Cleek, at the back of the court, with Mr. Narkom on his right and Dollops
on his left, waited for that one weak spot in the evidence, and saw with
a smile how the coroner lit upon it. His opinion of that worthy went up
considerably.

"You say you heard the man Wynne groaning and moaning on the garden
pathway after he was shot, and then practically saw him die?"

"I did, sir."

"And yet, a man killed in that fashion, hit in that particular portion of
the temple, always dies instantaneously. Isn't that rather strange?"

Borkins went red.

"I have nothing to say, sir. Simply what I heard."

"H'm. Well, certainly the evidence does dovetail in, and the doctors may
have been wrong in this instance. We can look into that evidence later.
Stand down."

Borkins stood down with something like a sigh of relief, and pushed his
way back into his place, his friends nodding to him and congratulating
him upon the way he had given his evidence.

Then Tony West was called, and told all that he had to tell of his
knowledge of the night's happenings in a rather irritated manner, as
though the whole thing bored him utterly, and he couldn't for the life
of him make out why any one even dreamed that old Nigel had murdered a
man. He told the coroner something of this before he finished, and as he
returned to his place a murmur of approval went up. His manner had taken
the public fancy, and they would have liked to hear more of him.

But there was another piece of evidence to be shown, and this took the
form of a scrap of creased white paper.

It was waved aloft in the coroner's hand, so that everyone could see it.

"This," said the coroner, "is an I.O.U. found upon the dead man, for two
thousand pounds, and signed with the name of Lester Stark. An important
piece of evidence, this. Will Mr. Stark kindly come forward?"

There was a rustle at the back of the court, and Stark pushed his way to
the front, his face rather red, his eyes a trifle shamefaced. As he
came, Merriton was conscious of a quickening of his pulse, of a leap of
his heart, though he loathed himself afterward for the sensation. His
eyes went toward 'Toinette, and he saw that she was looking at him, with
all the love that was in her soul laid bare for him--and all--to see. It
cheered him, as she meant it should.

Then Stark took his place upon the witness stand.

"This I.O.U. belongs to you, I take it?" said the coroner, briskly.

"It does, sir."

"And it was m