And back of him was Coroner Goldberger, whom I had met in two previous cases; while the third countenance, looking at me with a quizzical smile, was that of Jim Godfrey, the Record's star reporter.

"It will take a post-mortem to tell that," and Goldberger bent for another close look at the distorted face.

" Goldberger looked down at the body again and nodded.

" "I guess that's all," said Goldberger, after a moment.

" "How do you know that?" demanded Goldberger, incredulously.

That proves, doesn't it, that this fellow came to New York expressly to see Mr. Vantine?" "Perhaps you think Mr. Vantine killed him," suggested Goldberger, sarcastically.

" "He'll find poison, all right," asserted Goldberger, with decision.

" "Very well," I said; "we'll be there," and Goldberger bade us good-bye, and left the house.

" "Goldberger was right in one thing," I remarked.

"All right, Goldberger," he said, and sat down to watch the proceedings.

CHAPTER VII ROGERS GETS A SHOCK Grady, Simmonds and Goldberger examined the room minutely, for they seemed to feel that the secret of the tragedy lay somewhere within its four walls; but I watched them only absently, for I had lost interest in the procedure.

" "I'll have to postpone it a day," said Goldberger.

An amusing incident of the inquest was the attempt made by Goldberger to heckle Godfrey, evidently at Grady's suggestion.

"On the morning after the tragedy," Goldberger began sweetly, "you printed in the Record a photograph which you claimed to be that of the woman who had called upon Mr. Vantine the night before, and who was, presumably, the last person to see him alive.

"Since then," pursued Goldberger, "you have made no further reference to that feature of the case.

" Goldberger's face reddened, and his look was not pleasant.

" "You say that very confidently," said Goldberger, his lips curling.

" Again Goldberger reddened.

" "The confession was made to yourself alone, of course?" queried Goldberger, in a tone deliberately insulting.

" Goldberger swallowed hard, as though he had received a slap in the face.

" Goldberger glared at him.

" Goldberger did think it over; he realised the danger of trying to punish a paper so powerful as the Record, and he finally decided to accept Godfrey's statement as a mitigation of his refusal to answer.

"That will do," Goldberger broke in, and Godfrey left the stand.

I, also, of course, refused to give the woman's name, explaining to Goldberger that I had learned it professionally, that I was certain she had been guilty of no crime, and that to reveal it would seriously embarrass an entirely innocent woman.

Goldberger was annoyed; that was evident enough from the nervous way in which he gnawed his moustache; but he had no theory any more than the police; there was not a scintilla of evidence to fasten the crime upon any one; and the end of the hearing was that the jury brought in a verdict that Philip Vantine and Georges Drouet had died from the effects of a poison administered by a person or persons unknown.