:

"Yes, I remember his look and appearance very well. He stepped briskly,
as he always did, and carried his head---- Wait!" he suddenly exclaimed,
giving the detective a look in which excitement and decision were
strangely blended. "You think Mr. Orcutt committed this crime; that he
left us standing on the court-house steps and crossed the street to Mrs.
Clemmens' house with the deliberate intention of killing her, and
leaving the burden of his guilt to be shouldered by the tramp. Now, you
have called up a memory to me that convinces me this could not have
been. Had he had any such infernal design in his breast he would not
have been likely to have stopped as he did to pick up something which he
saw lying on the walk in front of Mrs. Clemmens' house."

"And did Mr. Orcutt do that?" inquired Mr. Gryce, with admirable
self-control.

"Yes, I remember it now distinctly. It was just as he entered the gate.
A man meditating a murder of this sort would not be likely to notice a
pin lying in his path, much less pause to pick it up."

"How if it were a diamond ring?"

"A diamond ring?"

"Mr. Ferris," said the detective, gravely, "you have just supplied a
very important link in the chain of evidence against Mr. Orcutt. The
question is, how could the diamond ring which Miss Dare is believed to
have dropped into Mr. Mansell's coat-pocket have been carried into Mrs.
Clemmens' house without the agency of either herself or Mr. Mansell? I
think you have just shown." And the able detective, in a few brief
sentences, explained the situation to Mr. Ferris, together with the
circumstances of Mansell's flight, as gleaned by him in his conversation
with the prisoner.

The District Attorney was sincerely dismayed. The guilt of the renowned
lawyer was certainly assuming positive proportions. Yet, true to his
friendship for Mr. Orcutt, he made one final effort to controvert the
arguments of the detective, and quietly said:

"You profess to explain how the ring might have been carried into Mrs.
Clemmens' house, but how do you account for the widow having used an
exclamation which seems to signify it was _on_ the hand which she saw
lifted against her life?"

"By the fact that it was on that hand."

"Do you think that probable if the hand was Mr. Orcutt's?"

"Perfectly so. Where else would he be likely to put it in the
preoccupied state of mind in which he was? In his pocket? The tramp
might have done that, but not the gentleman."