suffering from a shock that
was greater than we realized. He is a physician and has had many such
instances in his own practice. Why, he was very much attached to Mr.
Hasbrouck! They were the best of friends, and though he insists that he
killed him, he cannot give any reason for the deed."

At these words the doctor's face grew stern, and he spoke like an
automaton repeating some fearful lesson:

"I killed him. I went to his room and deliberately shot him. I had
nothing against him, and my remorse is extreme. Arrest me and let me
pay the penalty of my crime. It is the only way in which I can obtain
peace."

Shocked beyond all power of self-control by this repetition of what she
evidently considered the unhappy ravings of a madman, she let go his arm
and turned upon me in frenzy.

"Convince him!" she cried. "Convince him by your questions that he never
could have done this fearful thing."

I was labouring under great excitement myself, for as a private agent
with no official authority such as he evidently attributed to me in the
blindness of his passion, I felt the incongruity of my position in the
face of a matter of such tragic consequence. Besides, I agreed with her
that he was in a distempered state of mind, and I hardly knew how
to deal with one so fixed in his hallucination and with so much
intelligence to support it. But the emergency was great, for he was
holding out his wrists in the evident expectation of my taking him into
instant custody; and the sight was killing his wife, who had sunk on the
floor between us, in terror and anguish.

"You say you killed Mr. Hasbrouck," I began. "Where did you get your
pistol, and what did you do with it after you left his house?"

"My husband had no pistol; never had any pistol," put in Mrs. Zabriskie,
with vehement assertion. "If I had seen him with such a weapon--"

"I threw it away. When I left the house, I cast it as far from me as
possible, for I was frightened at what I had done, horribly frightened."

"No pistol was ever found," I answered with a smile, forgetting for the
moment that he could not see. "If such an instrument had been found in
the street after a murder of such consequence, it certainly would have
been brought to the police."

"You forget that a good pistol is valuable property," he went on
stolidly. "Someone came along before the general alarm was given; and
seeing such a treasure lying on the sidewalk, picked it up and carried
it off. Not