"Certainly. You may go into the other room, Murk, and remain until I call."
Murk obeyed, and Sidney Prale bent forward in his chair and looked at the attorney again, wondering what this visit meant, what was coming, half fearing that the news would be ill after all.
"Mr. Prale," Coadley said, "I have come here to your apartment to tell you that I wish you to get another attorney."
"I beg your pardon!" Prale gasped.
"I wish to withdraw from the case, Mr. Prale—that is all. An attorney does that frequently, you know."
"But I want you to handle my case," Prale said. "I have been given to understand that you are one of the foremost criminal lawyers in the city. And you have done so much already——"
"I insist that I withdraw, Mr. Prale. I shall be ethical. I shall give the man you name in my place all the knowledge at my command regarding this case, and I shall see that the change does not embarrass you or place you in jeopardy. The court will grant extensions if they are necessary."
"Farland has given me to understand that my alibi now is of such a nature that the case against me may be dismissed. I had hoped that you had come here this morning to tell me so."
"I fancy that any good attorney can get the charge dismissed," Coadley said.
"But I do not want to be freed under a cloud. I want the public to be sure I did not kill Rufus Shepley—I want to have the public know the identity of the man who did."