And in face of these facts the jury returned a verdict of “Accidental death.”
This the public read next morning in their newspapers, together with expressions of deep sympathy and declarations that the air was, as yet, unconquered.
On the same day as the inquest was held upon the body of Lieutenant Barclay, a coroner’s inquiry was held at the little market-town of North Walsham, which, though inland, is the relay for the telegraph-cables diverging to Northern Europe, into the discovery on the highway of the body of the motor-cyclist, Mr. Richard Harborne.
Held in a schoolroom near the railway station, public and witnesses sat upon the school benches, while the coroner occupied the headmaster’s desk.
Again there was an array of witnesses, but from the first the crowd at the back of the room scented mystery.
A carter of the village of Worstead, speaking in his broad Norfolk brogue, described how he had discovered the body and had come into North Walsham and told a constable.
“I was a coomin’ into North Walsham wi’ a load o’ hay what I’d got from Mr. Summers, o’ Stalham, when just after I turned into the Norwich road I saw sawmthin’ a-lyin’ in the ditch,” he said slowly, while the grey-haired deputy-coroner carefully wrote down his words.
“Well?” asked the official, looking up at the witness.
“Well, sir, I found it was ’im,” the man replied.