with him, and he wasn't left-handed. With the exception of these errors,
the distinguished guest's statement of the case is substantially
correct."

A comfortable laugh rippled over the house; friend nodded to friend, as
much as to say, "That's the word, with the bark on it. Good lad, good
boy. He ain't lowering his flag any!"

The guest's serenity was not disturbed. Stillman resumed:

"I also have some witnesses; and I will presently tell you where you can
find some more." He held up a piece of coarse wire; the crowd craned
their necks to see. "It has a smooth coating of melted tallow on it.
And here is a candle which is burned half-way down. The remaining half
of it has marks cut upon it an inch apart. Soon I will tell you where I
found these things. I will now put aside reasonings, guesses, the
impressive hitchings of odds and ends of clues together, and the other
showy theatricals of the detective trade, and tell you in a plain,
straightforward way just how this dismal thing happened."

He paused a moment, for effect--to allow silence and suspense to
intensify and concentrate the house's interest; then he went on:

"The assassin studied out his plan with a good deal of pains. It was a
good plan, very ingenious, and showed an intelligent mind, not a feeble
one. It was a plan which was well calculated to ward off all suspicion
from its inventor. In the first place, he marked a candle into spaces an
inch apart, and lit it and timed it. He found it took three hours to
burn four inches of it. I tried it myself for half an hour, awhile ago,
up-stairs here, while the inquiry into Flint Buckner's character and ways