ion brought out from the prisoner, who seemed to
answer honestly and intelligently, that he was sure it was the Secretary
of State, but his voice seemed changed by a cold. He felt positive about
the carriage, for he recognized the team, a gray and a black. He heard
no voices outside. When chloroform was produced, he said that was the
same smell, but there was something more that was considerably tarter.
He persisted in the same story, and repeated it over and over without
variation. It looked dubious for his excellency the Secretary of State.

The next witness was the night sentry on the second floor. He was badly
frightened, was a little confused, but told a straight story. His
deposition was as follows:

"Yes, sah, my name is Frank Steven. I have alluz been a colored man. I
was bahn in Ohio when I was twelve years old." [At this juncture a glass
of ice water restored the equilibrium of the witness.] "I moved to Ohio
when I was twelve years old. I was born in Mississipy. I'm forty-two
now, I think. It might have been half after one or two when I heard a
step a-coming up the stairs. I went to the landing and saw Mr. Secretary
of State a-coming up with his hat on; and how he got there the Lawd only
knows. He told me to show him to Mr. President's room. He spoke mighty
sharp, and I thought it was all right, so I led the way. When I was
a-going to knock at Mr. President's door, he told me to stop and have a
cigar first. He never offered me one before, and I was mighty surprised.
There was a strange smell, like an apothecary store and I don't know
anything more about it. That is all I know, sir."

Subsequent examination brought out no new fact, except that the prisoner
remembered that the Secretary coughed behind a handkerchief as he spoke,
and that one hand was concealed under his gray overcoat; this was pulled
over his ears. The thing that struck him most was that the Secretary
kept his hat on during the whole interview. The watchman had never known
him to keep his hat on in the house before. Like the first witness, he
recognized the odor of chloroform, and thought there was something else
besides. He was surprised to find himself gagged and bound when he came
to.

As the two witnesses corroborated each other, and as neither had any
communication with the other, they were substantially believed. The fact
that this testimony was indisputably damaging to the Secretary of State,
and the further circumstantial evidence of