“Well, in that case,” continued the Inspector briskly, “your previous experience has no doubt enlightened you, then, in regard to the customary procedure in such cases. You are, of course, aware that the finding of a coroner’s jury, while it may acquit you of all blame in causing a person’s death, doesn’t necessarily preclude any subsequent inquiry that the Crown may see fit to institute later, although it would naturally carry considerable weight with it in such an eventuality....”
He paused for a moment, and then went on in the slightly sententious tones of one who knows he has an unpleasant duty to perform:
“I’ve the O.C.’s orders to place you under ‘open’ arrest, and take you back to the Post with me. There will be a formal charge laid against you, and you will have to face an inquiry in regard to this man’s death. Of course, I shall remain here until these inquests, etc., are over. That is all, Sergeant. Now we’ll go on down to this other place.”
With a strange, indefinable feeling of reluctance, he conducted them thither. Awed, and filled with compassion at what they beheld, they halted irresolutely, a moment, on the threshold, and bared their heads reverently in the presence of the dead. Then, entering the chamber, they made a brief examination which, to Benton, standing idly there in his dumb misery, seemed almost in the light of a sacrilege.
A whispered colloquy ensued between them for a few minutes, and then they gently withdrew and closed the door, Ellis following them out to receive his instructions.
“Inspector,” began the coroner, “I would have liked, if possible, to have had this double inquest held here; but there’s not enough room, I’m afraid. Could you—”
Ellis, with ready tact, broke in quietly: “I think I can arrange that, all right, doctor. I know the man who rents this cottage next door. He’s the day operator at the station. His wife’s away just now, so he’s staying with Mr. Carey, the station agent. There wouldn’t be any difficulty about obtaining the use of his premises to hold the inquiry in, and I could have the other body removed down here, so as to utilize this place as the morgue.”
“Ah, very well,” said the coroner, with evident relief; “that will be entirely satisfactory. There’s just one other thing I would like you to see to, Sergeant. Kindly get some woman to attend to the necessary arrangements in this last case—lay her out decently, and so on—you understand?”
“And afterwards,” supplemented the Inspector, “of course give Dr. Sampson all the assistance you can in empanelling a jury. Why, hello, doctor!” he exclaimed, turning to Musgrave, who had just joined them. “You seem to have been getting yourself mixed up in stirring events around here, according to what Sergeant Benton tells me. Whatever brings you so far away from home? I guess we’ll need your evidence at these inquests.”
The three men chatted awhile, then presently, the coroner and the Inspector departed for the hotel, leaving Musgrave and Benton together.