d the coroner, shortly,
looking keenly at the young man.

"I cannot help it," observed the other, with a quick sigh of impatience
or regret. "I should have to see my duty very clearly and possess the
very strongest reasons for interfering before I presumed to offer either
advice or assistance after a letter of this kind."

"And who knows but what such reasons may yet present themselves?"
ventured the coroner. Then seeing the young man shake his head, made
haste to add in the business-like tone of one preparing to take his
leave, "At all events the matter stands open for the present; and if
during the course of to-day's inquiry you see fit to change your mind,
it will be easy enough for you to notify me." And without waiting for
any further remonstrance, he gave a quick nod and passed hastily out.

The state of mind in which he left Mr. Byrd was any thing but enviable.
Not that the young man's former determination to let this matter alone
had been in any wise shaken by the unexpected concession on the part of
the superintendent, but that the final hint concerning the inquest had
aroused his old interest to quite a formidable degree, and, what was
worse, had reawakened certain feelings which since last night it had
been his most earnest endeavor to subdue. He felt like a man pursued by
an implacable fate, and dimly wondered whether he would be allowed to
escape before it was too late to save himself from lasting uneasiness,
if not lifelong regret.

A final stroke of business for Mr. Ferris kept him at the court-house
most of the morning; but his duty in that direction being at an end, he
no longer found any excuse for neglecting the task imposed upon him by
the coroner. He accordingly proceeded to the cottage where the inquest
was being held, and finding each and every available room there packed
to its uttermost by interested spectators, took up his stand on the
outside of a curtained window, where with but a slight craning of his
neck he could catch a very satisfactory view of the different witnesses
as they appeared before the jury. The day was warm and he was by no
means uncomfortable, though he could have wished that the advantages of
his position had occasioned less envy in the breasts of the impatient
crowd that was slowly gathering at his back; or, rather, that their
sense of these advantages might have been expressed in some more
pleasing way than by the various pushes he received from the more or
less advent