illiant light, his eyes narrowed until
they were nearly closed. Again the question, and again a moment of
nervousness before she answered:

"No--no--it would n't be in my book. I looked."

"But you remember?"

"Just like as if it was yesterday."

"And what you saw--did it give you any idea--"

"I know what I saw."

"And did it lead to any conclusion?"

"Yes."

"What, may I ask?"

"That somebody had been murdered!"

"Who--and by whom?"

Crazy Laura munched at her toothless gums for a moment and looked again
toward her husband. Then, her watery, almost colorless eyes searching,
she began a survey of the big room, looking intently from one figure to
another. On and on--finally to reach the spot where stood Robert
Fairchild and Harry, and there they stopped. A lean finger, knotted by
rheumatism, darkened by sun and wind, stretched out.

"Yes, I know who did it, and I know who got killed. It was 'Sissie'
Larsen--he was murdered. The man who did it was a fellow named
Thornton Fairchild who owned the mine--if I ain't mistaken, he was the
father of this young man--"

"I object!" Farrell, the attorney, was on his feet and struggling
forward, jamming his horn-rimmed glasses into a pocket as he did so.
"This has ceased to be an inquest; it has resolved itself into some
sort of an inquisition!"

"I fail to see why." The coroner had stepped down and was facing him.

"Why? Why--you 're inquiring into a death that happened more than
twenty years ago--and you 're basing that inquiry upon the word of a
woman who is not legally able to give testimony in any kind of a court
or on any kind of a case! It's not judicial, it's not within the
confines of a legitimate, honorable practice, and it certainly is not
just to stain the name of any man with the crime of murder upon the
word of an insane person, especially when that man is dead and unable
to defend himself!"

"Are n't you presuming?"

"I certainly am not. Have you any further evidence upon the lines that
she is going to give?"

"Not directly."

"Then I demand that all the testimony which this woman has given be
stricken out and the jury instructed to disregard it."

The official smiled.

"I think otherwise. Besides, this is merely a coroner's inquest and
not a court action. The jury is entitled to all the evidence that has
any bearing on the case."

"But this woman is crazy!"

"Has she ever been adjudged so, or committed to any asylum for