in West
Sedgwick that night, and so is not the murderer."

"But why conceal so simple a matter? Why refuse to tell of the episode?"
asked Mr. Randolph.

"Because," and now Fleming Stone looked at Hall with accusation in his
glance--"because Mr. Hall is very anxious that his fiancee shall not
know of his attentions to the young lady in Brooklyn."

"O-ho!" said Mr. Goodrich, with sudden enlightenment. "I see it all now.
Is it the truth, Mr. Hall? Did you go to Brooklyn and back that night,
as Mr. Stone has described?"

Gregory Hall fidgeted in an embarrassed way. But, unable to escape the
piercing gaze of Stone's eyes, he admitted grudgingly that the detective
had told the truth, adding, "But it's wizardry, that's what it is! How
could he know?"

"I had reason for suspicion," said Stone; "and when I found you were
deaf in your right ear, and that you had in your pocket a letter
addressed in a feminine hand, and postmarked `Brooklyn,' I was sure."

"It's all true," said Hall slowly. "You have the facts all right. But,
unless you have had me shadowed, will you tell me how you knew it all?"

And then Fleming Stone told of his observations and deductions when we
noticed the muddied shoes at the Metropolis Hotel that morning.

"But," he said, as he concluded, "when I hastily adjudged the young
lady to be deaf in the left ear, I see now I was mistaken. As soon as
I realized Mr. Hall himself is deaf in the right ear, especially so in
damp or wet weather, I saw that it fitted the case as well as if the
lady had been deaf in her left ear. Then a note in his pocket from a
lady in Brooklyn made me quite sure I was right."

"But, Mr. Stone," said Lawyer Randolph, "it is very astonishing that you
should make those deductions from those shoes, and then come out here
and meet the owner of the shoes."

"It seems more remarkable than it really is, Mr. Randolph," was the
response; "for I am continually observing whatever comes to my notice.
Hundreds of my deductions are never verified, or even thought of again;
so it is not so strange that now and then one should prove of use in my
work."

"Well," said the district attorney, "it seems wonderful to me. But now
that Mr. Hall has proved his alibi, or, rather, Mr. Stone has proved it
for him, we must begin anew our search for the real criminal."

"One moment," said Gregory Hall. "As you know, gentlemen, I endeavored
to keep this little matter of my going to Brooklyn a secret. As