Trial of John Jasper, lay precentor of Cloisterham Cathedral in the County of Kent, for the murder of Edwin Drood, engineer

by England) Dickens Fellowship (London

Mr. Walters: You had two hours’ sleep?

Witness: Yes, I suppose so.

Mr. Walters: Anything else? Did you notice anything?

Witness: When I woke up, I sees my key on the ground, and I says, “I dropped you, did I?” So I picks it up, and asks Mister Jarsper for my bundle.

Mr. Walters: Did he give it to you?

Witness: Yes.

Mr. Walters: I think you had on that occasion a little conversation about a curious art of yours—tapping the tombs?

Witness: Yes; oh, yes—yes.

Mr. Walters: Would you mind telling the court?

Witness: I told him, with my little hammer I could tap and go on tapping, and I could tell whether anything was solid or whether it was hollow. For instance, I says, “Tap, tap, old ’un crumbled up in stone coffin in the vault!”