No further questions were put to the cab-driver at this juncture, but medical evidence was at once taken. Breathless stillness pervaded the court, for the statement about to be made would put an end to all rumour, and the truth would be known. When the dapper elderly man had stepped up to the table and been sworn, the Coroner, in the quick, business-like tone which he always assumed toward his fellow medical men, said-- "You are Doctor Charles Wyllie, house-surgeon, Charing Cross Hospital?" "I am," the other answered in a correspondingly dry tone. "The woman was brought to the hospital, I suppose?" "Yes, the police brought her, but she had already been dead about three-quarters of an hour. There were no external marks of violence, and her appearance was as though she had died suddenly from natural causes. In conjunction with Doctor Henderson, I yesterday made a careful post-mortem. The body is that of a healthy woman of about twenty-three, evidently an Italian. There was no trace whatever of organic disease. From what I noticed when the body was brought to the hospital, however, I asked the police to let it remain untouched until I was ready to make a post-mortem." "Did you discover anything which might lead to suspicion of foul play?" inquired the Coroner. "I made several rather curious discoveries," the doctor answered, whereat those in court shifted uneasily, prepared for some thrilling story of how the woman was murdered. "First, she undoubtedly died from paralysis of the heart. Secondly, I found around the left ankle a curious tattoo-mark in the form of a serpent with its tail in its mouth. It is beautifully executed, evidently by an expert tattooist. Thirdly, there was a white mark upon the left breast, no doubt the scar of a knife-wound, which I judged to have been inflicted about two years ago. The knife was probably a long narrow-bladed one, and the bone had prevented the blow proving fatal." "Then a previous attempt had been made upon her life, you think?" asked the Coroner, astonished. "There is no doubt about it," the doctor answered. "Such a wound could never have been caused by accident. It had no doubt received careful surgical attention, judging from the cicatrice." "But this had nothing to do with her death?" the Coroner suggested. "Nothing whatever," replied the doctor. "The appearance of the body gives no indication of foul play." "Then you assign death to natural causes--eh?" "No, I do not," responded Dr Wyllie deliberately, after a slight pause. "The woman was murdered." These words produced a great sensation in the breathlessly silent court. "By what means?"