His best friends must condemn his hypocrisy and fast-and-loose treatment of Miss Cumberland; but he vows that he had no hand in her violent death, and in this regard I feel not only bound but forced to believe him.

At all events, I am going to act on that conviction, and have come here to entreat your aid in clearing up one or two points which may affect your own opinion of his guilt.
"As his counsel I have been able to extract from him a fact or two which he has hitherto withheld from the police.

Reticent as he has shown himself from the start,--and considering the character of the two women involved in this tragedy, this cannot be looked upon as entirely to his discredit,--he has confided to me a circumstance, which in the excitement attendant on Miss Carmel Cumberland's sudden illness, may have escaped the notice of the family and very naturally, of the police.
It is this: "The ring which Miss Cumberland wore as the sign and seal of her engagement to him was not on her hand when he came upon her, as he declares he did, dead.

It was there at dinner-time--a curious ring which I have often noted myself and could accurately describe if required.

If she took it off before starting for The Whispering Pines, it should be easily found.