ising,
perhaps, that his fingers were in a trap, he modified his manner again,
and continued more quietly. "This is an odd request to make. I begin to
feel as if my word were doubted here; as if my failings and reckless
confession of the beastly way in which I spent that night, were making
you feel that I have no good in me and am at once a liar and a sneak. I'm
not. I won't go with you to that low drinking hell, unless you make me,
but I'll swear--"

"Don't swear." It is unnecessary to say who spoke. "We wouldn't believe
you, and it would be only adding perjury to the rest."

"You wouldn't believe me?"

"No; we have reasons, my boy. There were two bottles."

"Well?"

"The other has been found nearer your home."

"That's a trick. You're all up to tricks--"

"Not in this case, Arthur. Let me entreat you in memory of your father to
be candid with us. We have arrested a man. He denies his guilt, but can
produce no witnesses in support of his assertions. Yet such witnesses may
exist. Indeed, we think that one such does exist. The man who took the
bottles from the club-house's wine-vault did so within a few minutes of
the time when this crime was perpetrated on your sister. He should be
able to give valuable testimony for or against Elwood Ranelagh. Now, you
can see why we are in search of this witness and why we think you can
serve us in this secret and extraordinary matter. If you can't, say so;
and we will desist from all further questions. But this will not help
you. It will only show that, in our opinion, you have gained the rights
of a man suspected of something more than shirking his duty as an unknown
and hitherto unsuspected witness."

"This is awful!" Young Cumberland had risen to his feet and was swaying
to and fro before them like a man struck between the eyes by some
maddening blow.

"God! if I had only died that night!" he muttered, with his eyes upon
the floor and every muscle tense with the shock of this last calamity.
"Dr. Perry," he moaned suddenly, stretching out one hand in entreaty,
and clutching at the table for support with the other, "let me go for
to-night. Let me think. My brain is all in a whirl. I'll try to answer
to-morrow." But even as he spoke he realised the futility of his
request. His eye had fallen again on the bottle, and, in its shape and
tell-tale label, he beheld a witness bound to testify against him if he
kept silent himself.

"Don't answer," he went on, holding fast to t