going down toward Piccadilly, when the two swells hailed him from the
curb. He couldn't rightly see them, because of the fog, but he noticed
that both wore high hats and the collars of their overcoats ware
turned up to their ears. He hardly saw their faces, but he noticed
that one of them carried a walking stick.

"Or it might 'ave been a umbrella," he added after a moment's
hesitation, "I couldn't rightly say."

"You must have seen the faces of your fares," argued the coroner, "if
you saw that one of them carried a walking stick--or an umbrella. You
must have seen something of their faces," he reiterated more
emphatically.

"I didn't," retorted the man gruffly. "Was you out in that there fog,
sir? If you was, you'd know 'ow you couldn't see your 'and before your
eyes. I saw the point of the stick--or the umbrella, I couldn't
rightly say which--only because one of them gents waved it at me when
'e was 'ailing me--that's 'ow I seed the point."

The coroner allowed the question of identification to drop: clearly
nothing would be got out of the man. The gentlemen, he declared,
entered the cab, and then one of them gave directions to him, putting
his head out of the right hand window.

"I didn't turn to look at 'im," he said bluntly. "I could 'ear 'is
voice plain enough--so why should I take a look at 'im? 'Ow did I know
there was a goin' to be murder done in my cab, and me wanted to say
what the murderer looked like?"

He looked round the room defiantly, as if expecting applause for this
display of sound common-sense, opposed to the coroner's tiresome
officialism.

"And what directions," asked the latter, "did the gentleman give you?"

"To go along Piccadilly," replied the witness, "till 'e told me to
stop."

"And when did he tell you to stop?"

"By the railings of Green Park, just by 'Yde Park Corner. One of 'em
puts 'is 'ead out of the window and calls to me to pull up."

"Which you did?"

"Which I did, and one of 'em gets out and standin' on the curb 'e
leans back to the interior of the cab and says: S'long--see you
to-morrow,' and then 'e says to me: 'No. 1 Cromwell Road,' and
disappears in the fog."

"Surely you saw him then?"

"No. The fog was like pea soup there, though it looked clearer on
Knightsbridge away. And 'e got out left side of course. I was up on my
box right 'and side--a long way from 'im. I could see a man standin'
there, but not 'is face. 'Is 'at was pulled down right over 'is eyes,