"Another time may never come," answered Ephraim, with a sigh. "No, you must hear me now while a little strength is left me. I will promise to be as brief as possible." He was breathing hard, and his sentences were uttered brokenly and with difficulty. After closing his eyes for a few moments as if to collect his thoughts, he said: "You were at the trial of Mr. Brancker, were you not, Mr. Clement? You listened to the evidence right through from beginning to end?" "I don't think a single point of the evidence, as sworn to by the various witnesses, escaped me." "You will not have forgotten that one of the facts which told strongly against Mr. B., and one which he professed himself totally unable to explain, was that some of the papers in his private drawer were smeared with blood, and that there was a similar smear on the floor close by?" "I have not forgotten. The circumstance has always struck me as being a very peculiar one." "I am the only person who could have explained it." Clem gave vent to an exclamation of surprise, and with that the sick man went on to relate what is known to the reader already--how, led on by an insatiable curiosity, he opened the drawer with a duplicate key; how, while groping among the contents, his hand encountered the blade of the knife and was cut by it; how the blood spurted out among the papers, and how it kept dropping on the floor while he stood talking to Obed Sweet, afraid to stir. "And why did you omit to tell all this at the trial?" demanded Clem sternly, as the other ceased speaking, breathless and exhausted. "That you shall learn presently. There's more to tell yet," gasped Ephraim. Clem administered a restorative. Had his patient's revelation had reference to any matter of lesser importance than the rehabilitation of John Brancker's good name in the eyes of the world, he would have positively forbidden him to say another word; but there was no knowing how he might be on the morrow, and it might prove of vital consequence that he should tell all he knew while there was still a possibility of his being able to do so. "Both at the inquest and the trial I perjured myself," went on the sick man. "I was asked whether I saw Mr. Brancker leave the Bank after he had parted from me, and had entered it with the avowed purpose of fetching his umbrella. My answer was that I did not see him leave the Bank. My saying so was a lie. I saw him leave it within four minutes of the time he entered it. He was there just long enough to enable him to find his umbrella, but not long enough to commit either murder or robbery, much less both, even supposing him to have been wishful of doing so. "But what was your object in thus perjuring yourself?" demanded Clement, with an air of stupefaction. "What end had you to gain by not speaking the truth?"