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 to his mouth, and looked up. Bess kept her eyes on the pan, and continued to eat.

The Coroner stopped in the doorway, and made a businesslike show of writing in a notebook.

"What's your name?" he asked Porgy.

The cripple studied him for a long moment, taking in the ample proportions of the figure and the heavy, but not unsympathetic, face. Then he smiled one of his fleeting, ingenuous smiles.

"Jus' Porgy," he said. "Yuh knows me, Boss. Yuh is done gib me plenty ob penny on King Charles Street."

"Of course, you're the goat-man. I didn't know you without your wagon," he said amiably. Then, becoming businesslike, he asked:

"This nigger, Crown. You knew him by sight. Didn't you?"

Porgy debated with himself for a moment, looked again into the Coroner's face, was reassured by what he saw there, and replied:

"Yes, Boss; I 'member um w'en he usen tuh come hyuh, long ago."

"You could identify him, I supposed?"

Porgy looked blank.

"You'd know him if you saw him again?"

"Yes, Boss; I know um."