My account of the suicide is absolutely true," he declared impressively,--"I swear it is true." His face now was as solemn as the tone in which he had uttered the last sentence.

Beard recognized that he was facing a grave moment in his life, that it was within the power of the man to whom he had spoken, irretrievably to mar his future, to stain him with an accusation which, even though disproved before a jury, he could never hope to live down entirely.
The harrowing fear and uncertainty written in the secretary's face, produced no quiver of compassion in the detective.

Britz was measuring the man with cool, calculating eyes, that shone in their sockets like balls of chilled steel.

Long ago he had learned to turn an indifferent ear to protestations of innocence.

Such pleas drop with equal fervor from the lips of the innocent and the guilty.