s hour of public importance.

I crossed over to the table on the Coroner's left, reserved for the
State officers, and took a seat there with the Inspector, Detective
Miles, and several policemen.

A mass of people filled the farther end of the room; most of them
spectators drawn to the scene by the morbid curiosity that always
attends on such occasions. Conspicuous among them I recognized Littell,
Davis, Benton, and others whom I knew to be present as witnesses. Van
Bult was not there, however.

Davis looked pale, nervous, and miserable. Poor fellow, evidently this
sort of thing did not agree with him. Benton was also nervous and
excited, I could see. Littell looked somewhat bored and tired, but gave
me a nod and came over to me, making his way into the forbidden precinct
without interruption, as can only be done by men such as he, who by
quick and mendacious assumption are in the habit of getting what is not
by right theirs.

As he leaned over my chair, he whispered: "This is a miserable affair,
Dick!" I was not inclined for conversation, however, as I wished to give
my entire attention to the proceedings, so I only motioned him to a
chair nearby.

Without unnecessary delay, the Coroner briefly stated the occasion of
the hearing, and then gave the results of his observation and
post-mortem. He did it with no more verbosity and display of
unintelligible technical terminology than the ordinary medical expert
indulges himself in on such occasions.

The jury and audience were able to glean from his testimony with
reasonable certainty, nevertheless, that White had died from a stab--I
believe he said "an incised wound"--made by a dagger or dirk or some
similar slim, sharp instrument driven with great force into the back,
just beneath the left shoulder blade, slightly downward in direction and
penetrating the heart,--such a blow as might have been given by a man
standing over him while he lay on his right side.

There was no other cause of death, for White was organically as sound as
the average man. In reply to a few suggestions rather than questions
from the Inspector, he added that, when he had first seen White about
eight o'clock the preceding morning, he had probably been dead some
hours, he could not say definitely; that he died suddenly, probably
without much outcry or struggle; that he had not killed himself, because
the wound could not have been self-inflicted. This much was reasonably
clear from his testimo