ripping steady, but the moon was shining."

"Do you know anything about the statement made by the prisoner?"

"Naw, sir."

"Fritz Helmetag."

As Isam withdrew, a middle-aged man took the stand, and in answer to
Mr. Dunbar's questions deposed: "That he was 'bridge tender' on the
railroad, and lived in a cottage not far from the water tank. On the
night of the twenty-sixth of October, he was sitting up with a sick
wife, and remembered that being feverish, she asked for some fresh
water. He went out to draw some from the well, and saw a man standing
not far from the bridge. The moon was behind a row of trees, but he
noticed the man was bareheaded, and when he called to know what he
wanted, he walked back toward the tank. Five minutes later the freight
train blew, and after it had crossed the bridge, he went back to his
cottage. The man was standing close to the safety signal, a white light
fastened to an iron stanchion at south end of the bridge, and seemed to
be reading something. Next day, when he (witness) went as usual to
examine the piers and under portions of the bridge, he had found the
pipe, now in Mr. Dunbar's possession. Tramps so often rested on the
bridge, and on the shelving bank of the river beneath it, that he
attached no importance to the circumstance; but felt confident the pipe
was left by the man whom he had seen, as it was not there the previous
afternoon; and he put it in a pigeon-hole of his desk, thinking the
owner might return to claim it. On the same day, he had left X--to
carry his wife to her mother, who lived in Pennsylvania, and was absent
for several weeks. Had never associated the pipe with the murder, but
after talking with Mr. Dunbar, who had found the half of an envelope
near the south end of the bridge, he had surrendered it to him. Did not
see the man's face distinctly. He looked tall and thin."

Here Mr. Dunbar held up a fragment of a long white em elope such as
usually contain legal documents, on which in large letters was written
"LAST WILL"--and underscored with red ink. Then he lifted a pipe, for
the inspection of the witness, who identified it as the one he had
found.

As he turned it slowly, the Court and the multitude saw only a
meerschaum with a large bowl representing a death's head, to which was
attached a short mouth-piece of twisted amber.

The golden gates of hope clashed suddenly, and over them flashed a
drawn sword, as Beryl looked at the familiar pipe, which her