d by Mrs. Crofton much surprised Radmore. She had
asserted, quite definitely, that her husband had suffered from
shell-shock. That Radmore believed to be quite untrue.

With quickened, painful interest he read her account of how odd and how
cranky Colonel Crofton had become when wholly absorbed in his hobby of
breeding wire-haired terriers. How, when one of his dogs had failed to
win a prize, he would go about muttering to himself, and visiting his
annoyance and disappointment on those about him.

She had drawn a sad picture of the last long months of their joint life
together and Radmore began to feel very, very sorry for her.... What an
awful ordeal the poor little woman had gone through!

The doctor's evidence made painful reading, but what had really clinched
the matter was the evidence of one Piper, the Croftons' general odd man
and trusted servant. He had been Colonel Crofton's batman during part of
the war, and was evidently much attached to him. When Piper repeated the
words in which his master had once or twice threatened to take his own
life, his evidence had obviously made a strong impression on both coroner
and jury.

Radmore remembered Piper with a faint feeling of dislike. It was Piper
who had prepared the puppy, Flick, for the cross-country journey to
Beechfield, and Radmore had given the man a handsome tip for all the
trouble he had taken.

Yes, he had not liked Piper; so much he remembered. He had thought the
man self-assertive, over self-confident, while disagreeably cringing in
manner.

He read through the coroner's charge, which was given fully, very
attentively. It was quite clear that the coroner was strongly biased,
if one could put it that way, in Mrs. Crofton's favour. He had spoken
touchingly of the difficult time the poor young lady had had with her
husband. Then he had recalled that the Colonel's own favourite terrier,
Dandy, on which he had built great hopes, had only been commended,
instead of winning, as he had hoped, the first prize at an important
show, and that had thoroughly upset him. Indeed, according to Piper's
evidence, he had used the exaggerated phrase, "My life is no longer worth
living." Finally the coroner had touched lightly, but severely, on
evidence tendered by a spiteful ex-woman-servant of the Croftons who had
drawn a very unpleasant picture of the relations existing between the
husband and wife.

Yet when the verdict of _felo de se_ had been returned, there had b