the cause of death—that there was no doubt of.
Laudanum, and that in a sufficient quantity to
destroy life, had been found in the stomach of
the deceased lady. The question that now
remained was—by whom was it administered?
How did it get there?

Now, in order to arrive at a solution of this
question, it became necessary to ascertain, first,
whether the deceased lady had had any opium in
her own possession, or had recently purchased
any; and next, whether any quantity, large or
small, of this drug had lately been in the hands
of any of those persons who had had access to
her in her last hours. The first of these two
hypotheses was that which it seemed desirable to
examine first—already the room of the deceased
had been searched, and her boxes and drawers
ransacked for evidences of her having had
laudanum in her own possession. The search
had, however, hitherto been in vain. It was
necessary by all means to prove—in so far as a
negative could be proved—that the poison had
not been administered by the deceased's own
hand, before stirring the question of its having
been given by some one else. To accuse any
other person, or even to suspect any other person,
of having so administered it, was to accuse or
suspect that person of nothing less than wilful
murder, and such an accusation, it was felt on
all sides (except indeed by one person), must not
be brought hastily, or till all other theories
connected with the case were exhausted and finally
disposed of.

Had Jane Cantanker been a man, and formed
one of the jury, she would have been for losing
no time in considering that first hypothesis,
whether the deceased lady might have died by
her own hand, but would have proceeded at once
to charge Gabrielle Penmore with the crime of
wilful murder, and to set the police to work to
hunt for such additional evidence against her as
would complete that which was already in
existence, and leave her without a loophole to
creep out of. But this woman's accusations
were, as we have seen, not listened to, and Mrs.
Penmore was to be left at liberty till the police
had had time to make inquiry as to whether any
of the different occupants of the house in
Beaumont-street had made any recent purchase of
laudanum.

As to the private opinions of those who had
listened to the evidence, as to what the coroner
and each member of the jury secretly believed,
that is another question altogether. That everything
seemed to point to Gabrielle Penmore as
the person most likely to have administered the
poison, they probably would all and each have
admitted, but they gave her the benefit of the
doubt, so long as doubt was still possible, feeling
that there wanted but one additional link in the
chain of evidence to connect Gabrielle with the
crime. That additional link was to be supplied,
alas, only too soon.

Meanwhile the inquest was adjourned, in order
to give the police time to make the necessary
investigations, and the medical evidence being
quite complete, the order for the burial of the
deceased was duly given.

WORKING THE RIO GRANDE
RAILWAY.*

IT need hardly be said that I wished at once
to reject the terms proposed by Grass for the
connexion of our Rio Grande Company with his
Financial Company. The whole amount of promotion
money which I was to receive from the
undertaking was to be ten thousand pounds, and I
did not quite like the idea of giving five thousand
pounds of this as a fee to the Universal Financial,
besides one thousand pounds as a present to the
general manager, in addition to what I should
have to pay for qualifying Mr. Watson and Mr.
Grass. The last gentleman, however, settled
the matter thus:

"Take my advice," he said; "accept the
offer of the Universal, call a meeting of the
directors, and tell them you have done so, and
at the same meeting I will propose and carry
that, in consequence of your great exertions,
and the success that has hitherto attended your
endeavours to bring out the Rio Grande and
Mexico Railway Company, your promotion
money be increased from ten to twenty
thousand pounds. This will give you a matter of
upwards of twelve thousand pounds clear money
to divide between you and your friend Mr.
Wilson. Only remember, that I require you to
give me an undertaking now, that if I succeed
in obtaining this increase of your promotion
money, you will, so soon as it is paid to
you, make over to me (beyond, and in addition
to my shares, or any other payment or moneys
I may receive from you) the sum of two
thousand pounds sterling."

* See the last number.

Before giving an answer to this very cool
proposition, I asked for four-and-twenty hours
to consider the matter, and the next morning
found me early at Lord Dunstraw's, to consult
him.

"Talk of the welchers that hang on to the
outer circles of the betting rings," he said,
"there is not one amongst them that can hold a
candle to these regular joint-stock promoting
men."

Acting under his lordship's advice, and
anxious to bring the preliminary affairs of the
company to an end, I gave Mr. Grass the
required " undertaking."

The day after I had given it to him, there
was a preliminary meeting of the directors at
my chambers. Here it was proposed by Mr.
Grass, seconded by Mr. End, and carried
unanimously, that our solicitors, Messrs. Quirck,
Quibble, and Quirck, be forthwith instructed to
alter the articles of association, so that my
promotion money be increased from ten to twenty
thousand pounds. At the same time, I informed
the board that our success might now be looked