tion of Manderson's voice; he
had a talent for acting; he knew the ways of the establishment
intimately. I grant you that the idea was brilliantly carried out; but
everything favored it. As for the essential idea, I do not place it, as
regards ingenuity, in the same class with, for example, the idea of
utilizing the force of recoil in a discharged firearm to actuate the
mechanism of ejecting and reloading. I do, however, admit, as I did at
the outset, that in respect of details the case had unusual features. It
developed a high degree of complexity."

"Did it really strike you in that way?" inquired Trent with desperate
sarcasm.

"The affair became complicated," proceeded Mr. Cupples quite unmoved,
"because after Marlowe's suspicions were awakened a second subtle mind
came in to interfere with the plans of the first. That sort of duel
often happens in business and politics, but less frequently, I imagine,
in the world of crime. One disturbing reflection was left on my mind by
what we learned to-day. If Marlowe had suspected nothing and walked into
the trap, he would almost certainly have been hanged. Now how often may
not a plan to throw the guilt of murder on an innocent person have been
practised successfully? There are, I imagine, numbers of cases in which
the accused, being found guilty on circumstantial evidence, have died
protesting their innocence. I shall never approve again of a
death-sentence imposed in a case decided upon such evidence."

"I never have done so, for my part," said Trent. "To hang in such cases
seems to me flying in the face of the perfectly obvious and sound
principle expressed in the saying that 'you never can tell.' I agree
with the American jurist who lays it down that we should not hang a
yellow dog for stealing jam on circumstantial evidence, not even if he
has jam all over his nose. As for attempts being made by malevolent
persons to fix crimes upon innocent men, of course it is constantly
happening."

Mr. Cupples mused a few moments. "We know," he said, "from the things
Mabel and Mr. Bunner told you what may be termed the spiritual truth
underlying this matter: the insane depth of jealous hatred which
Manderson concealed. We can understand that he was capable of such a
scheme. But as a rule it is in the task of penetrating to the spiritual
truth that the administration of justice breaks down. Sometimes that
truth is deliberately concealed, as in Manderson's case. Sometimes, I
think