The ways of the hour

by James Fenimore Cooper

“Am I to understand that you recognize the particular skeletons by any outward, visible proofs?”

“Yes; there is the stature. Both of the deceased were well known to me; and I should say, that making the usual allowance for the absence of the musculi, the pellis, and other known substances——

“Doctor, would it be just as agreeable to you to use the common dialect?” demanded a shrewd-looking farmer, one of the jury, who appeared equally amused and vexed at this display of learning[learning].

“Certainly, sir—certainly, Mr. Blore; musculi means muscles, and pellis is the skin. Abstract the muscles and skin, and the other intermediate substances, from the bones, and the apparent stature would be reduced, as a matter of course. Making those allowances, I see in those skeletons the remains of Peter and Dorothy Goodwin. Of the fact, I entertain no manner of doubt.”

As Dr. Coe was very sincere in what he said, he expressed himself somewhat earnestly. A great many eyes were turned triumphantly towards the stranger who had presumed to intimate that the bones of both the remains were those of women, when everybody in and about Biberry knew Peter Goodwin so well, and knew that his wife, if anything, was the taller of the two. No one in all that crowd doubted as to the fact, except McBrain and his friend; and the last doubted altogether on the faith of the doctor’s science. He had never known him mistaken, though often examined in court, and was aware that the bar considered him one of the safest and surest witnesses they could employ in all cases of controverted facts.

Dr. Coe’s examination proceeded.

“Have you a direct knowledge of any of the circumstances connected with this fire?” demanded the coroner.

“A little, perhaps. I was called to visit a patient about midnight, and was obliged to pass directly before the door of Goodwin’s house. The jury knows that it stood on a retired road, and that one would not be likely to meet with any person travelling it, so early in the morning. I did pass, however, two men, who were walking very fast, and in the direction of Goodwin’s. I could not see their faces, nor did I know them by their figures and movements. As I see everybody, and know almost everybody, hereabouts, I concluded they were strangers. About four, I was on my return along the same road, and as my sulky rose to the top of Windy Hill, I got a view of Goodwin’s house. The flames were just streaming out of the east end of the roof, and the little wing on that end of the building, in which the old folks slept, was in a bright blaze. The other end was not much injured; and I saw at an upper window the figure of a female—she resembled, as well as I could judge by that light, and at that distance, the young lady now present, and who is said to have occupied the chamber under the roof, in the old house, for some time past; though I can’t say I have ever seen her there, unless I saw her then, under the circumstances mentioned. The old people could not have been as ailing this spring as was common with them, as I do not remember to have been stopped by them once. They never were in the habit of sending for the doctor, but seldom let me go past the door, without calling me in.”

“Did you see any one beside the figure of the female at the window?”

“Yes. There were two men beneath that window, and they appeared to me to be speaking to, or holding some sort of communication with, the female. I saw gestures, and I saw one or two articles thrown out of the window. My view was only for a minute; and when I reached the house, a considerable crowd had collected, and I had no opportunity to observe, particularly in a scene of such confusion.”