t to withdraw, when the coroner, who had been
absent from their midst for the last few minutes, approached them from
the foot of the stairs, and tapped the detective on the arm.

"I want you," said he.

Mr. Byrd bowed, and with a glance toward the District Attorney, who
returned him a nod of approval, went quickly out with the coroner.

"I hear you are a detective," observed the latter, taking him up stairs
into a room which he carefully locked behind them. "A detective on the
spot in a case like this is valuable; are you willing to assume the
duties of your profession and act for justice in this matter?"

"Dr. Tredwell," returned the young man, instantly conscious of a vague,
inward shrinking from meddling further in the affair, "I am not at
present master of my proceedings. To say nothing of the obedience I owe
my superiors at home, I am just now engaged in assisting Mr. Ferris in
the somewhat pressing matter now before the court, and do not know
whether it would meet with his approval to have me mix up matters in
this way."

"Mr. Ferris is a reasonable man," said the coroner. "If his consent is
all that is necessary----"

"But it is not, sir. I must have orders from New York."

"Oh, as to that, I will telegraph at once."

But still the young man hesitated, lounging in his easy way against the
table by which he had taken his stand.

"Dr. Tredwell," he suggested, "you must have men in this town amply able
to manage such a matter as this. A woman struck in broad daylight and a
man already taken up on suspicion! 'Tis simple, surely; intricate
measures are not wanted here."

"So you still think it is the tramp that struck her?" quoth the coroner,
a trifle baffled by the other's careless manner.

"I still think it was not the man who sat in court all the morning and
held me fascinated by his eye."

"Ah, he held you fascinated, did he?" repeated the other, a trifle
suspiciously.

"Well, that is," Mr. Byrd allowed, with the least perceptible loss of
his easy bearing, "he made me look at him more than once. A wandering
eye always attracts me, and his wandered constantly."

"Humph! and you are sure he was in the court every minute of the
morning?"

"There must be other witnesses who can testify to that," answered the
detective, with the perceptible irritation of one weary of a subject
which he feels he has already amply discussed.

"Well," declared the other, dropping his eyes from the young man's
countena