Here we heard sobs; but they were only a child's, and the inquiry went on.
"Did you succeed?"
"I request you to call up Mr. James Baxter as a more direct witness."
His request being complied with, Mr. James Baxter came forward, and expectancy rose to fever-point. He was one of the three gentlemen whose voices I had heard over the cards that were being played in George Gillespie's room during the hour his father had succumbed to poison. I recognised him at once from his burly figure and weak voice; having noticed this eccentricity at our first meeting. He was not sober then, but he was very sober now, and the effect he produced was, on the whole, favourable.
Glancing at George as if in apology, and receiving a tiger's glare in return, he waited with a certain sang froid for the inevitable question. It came quickly and with a peremptoriness which showed that the coroner now felt himself on safe ground.
"Where were you sitting when George Gillespie left you to go downstairs for wine?"
"At the card-table near the fire, with my face towards the dressing-room at the other end of the room."
"Had wine been passed then, or any spirituous liquors?"
"No."
"You were all in a perfectly sober condition therefore?"