"He did not volunteer any information as to who the dead man was, though he was near enough to recognize him, and presumably must have recognized him?"
"I did not hear him say anything."
"Was the light sufficiently bright to enable you to see clearly?"
"It was rather a shadowy spot. There are lamps at the corners of the block only. We were standing about the middle of the block."
The next witness sprung the surprise of the day. He was a boy of eighteen, Ed Kenyon by name, who had been attracted by the quickly spreading report of a murder. Asked to tell his story, he said:
"After the rest of the crowd had gone home, some of us fellows thought we would hunt for the murderer, so we made up a party and looked in all the alleys and went through some of the back yards around there. Right across the street from where the body was found there is a vacant lot. It is a good deal lower than the sidewalk and there is a fence at the inside edge of the walk to keep people from falling off. We looked over the fence and we could see that the snow had been tramped down, as though there had been a scrap or something, so we jumped in and explored for what we could find. When you are down inside the lot there is a hole under the sidewalk, and we found this poked in behind some weeds in the hole." And he produced the two pieces of a broken cane.
Lyon happened to glance at Lawrence at that moment, and he was startled by the look he surprised there. In an instant it was banished, and Lawrence's face was as non-committal, as impassive, as any in the room. But Lyon, watching him now in wonder, felt that the passivity was fixed there by a conscious effort of the will.
The county attorney then recalled Dr. Sperry.
"In your opinion, could the fatal blow have been struck by such an instrument as this cane?"
"It would be quite possible."