The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-06-06
CHAPTER Ill.

CHAPTER III.
 Crisp's omission to return to tht books may have blunted his neral sense or it may have been mere chance tha led him to be nearly quarter of an houi late on Monday morning. As he hur ried up the alley he was surprised by the sight of a group collected about Park mans door Among them were one ol two of Parkman's clerks looking unlike themselves, and one or two policemen unable to look anything but themselves
 "What is up!" he asked lightly; bu though they all seemed to be looking d him, no one answered. Instead, a clerk one of the juniors, said audibly, Ina is MT. Crispl" and strange voice an swered emphatically, "That is the man r This seemed to cause sensation, amic which short, stout person with blnn hearty voice and humorous eye pushed through the group and said, "This way sir, please" in a voice of authority.
 "What in the world is the matter J asked Crisp.
 "Tell you in moment, sir. Please tc step with me up to MT. Parkman': room." Aud he took Crisp by the arm in what the latter thought an odd fashion and so led him up, and swiftly through the clerks office, which was half full o staring gapers, and into the junior part. ner's room.
 Crisp looked round him in utter be. wilderment. On the hearthrug stood MT PArkman, pale and agitated. By the window two gentlemen were talking. A, the table, apparently making some notes, sat police officer.
 "Watson," said his conductor, shutting the door firmly behind them, "do you take him l" And fell back into a cor ner of the room, where he seemed to busy himself with an old Joe Miller, so very faCetious that 1t rendered him obliv- ious to all going on around him.
 While Crisp stood looking from one to the other, the superintendent rose ab- ruptly and stepped close to him. "Mine is painful business, sir. You are MT. Ernest Crisp. think?"
 It darted into Crisp's mind that the chief had put the police in motion in the matter of that little discrepancy in his accounts but single glance at MT. Parkmans pale, sympathizing face, sui feed to dispose of that. "Yes," he said, am. That is my name"
 "You may or may not know, then, th at great crime was committed here on Saturday afternoon. The cashier, Mir. Cntchlow, has been found dead in his office, stabbed to the heart from behind"
 "Mr. Critchlow," the head clerk whis- pered with white, shaking lips. And you have been identified as the person last seen to leave the house. I'm sorry to say that must take you into custody on suspicion I must warn you too, Mr. Crisp, that anything you say will be given in evidence against you" "Oa Saturday afternoonl" Crisp mutt tered in awed aco ents, looking around him with eyes that did not see. "But what-why am suspectedp"
 All tha at you will hear at the Mansion House. l am anxious to take you there at once, and with as little unpleasantness to yourself as possible"
 It is a mere formality, Crisp," Mir. Parkman volunteered, speaking for the first time with earnest kindness. q will attend myself and say how perfectly ridiculous your conduct for years makes this charge appear"
 The color came back to the clerks face. "Thank you, sir" he said. Perhaps you will let yourself be searched here?" asked the policeman. Crisp nodded acquiescence, and did not finch when the operation began. But the first article to appear were two keys. The policeman looked carelessly at tue first; but his face lit up wonderfully as he held up the second.
 :" This is the missing keyl" he ex- claimed, and a thrill of intelligence seemed to pass round the room.
 That key" said Crisp, still bewildered and graphing with the memory of things which seem to have happened so long ago, "that is the key of Mir. Critch@ he stopped with trembling lips. He had gone so far minimizing and then his po- sition in all its bearings flashed across his mind. He remembered all that the pres- ence of that key upon hin, all that the words he had uttered, might mean for him. The room began to go round, wis., ions of Ethel and Mir. Critchlow swam before his eyes. Amid an appalling si- lence, which had greeted his words, he fell to the floor in dead faint.
 Five minutes later the room was cleared of all save its owner and short, stout man. "I cannot believe it now" Mir. Parkman was saying, "and yet the key the key How can he explain that 1? How can he explain that?"
 "You remember, sir, told you it was a pretty clear case~ answered the detec- tive-for such he was, and a we'll known one.
 "You did, and did not believe you D the merchant answered with a groan. He was very greatly distressed, and no won- der.
 "Well, sir, I'm inclined 10 think sha. you were right and was wrong," the other answered dryly.
 Eh Less clear now, inspector2 But the key7"
 SIt is the key, and another matter or two, that puzzles me-" the man answered thoughtfully. "You've read, dare say, of murderers doing stupid things, sir There was that nurse who s;rangled her patient and then could not refrain from