CHAPTER XIII.
THE INQUEST The coroner's court was packed; and though here and there I caught a face that I knew to be friendly to Radnor, the crowd was made up for the most part of morbid sensation seekers, eager to hear and believe the worst.
The District Attorney was present; indeed he and the coroner and Jim Mattison were holding a whispered consultation when I entered the room, and I did not doubt but that the three had been working up the case together.

The thought was not reassuring; a coroner, with every appearance of fairness, may still bias a jury by the form his questions take.

And I myself was scarcely in a position to turn the trend of the inquiry; I doubt if a lawyer ever went to an inquisition with less command of the facts than I had.
The first witness called was the doctor who made the autopsy.

After his testimony had been dwelt upon with what seemed to me needless detail, the facts relating to the finding of the body were brought forward.

From this, the investigation veered to the subject of Radnor's strange behavior on the afternoon of the murder.