The Man Who Knew

he reports of a certain trial, partly from the confidential matter which has come into the writer's hands from Saul Art

stranger than fiction, and has need to be, since most fiction is founded on truth. There is a strangeness in the story of "The Man Who Knew" which brings it into the category of veracious history. It cannot be said in truth that any story beg

the prostrate figure of a man who lay upo

o the offices of lawyers, surveyors, and corporation offices which at eight o'clock on a summer's day are empty of occupants. The unprofessional classes who inhabit the shabby streets impinging u

pavement was decently dressed and was

s obviou

meanness in the face of the stricken man. The lips were set in a little sneer, the half-closed eyes w

, answering in monosyllables the questions of the curious. Ten minutes

cap was new and set at a somewhat rakish angle on his head. Across his waistcoat was a large and heavy chain hung at intervals with small silver medals. For all his provinci

and introduced himself as Police Consta

n constab

n help me get him into the

sked the

eman shoo

and by the time I arrived he'd snu

ssional eye, and retailed his own experiences of similar tragedies, not without

d that attention have been focused, had he been accompanied by the girl at his side, for she was by every standard beautiful. They reached the corner of Tabor Street, and it was the fixed

coat, trousers which seemed too long, since they concertinaed o

aid Frank Merrill under his

haven face looked strangely old, and the big, gold-rimmed spectacles bridged halfway down his n

there," he said briefly an

id the young

n 1875, when the corner house-you can see the end of it from here-collapsed and buried fourteen people, sev

sense that he was acting at all unconventionall

between two hansom cabs which resulted in the death of a driver whose name was

an with a little apprehensio

y for this kind of thing. D

tle man shook his

t for a mome

and see what it is all about,"

p was a little staggering,

mind?" h

just as the ambulance came jangling into the square. To Merrill's surpris

ing can be done,

one!" said the o

th an extraordinary rapidity of movement, he continued his search, and to the astonishment of Frank Merrill the policeman did not

You see: 'Call at eight-thirty at Holborn Viaduct Hotel.' He was taking a short cut when his illness overcame him. I know who is advertising for the valet," he added gratuitously; "he is a Mr.

own again at the body; then sud

this man?"

at him in a

y do yo

That is to say, you were not looking at his face. People who do not

le smile, "there is some one here I know,"

e Sussex constabula

, sir. I have often seen yo

cher and put it into the interior of the ambulance. The little group wat

ional leave of his comrade, and

's nephew, aren't y

ight," s

you at your u

e's n

iry. He seemed to ask it as a matter of course and as on

errill

aid, and added, with a faint touch

especial value. He was tried at Salisbury in 1897 with the murder of two Mashona chiefs, and was acquitted. He amassed another fortune in Johannesburg in the boom of '97, and came to this country in 1901, set

him in undisgu

now my

the little man brusquely. He to

ernoon," he said, an

man turned a solemn

hat gentleman?

stable

Mann. At the yard we call

a det

able shoo

mmissioner and for the government. We have orders never to int

a puzzled frown. "What an extraordinary pe

id the constable

Frank was walking sl

ather depressed,"

mes to know all about uncle?" He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, dear, this is

seem to know that man's face-the m

ed with a

familiar to me," sai

us about twent

recollection of it. My impression of him goes much farther

said quickly. "I haven't a very long

lau

hate to run counter to his wishes, but I am certainly not going to allow him

ittle gestur

see, I knew your uncle before I knew you. If it had

at his watch. "You had better come on to Vi

he way to the station she tol

ut you. He merely said he did not want me to marry you because he did not think you'd ma

k fr

eek brute," he

her hand

s said nothing whatever to me and has nev

sneaks you can never get to the bottom of. He is worming his way into my uncle's confidence t

said the girl, "and that is hal

ished from Frank's b

igram," he said. "Wha

You see, Frank, I owe your Uncle John so much. I am the daughter of one of his best friends, and since dear daddy died

k no

iculties," he said, "and

ad installed her. As she said, her life had been made very smooth for her. There was no need for her to worry about money, and she was able to devot

an Sister Nuttall. Frank was interested in the work without being enthusiastic. He had all the man's apprehension of infectious disease and of the inadvisability of a be

ch was probably true, because her development had been a slow one, and it could not be s

in the neighborhood, and they have only the evenings for the treatment of ailments which, in people better circumstanced, would produce the attendance of specialists. For the night work the nurses were accompanied by a volunteer male e

ief even the vitiated air of the hot night. She went back into the passageway of the house

ompson," she said to her escort. "

miss," said the young

the girl sympathetically; "you haven't even the excitement of

. If it is good enough for you to come into these str

rom the street entrance of the court and passed her. As he did so the dim light of the lamp showed for a second his face, and her mouth formed an "O" of astonishment.

ace and the straight figure of Ja