y
shamed hers, and she was just stopping to pull her gloves from her
coat-pocket when Correy's voice rang out and everything else was
forgotten.

"Corroborative, only corroborative, sir? I am quite aware of that. But
what I have now to add may give it weight. The stringing of a bow is no
easy task for an amateur; nor is the discharge of an arrow, under such
dangerous circumstances as marked the delivery of the one we are
discussing, one which would be lightly attempted by a person altogether
ignorant of archery. However strong the evidence might be against a man
who was not an utter fool, I would never have presumed to lay it out
before you if I had not verified the fact that the director, whatever his
life now, was once greatly addicted to sports, and thoroughly acquainted
with the management of a bow and arrow. It has taken time. Many
cablegrams were necessary, but I have at last received this copy of a
report made sixteen years ago by a club in Lucerne, Switzerland, in
which mention is made of a prize given to one Carleton Roberts, an
American, for twelve piercings of the bull's-eye in as many shots, in
an archery-contest which included all nationalities.

"Nor is that all. In a study of himself,--his home, his life, his secret
interests,--we come upon things which call for closer inspection. For
instance, not a day has passed since that poor child has been in the
morgue that he has not been one on the line to see her. He dreams of her,
he says; he cannot get her face out of his mind--you notice that he has
been growing gray.

"But I will stop here. I do not wonder that you look upon all this as the
ravings of a man on the verge of senility. If I were in your place, I
should undoubtedly do the same. But ungracious as the task has proved, I
owed it to myself to rid my mind of its secret burden. It is for you to
say whether, all things considered, I am to drop the matter here or
proceed blindly in search of the motive lying back of every premeditated
crime. I can imagine none in this case, as I have frankly stated, save
the very weak and improbable one already advanced by young Sweetwater in
connection with another party upon whom he had fixed his eye--that of the
irresistible desire of an expert to test his skill with a bow which comes
unexpectedly into his hands."

"That wouldn't apply to Roberts--not in the least," affirmed the Chief
with the emphasis of strong conviction. "Even if we should allow
ourselves to