The landlady looked him in the face, and said it had been drunk by the servants or thrown away long ago.
"I have my doubts of that," said he.
"And welcome," said she.
Then he wished to examine the keyholes.
"No," said she; "there has been prying enough into my house."
Said he angrily, "You are obstructing justice. It is very suspicious."
"It is you that is suspicious, and a mischief-maker into the bargain," said she. "How do I know what you might put into my wine and my keyholes, and say you found it? You are well known, you Bow Street runners, for your hanky-panky tricks. Have you got a search-warrant, to throw more discredit upon my house? No? Then pack! and learn the law before you teach it me."
Bradbury retired, bitterly indignant, and his indignation strengthened his faint doubt of Cox's guilt.
He set a friend to watch the "Swan," and he himself gave his mind to the whole case, and visited Cox in Newgate three times before his trial.
The next novelty was that legal assistance was provided for Cox by a person who expressed compassion for his poverty and inability to defend himself, guilty or not guilty; and that benevolent person was—Captain Cowen.