red that in
their opinion it was only red earth. (A certain obscurity appears in the
evidence at this point, owing to the common use of a certain expletive
in the mouth of the British working-man.) There was a hot discussion on
the subject, and the Bill whose boots were under argument seems to have
been the only man to keep his head. He argued very sensibly that if the
stains were those of blood, then he must have stepped in some--perhaps
in the gutter of a slaughter-house; and if it was not blood, then it
must be something else he had trodden in. It was urged upon him that it
was best washed off, and he seems finally to have taken the advice,
though without enthusiasm.

Then the four men departed.

The landlady's evidence was to the same effect. She states that the
new-comer, with whose name she had been previously unacquainted, though
she knew his face, had remained very tranquilly for an hour or so and
had breakfasted off bacon and eggs. He seemed to have plenty of money,
she said. He had finally set off, limping a little, in a northward
direction.

Now this incident is a very small one. I only mention it because, in
reading the evidence later, I found myself reminded of a parallel
incident, recorded in a famous historical trial, in which something
resembling blood was seen on the hand of the judge. His name was Ayloff,
and his date the sixteenth century.

(II)

Mrs. Partington had a surprise--not wholly agreeable--on that Christmas
Eve. For at half-past three, just as the London evening was beginning to
close in, her husband walked into the kitchen.

She had seen nothing of him for six weeks, and had managed to get on
fairly well without him. I am not even now certain whether or no she
knows what her husband's occupation is during these absences of his--I
think it quite possible that, honestly, she does not--and I have no idea
myself. It seemed, however, this time, that he had prospered. He was in
quite a good temper, he was tolerably well dressed, and within ten
minutes of his arrival he had produced a handful of shillings. Five of
these he handed over to her at once for Christmas necessaries, and ten
more he entrusted to Maggie with explicit directions as to their
expenditure.

While he took off his boots, his wife gave him the news--first, as to
the arrival of the Major's little party, and next as to its unhappy
dispersion on that very day.

"He will 'ave it as the young man's gone off with the young