it. Is Smith also your lawyer?
He's a bird. Thanks, but I never go calling after midnight. Please
accept my regrets.

"HOPKINS."

I kept copies of the answers also, for I didn't know how far Smith and
his bureau might carry this fanatic, for they seemed to have touched him
where he was as tender as a wet spot on a paper napkin.

This came back in half an hour:

"Your course is incomprehensible to me. You seem to take this matter
as a joke. It may be necessary for me to let the law take its course
to achieve my purpose. I do not fear your threats. Please call and
talk it over. TESCHERON."

Of course, he didn't fear the exposure, for he knew what a smart lot of
detectives he had. But he knew, according to my analysis of the workings
of his superheated brain, that the few times he had been real mad in his
life and had trusted to his impulses, he had gone deep into the mire of
expense or ridicule. Some of the skeletons of these experiences were
beginning to rattle in opposition to the oft-repeated easy solution of
Smith, who had been stoking that inflamed head since 2 P. M. with the
kind of gore which kept it ablaze. Tescheron was certainly getting a
fine run for his money, and he had seemed to lose sight of the fact that
Smith was filling the part of bookmaker and taking his pile.

I replied:

"This is no joke. Wait until you get Smith's bill. Hope you have a
good picture of yourself for the papers?--it saves the disgrace of a
sketch from life. They are bound to make your wife and daughter look
well. I have just laid aside a half dozen of our portraits for
publication. Seems as if we would have pleasant weather for the
coroner's party to-morrow. Don't miss it--or they'll drag you there
in the hurry-up wagon.

"HOPKINS."

I guessed he could see I wasn't rattled and was sticking close to my
method of play. He could see that a thirty-year-old was no ordinary lad
of the fish-market, to get excited when the boss turned red from
boiling. This renewed activity on his part, however, threw me clear off
the track that was to fetch me up at 6 A. M. with the whole business
settled.

The murderer, who had comfortably thrown his burdens on me, in the
meantime, snored again with a regularity and smoothness which proved he
had bani