you'll find him in. I passed the house two hours ago, and saw his
shadow against the blind, as usual.' And the lady with the toothache
in the flat across the way: she corroborated his statement, you
remember."

"Yes; I remember."

Well, then?"

"Simple enough. Before starting I rigged up a kind of mannikin with
old coats and a cushion--something to cast a shadow on the blind.
All you fellows were used to seeing my shadow there in the small
hours--I counted on that, and knew you'd take any vague outline as
mine."

"Simple enough, as you say. But the woman with the toothache saw the
shadow move--you remember she said she saw you sink forward, as if
you'd fallen asleep."

"Yes; and she was right. It _did_ move. I suppose some extra-heavy
dray must have jolted by the flimsy building--at any rate, something
gave my mannikin a jar, and when I came back he had sunk forward,
half over the table."

There was a long silence between the two men. Granice, with a
throbbing heart, watched Denver refill his pipe. The editor, at any
rate, did not sneer and flout him. After all, journalism gave a
deeper insight than the law into the fantastic possibilities of
life, prepared one better to allow for the incalculableness of human
impulses.