"Yes," said Harry, "it was."
"Then you had heard of the fire before Sunday morning?"
"I had."
"And you lied again when you testified to the contrary?"
"I am sick of lying. Let me tell you the truth."
"It is the truth I am searching for."
"You have tripped and tangled me," said Harry, speaking slowly, "so that my actions when I make a clean breast of them may look worse than they were. I wish I had told you the truth from the beginning. I was a fool to hide it at all.
"I did leave Woodlawn that Saturday for my uncle's house on the 3 o'clock train and returned on the 3:29 from the city. I had been wrought up by Mr. Hodgkins' visit of the night before. He was going to open the safe at 2:30 the next day and the will would be read at last. If I were disinherited I should be absolutely penniless, dependent on my mother, and her property, I knew, was encumbered."
"Your mother, then, was your father's sole heir?" asked the district attorney.
"Yes, sir."