"And your hand seems to be wounded." "Yes; Harriet Kingdon shot me before she hanged herself." "She discovered you in the cellar?" "Yes." He looked at me a moment longer without speaking. "It's hardly probable," I added, "that if my friend and I had been guilty of any crime, he'd have stopped to warn the police, and I'd have waited here for you to come and take me." "That's true," he assented; "but I don't quite see what your business was here." "My friend's a reporter on the New York _Record_," I explained. "Oh, a reporter!" he repeated, instantly drawing the inference which I hoped he would. "That explains it. But, of course, Mr. Lester, you, as a lawyer, know that you had no right to enter a house in that way. It was your duty to inform the police." "There are emergencies," I protested, "in which one must take affairs into one's own hands." "I admit that; but whether this was one of them----" "Doesn't it look as if it was?" I asked. "Well, that's not for me to decide. I understand you're staying at the Sheridan?" "Yes--at least, I was staying there yesterday. I gave up my room, not knowing that I'd need it again. I'm about dead for sleep." He pondered for a moment, looking at my card. "How do I know this is really your name?" he asked. "You don't know it," I retorted, growing suddenly impatient. "But I'll have a dozen people down from New York to identify me, if you doubt it. Meanwhile, let me go to bed." "All right," he said, pocketing the card with sudden decision. "But it will have to be under guard. I don't want to place you under arrest, but at the same time I can't run the risk of letting you get away. You've no objection to the company of an officer?" "None whatever, if he'll only let me sleep." "All right. But you'd better have that hand dressed before you turn in. We brought a doctor along on the off-chance of needing him. Suppose you let him look at it." "Thank you," I assented, and the doctor was summoned. "It's not in the least serious," he assured me, after a moment's examination, and the wound was soon washed and bandaged. "That feels better," I said, as he pressed the last strip of plaster into place. "Now I'm ready for bed." "Sherman," said the chief to one of his men, "go with this gentleman. Don't let him out of your sight till you hear from me. Let him go to bed, if he wants to, and don't disturb him; but if he tries to escape, stop him if you have to shoot him."