GRAFTON'S SEARCH

The funeral of Mrs. Darcy had been held, attended, as might be
supposed, by a large throng of the merely curious, as well as by some
of her distant kinsfolk, for she had few near ones. One of the
relatives was summoned to take charge of the store and her other
business affairs, for, a formal charge of murder having been made
against him, James Darcy was not permitted to attend the final
services, nor have anything more to do with the jewelry establishment.
Harry King, now painfully sober, was likewise held in jail, bail being
fixed, because of his uncertain character, at such a high figure that
he could not secure it.

The police had been busy, the prosecutor's detectives also, but, so
far, the arrest of Darcy and King had been the only ones made. Singa
Phut, whose watch was found clasped in the dead woman's hand, had been
closely questioned, but had established a perfect _alibi_.

And the testimony as to this came, not from persons of his own
nationality, but from business men and others, whose words could not be
doubted. So, in the opinion of the authorities, he was not worth
considering further. He admitted having left his watch at the shop to
be repaired, some days before the murder, and had not called at the
store since, except on the morning of the crime, and some time after
its discovery, to get his timepiece, which, of course, he was not then
allowed to take.

Darcy had been formally charged with the crime of murder by the police
captain in whose precinct the happening occurred, and, no bail being
permissible in murder cases, he must, perforce, remain locked up until