r of the handkerchief, or portion of a handkerchief,"
he said. "Picked up, we are told, from the hearth in the Mayor's
Parlour, where the rest of it had been burned. Did you hear Mrs.
Marriner's evidence about that, Dr. Wellesley?"

"I did!"

"Is what she said, or suggested, correct? Is the handkerchief yours?"

"I have never seen the handkerchief, or, rather, the remains of it. I
heard that some portion of a handkerchief, charred and blood-stained,
was found on the hearth in the Mayor's Parlour, and that it had been
handed over to Superintendent Hawthwaite, but I have not had it shown to
me."

The Coroner glanced at Hawthwaite, who since the opening of the Court
had sat near Meeking, occasionally exchanging whispered remarks.

"Let Dr. Wellesley see that fragment," he said.

All eyes were fixed on the witness as he took the piece of charred and
faintly stained stuff in his hands and examined it. Everybody knew that
the stain was from the blood of the murdered man; the same thought was
in everybody's mind--was that stain now being critically inspected by
the actual murderer?

Wellesley suddenly looked up; at the same time he handed back the
fragment to the policeman who had passed it to him.

"To the best of my belief," he said, turning to the Coroner, "that is
certainly part of a handkerchief of mine. The handkerchief is one of a
dozen which I bought in Paris about a year ago."

A murmur ran round the crowded court at this candid avowal; as it died
away the Coroner again spoke:

"Had you missed this handkerchief?"

"I had not. I have a drawer in my dressing-room full of
handkerchiefs--several dozens of them. But--from the texture--I am
positive that that is mine."

"Very well," said the Coroner. "Now about the evidence of Mr.
Walkershaw. Did you know of the door between your house and the Moot
Hall?"

"Yes! So did the late Mayor. As a matter of fact, he and I, some time
ago, had it put to rights. We both used it; I, to go into the Moot Hall;
he, to come and see me."

"There was no secrecy about it, then?"

"Not between Wallingford and myself at any rate."

The Coroner took off his spectacles and leaned back in his chair--sure
sign that he had done. And Meeking rose, cool, level-voiced.

"Dr. Wellesley, I think you heard the evidence of Mrs. Saumarez?"

But before Dr. Wellesley could make answer, the other doctors present in
the Court-room were suddenly called into action. As the barrister
pronou