ne man, but of one in whom
the very springs of life are poisoned by some dreadful remorse.

"He did not know he revealed this; he expressed himself as full of hope
that his young master would be acquitted the next day; but I could see
that this prospect could never still the worm working at his heart, and
resolved to understand why. I left him ostensibly alone, but in reality
shadowed him. The consequence was that, in the evening dusk, he led me to
the cemetery, where he took up his watch at Miss Cumberland's grave, as
if it were a Mecca and he a passionate devotee. I could hear his groans
as he hung to the fence and spoke softly to the dead; and though I was
too far away to catch a single word, I felt confident that I had at last
struck the right track, and should soon see my way more clearly than at
any time since this baffling case opened.

"But before I allowed my fancy to run away with me, I put in an evening
of inquiry. If this man had an absolute alibi, what was the use of
wasting effort upon him. But I could not find that he had, Mr. Fox. He
went with the rest of the servants to the ball--which, you know, was held
in Tibbitt's Hall, on Ford Street and he was seen there later, dancing
and making merry in a way not usual to him. But there was a space of time
dangerously tallying with that of the tragic scene at the club-house,
when he was not seen by any one there, so far as I can make out; and this
fact gave me courage to consider a certain point which had struck me, and
of which I thought something might be made.

"Mr. Fox, after the fiasco I have made of this affair, it costs me
something to go into petty details which must suggest my former failures
and may not strike you with the force they did me. That broken bottle--
or rather, that piece of broken bottle! Where was the rest of it? Sought
for almost immediately after the tragedy, it had not been found at the
Cumberland place or on the golf-links. It had been looked for carefully
when the first thaw came; but, though glass was picked up, it was not the
same glass. The task had become hopeless and ere long was abandoned.

"But with this idea of Zadok being the means of its transfer from The
Whispering Pines to the house on the Hill, I felt the desire to look once
more, and while court was in session this morning, I started a fresh
search--this time not on the golf-links. Tibbitt's Hall communicates more
quickly with The Whispering Pines by the club-house ro