p in.

"Any interest in this case?" he asked, and his broad, red face displayed
a great deal of that very thing. "Is your friend Ashton-Kirk along with
you?"

"No," replied Bat, easily, "he's not. But from what I hear, it's the
kind of a thing he'd like."

The sergeant shook his head.

"Oh, between you and me it's simple enough," said he. "The newspapers
have played it up some, that's all. To my mind, the party that croaked
Burton ain't out of reach by a long shot; and if they'd have left it to
me I'd had him at City Hall an hour ago."

"That so!" Bat looked surprised. "I thought it was one of those things
all bundled up in mystery."

He went slowly down the hall and turned in at the first door to the
left, which stood partly open, and from behind which he heard voices. A
burly, good-natured looking man with a derby hat in his hand was talking
to a dapper, quick-eyed personage whose carefully trimmed beard and
immaculately white waistcoat gave him the conventional "professional"
look. Near a window was a big chair, among the pillows of which reclined
a young girl with a pale, sweet face and that appearance of fragility
which comes of long-continued illness; beside her stood an
anxious-looking young man whose haggard countenance told of a sleepless
night and a harassed mind.

Scanlon at once recognized in the big man the "well-known"--as the
newspapers always put it--city detective, Osborne; and so calmly
advanced and shook his hand.

"Glad to see you," spoke Osborne, affably. "Meet Dr. Shower, assistant
to the coroner," indicating the white waistcoated gentleman.

"These investigations are not exactly the thing I care for," Dr. Shower
told Osborne, after acknowledging the presentation, graciously. "As a
matter of fact I think they are entirely within the duties of the
police. We of our office shouldn't be dragged out to view dead bodies in
all sorts of places; it consumes a great deal of time, and, as far as I
can see, can do no possible good."

Osborne shrugged his heavy shoulders.

"Well, Doctor," spoke he, "maybe you've got it right. But when old
Costigan was coroner he always insisted that a body--especially in a
case like this--should not be touched until he had looked at it and
asked his questions."

"Costigan was romantic," stated Dr. Shower, as he stroked his beard with
a firm hand; "he had imbibed a great deal of theoretical detective
nonsense, and tried to act up to it. However," with a lifting