"Not exactly that," she said quickly. "That Mr Ogle was murdered I feel confident, but who committed the crime I am unaware. It is a mystery. Knowing Mr Ogle so well as I did, he entrusted to me knowledge of certain facts that he strenuously kept secret from others. Yet I cannot conceive who would profit by his death." At this point the inspector of police rose and expressed a desire to know, through the Coroner, whether she had quarrelled with Mr Ogle. "The day prior to his death we had a few words," she faltered. "Upon what subject?" asked the Coroner. She at first refused to reply, but after being pressed, said, "We quarrelled about my engagement to Mr Deedes." So she acknowledged with her own lips that the dead man had been my bitter enemy, as I, too late, had discovered. "He wished you to marry him?" suggested the Coroner. She did not answer, but burst into a fit of hysterical tears, and a few moments later was led out of the Court. "I think, gentlemen," the Coroner observed, turning to the jury, "no end can be obtained in pursuing this very painful inquiry further. You have heard the evidence, and while on the one hand the exact cause of death has not been established, on the other we have Miss Laing declaring that the unfortunate gentleman was murdered. The evidence certainly does not point to such a conclusion, and there are two courses that may be pursued; either to adjourn the inquiry, or to return an open verdict and leave the elucidation of the mystery in the hands of the police." The jury, after consulting among themselves, retired, but only for five minutes, coming back into court and returning an open verdict of "Found dead." Then, as the Coroner thanked the twelve tradesmen for their attendance, I rose and crossed to Beck, afterwards walking with him to "The Nook." CHAPTER EIGHT. "I DARE NOT!" "What do you think of Ella's statement?" Beck asked, as we were crossing Staines Bridge on our way to Mrs Laing's. "I can't understand it," I replied. "Neither can I," he said. "Girls of her excitable temperament are apt to make statements of that character utterly without foundation. No doubt Dudley was her intimate friend, and finding him dead, her romantic mind at once conjured up visions of murder." "Yes. There is a good deal in your argument," I admitted, with a touch of sorrow at the remembrance that Ogle had aspired to her hand. "I never spoke to you on the subject, for fear of making mischief, but I have many times been amazed at your blindness when Dudley and Ella used to flirt openly before your very eyes," he observed, glancing at me. "Ah! you are right," I cried angrily. "I foolishly trusted him, believing implicitly in his honour and in Ella's purity." "Of the latter you surely have no cause for suspicion," he exclaimed quickly.