e foot of the stairs
leading to this court--by which anybody would have to come to get that
way to the Mayor's Parlour?"

The witness reflected for a moment.

"Well, about ten yards, sir," he answered.

The Coroner looked at the plan which the Borough Surveyor had placed
before him and the jury a few minutes previously. Before he could say
anything further, Hawthwaite rose from his seat and making his way to
him exchanged a few whispered remarks with him. Presently the Coroner
nodded, as if in assent to some suggestions.

"Oh, very well," he said. "Then perhaps we'd better have her at once.
Call--what's her name, did you say? Oh, yes--Sarah Jane Spizey!"

From amidst a heterogeneous collection of folk, men and women,
congregated at the rear of the witness-box, a woman came forward--one of
the most extraordinary looking creatures that he had ever seen, thought
Brent. She was nearly six feet in height; she was correspondingly built;
her arms appeared to be as brawny as a navvy's; her face was of the
shape and roundness of a full moon; her mouth was a wide slit, her nose
a button; her eyes were as shrewd and hard as they were small and
close-set. A very Grenadier of a woman!--and apparently quite unmoved by
the knowledge that everybody was staring at her.

Sarah Jane Spizey--yes. Wife of the Town Bellman. Resident in St.
Laurence Lane. Went out charing sometimes; sometimes worked at
Marriner's Laundry. Odd-job woman, in fact.

"Mrs. Spizey," said the Coroner, "I understand that on the evening of
Mr. Wallingford's death you were engaged in some work in the Moot Hall.
Is that so?"

"Yes, sir. Which I was a-washing the floor of this very court."

"What time was that, Mrs. Spizey?"

"Which I was at it, your Worshipful, from six o'clock to eight."

"Did you leave this place at all during that time?"

"Not once, sir; not for a minute."

"Now during the whole of that time, Mrs. Spizey, did you see anybody
come up those stairs, cross the court, and go towards the Mayor's
Parlour?"

"Which I never did, sir! I never see a soul of any sort. Which the place
was empty, sir, for all but me and my work, sir."

The Coroner motioned Mrs. Spizey to stand down, and glanced at
Hawthwaite.

"I think this would be a convenient point at which to adjourn," he said.
"I----"

But Hawthwaite's eyes were turned elsewhere. In the body of the court an
elderly man had risen.

CHAPTER VII

THE VOLUNTARY WITNESS

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