real culprit. I should have preferred if my
informant might have been present here to state his own case, but he is
naturally reluctant to come forward. He has, however, described to me
what the nature of his evidence is; and I have his full authority for
making use of that information now.

"In the first place, he claims to have found the sack in which I was
enveloped, and which was left on the floor of the cupboard where I had
been imprisoned, after my release. This sack, he tells me, bears the
initials M.R., which correspond with the initials of the--"

"Midland Railway," dryly observed Grover amid some smiles, which roused
Mr Bickers considerably.

"No, sir--the initials M.R. correspond with the name of the master of
the house in which I was assaulted. They belong to Mark Railsford."

Railsford sat with his lips drawn contemptuously during this
announcement, which failed to make the impression on the meeting
generally which the speaker had expected. But he went on.

"In the second place, he found that the door, which closes by itself
when not propped open, had been held open by a twisted piece of paper,
which, on being unrolled, was found to be part of a newspaper, addressed
to Mark Railsford, Esquire, Grandcourt."

This made rather more impression than the last; except on Railsford, who
still faced his accuser scornfully.

"In the third place, a match-box was discovered on the ledge above the
door, placed there, to judge by its freedom from dust, very recently. I
ask you to notice three things in connection with this, gentlemen. A
match was struck while I was being dragged into the cupboard; a match
found on the floor that morning corresponds exactly with the matches in
the box placed up on the ledge; and finally, the height of that ledge
from the ground shows that it could only have been placed there by
someone over six feet high; and the only person of that height in the
house is the master, Mr Mark Railsford."

A dead silence followed this, and masters present wondered how Railsford
could still sit so indifferent and unmoved.

"Now, gentlemen," continued Mr Bickers, after having allowed a due
interval for this last shot to go home, "I should not be justified in
repeating these assertions unless I were also prepared to lay before you
the proofs on which those assertions are based. I therefore requested
my informant to let me have these. He has done this, and this
parcel,"--here he took up a bro