ointed with his foot in the direction where Offitt lay. The
policeman lifted the cloth, and dropped it again with a horror which
his professional phlegm could not wholly disguise.

"Well, of all the owdacious villains ever I struck ---- Who do you
think it is?" he asked, turning to his associates.

"Who?"

"The witness this afternoon,--Offitt. Well, my man," he said, turning
to Sam, "you wanted to make a sure thing of it, I see. If you couldn't
be hung for one, you would for the other."

"Sam!" said Saul Matchin who, pale and trembling, had been a silent
spectator of the scene so far, "for heaven's sake, tell us what all
this means."

"Mind now," said the officer, "whatever you say will be reported."

"Very well, I've got nothing to hide," said Sam. "I'll tell you and
Mother Matchin" (who had just come in and was staring about her with
consternation, questioning Maud in dumb show) "the whole story. I owe
that to you for you've always used me well. It's a mighty short one.
That fellow Offitt robbed and tried to murder Captain Farnham last
night, and then swore it onto me. I got away from the officers
to-night, and come round here and found him 'saulting Mattie, and I
twisted his neck for him. If it's a hanging matter to kill snakes, I'll
have to stand it--that's all."

"Now, who do you think is going to believe that?" said the captain of
the squad.

Maud rose and walked up to where Sam was standing and said, "I know
every word he has said is true. That man was the burglar at Captain
Farnham's. He told me so himself to-night. He said he had the money in
his pocket and wanted to make me go with him."

She spoke firmly and resolutely, but she could not bring herself to say
anything of previous passages between them; and when she opened her
lips to speak of the ladder, the woman was too strong within her, and
she closed them again. "I'll never tell that unless they go to hang
Sam, and then I won't tell anybody but the Governor," she swore to
herself.

"It's easy to see about that story," said the officer still
incredulous.

They searched the clothing of Offitt, and the face of the officer, as
one package of money after another was brought to light, was a singular
study. The pleasure he felt in the recovery of the stolen goods was
hardly equal to his professional chagrin at having caught the wrong
man. He stood for a moment silent, after tying up all the packages in
one.

"It's no use dodging," he said at las