watchman no danger was to be apprehended, as the windows of the
extension were not visible from the street.

Mr. Taggett finally decided on the night as the more propitious
time for his attempt,--a decision which his success justified. A
brilliant moon favored the in-door part of the enterprise, though it
exposed him to observation in his approach from the marble yard to
the veranda.

With the dense moonlight streaming outside against the
window-shades, he could safely have used a candle in the studio
instead of the screened lantern which he had provided. Mr. Taggett
passed three hours in the workshop,--the last hour in waiting for the
moon to go down. Then he stole through the marble yard into the
silent street, and hurried home, carrying two small articles
concealed under his blouse. The first was a chisel with a triangular
piece broken out of the centre of the bevel, and the other was a box
of safety-matches. The peculiarity of this box of matches was--that
just one match had been used from it.

Mr. Taggett's work was done.

The last seven pages of the diary were devoted to a review of the
case, every detail of which was held up in various lights, and
examined with the conscientious pains of a lapidary deciding on the
value of a rare stone. The concluding entries ran as follow:--

_"Tuesday Night_. Here the case passes into other hands. I
have been fortunate rather than skillful in unmasking the chief actor
in one of the most singular crimes that ever came under my
investigation. By destroying three objects, very easily destroyed,
Richard Shackford would have put himself beyond the dream of
suspicion. He neglected to remove these dumb witnesses, and now the
dumb witnesses speak! If it could be shown that he was a hundred
miles from Stillwater at the time of the murder, instead of in the
village, as he was, he must still be held, in the face of the proofs
against him, accessory to the deed. These proofs, roughly summarized,
are:--

_"First_. The fact that he had had an altercation with his
cousin a short time previous to the date of the murder,--a murder
which may be regarded not as the result of a chance disagreement, but
of long years of bitter enmity between the two men.

_"Secondly_. The fact that Richard Shackford had had an
appointment with his cousin on the night the crime was committed, and
had concealed that fact from the authorities at the time of the
coroner's inquest.

_"Thirdly_. That the bro