It was just as the men came in at the door, that I chanced to
notice a newspaper that lay on a small table. I picked it up
with an apparent air of carelessness, and, watching my chance,
unobserved by Parmalee, I put the paper away in a drawer, which I
locked.

The six men, whom Coroner Monroe named over to me, by way of a
brief introduction, stepped silently as they filed past the body
of their late friend and neighbor.

For the jurymen had been gathered hastily from among the citizens
of West Sedgwick who chanced to be passing; and as it was after
eleven o'clock, they were, for the most part, men of leisure, and
occupants of the handsome homes in the vicinity.

Probably none of them had ever before been called to act on a
coroner's jury, and all seemed impressed with the awfulness of
the crime, as well as imbued with a personal sense of sorrow.

Two of the jurors had been mentioned to me by name, by the
coachman who brought me from the station. Horace Hamilton and
Lemuel Porter were near-by neighbors of the murdered man, and; I
judged from their remarks, were rather better acquainted with him
than were the others.

Mr. Hamilton was of the short, stout, bald-headed type, sometimes
called aldermanic. It was plainly to be seen that his was a
jocund nature, and the awe which he felt in this dreadful
presence of death, though clearly shown on his rubicund face, was
evidently a rare emotion with him. He glanced round the room as