"That will be all, Mrs. Dwyer," said Stillman. "Thank you. Curran,
I'll see the young man next."

As Curran and Mrs. Dwyer went out the young coroner turned to his two
visitors.

"I am still assured that we have the motive for the crime in the
attempt to steal the painting," he said. "But it will do no harm to
get all the light we can upon every side of the matter. The smallest
clue," importantly, "may prove of the utmost value at the inquest."

Ashton-Kirk smilingly nodded his entire assent to this. Then Curran
showed in the clerk.

The young man still carried the thick volume and, when he sat down,
laid it upon a corner of Stillman's desk. Its back was turned toward
Ashton-Kirk and he noted that it was a work on anatomy such as
first-year medical students use.

"What is your name, please?" asked the coroner.

"Isidore Brolatsky," replied the young man.

"You are, or were, employed by Mr. Hume?"

"As a clerk, yes, sir. I've been with him for some years." Brolatsky
spoke with scarcely a trace of accent. "He didn't pay much, but then
there wasn't much to do, and I had plenty of time to study."