ight
be you, my poor, dear chap!"

"And you don't think so still?" asked Severino, harshly. He had not been
the first to laugh.

"Of course I don't, my dear fellow."

"I wish you would sit down again. That's better. So you know it is some
one else?"

"So far as one can know anything."

"And you are going to try to bring it home to this man?"

"I don't know. The police may save me the trouble. I believe they are on
the same scent at last. Meanwhile, I have given him as fair a warning as
a man could wish."

Severino lay back yet again in silence and deep twilight. His breath
came quickly. A shiver seemed to pass through the bed.

"You needn't have done that," he whispered at last.

"I thought it was the fair thing to do."

"Yet you needn't have done it--because--your first idea was right!"

[Illustration: "I'll tell you who I thought it was at first," said he,
heartily.]

"Right?" echoed Langholm, densely. "My first idea was--right?"

"You said you first thought it was I who killed--her husband."

"It couldn't have been!"

"But it was."

Langholm got back to his feet. He could conceive but one explanation of
this preposterous statement. Severino's sickness had extended to his
brain. He was delirious. This was the first sign.

"Where are you going?" asked the invalid, querulously, as his companion
moved towards the door.

"When was the doctor here last?" demanded Langholm in return.

There was silence for a few moments, and then a faint laugh, that
threatened to break into a sob, from the bed.

"I see what you think. How can I convince you that I have all my wits
about me? I'd rather not have a light just yet--but in my bag you'll
find a writing-case. It is locked, but the keys are in my trouser's
pocket. In my writing-case you will find a sealed envelope, and in that
a fuller confession than I shall have breath to make to you. Take it
downstairs and glance at it--then come back."

"No, no," said Langholm, hoarsely; "no, I believe you! Yes--it was my
first idea!"

"I hardly knew what I was doing," Severino whispered. "I was delirious
then, if you like! Yet I remember it better than anything else in all my
life. I have never forgotten it for an hour--since it first came back!"

"You really were unconscious for days afterwards?"

"I believe it was weeks. Otherwise, you must know--she will be the first
to believe--I never could have let her--"

"My poor, dear fellow--of course--of course."