"Now during the whole of that time, Mrs. Spizey, did you see anybody come up those stairs, cross the court, and go towards the Mayor's Parlour?"
"Which I never did, sir! I never see a soul of any sort. Which the place was empty, sir, for all but me and my work, sir."
The Coroner motioned Mrs. Spizey to stand down, and glanced at Hawthwaite.
"I think this would be a convenient point at which to adjourn," he said. "I——"
But Hawthwaite's eyes were turned elsewhere. In the body of the court an elderly man had risen.
CHAPTER VII
THE VOLUNTARY WITNESS
E verybody present, not excluding Brent, knew the man at whom the Superintendent of Police was staring, and who evidently wished to address the Coroner. He was Mr. Samuel John Epplewhite, an elderly, highly respectable tradesman of the town, and closely associated with that Forward Party in the Town Council of which the late Mayor had become the acknowledged leader; a man of substance and repute, who would not break in without serious reason upon proceedings of the sort then going on. The Coroner, following Hawthwaite's glance, nodded to him.