ce."

"Why, may I ask?"

For the first time the prisoner flushed and the look he darted at his
counsel had the sting of a reproach in it. Yet he answered: "It was the
token of an engagement I didn't believe in or like. I should have hailed
any proof that this engagement was off."

Mr. Moffat smiled enigmatically.

"Mr. Cumberland, if you are not sure of having seen this ring then, when
did you see it and where?"

A rustle from end to end of that crowded court-room. This was an
audacious move. What was coming? What would be the answer of the man
who was believed not only to have made himself the possessor of this
ring, but to have taken a most strange and uncanny method of disposing
of it afterward? In the breathless hush which followed this first
involuntary expression of feeling, Arthur's voice rose, harsh but
steady in this reply:

"I saw it when the police showed it to me, and asked me if I could
identify it."

"Was that the only time you have seen it up to the present moment?"

Instinctively, the witness's right hand rose; it was as if he were
mentally repeating his oath before he uttered coldly and with emphasis,
though without any show of emotion:

"It is."

The universal silence gave way to a universal sigh of excitement and
relief. District Attorney Fox's lips curled with an imperceptible smile
of disdain, which might have impressed the jury if they had been
looking his way; but they were all looking with eager and interested
eyes at the prisoner, who had just uttered this second distinct and
unequivocal denial.

Mr. Moffat noted this, and his own lip curled, but with a very different
show of feeling from that which had animated his distinguished opponent.
Without waiting for the present sentiment to cool, he proceeded
immediately with his examination:

"You swear that you have seen this ring but once since the night of
your sister's death, and that was when it was shown you in the
coroner's office?"

"I do."

"Does this mean that it was not in your possession at any time during
that interim?"

"It certainly does."

"Mr. Cumberland, more than one witness has testified to the fact of
your having been seen to place your hand in the casket of your sister,
before the eyes of the minister and of others attending her funeral. Is
this true?"

"It is."

"Was not this a most unusual thing to do?"

"Perhaps. I was not thinking about that. I had a duty to perform, and I
performed it."

"A dut