Goldberger did think it over; he realised the danger of trying to punish a paper so powerful as the Record, and he finally decided to accept Godfrey’s statement as a mitigation of his refusal to answer.

“That is only one of the details which Commissioner Grady has missed,” Godfrey added, pleasantly.

“That will do,” Goldberger broke in, and Godfrey left the stand.

I was recalled to confirm his story.  I, also, of course, refused to give the woman’s name, explaining to Goldberger that I had learned it professionally, that I was certain she had been guilty of no crime, and that to reveal it would seriously embarrass an entirely innocent woman.  With that statement, the coroner was compelled to appear satisfied.

Grady did not go on the stand; he was not even at the inquest.  In fact, since the first day, he had not appeared publicly in connection with the case at all; and I had surmised that he did not care to be identified with a mystery which there seemed to be no prospect of solving, and from which no glory was to be won.  The case had been placed in Simmonds’s hands, and it was he who testified on behalf of the police, admitting candidly that they were all at sea.  He had made a careful examination of the Vantine house, he said, particularly of the room in which the bodies had been found, and had discovered absolutely nothing in the shape of a clue to the solution of the mystery.  There was something diabolical about it; something almost supernatural.  He had not abandoned hope, and was still working on the case; but he was inclined to think that, if the mystery was ever solved, it would be only by some lucky accident or through the confession of the guilty man.

Goldberger was annoyed; that was evident enough from the nervous way in which he gnawed his moustache; but he had no theory any more than the police; there was not a scintilla of evidence to fasten the crime upon any one; and the end of the hearing was that the jury brought in a verdict that Philip Vantine and Georges Drouet had died from the effects of a poison administered by a person or persons unknown.

Godfrey joined me at the door as I was leaving, and we went down the steps together.

“I was glad to hear Simmonds confess that the police are up a tree,” he said.  “Of course, Grady is trying to sneak out of it, and blame some one else for the failure—­but I’ll see that he doesn’t succeed.  I’ll see, anyway, that Simmonds gets a square deal—­he’s an old friend of mine, you know.”

“Yes,” I said, “I know; but we’re all up a tree, aren’t we?”

“For the present,” laughed Godfrey, “we do occupy that undignified position.  But you don’t expect to stay there forever, do you, Lester?”

“Since my theory about the Boule cabinet exploded,” I said, “I have given up hope.  By the way, I’m going to turn the cabinet over to its owner to-morrow.”

“To its owner?” he repeated, his eyes narrowing.  “Yes, I thought he’d be around for it, though I hardly thought he’d come so soon.  Who does it happen to be, Lester?”