"You'll please bear in mind, Hammer, that you're not here to ask questions, but to answer them. Where were you on the morning of the 14th instant?"
"The 14th?" Hammer thought back desperately—ah, that was the morning of Harcourt's murder!
"I was aboard the Daphne, ill with fever."
"You deny the fact, then, that you were on the wharf that morning?"
"Of course I do! I was brought ashore that day unconscious, and can bring witnesses to prove it."
"Ah!" For the first time Smith began to show a trace of interest. "Their names?"
"John Solomon for one. Miss Sara Helmuth for another, the doctor who attended me, natives——
"Testimony of natives not allowed." The commissioner glanced at his police officer. "Who is this—er—this John Solomon, lieutenant?"
The officer hesitated, for he knew Solomon of old.
"He is a planter, Mr. Smith. His place is about a mile outside town. I would suggest, sir, that he be——"