"Just so! You would tell John Brancker all about the blood-smears, and also reveal to him the fact that Judd saw him quit the Bank five minutes after he had entered it, although at the trial he swore to the contrary. This you would tell, leaving Brancker to deal with the statement in whatever way might seem most advisable to him." "That is precisely what I have thought of doing. So far everything seems perfectly clear. But, as regards the latter portion of the confession--supplemented as it is by our father's letter--that concerns John Brancker infinitely more than all the rest." For the second time the eyes of the brothers met in a long, steady gaze. "John Brancker was tried for a crime of which he was innocent, and was acquitted," said Edward, in a hard, cold voice. "To-day he is a free man--as free as you or I." "But is that all? You know as well as I that it is not. Think of all he has suffered and gone through. Consider----" "I have considered--for I can foresee all you would urge. I have thought it over long ago from every possible point of view. It is for you to consider and to realize that there is an altogether different way of looking at the affair from the one you have chosen to adopt, one, too, which concerns you and me very nearly. With your good leave, I will proceed to make clear to you what I mean." He got up, and crossing to a side table, poured out for himself a glass of water. "It was within a couple of hours of hearing of my father's death," resumed Edward, "that I read the letter which you have seen to-day for the first time. The news had been broken to me by the very man we have been talking of--I mean by Judd--and I had just come back from the Bank after viewing my father's body. I will leave you to imagine the effect the letter had on me at such a time. Knowing what I did, no one could have been more surprised than I at the turn taken by the affair at the inquest, when one little piece of circumstantial evidence after another cropped up, all tending to bring home the crime to John Brancker, and it was a great shock to me when he was committed for trial. Had you been in my place, rather than let him go to prison, in all probability you would have made public the facts embodied in your father's letter." "I certainly should have done so," said Clement, gravely. "I preferred to hold on, taking care, meanwhile, to secure an eminent advocate for the defense. There were many weak links in the chain of evidence, and it seemed to me that no jury would convict the prisoner without something stronger to go upon. The event proved that I was right in my belief. John Brancker was acquitted." "Truly so; but can you even faintly realize the mental torture he must have suffered meanwhile? Can you----"