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296 Thomas came to tell us that our trap was waiting-, and Delroy went down the steps with us.

“I hope to have you here some time under more favourable circumstances,” he said, and shook us both warmly by the hand.

Evening had come, and the darkness deepened rapidly as we drove back along the road to Babylon.

“We can’t get a train till 8.42,” said Godfrey, “so we’ll have dinner at the hotel and then go around for a talk with our client. I think we have some news that will cheer him up.”

“It seemed to me,” I observed, “that it was not at all about his arrest that he was worrying.”

“It wasn’t,” agreed Godfrey. “That’s what I meant.”

The lights of Babylon gleamed out ahead, and a few minutes later we drew up before the hotel. As we entered the office, I saw the proprietor cast a quick glance at a little fat man, with a round face, who had been leaning against the cigar-stand, and who immediately came forward to meet us.

“I am Coroner Heffelbower,” he said, with an evident appreciation of his own importance. “I believe you are t’e gentlemen who represent Mr. Drysdale?”

“Mr. Lester, here, of Graham & Royce, will represent Mr. Drysdale,” explained Godfrey. “I am merely one of his friends.”

“The inquest, I believe, is set for to-morrow morning at ten o’clock?” I asked.

“Yes, sir; t’ough we shall hardly get to t’e evidence