nter of his head just
above his forehead came up beside Hilda and was sworn.

"You found the body?"

"Yes," said Wielert. He was blinking stupidly and his throat was
expanding and contracting with fright.

"Tell us all you saw and heard and did."

"I take him the brandy in. And he sit and talk to himself. And he ask
for paper and ink. And then he write and look round like crazy. And
he make luny talk I don't understand. And he speak what he write--"

Captain Hanlon was red and was looking at Wielert in blank amazement.

"What did he write?" asked the magistrate.

"A letter," answered Wielert. "He put it in a envelope with a stamp on
it and he write on the back and make it all ready. And then I watch
him, and he take out a knife and feel it and speak with it. And I go
in and ask him for money."

"Your Honor, this witness told us nothing of that before," interrupted
Hanlon. "I understood that the knife--"

"Did you question him?" asked the magistrate.

"No," replied the captain humbly. And Casey and O'Rourke shook their
big, hard-looking heads to indicate that they had not questioned him.

"I am curious to know what you HAVE done in this case," said the
magistrate sternly. "It is a serious matter to take a young girl like
this into custody. You police seem unable to learn that you are not
the rulers, but the servants of the people."

"Your Honor--" began Hanlon.

"Silence!" interrupted the magistrate, rapping on the desk with his
gavel. "Proceed, Wielert. What kind of knife was it?"

"The knife in his throat afterward," answered Wielert. "And I hear a
sound like steam out a pipe--and I go in and see a lady at the street
door. She peep through the crack and her face all yellow and her eye
big. And she go away."

Hilda was looking at him calmly. She was the only person in the room
who was not intensely agitated. All eyes were upon her. There was
absolute silence.

"Is that lady here?" asked the magistrate. His voice seemed loud and
strained.

"Yes," said Wielert. "I see her."

Otto instinctively put his arm about Hilda. Her father was like a leaf
in the wind.

Wielert looked at Hilda earnestly, then let his glance wander over the
still courtroom. He was most deliberate. At last he said, "I see her
again."

"Point her out," said the magistrate--it was evidently with an effort
that he broke that straining silence.

"That lady there." Wielert pointed at a woman sitting jus