the woman, Calamity was lying on the ground
sobbing to break her heart. No one else was visible."

"You say the wound was such that it could not possibly have been
self-inflicted?"

"You determined that for yourselves, when you examined the body,"
answered Wayland.

"Was the woman's position such that she might have shot him?"

"The shot was in the right temple, close; close enough to scorch the
face! You have the record of that! The woman was kneeling on the
ground a little to the left facing him."

"Did she carry a weapon?"

"She did not."

"How do you know she had not one concealed?"

"Because I caught her by the shoulders and lifted her up and shook her
and said, 'Calamity, who did this?'"

"What did she answer?"

The attorney was on his feet with a bang of his fist on the table that
shut off the answer:

"Mr. Coroner, this evidence has proceeded far enough to show that the
death of the deceased gentleman had absolutely no connection whatever
with the official examination of the mines. The dead cannot defend
themselves. Out of respect to the deceased and the member of his
family--"

"That," interrupted Matthews, breaking from his chair, "is the third
time th' insinuation has been thrown out that MacDonald had things in
his life that wud na bear tellin'! A know his life: A know all his
life: ask me!"

But the attorney and the coroner were in an endless wrangle as to law,
that was Hebrew to the listeners, and gave the roomful of spectators
ample time to imbibe the false impression that was meant to be
conveyed, and to pass it to the prurient crowd outside. After a half
hour of reading from authorities to prove that the answer was
inadmissible as evidence, and another half hour rattling off counter
authorities at such a rate the listeners could not possibly judge for
themselves, the coroner reserved decision as to whether that answer
could be admitted as evidence or not, coming as it did from a person
plainly of unsound mind.

"What next happened?"

"I tied a stone to the cut end of the cable and unrolled the rope on
the hoist and gave it a hard enough pitch to send the stone past the
bend in the shaft."

"And when you turned to work the hoist and bring up the others?"

"And when I turned to work the hoist, the Indian woman was nowhere to
be seen. The chances are she knew the guilty parties would try to
throw the blame--"

"Mr. Coroner," shouted the attorney, "there can be no chances r