"No," said the doctor, positively, "such a weak old man could not have delivered so violent a blow. The knife was buried up to the hilt in his heart, and had to pierce through a starched shirt-front and a quilted jacket, both of which would have broken the force of the blow. The body was clothed in a smoking-suit, if you remember, sir."
"Then you don't think that Sir Hector committed suicide?"
"No. I am quite certain that he did not."
The final witness was the police officer who had arrived from Waking. It appeared that the red bicycle had been found in the stable of Jonas Sorley, who had come to the police-office to confess this. Sorley was a carrier, and saw the advertisement about the bicycle in the newspapers. Therefore, he had communicated with the police. Sorley, being ill, could not come to the inquest, but the officer brought his sworn deposition.
From this it appeared that on the night when the crime was committed at Hedgerton Sorley was jogging along in his cart from Bethley to Waking, some twenty miles away. When he left Bethley there was no bicycle in his cart, but when he arrived at Waking there was.
"The bicycle of Hall, the postman?" asked the Coroner.
"Yes, sir. It's the same number. But Sorley cannot say how the bicycle came to be in his cart. It was nearly midnight when he arrived at Waking."
This unsatisfactory statement completed the evidence, and there was nothing for it but that the jury should bring in an open verdict, which they accordingly did. Everyone agreed with this but the buccaneer, who insisted to Sergeant Purse, when the proceedings were over, that the escaped man was the assassin, and should be directly accused.
"But we don't know his name, so how can a verdict be given against him?" was the sergeant's reply. "An open verdict is sufficient. We can search for the man, and when we find him we can hang him."
"Yes, when you find him," jeered Lemby, contemptuously. "You'll never find him!"