The Hole in the Wall

by Arthur Morrison

Mr. Cripps "threw a chest," stuck an arm akimbo, and raised the other with an oratorical sweep so large that his small voice, when it came, seemed all the smaller. "Hi was in the bar, sir," he piped, "the bar, sir, of this 'ouse, bein' long acquainted with an' much respectin' Cap'en Kemp, an' in the 'abit of visitin' 'ere in the intervals of the pursoot of my hart. Hem! Hi was in the bar, sir, when my attention was attracted by a sudden noise be'hind, or as I may say, in the rear of, the bar-parlour. Hi was able to distinguish, gentlemen of the jury, what might be called, in a common way o' speakin', a bump or a bang, sich as would be occasioned by an unknown murderer criminally shoving his un'appy victim's 'ed agin the back-door of a public-'ouse. Hi was able to distinguish it, sir, from a 'uman cry which follered: a 'uman cry, or as it might be, a holler, sich as would be occasioned by the un'appy victim 'avin' 'is 'ed shoved agin the back-door aforesaid. Genelmen, I 'esitated not a moment. I rushed forward."

Mr. Cripps paused so long to give the statement effect that the coroner lost patience. "Yes," he said, "you rushed forward. Do you mean you jumped over the bar?"

For a moment Mr. Cripps's countenance fell; truly it would have been more imposing to have jumped over the bar. But he was on his oath, and he must do his best with the facts. "No, sir," he explained, a little tamely, "not over the bar, but reether the opposite way, so to speak, towards the door. I rushed forward, genelmen, in a sort of rearwards direction, through the door, an' round into the alley. Immediate as I turned the corner, genelmen, I be'eld with my own eyes the unknown murderer; I see 'im a-risin' from over 'is un'appy victim, an' I see as the criminal tragedy had transpired. I—I rushed forward."

The sensation he looked for being slow in coming, another rush seemed expedient; but it fell flat as the first, and Mr. Cripps struggled on, desperately conscious that he had nothing else to say.

"I rushed forward, sir; seein' which the miscreant absconded—absconded, no doubt with—with the proceeds; an' seein' Cap'en Kemp abscondin' after him, I turned an' be'eld the un'appy victim—the corpse now in custody, sir—a-layin' in the bar-parlour, 'elpless an'—an' decimated.... I—rushed forward."

It was sad to see how little the coroner was impressed; there was even something in his face not unlike a smile; and Mr. Cripps was at the end of his resources. But if he could have seen the face of Musky Mag, in the little crowd behind him, he might have been consoled. She alone, of all who heard, had followed his rhetoric with an agony of attention, word by word: even as she had followed the earlier evidence. Now her strained face was the easier merely by contrast with itself when Mr. Cripps was in full cry; and a moment later it was tenser than ever.

"Yes, yes, Mr. Cripps," the coroner said; "no doubt you were very active, but we don't seem to have increased the evidence. You say you saw the man who stabbed the deceased in the passage. Did you know him at all? Ever see him before?"

Here, mayhap, was some chance of an effect after all. Mr. Cripps could scarce have distinguished the murderer from one of the posts in the alley; but he said, with all the significance he could give the words: "Well, sir, I won't go so far as to swear to 'is name, sir; no, sir, not to 'is name, certainly not." And therewith he made his sensation at last, bringing upon himself the twenty-four eyes of the jury all together.

The coroner looked up sharply. "Oh," he said, "you know him by sight then? Does he belong to the neighbourhood?"

Now it was not Mr. Cripps who had said he knew the murderer by sight, but the coroner. Far be it from him, thought the aspirant for fame, to contradict the coroner, and so baulk himself of the credit thus thrust upon him. So he answered with the same cautious significance and a succession of portentous nods. "Your judgment, sir, is correct; quite correct."