e any further questions
you wish to ask about my personal affairs, will you please leave them
unasked? And if there are other things over which you wish to rave,
don't let me detain you here."

He fastened his best majestic gaze on Hobart Hitchin, yet Hitchin only
laughed his low, sinister laugh.

"You're a curious customer, Fry," he said, leaning back comfortably. "I
had hoped before this that your nerve would have broken and--however,
listen to this little theory of mine. The boy knew something, I can't
say what, about _you_, something which had to be suppressed at any cost.
You brought him here, I can't say on what pretext, but the boy fancied
that all was well. Perhaps you promised him money; I'm inclined to
believe that, for the girl came, evidently by appointment, ready to
travel. Doesn't take much deduction to guess that they were going to be
married with the money you gave him, does it? She came and she saw what
happened, and then----"

"Well, what had happened?" Anthony almost shouted.

"That's what I'm waiting for you to tell me, so that I can give you a
helping hand," said the crime student. "And while I'm waiting, and while
you're still plainly convinced that I know nothing at all, let me ask
you one question again: did the Prentiss boy leave here with the clothes
he wore when he entered?"

"Yes!" Anthony said wearily.

With a sudden startling slap, the fat brief-case was placed upon the
table and its straps undone. And there was another slap and Hobart
Hitchin cried:

"Then explain these, Fry! Explain _these_!"

There can be no denying that Anthony's mouth opened and that his eyes
grew rounder. Before him, spread upon the table, lay David's trousers!

"Well, those--those----" he stammered. "Where did you get them?"

"From the dumbwaiter, where you placed them so very quietly, so very
cautiously, so very early this morning!" said Hobart Hitchin, with his
devilish laugh. "You even went so far as to run the thing down, so that
it would be emptied at once, didn't you? But you _didn't_ happen to look
down! You didn't see me take the whole suit from the dumbwaiter as it
passed my door."

He leaned back triumphantly and puffed his pipe and for a little there
was a thick tangible silence in Anthony's living-room.

More than once, like most of us, Johnson Boller had wondered just what
he would do if accused of a murder of which he was entirely innocent. In
a fond and confident way he had pictured hims