Collins, Ward and Beard, extends beyond the grave. He is
responsible for their silence."

"You didn't expect the murderer to come forward and announce himself,
did you?" asked the chief ironically.

"Let me proceed in my own way and you'll see what I mean." Britz bent
forward in his seat, as if to impress his words more sharply on the
minds of his hearers. "Had I accepted the obvious, I should have been
compelled to arrest Collins. We have a solid prima facie case against
him. He had the motive for the murder. He threatened to kill Whitmore.
The pistol with which Whitmore was killed was owned by Collins."

"But how about the opportunity to kill?" interrupted the chief. "Have
you established his presence at the scene of the crime?"

"That phase of the case will be developed to-morrow," replied Britz.
"Before we get to it let us analyze Collins's position more minutely. He
had plenty of time after the shooting to dispose of the weapon and the
cartridges. He neglected to do it. It would have required but a minute
or two for him to destroy the letter which he intercepted. That letter,
the last which Whitmore ever wrote, and the fact that Collins was aware
of its contents, could be used by us to establish Collins's motive for
the crime. Collins must have known, in fact it was impossible for him to
avoid the knowledge, that the police would eventually search his home.
Yet he permitted the letter and the pistol and the box of cartridges to
remain in his room, where they could not possibly be overlooked. And all
the while, it must be remembered, he was in consultation with the astute
Luckstone.

"Now what is the inevitable conclusion? Why, he was courting arrest.
More than that, he was thrusting evidence on us--evidence which would
assure his indictment and trial before a petit jury.

"Do you think he was doing it because he wanted to be convicted? Or do
you think Luckstone would have permitted him to leave this evidence
lying about except to delude us? Not for an instant.

"No, chief, Luckstone had some design of his own in thus urging us to
the conclusion that Collins was the guilty man. But I saw the trap which
his crafty brain devised. Luckstone has evidence with which to offset
everything we could bring forward against Collins. He planned to make a
colossal fool of the prosecution. Being absolutely sure of obtaining
Collins's acquittal, he wanted us to proceed with our case against him.
He wanted us to commit ourse