going to his club?"

"I thought it probable; yes."

"Don't you think it probable that he went to meet this woman?"

"I don't know."

"You see how important the question is. You say your son left the
house at ten o'clock that night, and that he was not seen until the
following morning, when he was discovered by the policeman, murdered.
According to the doctor's evidence he had been dead some little time
before that. Thus there are several hours to account for. Have you no
idea where he was during those hours?"

"None at all beside what I have told you."

This part of the examination continued for some time; though beyond
what I have written nothing of importance was elicited. But the
evidence given created an impression which could not be gainsaid.

Paul had made it abundantly evident that the murdered man was not
without enemies, as had been so strongly insisted, and he had also
raised doubts concerning what he had been doing between the hours when
Wilson left his father's house and the time of the murder.

In this cross-examination, however, Paul was much handicapped. He
dared not refer to the conversation which had taken place between
himself and Ned Wilson during their quarrel, for fear of in any way
bringing Mary's name into evidence. Up to the present, no one thought
of connecting her with the matter in any definite way, and Paul was
determined that, whatever took place, this must be avoided. Neither
could he remove the difficulty of the knife without connecting it with
his mother. As we have said, she was in his office on the morning of
the day of his quarrel with Wilson, and was, as far as he could see,
the only one who could have obtained possession of it. Still, he had
made the most of his opportunities, and although on this murderous
weapon the issues of the trial seemed largely to rest, he made more
than one juryman feel that he was not the kind of man to use it in such
a fashion and then leave it as evidence against himself.

During his cross-examination of the next witness, too, he further
destroyed the statement that Wilson was a man without enemies.

John Scott was one of the two men who had witnessed the quarrel between
himself and Wilson. Mr. Bakewell examined him very closely.

"You say," he said, "that you saw the prisoner and the murdered man
together?"

"Yes."

"You heard angry words pass between them, but you could not tell what
they were?"

"No."

"You saw the prison