h of the lattice window had not caught, and there
was a slight chink open."

"You listened?"

"I could not help it; the scene was so strange. I heard the man with
the needle give a sigh of relief, and say, 'There, it's finished, and
a pretty job too, though I say it.' The other said, 'You have done
it beautifully, Dicky; it's a most interesting art. Now, just out of
curiosity, let _me_ tattoo _you_ a bit.' The other man laughed, and took
off his coat and shirt while the other dressed. 'There's scarce an inch
of me plain,' he said, 'but you can try your hand here,' pointing to
the lower part of his shoulder."

"What happened then?"

"They were both standing up now. I saw the prisoner take out something
sharp; his face was deadly pale, but the other could not see that. He
began touching him with the sharp object, and kept chaffing all the
time. This lasted, I should think, about five minutes, when the face of
the man who was being tattooed grew very red. Then he swayed a little,
backward and forward, then he stretched out his hands like a blind man,
and said, in a strange, thick voice, as if he was paralyzed, 'I'm very
cold; I can't shiver!' Then he fell down heavily, and his body made one
or two convulsive movements. That was all."

"What did the prisoner do?"

"He looked like death. He seized the bottle on the table, poured out
half a tumbler full of the stuff in it, drank it off, and then fell
into a chair, and laid his face between his hands. He appeared ill, or
alarmed, but the color came back into his cheek after a third or
fourth glass. Then I saw him go to the sleeping man and bend over him,
listening apparently to his breathing. Then he shook him several times,
as if trying to arouse him. But the man lay like a log. Finally, about
half-an-hour after what I have described, he opened the door and went
out. He soon returned, took up the sleeping man in his arms--his weight
seemed lighter than you would expect--and carried him out. From the roof
I saw him push the door in the palisade leading into the waste land,
a door which I myself had left open an hour before. It was not light
enough to see what he did there; but he soon returned alone and walked
away."

Such was the sum of Winter's evidence, which, if accepted, entirely
corroborated Barton's theory of the manner of the murder.

In cross-examination, Winter was asked the very natural question:

"How did you come to find yourself on the roof of the _Hit