He glanced at the larger one, which was medium sized
and with a pearl handle, and unhesitatingly declared that he himself had
given it to Dr. Cronin about a year before. "I ought to know it," said
the witness, emphatically, "for I carried it myself for nearly two
years."

The smaller knife, a little bone handled affair, of rather a peculiar
shape, was also identified by Mr. Conklin, as one he had found on the
street about nine months before. He had carried it home and placed it on
the mantle, where Dr. Cronin had found it and appropriated it to his own
uses. Both of these knives the physician had been in the habit of
carrying in the right-hand pocket of his vest.

The cross-examination by Mr. Forrest was extremely light, the witness
being simply asked whether the knives were not of a very ordinary
pattern. The witness admitted that he would not swear they were the
identical knives that Dr. Cronin had carried, because there were many
like them in the market, but he was positive that they resembled them as
closely as they could do even to the number of the blades. On
re-examination by the State's Attorney, Conklin said that no such knives
were found at his house after Dr. Cronin had disappeared. Prior to this,
at the morning session of court, Barnard F. Carberry, a bright looking
young fellow, gave evidence concerning a visit he had made to Matt
Danahy's saloon on the evening of May 4th, which appeared to put an end
to the last vestige of Martin Burke's alibi. Lawyer Forrest was then
given another inning, and introduced a long string of witnesses to
counteract the evidence which the State had submitted on rebuttal.

[Illustration: THE KNIVES.]

Owing to the fact that the discovery of the knives had taken the defense
somewhat by surprise, it was permitted to sandwich its rebuttal
testimony in between the speeches. On December 2d August Loewenstein, a
brother of Jacob Loewenstein, Coughlin's former partner in the detective
business, testified that he had sold a pair of pants to Coughlin on the
27th of April, one week before the disappearance of Dr. Cronin. The
garment had to be altered, and while Coughlin was waiting for them, he
took out of the pockets of the old ones some keys and two knives which
he laid upon a chair. Witness particularly recollected these knives
because he had asked Coughlin to give him one of them, and he was
positive that the two knives which had been identified by Mr. Conklin
were the same h