"Well?" eagerly inquired Dr. Talbot.

"Nothing new," answered the young man, with a consequential air.
"The elder woman died from loss of blood consequent upon a blow
given by a small, three-sided, slender blade; the younger from a
stroke of apoplexy, induced by fright."

"Good! I am glad to hear my instincts were not at fault. Loss of
blood, eh? Death, then, was not instantaneous?"

"No."

"Strange!" fell from the lips of his two listeners. "She lived,
yet gave no alarm."

"None that was heard," suggested the young doctor, who was from
another town.

"Or, if heard, reached no ears but Philemon's," observed the
constable. "Something must have taken him upstairs."

"I am not so sure," said the coroner, "that Philemon is not
answerable for the whole crime, notwithstanding our failure to
find the missing money anywhere in the house. How else account for
the resignation with which she evidently met her death? Had a
stranger struck her, Agatha Webb would have struggled. There is no
sign of struggle in the room."

"She would have struggled against Philemon had she had strength to