ut
which in her eyes seemed to possess an incalculable value, for she had
no sooner seen it than her whole face flushed and a look of positive
delight supplanted the passionately aggrieved one with which she had
hitherto faced him.

"You had bought _that_?"

He smiled and returned it to his pocket.

"For you," he simply said.

The joy and pride with which she regarded him, despite the protesting
murmur of the discomfited Hammersmith, proved that the wily Jake had
been too much for them.

"You see!" This to Hammersmith, "Jake didn't mean any harm, only
kindness to us both. If you will let him go, I'll be more thankful than
when you helped me down off the roof. We're wanting to be married.
Didn't you see him show me the ring?"

It was for the coroner to answer.

"We'll let him go when we're assured that he means all that he says. I
haven't as good an opinion of him as you have. I think he's deceiving
you and that you are a very foolish girl to trust him. Men don't fire on
the women they love, for any reason. You'd better tell me what you have
against him."

"I haven't anything against him _now_."

"But you were going to tell us something----"

"I guess I was fooling."

"People are not apt to fool who have just been in terror of their
lives."

Her eyes sought the ground. "I'm just a hardworking girl," she muttered
almost sullenly. "What should I know about that man Quimby's dreadful
doings?"

"Dreadful? You call them dreadful?" It was Doctor Golden who spoke.

"He locked me in my room," she violently declared. "That wasn't done for
fun."

"And is that all you can tell us? Don't look at Jake. Look at me."

"But I don't know what to say. I don't even know what you want."

"I'll tell you. Your work in the house has been upstairs work, hasn't
it?"

"Yes, sir. I did up the rooms--some of them," she added cautiously.

"What rooms? Front rooms, rear rooms, or both?"

"Rooms in front; those on the third floor."

"But you sometimes went into the extension?"

"I've been down the hall."

"Haven't you been in any of the rooms there,--Number 3, for instance?"

"No, sir; my work didn't take me there."

"But you've heard of the room?"

"Yes, sir. The girls sometimes spoke of it. It had a bad name, and
wasn't often used. No girl liked to go there. A man was found dead in it
once. They said he killed his own self."

"Have you ever heard any one describe this room?"

"No, sir."

"Tell what paper was