nodded slowly. "She would then not be again
released until after she shall have been proved innocent. How great a
time would that occupy?"

"I can't say--six months--a year, perhaps."

"Ah, I see," he said again, and drained a glass of absinthe he had
been toying with. "Thank you, ver' much, sir."

He arose and went slowly out, and I noted the strength of his figure,
the short neck----

The waiter came with bread and butter, and I realized suddenly that it
was long past the half-hour. Indeed, a glance at my watch showed me
that nearly an hour had gone. I waited fifteen minutes longer, ate
what I could, and, taking a box-lunch under my arm, hurried back to
the coroner's office. As I entered it, I saw a bowed figure sitting at
the table, and my heart fell as I recognized our junior. His whole
attitude expressed a despair absolute, past redemption.

"I've brought your lunch, Mr. Royce," I said, with what lightness I
could muster. "The proceedings will commence in half an hour--you'd
better eat something," and I opened the box.

He looked at it for a moment, and then began mechanically to eat.

"You look regularly done up," I ventured. "Wouldn't I better get you
a glass of brandy? That'll tone you up."

"All right," he assented listlessly, and I hurried away on the errand.

The brandy brought a little color back to his cheeks, and he began to
eat with more interest.

"Must I order lunch for Miss Holladay?" I questioned.

"No," he said. "She said she didn't wish any."

He relapsed again into silence. Plainly, he had received some new blow
during my absence.

"After all," I began, "you know we've only to prove an alibi to knock
to pieces this whole house of cards."

"Yes, that's all," he agreed. "But suppose we can't do it, Lester?"

"Can't do it?" I faltered. "Do you mean----?"

"I mean that Miss Holladay positively refuses to say where she spent
yesterday afternoon."

"Does she understand the--the necessity?" I asked.

"I pointed it out to her as clearly as I could. I'm all at sea,
Lester."

Well, if even he were beginning to doubt, matters were indeed serious!

"It's incomprehensible!" I sighed, after a moment's confused thought.
"It's----"

"Yes--past believing."

"But the coachman----"

"The coachman's evidence, I fear, won't help us much--rather the
reverse."

I actually gasped for breath--I felt like a drowning man from whose
grasp the saving rope had suddenly, unaccountably, been snatc