his foolish whim, and knew that he deserved it--but that McNabb should
accuse him of theft! Sick at heart, he faltered his answer, and in his
own ears his voice sounded strange, and dull, and unconvincing. "You
think I--I stole it?"

"What else am I to think? What will the police think? What will the
jury think when they hear your flimsy yarn--an' the straightforward
evidence of my daughter? They'll think that the coat she wore to the
show, an' that she still has, is the coat she wore from the store, an'
that you've got the other. An' when Kranz tells of your midnight visit
to the store, what'll they think then?" McNabb finished and, reaching
for the telephone, called the police headquarters. A few minutes later
the chief himself appeared, accompanied by the night watchman, Kranz,
whose story of the nervous and agitated appearance of Hedin on his
midnight visit to the store forged the strongest link in the chain of
circumstantial evidence.

After the watchman had been dismissed, Hedin was subjected to a
bullying at the hands of the burly officer that stopped just short of
personal violence, and through it all he stubbornly maintained his
innocence.

After another brief telephone conversation, the three visited the
private room of the judge where, waiving a preliminary hearing, the
prisoner was bound over to await the action of the grand jury, and his
bail fixed at ten thousand dollars.