"Your friend Mansell!" repeated Mr. Ferris, with a smile. "If you were on his jury, I suppose your bias in his favor would lead you to acquit him of this crime?"
"I should declare him 'Not guilty,' and stick to it, if I had to be locked up for a year."
Mr. Ferris sank into an attitude of profound thought. Horace Byrd, impressed by this, looked at him anxiously.
"Have your convictions been shaken by Hickory's ingenious theory?" he ventured to inquire at last.
Mr. Ferris abstractedly replied:
"This is no time for me to state my convictions. It is enough that you comprehend my perplexity." And, relapsing into his former condition, he remained for a moment wrapped in silence, then he said: "Byrd, how comes it that the humpback who excited so much attention on the day of the murder was never found?"
Byrd, astonished, surveyed the District Attorney with a doubtful look that gradually changed into one of quiet satisfaction as he realized the significance of this recurrence to old theories and suspicions. His answer, however, was slightly embarrassed in tone, though frank enough to remind one of Hickory's blunt-spoken admissions.
"Well," said he, "I suppose the main reason is that I made no attempt to find him."
"Do you think that you were wise in that, Mr. Byrd?" inquired Mr. Ferris, with some severity.
Horace laughed.