ng the heavens with a field-glass that night--perhaps
looking for comets."

He rang his bell and gave a message to an usher who appeared. "I will
not ask you to wait long," he said, and turned the conversation upon
the weather and social prospects for the season. In a few minutes the
door opened, and Sleeny was brought into the room by an officer.

"Was this the man you saw, Mrs. Belding?" asked Dalton.

"Not the slightest resemblance. This one is much taller, and entirely
different in color."

"That will do"; and Sleeny and the officer went out.

"Now may I ask you to do a very disagreeable thing? To go with me to
the Morgue and see the remains of what I am now sure is the real
criminal?" Dalton asked.

"Oh, mercy! I would rather not. Is it necessary?"

"Not positively necessary, but it will enable me to dismiss the
burglary case absolutely against young Sleeny."

"Very well. I'll go. I am so glad," she said to herself, "that I did
not bring Alice."

They went in her carriage to the Morgue. Dalton said, "I want to make
it as easy as I can for you. Please wait a moment in your carriage." He
went in and arranged that the face of Offitt, which was horrible,
should be turned away as much as possible; the head, and shoulders and
back being left exposed, and the hat placed on the head. He then
brought Mrs. Belding in.

"That is the man," she said, promptly, "or at least some one exactly
like him."

"Thank you," he said, reconducting her to her carriage. "The first
charge against Sleeny will be dismissed, though of course he must be
held for this homicide."

A few weeks later Sleeny was tried for the killing of Offitt, on which
occasion most of the facts of this history were given in evidence. Mrs.
Belding had at last to tell what she knew in open court, and she had an
evil quarter of an hour in the hands of Mr. Dalton, who seemed always
on the point of asking some question which would bring her opera-glass
into the newspapers; but he never proceeded to that extremity, and she
came away with a better opinion of the profession than she had ever
before entertained. "I suppose leading germans humanizes even a lawyer
somewhat," she observed, philosophically.

Maud Matchin was, however, the most important witness for the defence.
She went upon the stand troubled with no abstract principles in regard
to the administration of justice. She wanted Sam Sleeny to be set free,
and she testified with an eye single to th