ntment when his
evidence came to an end. The foreman alone displayed the judicial
attitude warranted by the oath he had taken. Somehow, Grant had faith in
Mr. Siddle. The man looked intellectual. When spoken to in his shop his
manner was invariably reserved. But that was his general repute in
Steynholme--a quiet, uninterfering person, who had come to the village a
young man, yet had never really entered into its life. For instance, he
neither held nor would accept any public office. At first, people
wondered how he contrived to eke out a living, but this puzzle was solved
by his admitted possession of a small annuity.

Dr. Foxton, general practitioner, who held undisputed sway in the
district, told how he had conducted an autopsy on the body of the
deceased. He found a deep, incised wound on the back of the skull, a
wound which would have caused death in any event. The instrument used
must have been a heavy and blunt one. Miss Melhuish was dead or dying
when thrown into the river. The body was well nourished, and the vital
organs sound. Undoubtedly she had been murdered.

Bates followed, and evoked a snigger by the outspokenness of blunt
Sussex.

"I hauled 'um in," he said, "an' knew it wur a dead 'un by the feel of
the rope."

The coroner was not curious. He merely wished to put on record the time
and manner in which Mr. Grant summoned assistance.

Then P. C. Robinson entered the box, and contrived to bring about the
second "incident."

He told how, "from information received," he went to The Hollies, and
found Mr. Grant standing near the river with a dead body at his feet.

"One side of Mr. Grant's face was covered with blood," he went on.

If the policeman was minded to create a sensation, he certainly
succeeded. A slight hum ran through the court, and then all present
seemed to restrain their breathing lest a word of the evidence should be
lost. The mention of "blood" in a murder case was a more adroit dodge
than Robinson himself guessed, perhaps. Few of his hearers troubled to
reflect that a smudge of fresh gore on Grant's cheek could hardly have
any bearing on the death of a woman whose body had admittedly lain all
night in the river. It sufficed that Robinson had introduced a touch of
the right color into the inquiry. Even the coroner was worried.

"Well!" he said testily.

"I took down his statement, sir," said the witness, well knowing that he
had wiped off Grant's morning score in the matter of Bus