"Silence. We cannot go on if there is not silence. Ahem! ahem! Miss
Langmore!"
Margaret arose and bowed slightly. Then the coroner swore her in as a witness and told her to relate her story. She could scarcely stand and Raymond brought her chair forward.
"You wish me to tell all I know?" she asked, in a faint but clear voice.
"Everything," was Coroner Busby's answer.
Pausing for a moment to collect her thoughts, she plunged into the recital, her tale being merely a repetition of that given to Adam Adams. When she came to tell how her father had been found her voice broke and it was fully a minute before she could go on. When she had finished the courtroom was as still as a tomb, save for the ticking of the clock, now sounding louder than ever.
"Is that all?" asked the coroner, after a painful pause.
"Yes, sir."
"They say, Miss Langmore, that you were not on good terms with your stepmother."
"Who says so?"
"It is an—ahem! a common rumor. What have you to say on that point?"