were shaking. He
looked across the room at Murk.

"You go back to the hotel, Murk, and do as the captain says," he
ordered. "I'll come out of this all right in time. There are a lot of
things I cannot understand, but we'll solve the puzzle before we're
done."

"Ain't there anything I can do, sir?" Murk asked.

"Perhaps, later. I'll engage a detective and a lawyer, and they may
visit you at the hotel. I'll send you money by the lawyer. That's all
now, Murk."

Murk started to speak, then thought better of it and went from the room
slowly, anger flushing his face. Sidney Prale faced the captain of
detectives again.

"No matter what you think, I am innocent, and know that my innocence can
be proved," Prale said. "You are only doing your duty, of course. I want
Jim Farland to attend to things for me. He is an old friend of mine and
he is an honest man. Will you send for him?"

"He's waiting in the other room now," the captain said. "I'll let you
have a conference with him before I order you into a cell!"

CHAPTER IX

PUZZLED

Once more Prale was taken to the room in which he had first waited--the
room with the barred windows. This time the watching detective was
missing. When Jim Farland entered, he found Prale pacing back and forth
from one corner to the other. He was trying to think out his problem,
wondering what it all meant, why the witnesses had lied, and what would
be the outcome.

Farland rushed into the room, grasped Prale by the hand, led him across
from the door, and forced him into a chair. This done, the loyal
detective sat down facing him.

"Now let us have it from beginning to end!" Farland commanded. "I don't
want you to leave out a thing. I want to get to the bottom of this as
soon as possible."

Sidney Prale started at the beginning and talked rapidly, setting forth
all the facts, while Jim Farland sat back in his chair and watched him.
Now and then he frowned as if displeased at the recital.

"Well, there is something rotten," he said, when Prale had concluded his
statement. "I want you to know, Sid, that I believe you. You're not the
sort of man to kill a fellow like Rufus Shepley over a little spat. I
believe your story about this Murk, too. But why should everybody have
it in for you?"

"I haven't the slightest idea," Prale answered. "I must, indeed, have
some powerful enemies, but I cannot imagine who they are, and I know of
no reason why they should be against me. I'm simp