ue-eyed, stolid-faced young Scotsman, stepped
into the witness-box with the air of a man who is being forced against
his will to the performance of some distasteful obligation. Everybody
looked wonderingly at him; he was a comparative stranger in the town,
and the unimaginative folk amongst the spectators were already
cudgelling their brains for an explanation of his presence. But Brent,
after a glance at Carstairs, transferred his attention to Carstairs's
principal, at whom he had already looked once or twice during Mrs.
Saumarez's brief occupancy of the witness-box. Wellesley, sitting in a
corner seat a little to the rear of the solicitor's table, had
manifested some signs of surprise and annoyance while Mrs. Saumarez was
being questioned; now he showed blank wonder at hearing his assistant
called. He looked from Carstairs to the Coroner, and from the Coroner to
Hawthwaite, and suddenly, while Carstairs was taking the oath, he
slipped from his seat, approached Cotman, a local solicitor, who sat
listening, close by Tansley, and began to talk to him in hurried
undertones. Tansley nudged Brent's elbow.

"Wellesley's tumbled to it!" he whispered. "The police suspect--him!"

"Good heavens!" muttered Brent, utterly unprepared for this suggestion.
"You really think--that?"

"Dead sure!" asserted Tansley. "That's the theory! What's this
red-headed chap called for, else? You listen!"

Brent was listening, keenly enough. The witness was giving an
account of himself. Robert Carstairs, qualified medical
practitioner--qualifications specified--at present assistant to Dr.
Wellesley; been with him three months.

"Dr. Carstairs," began the Coroner, "do you remember the evening on
which the late Mayor, Mr. Wallingford, was found dead in the Mayor's
Parlour?"

"I do!" replied Carstairs bluntly.

"Where were you on that evening?"

"In the surgery."

"What are your surgery hours at Dr. Wellesley's?"

"Nine to ten of a morning; seven to nine of an evening."

"Was Dr. Wellesley with you in the surgery on that particular evening?"

"He was--some of the time."

"Not all the time?"

"No."

"What part of the time was he there, with you?"

"He was there, with me, from seven o'clock until half-past seven."

"Attending to patients, I suppose?"

"There were patients--three or four."

"Do you remember who they were?"

"Not particularly. Their names will be in the book."

"Just ordinary callers?"

"Just that."

"You s