The indictment under which plaintiff in error was convicted consisted of five counts. The first and second counts charged him with killing his wife in some way and manner and by some means, instruments and weapons to the grand jurors unknown. The third, fourth and fifth counts charged him with causing her death by poisoning,—that is, by coaxing, persuading, counseling and procuring her to swallow carbolic acid, thereby causing her death.

The remains of Mrs. Ahrling were found, badly burned, lying on the ground in the ruins of their home, which was destroyed by fire on February 21, 1916. For some time previous to her death they had resided on a farm of some 200 acres in Jersey county, about nine miles southwest of Jerseyville. They had living with them at that time their two children,—a daughter, Marie, aged thirteen years, and a little boy aged three years. On December 15, 1915, plaintiff in error sold 156 acres of said farm to Leslie Stamps, agreeing to give possession by the middle of the following March. The remainder of the farm he sold to Travis Ray, agreeing to give possession of this about March 1, 1916. After selling his farm he purchased from one Lee 80 acres of land about six miles east of Jerseyville, Lee agreeing to give him possession upon finding another place. For several days previous to the death of the wife, Francis Hall, a nephew of plaintiff in error, was stopping with them at their home, apparently assisting in the chores about the farm. On Friday, February 18, 1916, previous to the house being burned, Hall and Ahrling started to drive with a team and buggy to the home of plaintiff in error's brotherin-law, Jacob Haag, about eight miles away, but found the roads in such bad condition that they gave up the attempt of driving and walked. Hall testified that plaintiff in error gave no reason for going over to Haag's. Mrs. Haag's testimony disclosed that he came over to get some money which Mrs. Ahrling had left with Mrs. Haag some days

previous with instructions to keep it until she or her husband called for it. While plaintiff in error was at the Haag home on that Friday he asked for and obtained the package containing the money and apparently took the money out of the package and carried it away with him. Hall testified that on the way over and back plaintiff in error did very little talking, but that on the trip home he told his nephew that they were going to hang him (Ahrling); that they would get him (the nephew) up in court and give him an awful raking. Hall testified that Ahrling had told him at other times that the neighbors suspicioned him and his wife of poisoning horses. While they were over at Haag's on this Friday, Ahrling requested Mr. and Mrs. Haag, if anything happened to Ahrling or Mrs. Ahrling, to take care of his children, and it seems he stated to them at that time, as he had at previous times, that the neighbors were suspicioning him and his wife of trying to poison stock, and that he thought they were going to try to send him "over the road." Haag told him he did not think there was anything to those charges. Hall testified that nothing happened out of the ordinary on the Friday night after they got back home, and that he knew of no difficulty between plaintiff in error and his wife while he stopped with them on that night or on any of the days previous. Mr. and Mrs. Ahrling arose before Hall did on the morning of Saturday, February 19, and plaintiff in error apparently was doing the chores about the farm and house before Hall got up. After Hall was dressed Ahrling and Hall chopped up an old ladder, apparently for stove wood, and each of them carried an armful of the wood, thus chopped, into the house. After they had eaten breakfast, Hall, at plaintiff in error's request, hitched up the horses to the buggy and tied them to a fence in the yard. Thereafter plaintiff in error told him that he wanted him to take the children and drive them over to the Haags. The chil

dren were then prepared for the trip, the wife assisting in the work, and one or more boxes were filled with the clothing that it was thought might be needed by the children while at the Haags. Before they started plaintiff in error gave Hall $20, which he told him to give to the Haags to buy clothing for the children, and also gave him a pocketbook with some silver money in it to be given by Hall to the daughter, Marie. How much money was in the pocketbook Hall did not know or whether there was any paper money in it. He also testified that plaintiff in error said at the time he was giving him the $20, while he was holding a roll of bills in his hand, if he thought Haag knew how to use it he would send over the roll of bills to him. Hall's testimony shows, beyond question, that Mrs. Ahrling knew that the $20 was to be sent by Hall to the Haags to buy clothes for the children, as she asked her husband if he had given Hall the money, and remarked during the conversation that she thought $20 would be enough. After the children were in the buggy Hall drove to the road, two or three hundred feet from the house, when plaintiff in error called to him to stop and came and kissed the children goodby, and at Hall's request brought Hall's pipe, which had been forgotten. Hall testified that he gave no reason for wanting to send the children over to the Haags. Hall then asked the plaintiff in error if he could use the team the next day to drive into Jerseyville, where Hall lived. Plaintiff in error told him he could do so,-that he didn't think he would use the team any more. Hall then drove over to the Haags with the children and remained there over night and next morning drove to Jerseyville. Shortly after he had left, Sunday, plaintiff in error came within sight of the Haag home. It appears that Sunday morning he rode on a horse from his home towards the Haag home, and then, when near there, left the main road to take a short cut to the farm. When some distance away he came to a fence that he could

not get his horse through, tied the horse there and walked on afoot. Haag, on his way to a neighbor's, met him and told him that Hall had started with the team for Jerseyville. Plaintiff in error asked Haag to take the horse and see if he could catch up with Hall, let Hall have the horse, and he (Haag) bring the team back. Haag tried to do this but did not succeed in overtaking Hall. After Ahrling reached the Haag house he remained some time talking with his sister on the first floor, and while there placed in a closet a small package, which was found thereafter to contain a bunch of keys. It is claimed by the State that these were keys to the cellar of his home, which he had locked before he left. Shortly thereafter plaintiff in error went up-stairs in the Haag home, and his sister in a short time heard him coughing and spitting and moving about in a nervous way. She was afraid to go up-stairs to see what was the matter, but when her husband came home, after hearing as to Ahrling's actions, he went up at once, and Ahrling told him that he had taken a dose but had put too much water in it and the thing didn't do any good. When dinner was ready that day Mrs. Haag asked both men to come and eat. Haag came but plaintiff in error refused to do so. Later she took up some food to him, but, as we understand, he did not eat anything. In the afternoon Haag stayed with him, and testified that he was sharpening a large jack-knife on the whetstone, and from what he said and the way he acted Haag thought he was going to try to kill himself, plaintiff in error saying he was tired of living and wanted to be done with it. Ahrling apparently came down-stairs to the evening meal and stayed there during the evening and went back up-stairs to bed. Haag occupied the bed with him, but testified that he was awake most of the night. Mrs. Haag and the children slept down-stairs. She testified that the plaintiff in error left his shoes down-stairs and she saw him get them in the morning. Haag and his wife both testified as witnesses for the State. Neither of them was asked directly

by either counsel as to whether plaintiff in error had been up and out of the house during the night, though Haag testified positively that he was with plaintiff in error from the time he went to him after he got home until they left for plaintiff in error's home Monday morning, February 21. When Ahrling and the Haags were up and dressed Monday morning Ahrling said he was going home and Haag volunteered to go with him, Ahrling simply answering, "All right," or something to that effect. They both walked, leading the horse, and went by the road, thinking they would meet Hall coming back from Jerseyville with the team and buggy. When they were several miles from the Haag home they met Hall, and at Hall's suggestion they got into the buggy and drove the team home while Hall rode the horse, following along after them. They saw before they got there a crowd of people about the house, and found on arriving that it had been burned to the ground. Mrs. Haag, just before her husband left home that morning, gave Haag the bunch of keys that plaintiff in error had placed in the closet the day before and told him to give them to plaintiff in error, and Haag handed them to Ahrling on the way over or after they reached the farm.

The record does not show what the wife did after Hall left with the children on Saturday morning, February 19. Plaintiff in error did not testify on the trial, and there is no testimony in the record that he said anything as to what happened at his home after Hall left with the children. There is some testimony that tends to show that some of the curtains on the down-stairs windows in plaintiff in error's home were moved up or down in some of the rooms on the Sunday in question, some of the neighbors saying at one time the curtains were down to the window sill; others saying at other times the shades were partly up. One witness, a girl of about sixteen years, who lived with her parents some distance from the Ahrling farm, testified that on the Sunday in question, between three and four o'clock