“I am not ashamed to tell you of my interest, sir.  I am engaged to this young lady.  I know she is innocent.  It is preposterous to imagine that she would kill her own father.  They loved each other too much.”

“Yes, but this note—­” piped in Mrs. Gaspard.  She was a strong believer in Margaret’s guilt.

“I know nothing about that.  It may be a forgery.  I know Miss Langmore is innocent.”

“To merely say a thing does not prove it,” came from the coroner.  “We want facts, nothing else—­and we are bound to have ’em.”  He began to warm up also.  “I’m here to do my duty, regardless of you or anybody else.  I ain’t going to shield anybody, rich or poor, high or low, known or unknown!  Now, you sit down, and let the inquest proceed.”  And Raymond sat down, but with a great and growing bitterness filling his heart.  He looked at Margaret and saw that she was trembling from head to foot.

There was an awkward pause.

“Mrs. Gaspard, did Mr. Pickerell say he thought Mr. Langmore had written this note?” questioned the coroner.

“He said the two handwritings were exactly alike.  Here is a letter written and signed by Mr. Langmore.  You can compare the two, if you wish.”

The letter was passed over and not only the coroner, but also his jury, looked at both documents carefully.

“Pretty much the same thing,” whispered one man.

“Exactly the same,” added another, and the rest nodded.

The coroner looked around the courtroom and then at the jury.

“Have any of you any questions to ask?” he queried of the men.  “If not we’ll take a brief recess until Doctor Bardon returns.”

One after another the jurors shook their heads.  Whatever the coroner did was sufficient for them.  Coroner Busby had picked men he knew would agree with him.

The recess had lasted but a few minutes, when Doctor Bardon reappeared.  His face wore a knowing look that was almost triumphant.

“You will please take the stand again, doctor,” was the request.  “I wish to ask you if a person could be smothered by chloroform.”

“Certainly, under certain conditions.”

“Do you think it possible that Mr. and Mrs. Langmore could have been smothered in that way?”

“Possibly, yes, although I did not see any traces.”

“Would there have been traces?”

“Yes and no—­it would depend on circumstances.”

“Hum.  Now about the diamond ring belonging to Miss Langmore, which I gave you a short while ago to examine?  Have you—­ahem—­examined it?”

“I have, and so has Doctor Soper.  We used a magnifying glass and made several tests.”

“Did you find anything unusual?”

“We did.  In the first place two of the prongs which hold the diamond in place are bent out and up in such a fashion that each forms a sharp point.  We next looked under the stone and found there a substance which both of us are convinced is a bit of dried-up blood.”