In the meanwhile, Russell continued to confer with the new arrival. After a final word, the captain turned aside and faced me again, while the ruddy-faced officer and his cohorts formed a circle around Neuendorf. Then, grabbing the latter by his pinioned arms, the policemen half-led, half-dragged the captive from the scene, while the remaining spectators pelted him with a final barrage of invective.

“Well, Mr. Poe,” said Captain Russell when the contingent of officers, with the prisoner in their midst, had disappeared from view. “Now that I have placed Neuendorf in the custody of my men, I am at liberty to hear these mysterious tidings of yours. Pray tell me what is so urgent. I confess that my curiosity has been piqued.”

Apart from Crockett’s rapt circle of auditors, most of the crowd had dispersed by this point. A handful of loiterers, however, continued to mill about the scene, casting curious looks at the captain and myself.

“Perhaps it were best,” I suggested, with a meaningful glance at these bystanders, “if our interview took place in a somewhat more secluded location. The information I possess is intended solely for your ears.”

Acknowledging the validity of my concern, Captain Russell led me in a circuit to the rear of Neuendorf’s shanty and, from thence, out onto the dock. We stopped at a point halfway along the length of the pier, sufficiently far from the shore to ensure our privacy—our only audience being a dark-winged seagull perched upon one of the massive wooden piles that rose at intervals from the dark depths of the water.

“Well, Mr. Poe …?” inquired the officer with an anticipatory look.

Shivering slightly in the chill breeze that wafted from the bay, I cleared my throat and announced, “Captain Russell, I have compelling reason to believe that the man you have placed under arrest may not, in truth, be the culprit.”

The captain raised his eyebrows. “You surprise me, sir!” he exclaimed. “Having observed the brute at close hand, how can you question his incorrigible nature? Or,” he added, patting his side with one hand, “his fearsome facility with this?”

Glancing down, I saw that the knife which Crockett had confiscated from Neuendorf and presented to Captain Russell was thrust through the latter’s wide leather belt. It was, in truth, a ferocious-looking implement, with a carved, stag-horn handle and long, serrated blade.

“Of Neuendorf’s violent capacities I have not the slightest doubt,” I replied. “My conclusion, however, is based, not on his potential for homicidal behavior, but on the incontrovertible facts of pure, empirical evidence!”

“Evidence?” echoed the captain, his brow furrowing.

“I refer to the bloody message on the wall above the bed of the unfortunate victim.”

“But you, Mr. Poe, were the one who so ingeniously perceived the villain’s name in the gruesome inscription which I and my associates mistook for nothing more than a stain!”