Just then another young gentleman came into the alcove in which Triffitt sat disconsolate--a pink-cheeked young gentleman, who affected a tweed suit of loud checks and a sporting coat, and wore a bit of feather in the band of his rakish billycock. Triffitt recognized him as a fellow-scribe, one of the youthful bloods of an opposition journal, whom he sometimes met on the cricket-field; he also remembered that he had caught a glimpse of him in the Coroner's Court, and he hastened to make room for him. "Hullo!" said Triffitt. "What-ho!" responded the pink young gentleman. He beckoned knowingly to a waitress, and looked at her narrowly when she came. "Got such a thing as a muffin?" he asked. "Muffins, sir--yes, sir," replied the waitress, "Fresh muffins." "Pick me out a nice, plump, newly killed muffin" commanded Triffitt's companion. "Leave it in its natural state--that is to say, cold--split it in half put between the halves a thick, generous slice of that cold ham I see on your counter, and produce it with a pot of fresh--and very hot--China tea. That's all." "Plenty too, I should think!" muttered Triffitt. "Fond of indigestion, Carver?" "I don't think you've ever been in Yorkshire, have you, Triffitt?" asked Mr. Carver, settling himself comfortably. "You haven't had that pleasure?--well, if you'd ever gone to a football match on a Saturday afternoon in a Yorkshire factory district, you'd have seen men selling muffin-and-ham sandwiches--fact! And I give you my word that if you want something to fill you up during the day, something to tide over the weary wait between breakfast and dinner, a fat muffin with a thick slice of ham is the best thing I know." "I don't want anything to fill me up," grunted Triffitt. "I want something cheering--at present. I've been listening with all my ears for something new in that blessed Herapath case all the morning, and, as you know, there's been nothing!" "Think so?" said Carver. "Um--I should have said there was a good deal, now." "Nothing that I didn't know, anyway," remarked Triffitt. "I got all that first thing; I was on the spot first." "Oh, it was you, was it?" said Carver, with professional indifference. "Lucky man! So you've only been hearing----" "A repetition of what I'd heard before," answered Triffitt. "I knew all that evidence before I went into court. Caretaker--police--folks from Portman Square--doctor--all the lot! And I guess there'll be nothing this afternoon--the thing'll be adjourned." "Oh, that's of course," assented Carver, attacking his muffin sandwich. "There'll be more than one adjournment of this particular inquest, Triffitt. But aren't you struck by one or two points?"