charge of the local force, and a singularly
intelligent specimen of the provincial police officer, added his
testimony, most of it being concerned with the condition of the ground.
A careful examination had led him to adopt the theory that the fatal
blows had been struck while the victim was on the footpath, and that the
murderer had then carried the body across the swamp to the foot of the
railway embankment, and had there flung it into the pool.

"That," said the coroner, "is as far as I propose to take the case
to-day."

But it was not, it appeared, as far as Mr. Lazarus Lowch proposed to
take it. Bobbing up from his seat like a jack-in-the-box, the foreman
wagged a minatory finger at Reggie Beauchamp, whom he had singled out
among the audience.

"Before we adjourn, sir, I should like to ask Mr. Beauchamp there a
question. I have reason to know that he is concealing a material piece
of evidence," Lowch declaimed in his husky voice, lowering at his prey.

Mr. Mallory, wedged in, alert and watchful, near the door, gazed
thoughtfully across at his young friend. The lieutenant was already
shouldering his way towards the witness-stand, and the old diplomatist
noted not only a burning anger in the usually good-humoured boyish face,
but a trace of something like consternation. The former sentiment he
could understand, for it was nothing new for the methods of Lazarus
Lowch to provoke wrath, but what could account for the dashing sailor's
palpable nervousness?

At a nod from the coroner Reggie was sworn, and confronted the foreman
with a defiant: "Well, sir, I presume that you were eavesdropping behind
my mother's garden hedge this morning?"

Lowch ignored the innuendo. "Were you on the marsh late on Wednesday
evening, Mr. Beauchamp?" he demanded, in the tone of a grand inquisitor.

"I was," admitted Reggie, shrugging his shoulders.

"In the company of a young lady?"

"Yes," with a scowl for the friendly titter that ran round the room.

"As a gentleman, I abstain from pressing for the lady's name, though
doubtless it can be guessed by many in this assemblage," proceeded Lowch
pompously. "Let me ask if you and your companion heard a scream on the
marsh that night?"

"I am glad you labour the point of your being a gentleman," said Reggie
sweetly. "Yes, we heard some kind of a cry. I thought it was a sea-bird,
or possibly a snared rabbit."

"Then why did you not come forward when you knew that a murder had been
c