to present yourself to the law officers voluntarily, the
whole theory of the police, from this one standpoint, falls to the
ground utterly worthless."

"Very well argued. Do you then advise me to surrender myself? But
wait! We will take that up later. Let me hear your views on the next
fact against me. I refer to the statement that poison was found in the
body."

"Several interesting points occur to me," replied Mr. Dudley, speaking
slowly. "Let me read the newspaper account again." He took up the
paper, and after a minute read aloud: "'The result of the autopsy,
etc., etc., shows conclusively that the girl was poisoned. The doctors
claim to have discovered morphine enough to kill three men.' That is
upon the face of it a premature statement. The woman died on Sunday
morning. The autopsy was held yesterday. I believe it will require a
chemical analysis before it can be asserted that morphine is present.
Am I not correct?" The Doctor made one of his non-committal replies.

"Let us suppose that at the trial, expert chemists swear that they
found morphine in poisonous quantities."

"Even then, the burden of proof would be upon the prosecution. They
must prove not merely that morphine was present in quantities
sufficient to cause death, but that in this case it did actually kill.
That is, they must show that Mabel Sloane died from poison, and not
from diphtheria. That will be their great difficulty. We can have
celebrated experts, as many as you can afford, and even though poison
did produce the death, we can create such a doubt from the
contradictions of the experts, that the jury would give you the
verdict."

"Very satisfactorily reasoned. I am encouraged. Now then, the next
point. The drives with the rich unknown."

"Oh! That is a newspaper's argument, and would have no place in a
court of law, unless----"

"Yes! Unless----?"

"Unless the prosecution tried to prove that the motive for the crime
was to rid yourself of your _fiancee_ in order to marry a richer
woman. Of course we should fight against the admission of any such
evidence as tending to prejudice the jury against you, and untenable
because the proof would only be presumptive."

"Presumptive. That is as to my desire to marry the woman with whom I
am said to have been out driving. Now then, suppose that it could be
shown that, since the death of Mabel Sloane, and prior to the trial, I
had actually married this rich woman?"

"I should say that such a