at?

A. No! He looked just the same as anyone else. I thought he was some
swell of the town out for a lark. His hat was pulled down over his
eyes, and I could not see his face.

Q. Did you notice if he wore a ring?

A. Yes! I did. When he was handing me the half-sovereign, I saw he had
a diamond ring on the forefinger of his right hand.

Q. He did not say why he was on the St. Kilda Road at such an hour?

A. No! He did not.

Clement Rankin was then ordered to stand down, and the Coroner then
summed up in an address of half-an-hour's duration. There was, he
pointed out, no doubt that the death of the deceased had resulted not
from natural causes, but from the effects of poisoning. Only slight
evidence had been obtained up to the present time regarding the
circumstances of the case, but the only person who could be accused of
committing the crime was the unknown man who entered the cab with the
deceased on Friday morning at the corner of the Scotch Church, near the
Burke and Wills' monument. It had been proved that the deceased, when
he entered the cab, was, to all appearances, in good health, though in
a state of intoxication, and the fact that he was found by the cabman,
Royston, after the man in the light coat had left the cab, with a
handkerchief, saturated with chloroform, tied over his mouth, would
seem to show that he had died through the inhalation of chloroform,
which had been deliberately administered. All the obtainable evidence
in the case was circumstantial, but, nevertheless, showed conclusively
that a crime had been committed. Therefore, as the circumstances of the
case pointed to one conclusion, the jury could not do otherwise than
frame a verdict in accordance with that conclusion.

The jury retired at four o'clock, and, after an absence of a quarter of
an hour, returned with the following verdict:--

"That the deceased, whose name there is no evidence to determine, died
on the 27th day of July, from the effects of poison, namely,
chloroform, feloniously administered by some person unknown; and the
jury, on their oaths, say that the said unknown person feloniously,
wilfully, and maliciously did murder the said deceased."

CHAPTER III.

ONE HUNDRED POUNDS REWARD.

V.R.
MURDER.
100 POUNDS REWARD.

"Whereas, on Friday, the 27th day of July, the body of a man, name
unknown, was found in a hansom cab. AND WHEREAS, at an inquest held at
St. Kilda, on the 30th day of July, a verdic