“Very good. What applies to your view of the case applies to mine. I say, he is keeping from you the confession of his guilt. You say, he is keeping from you information which may fasten the guilt on some other person. Let us start from that point. Confession, or information, how are you to get at what he is now withholding from you? What influence can you bring to bear on him when you see him again?” “Surely I might persuade him?” “Certainly. And if persuasion fail--what then? Do you think you can entrap him into speaking out? or terrify him into speaking out?” “If you will look at your notes, Mr. Playmore, you will see that I have already succeeded in terrifying him--though I am only a woman and though I didn’t mean to do it.” “Very well answered. You mark the trick. What you have done once you think you can do again. Well, as you are determined to try the experiment, it can do you no harm to know a little more of Dexter’s character and temperament than you know now. Suppose we apply for information to somebody who can help us?” I started, and looked round the room. He made me do it--he spoke as if the person who was to help us was close at our elbows. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “The oracle is silent; and the oracle is here.” He unlocked one of the drawers of his desk; produced a bundle of letters, and picked out one. “When we were arranging your husband’s defense,” he said, “we felt some difficulty about including Miserrimus Dexter among our witnesses. We had not the slightest suspicion of him, I need hardly tell you. But we were all afraid of his eccentricity; and some among us even feared that the excitement of appearing at the Trial might drive him completely out of his mind. In this emergency we applied to a doctor to help us. Under some pretext, which I forget now, we introduced him to Dexter. And in due course of time we received his report. Here it is.” He opened the letter, and marking a certain passage in it with a pencil, handed it to me. “Read the lines which I have marked,” he said; “they will be quite sufficient for our purpose.” I read these words: “Summing up the results of my observation, I may give it as my opinion that there is undoubtedly latent insanity in this case, but that no active symptoms of madness have presented themselves as yet. You may, I think, produce him at the Trial, without fear of consequences. He may say and do all sorts of odd things; but he has his mind under the control of his will, and you may trust his self-esteem to exhibit him in the character of a substantially intelligent witness. “As to the future, I am, of course, not able to speak positively. I can only state my views.