“Will they say that, uncle? Will they dare to say that?” she asked, with such breathless earnestness that he stepped back with a frown on his honest red face.
“Bless the girl! You give me quite a turn with your whisperings and your scared face,” said he, testily. “Come along back home, and for goodness’ sake don’t let them think as you wanted to get away. The Lord only knows what people say at these times if you don’t keep your wits about you, and answer questions like a reasonable creature.”
Nell said nothing. But the innkeeper’s heart sank within him as he drove her home, and perceived that his once light-hearted and merry little niece was trembling like a leaf the whole way.
CHAPTER XIV.
The inquest was held in the little town-hall in the market-place, and the ugly whispers which were afloat concerning Jem Stickels’s death brought together such a gathering that the meager accommodation provided by the old building was taxed to the utmost.
It was evident from the outset that this was no ordinary case of a drunken man found dead in a ditch, with nothing about him to tell how he came by his death. From the very first moment when the doors were opened, and the crowd rushed in and filled in a moment the space allotted to the public, there were murmurs and whispers flying from mouth to mouth, indicative of the general belief that some person or persons of a higher social position than the dead fisherman, and more generally interesting than he, would be implicated in the course of the proceedings. The questions: “Where’s the young lady?” And “Won’t the gentleman be well enough to come?” were often but never satisfactorily answered. The witnesses in the case were in the magistrate’s room, so rumor said, and were to be brought out one by one as they were wanted.
That part of the court usually occupied by the officials alone held on this occasion a good many curious ones drawn thither by the open secret of the romantic interest attached to the case. A few portly wives of local tradesmen, sandwiched in among the members of the sterner sex, lent their presence to the scene. There was a hum and a buzz from end to end of the tightly-packed court as the jurymen filed in, and taking their places on the oaken seats, black with age, which were already old when Charles the First was king, were sworn one by one, duly charged by the coroner.
After the lull in the court caused by these proceedings, there was a loud buzz of talk when the jury filed out again to view the body. The policemen, little used to such a scene of excitement in their quiet, little town, roared themselves hoarse in their endeavor to maintain silence on the part of everybody but themselves.
When the jurymen returned the interesting part of the proceedings began. The first witness called was the boy, Charles Wallett, who had found the body. His evidence did not take many minutes, and consisted merely of the information he had given at the Bell Inn the evening before. He had seen the body lying by the roadside, had called to the man, had touched him; and being unable to detect a movement or to obtain an answer, he had concluded that the man was dead, and had run with all speed to give information of his discovery.
The second witness was the detective, Hemming. He admitted the open secret that he was a private inquiry agent, and that he was staying at Stroan on business. He had been the first to reach the body after Wallett’s discovery of it, and he had been one of those to identify the deceased as Jem Stickels, the fisherman. The man was quite dead when he found him, but the body was still quite warm.