ed a cab?"

"He may have done so, but not in my company."

"You entered the cab with him, and he told the driver to follow along
Piccadilly."

"He may have done so," once more reiterated Luke in the same calm and
even voice, "but not in my company."

"You parted from him in the lobby of the club?"

"I have told you so."

"And you never saw him again after that?"

"Never."

"You were not with him when he came out of the club?"

"No."

"When he hailed a taxicab?"

"No."

"You were not with him when he entered the cab and put his head out of
the window, telling the driver to go along Piccadilly until he was
stopped?"

"No."

The answers had come clear, sharp, and distinct, quick ripostes of the
foils against the violent attack. Now the adversary drew breath. The
pause was dramatic in its effect, far-reaching in its significance.
The coroner with eyes steadily fixed on the witness made a quick
movement with his hand. He drew away the long narrow strip of green
baize in front of him, revealing a snake-wood stick, with ferrule
stained and tarnished.

"Is this your stick?" he asked curtly.

"It is my stick," replied Luke.

He had not flinched, yet there were many scores of pairs of eyes fixed
upon him, when that green baize covering was removed. But not one of
those who gazed so steadily upon him could boast that he or she had
seen the slightest tremor of the lids or the merest quiver of the
mouth. The voice sounded perfectly clear, the cheeks, though pale, had
assumed no grayish hue.

"Very well. That will do," said the coroner quietly.

What more was there to say? The dagger-stick, stained and rusty, told
the most graphic tale there was to tell. Yet Luke de Mountford stepped
quietly away from the table looking neither self-conscious nor dazed.
He went back to his seat, beside Mr. Dobson, and leaning toward him
answered some whispered questions which the solicitor was putting to
him. He folded his arms before him and after awhile allowed his head
to fall forward a little, closing his eyes as he did so. He seemed a
little tired, but otherwise unperturbed, even though the hall porter
now was recalled and was busy identifying the stick which lay across
the coroner's table with the one which he himself had handed to Mr. de
Mountford's visitor at nine o'clock the night before last.

And the police too added its share to this work that was going on of
enmeshing a criminal. There was the constable who ha