"On the ground," replied Mason, "that the corpus delicti has not
been proven."

"Ah!" said the judge, for once losing his judicial gravity. Mason
sat down abruptly. The senior counsel for the prosecution was on
his feet in a moment.

"What!" he said, "the gentleman bases his motion on a failure to
establish the corpus delicti? Does he jest, or has he forgotten
the evidence? The term 'corpus delicti' is technical, and means
the body of the crime, or the substantial fact that a crime has
been committed. Does anyone doubt it in this case? It is true
that no one actually saw the prisoner kill the decedent, and that
he has so successfully hidden the body that it has not been found,
but the powerful chain of circumstances, clear and close-linked,
proving motive, the criminal agency, and the criminal act, is
overwhelming.

"The victim in this case is on the eve of making a statement that
would prove fatal to the prisoner. The night before the statement
is to be made he goes to her residence. They quarrel. Her voice
is heard, raised high in the greatest passion, denouncing him, and
charging that he is a murderer, that she has the evidence and will
reveal it, that he shall be hanged, and that he shall not be rid of
her. Here is the motive for the crime, clear as light. Are not
the bloody knife, the bloody dress, the bloody clothes of the
prisoner, unimpeachable witnesses to the criminal act? The
criminal agency of the prisoner has not the shadow of a possibility
to obscure it. His motive is gigantic. The blood on him, and his
despair when arrested, cry 'Murder! murder!' with a thousand