CHAPTER XIX
THE STRUGGLE IN THE TUNNEL
I was delayed two days in Bath by the inquest on the body of the German, the discovery of which in the old graveyard formed a nine days' wonder in the old western city and then died out altogether.
It was a very barren inquiry, for it discovered nothing. The man was a stranger, no evidence was produced to show who he was, and as an unknown stranger he was buried again, not in the old graveyard, but in the new cemetery away among the hills.
There was only one piece of evidence which carried any interest with it, and that was the testimony of the doctor.
He stated that the man had been shot through the head and immediately killed; he produced the .450 revolver bullet which he had found in the head.
Furthermore, he added that the body had been buried at once, and by that means preserved from decay. It was practically incorrupt. It might have been buried there a month.
That was all, and all the coroner's acumen, and all the researches of the police, could produce no more. Public opinion had to be satisfied with a very vague verdict.
There was only one point of interest left for me in the matter, and that was the bundle of bed-linen which was found buried in the grave.
That was proved beyond doubt to be the bed-linen of my old lady of Monmouth Street; it was plainly marked with the letter C, surmounted on the case of the pillow by a small coronet.