"I am acting," said Mr. Pope, "in the interests of my friend here and the members of a honorable——"
But here the butcher turned on him savagely, and, in a hoarse stage-whisper, exclaimed:
"Look here, Pope; you've got too much of what the cat licks——"
"Gentlemen! gentlemen!" the coroner protested sternly; "I cannot permit this unseemly conduct. You are forgetting the solemnity of the occasion and your own responsible positions. I must insist on more decent and decorous behavior."
There was profound silence, in the midst of which the butcher concluded in the same hoarse whisper:
"—licks 'er paws with."
The coroner cast a withering glance at him, and, turning to the witness, resumed the examination.
"Can you tell us, Doctor, how long a time has elapsed since the death of the deceased?"
"I should say not less than eighteen months, but probably more. How much more it is impossible from inspection alone to say. The bones are perfectly clean—that is, clean of all soft structures—and will remain substantially in their present condition for many years."
"The evidence of the man who found the remains in the watercress-bed suggests that they could not have been there for more than two years. Do the appearances in your opinion agree with that view?"