Although nothing would have induced him to admit it, Coroner Benson was greatly accommodated by this suggestion, and immediately adopting it as his own promulgation, he repeated it almost exactly word for word, as his official dictum.

“And so,” he concluded, “as I have now explained, unless a theory can be offered on this point, we must agree that Miss Van Norman’s unfortunate death was not by her own hand.”

Robert Fessenden arose.