Margrave! But you cannot suspect him--a lively, charming young man,
against whose character not a whisper was ever heard--of connivance with
such a charge against you,--a connivance that would implicate him in the
murder itself; for if you are accused wrongfully, he who accuses you is
either the criminal or the criminal's accomplice, his instigator or his
tool."

"Mr. Stanton," I said firmly, after a moment's pause, "I do suspect
Mr. Margrave of a hand in this crime. Sir Philip, on seeing him at the
mayor's house, ex