Witness.--"It was more than that--five or ten minutes more."
Counsel.--"Did you see any scratches on his hands, making them bleed?"
Witness.--"No, I did not see any. His hands did not bleed at all after he came down again."
Counsel.--"How long might he be absent when he went up to his room?"
"Some five or ten minutes, I dare say," said the boy.
The counsel here sat down, and the boy was re-examined at some length by the counsel for the prosecution, without eliciting any new fact, or causing him at all to vary in his statements.
Four or five other witnesses were examined to various minute facts, of no great importance in themselves, but all bearing more or less upon the case.
The exact distance from Mr. Tracy's house to the place where the murder was committed, the proximity of the body, when found, to the temple over the fish-pond, the extent of space between that building and the haw-haw, and the distance thence to the gardener's house, were amongst the facts proved; and at length the counsel for the prosecution declared his case closed.
It was between four and five in the afternoon, and the judge, who for some time had been showing symptoms of impatience, inquired of the prisoner's counsels whether they thought they could conclude, that night.
"The court is intensely hot," said the learned judge. "We have sat here from an early hour in the morning; but I am most anxious that to-morrow should be left free for the remaining business of the assize; and if sure of finishing to-night, we would proceed with the trial, after taking some refreshment. I would rather sit till midnight than not conclude to-day."