xtricated. The bolt was
missing and search failed to find it. A quantity of evidence was
forthcoming, and many theories advanced, the conclusion arrived at being
that the left wing collapsed owing to undue strain, and the machine,
instantly out of control, fell to earth.

There was but one verdict which the twelve honest men of Mundesley could
return.

Expert evidence agreed that the quick-release at the end of one of the
stay-wires was faulty. The steel bolt holding the main-stay cable and
secured by a split-pin could not be found. It had evidently broken and
fallen out, so that the left wing, being thus unsupported, had collapsed
in mid-air.

And in face of these facts the jury returned a verdict of "Accidental
death."

This the public read next morning in their newspapers, together with
expressions of deep sympathy and declarations that the air was, as yet,
unconquered.

On the same day as the inquest was held upon the body of Lieutenant
Barclay, a coroner's inquiry was held at the little market-town of North
Walsham, which, though inland, is the relay for the telegraph-cables
diverging to Northern Europe, into the discovery on the highway of the
body of the motor-cyclist, Mr. Richard Harborne.

Held in a schoolroom near the railway station, public and witnesses sat
upon the school benches, while the coroner occupied the headmaster's
desk.

Again there was an array of witnesses, but from the first the crowd at
the back of the room scented mystery.

A carter of the village of Worstead, speaking in his broad Norfolk
brogue, described how he had discovered the body and had come into North
Walsham and told a constable.

"I was a coomin' into North Walsham wi' a load o' hay what I'd got from
Mr. Summers, o' Stalham, when just after I turned into the Norwich road
I saw sawmthin' a-lyin' in the ditch," he said slowly, while the
grey-haired deputy-coroner carefully wrote down his words.

"Well?" asked the official, looking up at the witness.

"Well, sir, I found it was 'im," the man replied.

"Who?"

"The gentleman what war killed."

"The deceased, you mean," said the coroner.

"Yes, sir. I went over and found 'im a-lyin' face downwards," was the
reply. "I thought 'e wor drunk at first, but when I see blood on the
road I knowed there'd been sawmthin' up. So I went over to 'im."

"In what position was the body when you discovered it?" the coroner
asked.

"'E wor a-lyin' with 'is feet in the water an' '