There was a sledge by the anvil that stood near those scales, and when the old fellow wouldn't come to time, my man lost all restraint and snatched it up, and a second later McBride was dead.

After that my man had things all his own way.

He went through the safe and took what was useful to him,--and those damn bonds of North's which weren't useful,--and skipped by the side door and out over the shed roof and down the alley, just as Joe said." Gilmore paused, and flicked away a bit of cigar ash that had lodged in a crease of his coat.
"That's the whole story of the McBride murder.

Now what do you think of my theorizing, Marsh; how does it strike you ?" But Langham did not answer him.

The gambler's words had brought it all back; he was living again the agony of that first conscious moment when he realized the thing he had done.