les (and even of that I now
humbly repent), my life has been entirely fit for publication. I never
feared the light," cried the little man; "and now--now----!"

"Cheer up, old boy," said Michael. "I assure you we should count this
little contretemps a trifle at the office; it's the sort of thing that
may occur to any one; and if you're perfectly sure you had no hand in
it----"

"What language am I to find----" began Pitman.

"O, I'll do that part of it," interrupted Michael, "you have no
experience. But the point is this: If--or rather since--you know nothing
of the crime, since the--the party in the closet--is neither your
father, nor your brother, nor your creditor, nor your mother-in-law, nor
what they call an injured husband----"

"O, my dear sir!" interjected Pitman, horrified.

"Since, in short," continued the lawyer, "you had no possible interest
in the crime, we have a perfectly free field before us and a safe game
to play. Indeed the problem is really entertaining; it is one I have
long contemplated in the light of an A. B. case; here it is at last
under my hand in specie; and I mean to pull you through. Do you hear
that?--I mean to pull you through. Let me see: it's a long time since I
have had what I call a genuine holiday; I'll send an excuse to-morrow to
the office. We had best be lively," he added significantly; "for we must
not spoil the market for the other man."

"What do you mean?" inquired Pitman. "What other man? The inspector of
police?"

"Damn the inspector of police!" remarked his companion. "If you won't
take the short cut and bury this in your back garden, we must find some
one who will bury it in his. We must place the affair, in short, in the
hands of some one with fewer scruples and more resources."

"A private detective, perhaps?" suggested Pitman.

"There are times when you fill me with pity," observed the lawyer. "By
the way, Pitman," he added in another key, "I have always regretted that
you have no piano in this den of yours. Even if you don't play yourself,
your friends might like to entertain themselves with a little music
while you were mudding."

"I shall get one at once if you like," said Pitman nervously, anxious to
please. "I play the fiddle a little as it is."

"I know you do," said Michael; "but what's the fiddle--above all as you
play it? What you want is polyphonic music. And I'll tell you what it
is--since it's too late for you to buy a piano I'll give you mine."