For a while young Pringle stood on the steps of the inn, and the broken snatches of conversation which he overheard did not help to cheer or inspirit him: he would have taken little or no heed of the idle talk floating in and out of the door had he felt merely a professional interest in this woman; but he had just left her; he had been with her for nearly an hour, and although few words had passed between them in that time, the spell of her physical beauty had reasserted itself, and his chivalry was up in arms for her. While Pringle was standing on the steps of the inn, Dr. Santley and Alfred Paulton came up. They had walked with one another from Half Moon Lane. "Well," said the latter, addressing Pringle, "any good news?" The solicitor shook his head and answered: "Nothing fresh." "I thought," said Paulton, in a tone of disappointment, "that Jerry O'Brien would be with you. Is he not come? He said he would be here to-day." "I have not seen him," said Pringle. "I came out with Mrs. Davenport. She is upstairs in a private room. Do you know anything of Blake? Have you met him on the way?" "Perhaps," said Dr. Santley grimly, "he is cultivating the acquaintance of the police." The speakers had moved out of earshot of the crowd. "No," said Pringle, "I have ascertained that he will not be touched until after this day's work, anyway." As the solicitor ceased speaking, two other men approached. They, too, were walking together; but as they drew near the "Wolfdog," one of them moved off to the right, and went towards the inn door; the other held on towards the three men. The latter was Jerry O'Brien. When he came up with the little group, and had shaken hands with them, Pringle asked: "Who was that you were with as you came up the road?" "What! Don't you all know him? Why, who could it be but Tom Blake?" Significant looks passed between the three men. Paulton was the first to speak: "You don't mean to say, Jerry, that you have----" "Indeed I have. I met him on the platform at Victoria, and we came out in the same compartment together." Jerry O'Brien seemed as much astonished at what he had done as his friends. "But," urged Paulton, "you gave him the worst of characters the day before yesterday, and said he had something to do with this awful affair. Since then things have grown blacker against him, and yet you don't cut him! You come out here arm-in-arm with him to the very inquest where you say he will have to answer the ugliest questions which can be put to a man!"