"The proceedings began with the sensational evidence of Dr. Dawson, the divisional surgeon, who had conducted the post-mortem. He stated that the deceased had been in an advanced state of uræmia, but this had not actually been the cause of death. Death was due to heart failure, caused by fright and shock, following on violent aggression and an attempt at strangulation. There were marks round the throat, and evidences of a severe blow having been dealt on the face and cranium causing concussion. In the patient's weak state of health, shock and fright had affected the heart's action with fatal results.
"All the while that the divisional surgeon gave evidence, going into technical details which the layman could not understand, Dr. Percy Jutt had obvious difficulty to control himself. He had a fidgety, nervous way with him and was constantly biting his nails. When he, in his turn, entered the witness-box, he was as white as a sheet and tried to hide his nervousness behind a dictatorial, blustering manner. In answer to the coroner, he explained that he had been acting as locum tenens for Dr. Fanshawe-Bigg, who was away on his holiday. He had visited the deceased once or twice during the past fortnight, and had last seen him on the Thursday preceding his death. Dr. Fanshawe-Bigg had left him a few notes on the case.
"'I found,' he went on to explain, 'the deceased in an advanced stage of uræmia, and there was very little that I could do, more especially as I was made to understand that my visits were not particularly wanted. On the Thursday, deceased was in a very drowsy state, this being one of the best-known symptoms of the disease, and I didn't think that he could live much longer. I told Mr. Charles Ashley so; at the same time, I did not think that the end would come quite so soon. However, I was not particularly surprised when on the Monday morning I received a visit from Mr. Charles Ashley who told me that his father was dead. I found him very difficult to understand,' Dr. Jutt continued, in reply to a question from the coroner, 'emotion had, I thought, addled his speech a little. He may have tried to tell me something in connection with his father's death, but I was so rushed with work that morning, and, as I say, I was fully prepared for the event, that all I could do was to promise to come round some time during the day, and, in the meanwhile, in order to facilitate arrangements for the funeral, I gave the necessary certificate. I was entirely within my rights,' he concluded, with somewhat aggressive emphasis, 'and, as far as I can recollect, Mr. Charles Ashley said nothing that in any way led me to think that there was anything wrong.'
"Mr. Oldwall, the solicitor, was the next witness called, and his testimony was unimportant to the main issue. He had drafted the late Mr. Thornton Ashley's will in 1919, and had last seen him alive before starting on a short holiday some time in June. Deceased had just heard then of his son's engagement and witness thought him looking wonderfully better and brighter than he had been for a long time.
"'Mr. Ashley,' the coroner asked, 'didn't say anything to you then about any alteration to his will?'
"'Most emphatically, no!' the witness replied.
"'Or at any time?'
"'At no time,' Mr. Oldwall asserted.
"These questions put by the coroner in quick succession had, figuratively speaking, made every one sit up. Up to now the general public had not been greatly interested, one had made up one's mind that the old miser had kept certain sums of money, after the fashion of his kind, underneath his mattress; that some evil-doer had got wind of this and entered the flat when no one was about, giving poor Thornton Ashley a fright that had cost him his life.
"But with this reference to some possible alteration in the will the case at once appeared more interesting. Suddenly one felt on the alert, excitement was in the air, and when the next witness, a middle-aged, dapper little man, wearing spectacles, a grey suit and white spats, stood up to answer questions put to him by the coroner, a suppressed gasp of anticipatory delight went round the circle of spectators.