The secretary shook his head. "I have no suspicion," he
emphatically said.

Somehow, I did not believe him. Whether it was the tone of his
voice, the clutch of his hand on his sleeve--and the hand will often
reveal more than the countenance--I felt that this man was not to be
relied upon in making this assertion.

"I should like to ask Mr. Harwell a question," said a juryman who
had not yet spoken. "We have had a detailed account of what looks
like the discovery of a murdered man. Now, murder is never committed
without some motive. Does the secretary know whether Mr. Leavenworth
had any secret enemy?"

"I do not."

"Every one in the house seemed to be on good terms with him?"

"Yes, sir," with a little quaver of dissent in the assertion,
however.

"Not a shadow lay between him and any other member of his
household, so far as you know?"

"I am not ready to say that," he returned, quite distressed. "A
shadow is a very slight thing. There might have been a shadow----"

"Between him and whom?"

A long hesitation. "One of his nieces, sir."