n you speak of?'

"An awed hush fell over the many spectators there present as Peter
Tyrrell, the night porter of the Castle Hotel, turned his head towards
the body of the court and slowly scanned the many faces there present;
for a moment he seemed to hesitate--only for a moment though, then, as
if vaguely conscious of the terrible importance his next words might
have, he shook his head gravely and said:

"'I wouldn't like to swear.'

"The coroner tried to press him, but with true British stolidity he
repeated: 'I wouldn't like to say.'

"'Well, then, what happened?' asked the coroner, who had perforce to
abandon his point.

"'The gentleman went upstairs, sir, and about a quarter of an hour later
he come down again, and I let him out. He was in a great hurry then, he
threw me a half-crown and said: "Good night."'

"'And though you saw him again then, you cannot tell us if you would
know him again?'

"Once more the hall porter's eyes wandered as if instinctively to a
certain face in the court; once more he hesitated for many seconds which
seemed like so many hours, during which a man's honour, a man's life,
hung perhaps in the balance.

"Then Peter Tyrrell repeated slowly: 'I wouldn't swear.'

"But coroner and jury alike, aye, and every spectator in that crowded
court, had seen that the man's eyes had rested during that one moment of
hesitation upon the face of the Earl of Brockelsby."

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

The man in the corner blinked across at Polly with his funny mild blue
eyes.

"No wonder you are puzzled," he continued, "so was everybody in the
court that day, every one save myself. I alone could see in my mind's
eye that gruesome murder such as it had been committed, with all its
details, and, above all, its motive, and such as you will see it
presently, when I place it all clearly before you.

"But before you see daylight in this strange case, I must plunge you
into further darkness, in the same manner as the coroner and jury were
plunged on the following day, the second day of that remarkable inquest.
It had to be adjourned, since the appearance of Mr. Timothy Beddingfield
had now become of vital importance. The public had come to regard his
absence from Birmingham at this critical moment as decidedly remarkable,
to say the least of it, and all those who did not know the lawyer by
sight wished to see him in his Inverness cape and Glengarry cap such as
he had appear