And now Archdale himself, as representing the architects who held a retaining fee in connection with the Cathedral, was called to give his opinion--and he gave it in almost the same words which Bryce had heard him use twenty-four hours previously.

After him came the master-mason, expressing the same decided conviction--that the real truth was that the pavement of the gallery had at that particular place become so smooth, and was inclined towards the open doorway at such a sharp angle, that the unfortunate man had lost his footing on it, and before he could recover it had been shot out of the arch and over the broken head of St.Wrytha's Stair.

And though, at a juryman's wish, Varner was recalled, and stuck stoutly to his original story of having seen a hand which, he protested, was certainly not that of the dead man, it soon became plain that the jury shared the Coroner's belief that Varner in his fright and excitement had been mistaken, and no one was surprised when the foreman, after a very brief consultation with his fellows, announced a verdict of death by misadventure.
"So the city's cleared of the stain of murder!" said a man who sat next to Bryce.

"That's a good job, anyway! Nasty thing, doctor, to think of a murder being committed in a cathedral.

There'd be a question of sacrilege, of course--and all sorts of complications." Bryce made no answer.