m, on the excuse that I wanted to copy an
inscription. I locked myself into the church, and went up to the chamber
in the tower. I spent some little time there, considering the details of
my plan of campaign, before going along the secret passage. It would be
about half-past seven, perhaps more, when I at last slipped open the
panel, and crossed over to the Moot Hall. The panel at the other end of
the passage, which admits to the Mayor's Parlour, is the fifth one on
the left-hand side of that room; I undid it very cautiously and
silently. There was then no one in the parlour. All was silent. I looked
through the crack of the panel. There was no one in the place at all.
Incidentally, I may mention that when I thus took an observation of the
parlour I noticed that on an old oak chest, standing by the wainscoting
and immediately behind the Mayor's chair and desk, lay the rapier which
was produced at the inquest, and with which he, undoubtedly, was killed.

"I suddenly heard the handle of the door into the corridor turned, then
Wallingford's voice. I slipped the panel back till it was nearly
closed, and stood with my ear against it, listening. Wallingford was not
alone. He had a woman with him. And I made out, in their first exchange
of words, that he had met her in the corridor just outside the door of
the Mayor's Parlour and that they were quarrelling and both in high
temper. I----"

"Stop!" exclaimed the chairman, lifting his hand as an excited murmur
began to run round the court. "Silence! If there is any
interruption--Now," he went on, turning to Krevin, "you say you heard
Mr. Wallingford come into the Mayor's Parlour and that he was
accompanied by a woman, with whom he was having high words. Did you see
this woman?"

"No, I saw neither her nor Wallingford. I only heard their voices."

"Did you recognize her voice as that of any woman you knew?"

"I did--unmistakably! I knew quite well who she was."

"Who was she, then?"

Krevin shook his head.

"For the moment--wait!" he replied. "Let me tell my tale in my own way.
To resume, I say they--she and Wallingford--were having high words. I
could tell, for instance, that he was in a temper which I should call
furious. I overheard all that was said. He was wanting to know as they
entered the room how she had got there. She replied that she had watched
Mrs. Bunning out of her house from amongst the bushes in St. Lawrence
churchyard, and had then slipped in at Bunning'