It is very true in one sense--" and his voice lowered--"that about two years ago in Boston, I was arrested and tried for murder." "So Mr.Thayer said." "I was acquitted--but not for the reason Thayer gave.

They couldn't make a case, they failed absolutely to prove a thing which, had I really been guilty, should have been a simple matter.

A worthless cousin, Tom Langdon, was the man who was murdered.

They said I did it with a wooden mallet which I had taken from a prize fight, and which had been used to hammer on the gong for the beginning and the end of the rounds.

I had been seen to take it from the fight, and it was found the next morning beside Langdon.