welry, I should believe her to
have been a victim of this lying man and woman. As it is, I don't trust
them. They say that my poor mother was found lying ready dressed and
quite dead in the wood. That may be true, for I saw men bringing her
in. But if so, what warrant have we that she was not lured there,
slaughtered, and made to seem the victim of accident by this
unscrupulous man and woman? Such things have been done; but for a
daughter to fabricate such a plot as they impute to me is past belief,
out of Nature and impossible. With all their wiles, they cannot prove
it. I dare them to do so; I dare any one to do so."

Then she begged to be allowed to search the house for the room she so
well remembered. "When I show you that," she cried, with ringing
assurance, "you will believe the rest of my story."

"Shall I take the young lady up myself?" asked Mr. Quimby. "Or will it
be enough if my wife accompanies her?"

"We will all accompany her," said the coroner.

"Very good," came in hearty acquiescence.

"It's the only way to quiet her," he whispered in Mr. Hammersmith's ear.

The latter turned on him suddenly.

"None of your insinuations," he cried. "She's as far from insane as I am
myself. We shall find the room."

"You, too," fell softly from the other's lips as he stepped back into
the coroner's wake. Mr. Hammersmith gave his arm to Miss Demarest, and
the landlady brought up the rear.

"Upstairs," ordered the trembling girl. "We will go first to the room I
occupied."

As they reached the door, she motioned them all back, and started away
from them down the hall. Quickly they followed. "It was around a
corner," she muttered broodingly, halting at the first turning. "That is
all I remember. But we'll visit every room."

"We have already," objected the coroner, but meeting Mr. Hammersmith's
warning look, he desisted from further interference.

"I remember its appearance perfectly. I remember it as if it were my
own," she persisted, as door after door was thrown back and as quickly
shut again at a shake of her head. "Isn't there another hall? Might I
not have turned some other corner?"

"Yes, there is another hall," acquiesced the landlord, leading the way
into the passage communicating with the extension.

"Oh!" she murmured, as she noted the increased interest in both the
coroner and his companion; "we shall find it here."

"Do you recognise the hall?" asked the coroner as they stepped through a
narro