mself with some papers, then she asked to see
the body. When they had returned to Willis's room he invited her to sit
down again.

"I very deeply regret, Miss Coburn," he said, "to have to trouble you at
this time with questions, but I fear you will have to give evidence at
the inquest this afternoon, and it will be easier for yourself to make
a statement now, so that only what is absolutely necessary need be asked
you then."

Madeleine seemed stunned by the tragedy, and she spoke as if in a dream.

"I am ready to do what is necessary."

He thanked her, and began by inquiring about her father's history. Mr.
Coburn, it appeared, had had a public school and college training, but,
his father dying when he was just twenty, and leaving the family in
somewhat poor circumstances, he had gone into business as a clerk in
the Hopwood Manufacturing Company, a large engineering works in the
Midlands. In this, he had risen until he held the important position
of cashier, and he and his wife and daughter had lived in happiness and
comfort during the latter's girlhood. But some six years previous to the
tragedy which had just taken place a change had come over the household.
In the first place, Mrs. Coburn had developed a painful illness and had
dragged out a miserable existence for the three years before her death.
At the same time, whether from the expense of the illness or from other
causes Miss Coburn did not know, financial embarrassment seemed to
descend on her father. One by one their small luxuries were cut off,
then their house had to be given up, and they had moved to rooms in a
rather poor locality of the town. Their crowning misfortune followed
rapidly. Mr. Coburn gave up his position at the works, and for a time
actual want stared them in the face. Then this Pit-Prop Syndicate had
been formed, and Mr. Coburn had gone into it as the manager of the
loading station. Miss Coburn did not know the reason of his leaving the
engineering works, but she suspected there had been friction, as his
disposition for a time had changed, and he had lost his bright manner
and vivacity. He had, however, to a large extent recovered while in
France. She was not aware, either, of the terms on which he had entered
the syndicate, but she imagined he shared in the profits instead of
receiving a salary.

These facts, which Willis obtained by astute questioning, seemed to him
not a little suggestive. From what Mr. Coburn had himself told Merrim