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from Stapley had been brought back in the car with Dr. Thorpe. He had seen the body.
    It was then lying on its back, between the door of the conservatory and the covered well just outside. As soon as it became light, Inspector Craikes had examined the house and grounds. He had found bloody marks all along the path leading to the conservatory, and signs as though a body had been dragged along. This path ran to the main path leading from the gate to the front door. (Plan produced.) Where the two paths joined shrubbery began, and ran down on both sides of the path to the gate and the gamekeeper's cottage. The blood-tracks had led to a little clearing in the middle of the shrubbery, about half-way between the house and the gate. Here the inspector found a great pool of blood, a handkerchief soaked in blood, and a revolver.
    The handkerchief bore the initials D.C., and the revolver was a small weapon of American pattern, and bore no mark. The conservatory door was open when the Inspector arrived, and the key was inside.
    Deceased, when he saw him, was in dinner-jacket and pumps, without hat or overcoat. He was wet through, and his clothes, besides being much blood-stained, were very muddy and greatly disordered through the dragging of the body. The pocket contained a cigar-case and a small, flat pocket-knife. Deceased's bedroom had been searched for papers, etc., but so far nothing had been found to shed very much light on his circumstances.
    The Duke of Denver was then recalled.
    The Coroner: "I should like to ask your grace whether you ever saw deceased in possession of a revolver?"
    Duke of D.: "Not since the war."
    The Coroner: "You do not know if he carried one about with him?"
    Duke of D.: "I have no idea."
    The Coroner: "You can make no guess, I suppose, to whom this revolver belongs?"
    Duke of D. (in great surprise): "That's my revolver-out of the study table drawer. How did you get hold of that?"-(Sensation.)
    The Coroner: "You are certain?"
    Duke of D.: "Positive. I saw it there only the other day when I was hunting out some photos of Mary for Cathcart, and I remember saying then that it was getting rusty lying about. There's the speck of rust."
    The Coroner: "Did you keep it loaded?"
    Duke of D.: "Lord, no! I really don't know why it was there. I fancy I turned it out one day with some old Army stuff, and found it among my shooting things when I was up at Riddlesdale in August. I think the cartridges were with it."
    The Coroner: "Was the drawer locked?"
    Duke of D.: "Yes; but the key was in the lock. My wife tells me I'm careless."
    The Coroner: "Did anybody else know the revolver was there?"
    Duke of D.: "Fleming did, I think. I don't know of anybody else."
    Detective-Inspector Parker of Scotland Yard, having only arrived on Friday, had been unable as yet to make any very close investigation. Certain indications led him to think that some person or persons had been on the scene of the tragedy in addition to those who had taken part in the discovery. He preferred to say nothing more at present.
    The Coroner then reconstructed the evidence in chronological order. At, or a little after, ten o'clock there had been a quarrel between deceased and the Duke of Denver, after which deceased had left the house never to be seen alive again. They had the evidence of Mr. Pettigrew-Robinson that the Duke had gone downstairs at 11.30, and that of Colonel Marchbanks that he had been heard immediately afterwards moving about the study, the room in which the revolver produced in evidence was usually kept. Against this they had the Duke's own sworn statement that he had not left his bedroom till half-past two in the morning. The jury would have to consider what weight was to be attached to those conflicting statements. Then, as to the shots heard in the night; the gamekeeper had said he heard a shot at ten minutes to twelve, but he had supposed it to be fired by poachers. It was, in fact, quite possible that there had been poachers about.