"'What does Healy say?' asked my father. 'Has he heard anything new about this affair?'
"'No, he says he hasn't, but he said very little and seemed rather sulky, I thought.'
"'By the bye, he couldn't have been far off when the thing happened; for he had only been gone half-an-hour when we recognized the step of poor Gould's mare I recollect, and she'd soon overtake him.'
"'So I told him; and I asked him if he had met anybody on the road that night, but he said he'd plenty to do to mind his own business.'
"My father who was reading the paper at the time, looked up at me over his spectacles; and then fell into a reverie that lasted some minutes, but he said nothing; my mother observed that she thought Healy ought to be summoned as a witness; and my father rejoined, that no doubt he'd be examined.
"On the following day the inquest was resumed; my father went early and had some private conversation with Mr. Wills and I waited outside amongst the assembled crowd, listening to their speculations and conjectures. Presently, the coroner arrived, and I went in with him and heard the whole of the evidence. That of Mr. Wills, and the labourers who found the body was the same as before. Then, as my father had conjectured, Healy was called; his face was familiar to everybody in the room, and there was not one I should think who was not struck with the singularly sulky, dogged expression his features had assumed. There was no manifest reason for it, for he was only summoned like other witnesses, and no breath of suspicion had been cast upon him; at least, as far as we had heard. But he evidently came in a spirit of resistance and wound up for self-defence. He declared that he had not overtaken Mr. Gould on the night in question, and did not know he was on the road; nor did he hear anything of what had happened till the next morning. He believed he had met some tramps on the road that night—two men and a woman—but he had not particularly noticed them, and he did not recollect meeting anybody else. He had first heard of the accident at a shop where he had gone to buy a bat for Master C. When he said this, he looked up at me and our eyes met. I have often thought of that look since.
"The next witness was Mr. F., who had paid Gould the seventy pounds in notes; and then a Mr. H. B., a solicitor, came forward and volunteered the following evidence, which, he said, he should have given before, but that he had left home on the afternoon preceding this unfortunate business, and had only returned yesterday. He was acquainted with Gould; and had met him at the door of the bank at B——, as he himself was on his way to the coach that was starting for E. Gould spoke to him, and said he had just got that seventy pounds; and when he said so, he clapt his hand on his pocket, implying it was there. He said, 'I came to pay it in here, but I see they're shut, and it does not signify; I shall have to pay away a good deal of it next week;' this was all that passed, as I told him I must be off for I should lose the coach. Upon this, he was asked if anybody else had been present when Gould made this communication. He answered, that people had been passing to and fro, but he could not say whether they heard it. There was one person who he thought might, though he could not affirm that he did; and that was Healy, the carrier, who was standing at the door of the tanner's shop, which is next to the bank, and examining some cricket bats that he had in his hand. Gould had spoken loud, as was his wont.
"I saw Mr. Wills and my father exchange looks when this evidence was given, and then for the first time the question occurred to me, could Healy be the murderer? I could hardly entertain the suspicion—it is so difficult to believe such a thing of a person one is having constant intercourse with. Healy was recalled and asked if he remembered seeing Mr. Gould and the lawyer together on that day. He declared he did not.
"The harness was afterwards produced; and it appeared that the traces had been cut, which was a strong confirmation of the worst suspicions.
"The inquest was once more adjourned; and Healy plied his trade as usual for the next two days, though everybody had a strange feeling towards him; and he retained his dogged, sulky look; on the third night we missed him. We had expected a parcel from B——, but he did not come; and the next day we heard he had been arrested on suspicion of being the murderer of Mr. Gould. A gentleman's servant, who had been out without leave to some festivity at B——, and had come home and got in at the pantry window without being discovered, at last came forward, and said, that as he was going to the rendezvous, he had seen a cart, which he believed to be Healy's, though it was very dark, drawn right across the road; the horse was out of the shafts and tied to a gate, for he nearly ran against him; he did not see any person with the cart, but the driver might be behind it. It was just where there are some large trees over-hanging the road, which made it darker than in other parts; and a person driving would not see the obstruction till he was on it. He himself, thinking it was Healy, slipt quietly by, for he did not want to be recognised, as the carrier often came to his master's, and might have betrayed him. He met a one-horse carriage about a couple of miles further on; the horse was trotting pretty fast. He thought it was Mr. Gould, but he could not positively say, as the night was so dark.