The first intimation I received of the curious nature of his communication was through the following questions, put to him by the major: “You are sure this gentleman is identical with the one pointed out to you last night?” “Very sure, sir. I can swear to it.” I omit all evidence of the defect in his speech above mentioned. “You recognize him positively?” “Positively. I should have picked him out with the same assurance, if I had seen him in some other city and in a crowd of as fine-looking gentlemen as himself. His face made a great impression on me. You see I had ample time to study it in the few minutes we stood so close together.” “So you have said. Will you be kind enough to repeat the circumstance? I should like the man who has just come in to hear your description of this scene. Give the action, please. It is all very interesting.” The stranger glanced inquisitively in my direction, and turned to obey the superintendent. “I was returning to my home in Georgetown, on the evening of May the eleventh, the day of the great tragedy. My wife was ill, and I had been into town to see a physician and should have gone directly home; but I was curious to see how high the flood was running—you remember it was over the banks that night. So I wandered out on the bridge, and came upon the gentleman about whom you have been questioning me. He was standing all alone leaning on the rail thus.” Here the speaker drew up a chair, and, crossing his arms over its back, bent his head down over them. “I did not know him, but the way he eyed the water leaping and boiling in a yellow flood beneath was not the way of a curious man like myself, but of one who was meditating some desperate deed. He was handsome and well dressed, but he looked a miserable wretch and was in a state of such complete self-absorption that he did not notice me, though I had stopped not five feet from his side. I expected to see him throw himself over, but instead of that, he suddenly raised his head and, gazing straight before him, not at the heavy current, but at some vision in his own mind, broke forth in these words, spoken as I had never heard words spoken before—” Here the speaker’s stuttering got the better of him and the district attorney had time to say: “What were these words? Speak them slowly; we have all the time there is.” Instantly the man plucked up heart and, eying us all impressively, was able to say: