I might, you
know--I might bring out something that would make it look different."

Almost a smile touched the gray lines of his face. "If you wish."

The young man drew himself into his chair and clasped his hands around
his knee. "Here it is. Mr. Newbold, on the seventh floor of the Bruzon
bachelor apartments, heard a shot at one in the morning, next his
bedroom, in Ben Armstrong's room. He hurried into the public hall, saw
the door wide open into Ben's apartment, went in and found Ben shot
dead. Trying to use the telephone to call help, he found it was out of
order. So he rushed again into the hall toward the elevator with the
idea of getting Dr. Avery, who lived below on the second floor. The
elevator door was open also, and a man's opera-hat lay near it on the
floor; he saw, just in time, that the car was at the bottom of the
shaft, almost stepping inside, in his excitement, before he noticed
this. Then he ran down the stairs with Jack's hat in his hand, and got
Dr. Avery, and they found Jack at the foot of the elevator shaft. It was
known that Ben Armstrong and Jack had quarrelled the day before; it was
known that Jack was quick-tempered; it is known that he bought that
evening the pistol which was found on the floor by Ben, loaded, with one
empty shell. That's the story."

The steady voice stopped a moment and the young man shivered slightly;
his look was strained. Steadily he went on.

"That's the story. From that the coroner's jury have found that Jack
killed Ben Armstrong--that he bought the pistol to kill him, and went
to his rooms with that purpose; that in his haste to escape, he missed
seeing that the elevator was down, as Mr. Newbold all but missed seeing
it later, and jumped into the shaft and was killed instantly himself.
That's what the jury get from the facts, but it seems to me they're
begging the question. There are a hundred hypotheses that would fit
the case of Jack's innocence--why is it reasonable to settle on the
one that means his guilt? This is my idea. Jack and Ben Armstrong had
been friends since boyhood and Jack, quick-tempered as he was, was
warm-hearted and loyal. It was like him to decide suddenly to go to Ben
and make friends. He had been to a play in the evening which had more
or less that _motif_; he was open to such influences. It was like
the pair of them, after the reconciliation, to set to work looking at
Jack's new toy, the pistol. It was a brand-new sort, and the two have