Having the time of his life, evidently!" And then the other whispered back, so low that she could only just catch the words, "Aye, aye.

But he's a good chap--I knew his father; we were at school together.

Takes his job very seriously, you know--he does to-day, at any rate." ****** She was listening intently, waiting for a word, a sentence, which would relieve her hidden terrors, or, on the other hand, confirm them.

But the word, the sentence, was never uttered.
And yet, at the very end of his long peroration, the coroner did throw out a hint which might mean anything--or nothing.
"I am glad to say that we hope to obtain such evidence to-day as will in time lead to the apprehension of the miscreant who has committed, and is still committing, these terrible crimes." Mrs.Bunting stared uneasily up into the coroner's firm, determined-looking face.

What did he mean by that?
Was there any new evidence--evidence of which Joe Chandler, for instance, was ignorant?
And, as if in answer to the unspoken question, her heart gave a sudden leap, for a big, burly man had taken his place in the witness-box--a policeman who had not been sitting with the other witnesses.
But soon her uneasy terror became stilled.