he circumstantial evidence which links you
personally to this crime, we have already spoken. It is very strong and
apparently unassailable. But truth is truth, and if you only felt free to
bare your whole soul to me as you now decline to do, I should not despair
of finding some weak link in the chain which seems so satisfactory to the
police and, I am forced to add, to the general public."

"Charles--"

I was very near unbosoming myself to him at that moment. But I caught
myself back in time. While Carmel lay ill and unconscious, I would not
clear my name at her expense by so much as a suggestion.

"Charles," I repeated, but in a different tone and with a different
purpose, "how do they account for the cordial that was drunk--the two
emptied glasses and the flask which were found in the adjacent closet?"

"It's one of the affair's conceded incongruities. Miss Cumberland is a
well-known temperance woman. Had the flask and glasses not come from her
house, you would get no one to believe that she had had anything to do
with them. Have you any hint to give on this point? It would be a welcome
addition to our case."

Alas! I was as much puzzled by those emptied cordial glasses as he was,
and told him so; also by the presence of the third unused one. As I dwelt
in thought on the latter circumstance, I remembered the observation which
Coroner Perry had made concerning it.

"Coroner Perry speaks of a third and unused glass which was found with
the flask," I ventured, tentatively. "He seemed to consider it an
important item, hiding some truth that would materially help this case.
What do you think, or rather, what is the general opinion on this point?"

"I have not heard. I have seen the fact mentioned, but without comment.
It is a curious circumstance. I will make a note of it. You have no
suggestions to offer on the subject?"

"None."

"The clew is a small one," he smiled.

"So is the one offered by the array of bottles found on the kitchen
table; yet the latter may lead directly to the truth. Adelaide never dug
those out of the cellar where they were locked up, and I'm sure I did
not. Yet I suppose I'm given credit for doing so."

"Naturally. The key to the wine-vault was the only key which was lacking
from the bunch left at Miss Cumberland's. That it was used to open the
wine-vault door is evident from the fact that it was found in the lock."

This was discouraging. Everything was against me. If the whole affair