Then, with a little smile, "Quite luckily,
I was beaten."

"I agree with you there. But to return to the original statement. Am
I right, or am I wrong, when I say that you were striving very hard,
for a record that would aid you in the election?"

"Every official tries to make the best possible record. Especially at
election time."

"No matter whom it injures."

"I didn't say that."

"But I did--and I repeat it. No matter whom it injures! Now, to be
plain and frank and brutal with you to-night as you were with me in the
courtroom, Mr. Worthington, I have pretty convincing evidence that you
knew I was innocent. Further, that you knew it almost at the beginning
of the trial. But that in spite of this knowledge, you continued to
persecute me--notice, I don't say prosecute--to persecute me in a hope
of gaining a conviction, simply that you might go before the voters and
point to me in prison as a recommendation of your efficiency as a
district attorney."

"Oh!" Worthington threw away his cigarette with an angry gesture, and
came forward. "You fellows are all the same. You're always squealing
about your innocence. I never saw a man yet who wasn't innocent in one
way or another. Even when they confess, they've got some kind of an
alibi for their act. They didn't know the gun was loaded, or the other
fellow hit them first or--"

"In my case I have no alibis. And this isn't simply my own statement.
I have sufficient witnesses."

"Then why didn't you produce them at the trial?"

"I couldn't. You had them."

"I?"

"Yes. I don't mind giving you the names. One of them was Doctor
Horton. Another was Doctor Mayer. A third was Doctor Brensteam, all
physicians of the highest reputation. I would like, Mr. Worthington,
to know why you did not make use of them in the trial instead of the
expert Hamon, and that other one, Jaggerston, who, as every one knows,
are professional expert witnesses, ready at all times to testify upon
anything from handwriting to the velocity of a rifle bullet, providing
they are sufficiently paid."

"Why? Simply because I figured they would make the best witnesses."

"It couldn't have been," and Houston's voice was more coldly caustic
than ever, "that it was because they would be willing to perjure
themselves, while the real doctors wouldn't?"

"Of course not! This whole thing is silly. Besides, I'm out of it
entirely. I'm--"

"Mr. Worthington," and Houston's tone chan