"I can do no harm. This man is mine. I want to look at him for the
last time--alone. Will you go?"

"Do you mean, madam, that you intend to--" began the coroner in
alarm.

She clasped her hands. "I mean that I shall take my last look at
him now--and here. Then you may do what you like with him. He is
your dead--not mine. I do not want him. Can you understand? _I_ DO
NOT WANT THIS DEAD THING. But there is something I would say to
him, something that I must say. Something that no one must hear
but the good God who knows how much he has hurt me. I want to say
it close to those grey, horrid ears. Who knows? He may hear me!"

Wondering, the others backed from the room. She watched them until
they closed the door.

Listening, they heard her lower the window. It squealed like a
thing in fear.

Ten minutes passed. The group in the hall conversed in whispers.

"Why did she put the window down?" asked the wife of the inn-keeper,
crossing herself.

Drake shook his head. "I wonder what she is saying to him," he
muttered.

"A wonderful nerve," said Dr. Sheef. "Positively wonderful. I've