yet--"

"Don't! I can bear no more to-day. I shall be stronger to-morrow."

Another feeler turned aside. His cheek showed his displeasure, but the
words were kind enough with which he speedily took his leave and left me
to solitude and a long night of maddening thought.

BOOK TWO

SWEETWATER TO THE FRONT

IX

"WE KNOW OF NO SUCH LETTER"

O, he sits high in all the people's hearts;
And that, which would appear offence in us,
His countenance like richest alchemy
Will change to virtue, and to worthiness.

_Julius Caesar_.

And you still hold him?"

"Yes, but with growing uncertainty. He's one of those fellows who affect
your judgment in spite of yourself. Handsome beyond the ordinary, a
finished gentleman and all that, he has, in addition to these advantages,
a way with him that goes straight to the heart in spite of prejudice and
the claims of conscience. That's a dangerous factor in a case like this.
It hampers a man in the exercise of his duties. You may escape the
fascination, probably will; but at least you will understand my present
position and why I telephoned to New York for an expert detective to help
us on this job. I wish to give the son of my old friend a chance."

The man whom Coroner Perry thus addressed, leaned back in his chair and
quietly replied:

"You're right; not because he's the son of your old friend, a handsome
fellow and all that, but for the reason that every man should have his
full chance, whatever the appearances against him. Personally, I have no
fear of my judgment being affected by his attractions. I've had to do
with too many handsome scamps for that. But I shall be as just to him as
you will, simply because it seems an incredibly brutal crime for a
gentleman to commit, and also because I lay greater stress than you do on
the two or three minor points which seem to favour his latest
declaration, that a man had preceded him in his visit to this lonely
club-house,--a man whom he had himself seen leaving the grounds in a
cutter just as he entered by the opposite driveway."

"Ah!" came in quick ejaculation from the coroner's lips, "I like to hear
you say that. I was purposely careful not to lay emphasis on the facts
you allude to. I wished you to draw your own inferences, without any aid
from me. The police did find traces of a second horse and cutter having
passed through the club-house grounds. It was snowing hard, and these
traces were speedily obliterated, b