"There are no outward signs of violence," answered the house-surgeon. "You had better take the body to the mortuary, and tell your inspector that I'll make the post-mortem to-morrow morning." "Very well, sir." "But you said that the lady was accompanied from Charing Cross Station by a gentleman, who rode in the cab with her," the doctor continued. "Where is he?" "He alighted, entered the Criterion, and didn't come back," explained the cabman. "Suspicious of foul play--very suspicious," the doctor observed. "To-morrow we shall know the truth. She's evidently a lady, and, by her dress, a foreigner." "She arrived by the Paris mail to-night," the cabman observed. "Well, it must be left to the police to unravel whatever mystery surrounds her. It is only for us to ascertain the cause of her death-- whether natural, or by foul means;" and he went back to where the dead woman was lying still and cold, her dress disarranged, her dark hair fallen dishevelled, her sightless eyes closed in the sleep that knows no awakening until the Great Day. The cabman stood with his hat in his hand; the constable had hung his helmet on his forearm by its strap. "Then, outwardly, there are no signs of murder?" the latter asked, disappointed perhaps that the case was not likely to prove so sensational as it had at first appeared. "Tell your inspector that at present I can give no opinion," the surgeon replied. "Certain appearances are mysterious. To-night I can say nothing more. At the inquest I shall be able to speak more confidently." As he spoke, his cold, grey eyes were still fixed upon the lifeless form, as if held by some strange fascination. Approaching the cupboard, he took from a case a small lancet, and raising the dead woman's arm, made a slight incision in the wrist. For a few moments he watched it intently, bending and holding her wrist full in the glaring gaslight within two inches of his eyes. Suddenly he let the limp, inert arm drop, and with a sigh turned again to the two men who stood motionless, watching, and said: "Go. Take the body to the mortuary. I'll examine her to-morrow;" and he rang for the attendants, who came, lifted the body from the couch, and conveyed it out, to admit a man who lay outside groaning, with his leg crushed.