Mr. Chesterton: Why?
Witness: He wanted to walk through the gate into the Churchyard, a few yards—some 40 or 50 yards, I think—in order to put some flowers on the grave of Miss Rosa Bud’s mother, as I think it is stated in the official documents, he was very much attached to Miss Bud’s mother.
Mr. Chesterton: When he got there, whom did he find?
Witness: He found Edwin Drood lying prone.
Mr. Chesterton: And what did he do?
Witness: I believe the first thing he did was to pick him up. He then shook him together, begged him to speak to him, and questioned him, and Edwin Drood entreated him to take him out of Cloisterham without any delay.
Mr. Chesterton: I understand, Mr. Bazzard, from your narrative, that Mr. Drood could give practically no coherent account of what had happened?
Witness: None whatever, beyond the fact that somebody had tried to strangle him, as he thought.
Mr. Chesterton: When you saw him, what sort of memory had he of that night?
Witness: Vague and unsatisfactory.