otting paper. Then at last, when I insisted
upon going, he looked out to see whether there was still a light on the
stairs, and led me down to the door himself, standing there for some
time looking after me.

"I was slightly alarmed as well as angry at his actions. I believe
that he could not have been quite in his right mind, that the strain of
nervousness which was apparent in his nature had really made him ill.
For I remember several peculiar incidents of my visit to him. One
of these was that he almost insisted upon my taking away with me,
ostensibly to take care of them, several valuable pieces of jewelry
which he possessed. He seemed almost offended when I refused to do
anything of the kind. Then, as I parted from him at the door, not in a
very good humour I will acknowledge, he said to me: 'You will think of
me very often in the future--more often than you would believe now!'

"This is all the truth, and nothing but the truth, about my visit to
John Siders on the evening of September 23rd. As it had been his wish
I said nothing to the ladies at home, or to any one else about the
occurrence. And as I have told you, I destroyed his letter asking me to
come to him.

"The following day about noon, the Commissioner of Police from G----
called at my office in the factory, and informed me bluntly that John
Siders had been found shot dead in his lodgings that morning. I was
naturally shocked, as one would be at such news, in spite of the fact
that I had parted from the man in anger, and that I had no reason to
be particularly fond of him. What shocked me most of all was the sudden
thought that John had taken his own life. It was a perfectly natural
thought when I considered his nervousness, and his peculiar actions of
the evening before. I believe I exclaimed, 'It was a suicide!' almost
without realising that I was doing so. The commissioner looked at me
sharply and said that suicide was out of the question, that it was an
evident case of murder. He questioned me as to Siders' affairs, of which
I told only what every one here in the village knew. I did not consider
it incumbent upon me to disclose to the police the disgrace of the man's
early life. I had been obliged to hurt him cruelly enough because of
that, and I saw no necessity for blackening his name, now that he was
dead. Also, as according to what the commissioner said, it was a case
of murder for robbery, I did not wish to go into any details of our
connectio