canter of whisky, a siphon of soda, and a box
of cigars. Rolfe quickly discovered that the cigars were of a quality
that seldom came his way, and he leaned back in his chair and puffed with
steady enjoyment.

"Then you are determined to hang Birchill?" said Crewe, as with a cigar
in his fingers he faced his visitor with a smile.

"We'll hang him right enough," said Rolfe. He pulled the cigar out of his
mouth and looked at it approvingly. Though the talk was of hanging, he
had never felt more thoroughly at peace with the world.

"It will be a pity if you do," said Crewe.

"Why?"

"Because he's the wrong man."

"It would take a lot to make me believe that," said Rolfe stoutly. "We've
got a strong case against him--there is not a weak point in it. I admit
that Hill is a tainted witness, but they'll find it pretty hard to break
down his story. We've tested it in every way and find it stands. Then
there are the bootmarks outside the window. Birchill's boots fit them to
the smallest fraction of an inch. The jemmy found in the flat fits the
mark made in the window at Riversbrook, and we've got something
more--another witness who saw him in Tanton Gardens about the time of the
murder. If Birchill can get his neck out of the noose, he's cleverer than
I take him for."

Crewe did not reply directly to Rolfe's summary of the case.

"I see that they've briefed Holymead for the defence," he said
after a pause.

"A waste of good money," said the police officer. Something appealed to
his sense of humour, for he broke out into a laugh.

"What are you laughing at?" asked Crewe.

"I was wondering how Sir Horace feels when he sees the money he gave
this girl Fanning being used to defend his murderer."

"You are a hardened scamp, Rolfe, with a very perverse sense of humour,"
said Crewe.

"It was a cunning move of them to get Holymead," said Rolfe. "They think
it will weigh with the jury because he was such a close friend of Sir
Horace--that he wouldn't have taken up the case unless he felt that
Birchill was innocent. But you and I know better than that, Mr. Crewe. A
lawyer will prove that black is white if he is paid for it. In fact, I
understand that, according to the etiquette of the bar, they have got to
do it. A barrister has to abide by his brief and leave his personal
feelings out of account."

"That's so. Theoretically he is an officer of the Court, and his services
are supposed to be at the call of any man who is i