A. Not that I can remember.
Mr. Fyler was an advocate of that Old Bailey complexion, colourless, black-eyebrowed, moist, thick rinded, whose constant policy it is to provoke hostility in a witness with the object of bullying him for it into submission and self-committal. With every reason, in the present case, to respect, and none to suspect, the deponent, his professional habit would nevertheless not permit him to cast his examination in a wholly conciliatory form.
Q. Now, Mr. Kennett, I must ask you to be very particular in your replies to the questions I am about to put to you. You came upon Annie Evans, I understand, shortly after entering the copse, and put down your gun with the purpose of speaking to her.
A. With the purpose of lighting a cigarette.
Q. But you did speak with her?
A. Yes, I have said so.
Q. You placed your gun against the tree where you afterwards found it?
A. Yes.
Q. Was the deceased then standing near you, or further in by the tree where her body was found?
A. She was standing—— (Some amazing purport in the question seemed suddenly here to burst upon the witness, and he uttered a violent ejaculation)—Great God! Are you meaning to suggest that I fired the shot myself? (Sensation.)