, sir, they are that
sharp----"

Jim Baker--feeling no doubt that his ordeal was nearly over--was
losing his nervousness, or perhaps it took a new form, that of
jocularity. The coroner thought it best to check his efforts at humour
in the bud.

"That will do!" he said curtly.

And the Clapham bricklayer at once retired within his shell of humble
self-deprecation. He answered a few more questions that the coroner
put to him, but clearly his own circle of vision was so circumscribed
that, willing as he undoubtedly was, he could throw no light whatever
on the unknown events which led up to the extraordinary fraud
practised on the Earl of Radclyffe and which culminated in the
mysterious murder in the taxicab.

The father of the strangely enigmatic personality, who indeed had
taken many a secret with him to the grave, was far too indifferent,
too fatalistic, to put forth any theory as to his son's motives, or
the inducements and temptations which had first given birth to the
astoundingly clever deception.

Wearied and impatient at last the coroner gave up his questionings. He
turned to the jury with the accustomed formula:

"Would any of you gentlemen like to ask this witness any questions?"

The foreman of the jury wanted to know if the witness's son had any
birthmarks on him, or other palpable means of identification.

"Yes, sir," replied Jim Baker, "but 'is mother'll tell you better'n
me--she knows best--about the vaccination marks and all."

The foreman then asked the coroner whether the jury would be allowed
to identify the marks. On being assured by the coroner that after
adjournment this very day every means would be taken to corroborate
Jim Baker's statement, the jury seemed satisfied.

And the corner called the next witness.

CHAPTER XXX

AND THEN EVERY ONE WENT HOME

Though the hour was getting late, no one among the crowd thought of
leaving the court. Even the desire for tea, so peculiarly insistent at
a certain hour of the day in the whole of the British race, was
smothered beneath the wave of intense excitement which swept right
over every one.

Although the next witnesses--who each in their turn came forward to
the foot of the table--swore to tell the truth and faced the coroner
with more or less assurance, they could but repeat the assertions of
the head of the family; nevertheless the public seemed ready to listen
with untiring patience to the story which went to prove that the man