gel in the witness box. By the time
they reached the great, crowded room, with its table set at the far end,
its empty chairs, and the platform upon which the two bodies lay shrouded
in their black coverings, she was crying, though plainly struggling for
self possession.

Brellier found her a chair at the farther side of the room, and stood
beside her, while near by Cleek saw the figure of Borkins, clad in
ordinary clothes. He tipped one respectful finger as Brellier passed him,
and greeted him with a half-smile, as one of whom he thoroughly approved.

Then there was a little murmur of expectancy, as the group about the
doorway parted to admit the prisoner.

He came between two policemen, very pale, very haggard, greatly aged by
the few days of his ordeal. There were lines about his mouth and eyes
that were not good to see. He was thinner, older. Already the gray showed
in the hair about his temples. He walked stiffly, looking neither to
right nor left, his head up, his hands handcuffed before him; calm,
dignified, a trifle grimly amused at the whole affair--though what this
attitude cost him to keep up no one ever knew.

'Toinette uttered a cry at sight of him, and then shut her handkerchief
against her mouth. His face quivered as he recognized her voice, then,
looking across the crowded room, he saw her--and smiled....

The jury filed in one after the other, twelve stout, hardy specimens of
the country tradesman, with a local doctor and a farmer or two sprinkled
among the lump to leaven it. The coroner followed, having driven up in
the latest thing in motor cars (for he was going to do the thing
properly, as it was at the country's expense). Then the horrible
proceedings began.

After the preliminaries, which followed the usual custom (for the coroner
seemed singularly devoid of originality) the bodies were uncovered, and
a murmur of excited expectancy ran through the crowd. With morbid
curiosity they pressed forward. The reporters started to scribble in
their note-books, a little pale and perturbed, for all their experience
of such affairs. One or two of the crowd gasped, and then shut their
eyes. Brellier exclaimed aloud in French, and for a moment covered his
face with his hands; but 'Toinette made no murmur. For she had not
looked, _would_ not look upon the grim terrors that lay there. There
was no need for _that_.

The coroner spoke, attacking the matter in a business-like fashion, and
leaning down from h