Then there was silence. At last the high official turned to the
chairman.

"Very well," he said. "We've made the enquiry. Rathbury, take the box
away with you and lock it up at the Yard."

So Spargo went out with Rathbury and the box; and saw excellent, if
mystifying, material for the article which had already become the daily
feature of his paper.




CHAPTER ELEVEN

MR. AYLMORE IS QUESTIONED


It seemed to Spargo as he sat listening to the proceedings at the
adjourned inquest next day that the whole story of what was now
world-famous as the Middle Temple Murder Case was being reiterated
before him for the thousandth time. There was not a detail of the story
with which he had not become familiar to fulness. The first proceeding
before the coroner had been of a merely formal nature; these were
thorough and exhaustive; the representative of the Crown and twelve
good men and true of the City of London were there to hear and to find
out and to arrive at a conclusion as to how the man known as John
Marbury came by his death. And although he knew all about it, Spargo
found himself tabulating the evidence in a professional manner, and
noting how each successive witness contributed, as it were, a chapter