he left the house."

Littell looked puzzled for a minute and then answered:

"I adhere to my opinion just the same; if that man did not have the ulster, he was not the murderer. His presence on the scene that night very likely had no connection with the crime."

"But," I insisted, "your reasoning is all premised upon the assumption that White must have worn the ulster when he returned, for otherwise there would be no necessity for accounting for its disappearance. Is it not possible on the contrary that he left it somewhere and returned without it?"

"No," he said, "not on such a wet night and in evening dress."

"I admit its improbability," I acknowledged, "but is it not possible, nevertheless?"

"Not sufficiently so to be taken into account," he replied. "Most things are possible, but if we stop to consider all the possibilities in a case, we will have no time for the real facts and will arrive nowhere and accomplish nothing. Take my word for it, Dick! the man who committed the murder took the ulster."

This was my opinion, too, and as we had reached the club no more was said.

On entering a servant told me that Mr. Van Bult was waiting for me in the library; so we went there and found Van Bult seated in front of the fire with an unopened paper in his hands gazing abstractedly before him. We greeted him and then for some moments were silent. There was so much to say and so little that seemed adequate. We four of all others were most allied by friendship and intimacy with poor White and by the incidents of that night with the tragedy of his death. All seemed too oppressed with the memories of our last gathering to break the silence and we stood waiting on one another for the first word. Several members of the club in the meantime came to the door and looked in, but seeing us four together turned back. At last Van Bult said:

"I suppose the papers have told me all you men know. I learned of it first in Buffalo, and returned as soon as I could. I am sorry I went away at all, but it was a matter of importance and I suppose I could have been of no use here." He paused a moment, but none of us said anything, and he went on: "So far as I can learn there is absolutely no clue to the mystery. I did not know that poor Arthur had an enemy in the world. Is there any evidence of a motive?" he concluded.

"None," Davis replied, "except that the money you left on the table was gone."

"That was a small sum to murder a man for," he replied; "and no one knew of its being there, either, but—" he hesitated, and then broke off: "Does suspicion attach to any one?"

I refrained from answering but Littell said, "No."

Noticing my silence, however, Van Bult turned to me and asked if the police knew more than the public.

"Yes," I told him, "they do; they think perhaps they have the right man."

"It is clever work if they have really found him so soon," he answered, "for it must have been a blind trail to pick up."

"Too clever by much," said Littell; "I don't believe it."

"Nor I," I joined in, but more to myself than the others.

Davis ventured no opinion. He only looked from one to another of us as we spoke. I doubt if the subject would have interested him at all except for our connection with it. After a while, in a pause in our talk he suggested something "to eat and drink and billiards or anything to cheer us up," as he said.

I don't think any of us were averse to a digression from the subject which hung over us like a pall and we took his advice and to all appearance, at least, the others put the subject away from them for the remainder of the night. It was never out of my thoughts, however; till the man who killed White was found and brought to justice I knew I could not rest, and I fancy Littell and Van Bult had some idea of what was in my mind, for they looked at me curiously now and then during the evening, and at parting Littell said:

"Cheer up, Dick, the world is full of the troubles of other people, and you will find your own enough to worry over."

Van Bult only told me to go to bed and sleep as he bade me good-night and went off with Davis, but I knew he also thought I was dwelling too much on the subject. I have no doubt they were right, but I could not help it and went to my room to pass a sleepless night.