A. I had left it with one of the barrels loaded, and when I saw it again they had both been discharged.
Q. You will swear to the one barrel having been loaded when you left it leaning against the tree?
A. To the best of my belief it was.
Q. You will swear to that?
A. No, I cannot actually swear to it, but I am practically convinced of the fact.
Q. Did you notice, when you took up the gun again, if the barrels, or barrel, were warm?
A. No, I never thought of it.
Q. Don’t you think it would have been well if it had occurred to you? Don’t you think you would have done better to leave the gun alone altogether, until the police arrived?
A. (The witness for the first time exhibiting a little irritability under this catechism): I dare say it would have been better. I was agitated, I tell you, and the situation was new to me. One doesn’t think of the proper thing to do on such an occasion unless one is a lawyer. I just took the gun with me, and chucked it into the gun-room as I passed, hating the infernal thing.
Q. Very natural under the circumstances, I am sure. Now, another question. The shot was fired, you consider, from the direction of the road. At what distance from the deceased would your knowledge as a sportsman put it?