uld have reached the
house from the back, and so have eluded the gaze of the neighbors round
about?"

"No; that is, there is no regular path there, only a stretch of swampy
ground, any thing but pleasant to travel through. Of course a man with a
deliberate purpose before him might pursue that route and subject
himself to all its inconveniences; but I would scarcely expect it of one
who--who chose such an hour for his assault," the coroner explained,
with a slight stammer of embarrassment that did not escape the
detective's notice. "Nor shall I feel ready to entertain the idea till
it has been proved that no person, with the exception of those already
named, was seen any time during that fatal half-hour to advance by the
usual way to the widow's house."

"Have you questioned the tramp, or in any way received from him an
intimation of the reason why he did not go into the house after he came
to it?"

"He said he heard voices quarrelling."

"Ah!"

"Of course he was not upon his oath, but as the statement was
volunteered, we have some right to credit it, perhaps."

"Did he say"--it was Mr. Byrd now who lost a trifle of his
fluency--"what sort of voices he heard?"

"No; he is an ignorant wretch, and is moreover thoroughly frightened. I
don't believe he would know a cultivated from an uncultivated voice, a
gentleman's from a quarryman's. At all events, we cannot trust to his
discrimination."

Mr. Byrd started. This was the last construction he had expected to be
put upon his question. Flushing a trifle, he looked the coroner
earnestly in the face. But that gentleman was too absorbed in the train
of thought raised by his own remark to notice the look, and Mr. Byrd,
not feeling any too well assured of his own position, forbore to utter
the words that hovered on his tongue.

"I have another commission for you," resumed the coroner, after a
moment. "Here is a name which I wish you would look at----"

But at this instant a smart tap was heard at the door, and a boy entered
with the expected telegram from New York. Dr. Tredwell took it, and,
after glancing at its contents with an annoyed look, folded up the paper
he was about to hand to Mr. Byrd and put it slowly back into his pocket.
He then referred again to the telegram.

"It is not what I expected," he said, shortly, after a moment of
perplexed thought. "It seems that the superintendent is not disposed to
accommodate me." And he tossed over the telegram.

Mr. B