n-French summons to all
whose business it is to attend a solemn inquiry into the death
--sudden, unexplained, terrible--of a fellow-being.

The jury--there were fourteen of them--all stood up again. They
raised their hands and solemnly chanted together the curious words
of their oath.

Then came a quick, informal exchange of sentences 'twixt the coroner
and his officer.

Yes, everything was in order. The jury had viewed the bodies--he
quickly corrected himself--the body, for, technically speaking, the
inquest just about to be held only concerned one body.

And then, amid a silence so absolute that the slightest rustle could
be heard through the court, the coroner--a clever-looking gentleman,
though not so old as Mrs. Bunting thought he ought to have been to
occupy so important a position on so important a day--gave a little
history, as it were, of the terrible and mysterious Avenger crimes.

He spoke very clearly, warming to his work as he went on.

He told them that he had been present at the inquest held on one of
The Avenger's former victims. "I only went through professional
curiosity," he threw in by way of parenthesis, "little thinking,
gentlemen, that the inquest on one of these unhappy creatures would
ever be held in my court."

On and on, he went, though he had, in truth, but little to say, and
though that little was known to every one of his listeners.

Mrs. Bunting heard one of the older gentlemen sitting near her
whisper to another: "Drawing it out all he can; that's what he's
doing. Having the time of his life, evidently!" And then the other
whispered back, so low that she could only just catch the words,
"Aye, aye. But he's a good chap--I knew his father; we were at
school together. Takes his job very seriously, you know--he does
to-day, at any rate."

******

She was listening intently, waiting for a word, a sentence, which
would relieve her hidden terrors, or, on the other hand, confirm
them. But the word, the sentence, was never uttered.

And yet, at the very end of his long peroration, the coroner did
throw out a hint which might mean anything--or nothing.

"I am glad to say that we hope to obtain such evidence to-day as
will in time lead to the apprehension of the miscreant who has
committed, and is still committing, these terrible crimes."

Mrs. Bunting stared uneasily up into the coroner's firm,
determined-looking face. What did he mean by that? Was there any
new evidence--evidence