the scaffold, or save him from it."

"And, yet," rejoined Byrd, "that very act acquits him in your eyes. All
that is necessary is to give him credit for being smart enough to
foresee that it would have such a tendency in the eyes of any person who
discovered the picture."

"Then," said Hickory, "he would also have to foresee that she would
accuse herself of murder when he was on trial for it, and that he would
thereupon withdraw his defence. Byrd, you are foreseeing too much. My
friend Mansell possesses no such power of looking into the future as
that."

"Your friend Mansell!" repeated Mr. Ferris, with a smile. "If you were
on his jury, I suppose your bias in his favor would lead you to acquit
him of this crime?"

"I should declare him 'Not guilty,' and stick to it, if I had to be
locked up for a year."

Mr. Ferris sank into an attitude of profound thought. Horace Byrd,
impressed by this, looked at him anxiously.

"Have your convictions been shaken by Hickory's ingenious theory?" he
ventured to inquire at last.

Mr. Ferris abstractedly replied:

"This is no time for me to state my convictions. It is enough that you
comprehend my perplexity." And, relapsing into his former condition, he
remained for a moment wrapped in silence, then he said: "Byrd, how comes
it that the humpback who excited so much attention on the day of the
murder was never found?"

Byrd, astonished, surveyed the District Attorney with a doubtful look
that gradually changed into one of quiet satisfaction as he realized the
significance of this recurrence to old theories and suspicions. His
answer, however, was slightly embarrassed in tone, though frank enough
to remind one of Hickory's blunt-spoken admissions.

"Well," said he, "I suppose the main reason is that I made no attempt to
find him."

"Do you think that you were wise in that, Mr. Byrd?" inquired Mr.
Ferris, with some severity.

Horace laughed.

"I can find him for you to-day, if you want him," he declared.

"You can? You know him, then?"

"Very well. Mr. Ferris," he courteously remarked, "I perhaps should have
explained to you at the time, that I recognized this person and knew him
to be an honest man; but the habits of secrecy in our profession are so
fostered by the lives we lead, that we sometimes hold our tongue when it
would be better for us to speak. The humpback who talked with us on the
court-house steps the morning Mrs. Clemmens was murdered, was not what
he see