a mystic! Then he placed the blood-stained handkerchief in another
envelope, and finally put his hand in his pocket and brought out half
a dozen cigars.

"Now," he said, "let's sit down and rest awhile. Simmonds tells me it
was you who called him, Mr. Godfrey. How did you happen to discover
the crime?"

The question was asked carelessly, but I could feel the alert mind
behind it. I knew that Godfrey felt it, too, from the way in which he
told the story, for he told it carefully, and yet with an air of
keeping nothing back.

Of the mysterious light he said nothing, but, starting with my finding
of the letter and summoning Swain to receive it, told of the
arrangements for the rendezvous, dwelling upon it lightly, as a
love-affair which could have no connection with the tragedy. He passed
on to his own arrival from the city, to Swain's return from the
rendezvous, and finally to the screams which had reached us, and to
the discovery we had made when we burst into the house.

"I summoned Dr. Hinman immediately," he added, "for Miss Vaughan
seemed to be in a serious condition; then I called Simmonds, and
suggested that he stop for you, Mr. Coroner, for I knew that the case
would interest you. Dr. Hinman arrived perhaps half an hour ahead of
you, and had Miss Vaughan put to bed at once. And I guess you know the
rest," he concluded.

We had all listened intently. I was pretty sure that Simmonds would
make no inferences which Godfrey wished to avoid; but I feared the
more penetrating mind of the coroner. His first question proved that I
was right to do so.

"Where is this man Swain?" he asked.

"He was suffering from the shock," said Godfrey, "and Lester and Dr.
Hinman took him over to my place and put him to bed. That's where they
were when you got here."

"He seemed to be suffering from a slight concussion," Hinman
explained. "There was a swelling on one side of his head, as though
some one had struck him, and the pupils of his eyes were
unsymmetrical. He had also a cut on the wrist," he added, after an
instant's hesitation.

"Ah!" commented Goldberger, with a glance at Godfrey. "Had it been
bleeding?"

"He cut himself when crossing the wall," Godfrey explained; "a mere
scratch, but I believe it _did_ bleed a good deal."

"Ah!" said Goldberger again; and then he turned to the doctor. "Did I
understand you to say that he went to sleep?"

"He certainly did. I gave him a good strong opiate to make sure of
it."