he inquest
should have been delayed until I arrived. The way the thing was managed
was disgraceful."

"It was merciful." Jim Edwards spoke as though unwillingly, in a
muttered undertone. Evidently it was the first word he'd addressed to
Bowman--if he could be said to address him now, as he finished, "I
hadn't thought of an inquest. Yet of course there'd be one in a case of
suicide."

Bowman only heard and wholly misconstrued him, snatching at the
concluding words,

"Of course it was suicide. Done with his own weapon, taken from the
holster where we know it always hung, fully loaded. The muzzle had been
pressed so close against the breast when the cartridge exploded that the
woolen vest had taken fire. I should say it had smouldered for some
time; there was a considerable hole burned in the cloth. The flesh
around the wound was powder-scarred."

Worth took it like a red Indian. I could see by the glint of his eye as
it flickered over the doctor's face, the smooth white hands, the whole
smooth personality, that the boy disliked, and had always disliked him.
Yet he listened silently.

I rather hoped by leading questions to get Bowman to express the opinion
that Thomas Gilbert had been killed in the small hours of the morning.
Circumstances then would have fitted in with Eddie Hughes. Eddie Hughes
was to me the most acceptable murderer in sight. But no--nothing would
do him but to stick to the hour the coroner had accepted.

"Medical science cannot determine closer than that," he was very final.
"The death took place within an hour preceding midnight."

"You are positive it couldn't be this morning?" I asked.

"Positive."

Well, Dr. Bowman's testimony, if accepted at the value the doctor
himself placed upon it, would clear Worth of suspicion, for the lad was
with me at Tait's from a few minutes past ten until after one; and Jim
Edwards, now pacing the floor so restlessly, had also been there the
greater part of that time. I had had too much experience with doctor's
guesses based on _rigor mortis_ to let it affect my views.

In the minute of silence, we could hear Chung moving about at the back
of the house. The doctor spoke querulously.

"Never expect anything of a Chinaman, but I should think when the
chauffeur found the body he might have had sense enough to summon
friends of the family. He could have phoned me--I was only in San
Francisco."

"He could have phoned me at the ranch," Jim Edwards' deep voice