r in the morning: the
only way to keep her quiet is for me to stay with her until Peggy is
ready to go to her and give her her breakfast. Mother is quiet enough
with Peggy and me, but nobody else can do anything with her, and
sometimes nobody can do anything with her except my daughter. She spends
a lot of time with her, sir."

The innkeeper looked more like a bird than ever as he proffered this
explanation, standing at the foot of the stairs dressed as he had been
the previous night, with his bright bird's eyes peering from beneath his
shock of iron-grey hair at the man in front of him. Colwyn noticed that
his hair had been recently wet, and plastered straight down so that it
hung like a ridge over his forehead--just as it had been the previous
night. Colwyn wondered why the man wore his hair like that. Did he
always affect that eccentric style of hairdressing, or had he adopted it
to alter his personal appearance--to disguise himself, or to conceal
something?

"It's no life for a young girl," said the detective, in answer to the
innkeeper's last remark.

"I know that, sir. But what am I to do? I cannot afford to keep a nurse.
Peggy never complains. She's used to it. But if you'll excuse me, sir. I
must go and get the room ready for the inquest."

"What room is it going to be held in?"

"Superintendent Galloway told me to put a table and some chairs into the
last empty room off the passage leading into the kitchen. It's the
biggest room in the house, and there are plenty of chairs in the lumber
room upstairs."

"It should do excellently for the purpose, I should think," said Colwyn.

A few moments later he saw the innkeeper and the waiter carrying chairs
from the lumber room downstairs into the empty room, where Ann dusted
them. Then they carried in a small table from another room.
Superintendent Galloway, with inky fingers and a red face, and a sheaf
of foolscap papers in his hand, came bustling out of the bar parlour to
superintend the arrangements. When the chairs had been placed to his
liking he ordered the innkeeper to bring him a glass of ale. While he
was drinking it Constable Queensmead entered the front door with a file
of shambling, rough-looking villagers trailing behind him, and announced
to his superior officer that the men were intended to form a jury.
Superintendent Galloway seemed quite satisfied with their appearance,
and remarked to Colwyn that he didn't care how soon the coroner
arrived--now