FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142  
143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   >>   >|  
the identity first and begin with the circumstances under which the body was discovered." Here the cobbler stood up and raised an excessively dirty hand. "I rise, Mr. Chairman," said he, "to a point of order." The other jurymen looked at him curiously and some of them, I regret to say, grinned. "You have referred, sir," he continued, "to the body which we have just viewed. I wish to point out that we have not viewed a body; we have viewed a collection of bones." "We will refer to them as the remains, if you prefer it," said the coroner. "I do prefer it," was the reply, and the objector sat down. "Very well," rejoined the coroner, and he proceeded to call the witnesses, of whom the first was a laborer who had discovered the bones in the watercress-bed. "Do you happen to know how long it was since the watercress-beds had been cleaned out previously?" the coroner asked, when the witness had told the story of the discovery. "They was cleaned out by Mr. Tapper's orders just before he gave them up. That will be a little better than two years ago. In May it were. I helped to clean 'em. I worked on this very same place and there wasn't no bones there then." The coroner glanced at the jury. "Any questions, gentlemen," he asked. The cobbler directed an intimidating scowl at the witness and demanded: "Were you searching for bones when you came on these remains?" "Me!" exclaimed the witness. "What should I be searching for bones for?" "Don't prevaricate," said the cobbler sternly; "answer the question: Yes or no." "No, of course I wasn't." The juryman shook his enormous head dubiously as though implying that he would let it pass this time but it mustn't happen again; and the examination of the witnesses continued, without eliciting anything that was new to me or giving rise to any incident, until the sergeant had described the finding of the right arm in the Cuckoo Pits. "Was this an accidental discovery?" the coroner asked. "No. We had instructions from Scotland Yard to search any likely ponds in this neighborhood." The coroner discreetly forbore to press this matter any further, but my friend the cobbler was evidently on the qui vive, and I anticipated a brisk cross-examination for Mr. Badger when his turn came. The inspector was apparently of the same opinion, for I saw him cast a glance of the deepest malevolence at the too inquiring disciple of St. Crispin. In fact, his turn ca
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142  
143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
coroner
 

cobbler

 

viewed

 
witness
 
examination
 
watercress
 

cleaned

 

remains

 

witnesses

 

prefer


searching
 
happen
 

discovered

 

continued

 

discovery

 

eliciting

 

prevaricate

 

sternly

 

answer

 

exclaimed


question
 

implying

 

dubiously

 
juryman
 

enormous

 
Badger
 
inspector
 

apparently

 

opinion

 

anticipated


friend

 

evidently

 
Crispin
 
disciple
 

inquiring

 
glance
 

deepest

 

malevolence

 

Cuckoo

 

finding


incident

 

sergeant

 
accidental
 

instructions

 
discreetly
 
forbore
 

matter

 

neighborhood

 
Scotland
 

search