I believed his statement that he did not kill his
brother, but what could these further revelations
•mean? Hall? Florence? Young Philip? Whom
would Philip Crawford thus shield for a whole
week, and then, when forced to do so, expose?

" You are making strange declarations, Mr.
Crawford," said Lawyer Randolph, who was already
white-faced and trembling.
"I know it," went on Philip Crawford, "and
I trust you three men will hear my story through,
and then take such measures as you see fit.
" This pistol, as I said, is my property. Perhaps
about a month ago, I took it over to my brother
Joseph. He has always been careless of danger,
and as he was in the habit of sitting in his office
until very late, with the long windows open on a
dark veranda, I often told him he ought to keep a
weapon in his desk, by way of general protection.
Then, after there had been a number of burglaries
in West Sedgwick, I took this pistol to him, and
begged him as a favor to me to let it stay in his
desk drawer as a precautionary measure. He
laughed at my solicitude, but put it away in a



292 THE GOLD BAG

drawer, the upper right-hand one, among his busi-
ness papers. So much for the pistol.
