taken, step by step, though her story.
At once Mrs. Bunting realised that this was the woman who claimed
to have seen The Avenger from her bedroom window. Gaining confidence,
as she went on, the witness described how she had heard a long-drawn,
stifled screech, and, aroused from deep sleep, had instinctively
jumped out of bed and rushed to her window.

The coroner looked down at something lying on his desk. "Let me
see! Here is the plan. Yes--I think I understand that the house
in which you are lodging exactly faces the alley where the two crimes
were committed?"

And there arose a quick, futile discussion. The house did not face
the alley, but the window of the witness's bedroom faced the alley.

"A distinction without a difference," said the coroner testily.
"And now tell us as clearly and quickly as you can what you saw when
you looked out."

There fell a dead silence on the crowded court. And then the woman
broke out, speaking more volubly and firmly than she had yet done.
"I saw 'im!" she cried. "I shall never forget it--no, not till my
dying day!" And she looked round defiantly.

Mrs. Bunting suddenly remembered a chat one of the newspaper men had
had with a person who slept under this woman's room. That person
had unkindly said she felt sure that Lizzie Cole had not got up that
night--that she had made up the whole story. She, the speaker, slept
lightly, and that night had been tending a sick child. Accordingly,
she would have heard if there had been either the scream described
by Lizzie Cole, or the sound of Lizzie Cole jumping out of bed.

"We quite understand that you think you saw the"--the coroner
hesitated--"the individual who had just perpetrated these terrible
crimes. But what we want to have from you is a description of him.
In spite of the foggy atmosphere about which all are agreed, you
say you saw him distinctly, walking along for some yards below your
window. Now, please, try and tell us what he was like."

The woman began twisting and untwisting the corner of a coloured
handkerchief she held in her hand.

"Let us begin at the beginning," said the coroner patiently. "What
sort of a hat was this man wearing when you saw him hurrying from
the passage?"

"It was just a black 'at" said the witness at last, in a husky,
rather anxious tone.

"Yes--just a black hat. And a coat--were you able to see what
sort of a coat he was wearing?"

"'E 'adn't got no coat" she said decidedly. "No coat at