All looked--but still no word from man or woman.
One minute gone! Two minutes! Three! The silence had become portentous.

The movement, involuntary and simultaneous, which had run through the crowd at first had stopped.

They were waiting--each and all--waiting with eyes on the minute-hand creeping forward over the dial toward which the detective's glance was still turned.
The fourth minute passed--then the fifth--and no one had spoken.
With a sigh Mr.Gryce wheeled himself back and faced the crowd again.
"You see," he quietly announced, "the case is serious.

Twenty-two of you, and not one to speak the half-dozen words which would release the rest from their present embarrassing position! What remains for us to do under circumstances like these?
My experience suggests but one course: to narrow down this inquiry to those--you will not find them many--who from their nearness to the place of tragedy or from some other cause equally pertinent may be looked upon as possible witnesses for the Coroner's jury.

That this may be done speedily and surely, I am going to ask you, every one of you, to retake the exact place in the building which you were occupying when you heard the first alarm.