must die! she must die!' No name, but just
the one phrase twice repeated, 'She must die!' This startled me,
and hardly knowing whether to lay hands on him, or to turn about
and run, I was moving slowly away, when he drew his arms from the
rail, like this, and, still staring into space, added, in the same
hard and determined voice, this one word more, 'To-night!'; and,
wheeling about, passed me with one blank and wholly unconscious
look and betook himself toward the city. As he went by, his lips
opened for the third time. 'Which means--' he cried, between a
groan and a shriek, 'a bullet for her and--' I wish I had heard
the rest, but he was out of my hearing before his sentence was
finished."

"What time was this?"

"As near half-past five as possible. It was six when I reached
home a few minutes later."

"Ah, he must have gone to the cemetery after this."

"I am quite sure of it."

"Why didn't you follow the man?" grumbled Durbin.

"It wasn't my business. He was a stranger and possibly mad. I
didn't know what to do."

"What did you do?"

"Went home and kept quiet; my wife was very ill that night and I
had my own cause for anxiety."

"You, however, read the papers next morning?"

"No, sir, nor for many days. My wife grew constantly worse and
for a week I didn't leave her, not knowing but that every breath
would be her last. I was dead to everything outside the sick-room
and when she grew better, which was very gradually, we had to take
her away, so that I had no opportunity of speaking of this
occurrence to any one till a week ago, when some remark, published
in connection with Mrs. Jeffrey's death, recalled that encounter
on the bridge. I told a neighbor that I believed the man I had
seen there was Mr. Jeffrey, and we looked up the papers and ran
over them till we came upon his picture. That settled it, and I
could no longer--being free from home anxieties now--hold my
tongue and the police heard--"

"That will do, Mr. Gelston," broke in the major. "When we want
you again, we will let you know. Durbin, see Mr. Gelston out."

I was left alone with the major and the district attorney.

There was a moment's silence, during which my own heart beat so
loud that I was afraid they would hear it. Since taking up Miss
Tuttle's cause I had never really believed in Mr. Jeffrey's
innocence in spite of the alibi he had brought forward, and now
I expected to hear these men utter the same conviction.