“Miss Lloyd will soon be all right, I think,” said Mr. Porter to the coroner. “My wife is with her, and one or two other ladies. I think we may proceed with our work here.” There was something about Mr. Lemuel Porter that made men accept his dictum, and without further remark Mr. Monroe called the next witness, Mr. Roswell Randolph, and a tall man, with an intellectual face, came forward. While the coroner was putting the formal and preliminary questions to Mr. Randolph, Parmalee quietly drew my attention to a whispered conversation going on between Elsa and Louis. If this girl had fainted instead of Miss Lloyd, I should not have been surprised for she seemed on the very verge of nervous collapse. She seemed, too, to be accusing the man of something, which he vigorously denied. The girl interested me far more than the Frenchman. Though of the simple, rosy-cheeked type of German, she had an air of canniness and subtlety that was at variance with her naive effect. I soon concluded she was far more clever than most people thought, and Parmalee's whispered words showed that he thought so too. “Something doing in the case of Dutch Elsa, eh?” he said; “she and Johnny Frenchy have cooked up something between them.” “Nothing of any importance, I fancy,” I returned, for Miss Lloyd's swoon seemed to me a surrender, and I had little hope now of any other direction in which to look. But I resumed my attention to the coroner's inquiries of Mr. Randolph. In answer to a few formal questions, he stated that he had been Mr. Crawford's legal adviser for many years, and had entire charge of all such matters as required legal attention. “Did you draw up the late Mr. Crawford's will?” asked the coroner. “Yes; after the death of his wife--about twelve years ago.” “And what were the terms of that will?” “Except for some minor bequests, the bulk of his fortune was bequeathed to Miss Florence Lloyd.” “Have you changed that will in any way, or drawn a later one?” “No.” It was by the merest chance that I was looking at Gregory Hall, as the lawyer gave this answer. It required no fine perception to understand the look of relief and delight that fairly flooded his countenance. To be sure, it was quickly suppressed, and his former mask of indifference and preoccupation assumed, but I knew as well as if he had put it into words, that he had trembled lest Miss Lloyd had been disinherited before her uncle had met his death in the night. This gave me many newThis gave me many new thoughts, but before I could formulate them, I heard the coroner going on with his questions. “Did Mr. Crawford visit you last evening?” “Yes; he was at my house for perhaps half an hour or more between eight and nine o'clock.” “Did he refer to the subject of changing his will?” “He did. That was his errand. He distinctly stated his intention of making a new will, and asked me to come to his office this morning and draw up the instrument.”