"MRS. DAVENPORT WAS CALLED."
The remainder of that afternoon and the early part of next day were
devoted by young Pringle to arranging details for the inquest. He
would have attached but little importance to the wild words and
manner of Mr. Edward Davenport if there had not been other very
strong elements, of suspicion in the case. There was matter for more
than grave suspicion--there was matter for absolute alarm. The theory
for the defence set up by Mrs. Davenport was puerile in the extreme,
and yet he could not make any other fit in with the admitted facts of
the case. Upon deliberate consideration, he thought less of his
father's exposition than he had at first. His father might be right,
but his father's conviction went no further than a supposititious
negative. In logic one could not prove a negative; in law there was
no prohibition. An overwhelming _alibi_ would insure an acquittal,
but an _alibi_ was impossible in this case; and by what other means
was it possible to establish a negative?
He was anxious to ascertain one thing: Would Blake be arrested before
or during the inquest? He made inquiries, and found that, although
Blake's address was known and detectives were watching him, no arrest
would be made before the coroner had taken some evidence. Pringle had
no interest in Blake beyond the extent to which he affected Mrs.
Davenport's case. But that was a great deal. If Blake's mouth were
shut, Mrs. Davenport's defence would, he thought, be simpler.
The day of the inquest Pringle went to Jermyn Street, and took Mrs.
Davenport to Dulwich. She was taciturn the whole way, and said she
had nothing to add to what she had communicated yesterday. She hardly
spoke a word the whole way from Jermyn Street to Herne Hill.
Pringle's spirits became more depressed as they journeyed together,
but he had made up his mind to fight the case out to the last.
The inquest was to be held at the "Wolfdog Inn," and when Pringle and
Mrs. Davenport arrived there, a large crowd had already assembled,
although the proceedings would not begin for some time. Pringle had
engaged a private room for Mrs. Davenport, and to it she retired
immediately on their arrival.
It was evident from the manner of those assembled in and near the
"Wolf-dog," that the approaching inquiry was regarded with great
interest, and that popular feeling was aroused against the newly-made
widow.
Mrs. Davenport had entered by a back way, and had not been observed
by the loungers. No one in the crowd knew her; but, of course, if she
had passed through it, she would have been recognised instantly by
her fresh weeds.
For a while young Pringle stood on the steps of the inn, and the
broken snatches of conversation which he overheard did not help to
cheer or inspirit him: he would have taken little or no heed of the
idle talk floating in and out of the door had he felt merely a
professional interest in this woman; but he had just left her; he had
been with her for nearly an hour, and although few words had passed
between them in that time, the spell of her physical beauty had
reasserted itself, and his chivalry was up in arms for her.
While Pringle was standing on the steps of the inn, Dr. Santley and
Alfred Paulton came up. They had walked with one another from Half
Moon Lane.
"Well," said the latter, addressing Pringle, "any good news?"
The solicitor shook his head and answered:
"Nothing fresh."
"I thought," said Paulton, in a tone of disappointment, "that Jerry
O'Brien would be with you. Is he not come? He said he would be here
to-day."
"I have not seen him," said Pringle. "I came out with Mrs. Davenport.
She is upstairs in a private room. Do you know anything of Blake?
Have you met him on the way?"
"Perhaps," said Dr. Santley grimly, "he is cultivating the
acquaintance of the police."
The speakers had moved out of earshot of the crowd.
"No," said Pringle, "I have ascertained that he will not be touched
until after this day's work, anyway."
As the solicitor ceased speaking, two other men approached. They,
too, were walking together; but as they drew near the "Wolfdog," one
of them moved off to the right, and went towards the inn door; the
other held on towards the three men. The latter was Jerry O'Brien.
When he came up with the little group, and had shaken hands with
them, Pringle asked:
"Who was that you were with as you came up the road?"
"What! Don't you all know him? Why, who could it be but Tom Blake?"
Significant looks passed between the three men. Paulton was the first
to speak:
"You don't mean to say, Jerry, that you have----"
"Indeed I have. I met him on the platform at Victoria, and we came
out in the same compartment together."
Jerry O'Brien seemed as much astonished at what he had done as his
friends.
"But," urged Paulton, "you gave him the worst of characters the day
before yesterday, and said he had something to do with this awful
affair. Since then things have grown blacker against him, and yet you
don't cut him! You come out here arm-in-arm with him to the very
inquest where you say he will have to answer the ugliest questions
which can be put to a man!"
"I bar only one thing in what you have said, Alfred. I did _not_ walk
out with him arm-in-arm. I met him quite accidentally at Victoria. I
told you I should be here at the inquest. I was on my way here. I no
more expected to see him than the man in the moon. He pounced on me
suddenly, and rushed me. As a rule, I can take care of myself, but I
admit I am no match for Blake. I am not sure I ever met his match.
Look here, Pringle; I know you're a first-rate fellow at your work.
You're not as old as you might be, but you're one of the best men in
England for this kind of a job. However, if you have to tackle Tom
Blake, he'll give you as much as you want."
Jerry O'Brien spoke with heightened colour, and in a tone of intense
irritation.
This opinion was not unwelcome to Pringle's ears, for he knew that,
no matter how big a scoundrel Blake might be, he would say nothing to
inculpate Mrs. Davenport.
"What is this Blake's manner?" asked Pringle.
"Perfectly self-possessed, cool and audacious."
"Is he venturesome?
"He'd play for his boots or his shirt, and then for his skin."
"Do you think, O'Brien, he'll get out of this with a whole skin?"
"He may, for you are not his lawyer," said O'Brien, with a laugh.
"It is an old form of joke," said the attorney, with a smile. "Do you
know if he has got legal assistance?"
"Legal assistance!" cried O'Brien, scornfully. "Not he. He laughed
when telling me some fellows said he ought to get legal assistance.
Why, my dear Pringle, he'd give the best of you thirty out of a
hundred, and win the game by making you give misses. When is this
thing to begin?"
"Presently. Have you any notion of what he is going to say at the
inquest?"
"I asked him. I told him the paper found in the handwriting of the
deceased would be very awkward."
"What did he say?"
"That it looked very awkward, no doubt; but that many people got into
awkward positions and got out of them again."
"I asked him had he been summoned as a witness, and he said naturally
he had, as he was the last person who saw the dead man alive."
"By Jove, O'Brien! Go on."
"I asked him how he thought the death occurred. He said that was
beyond him to say. He had no doubt it was accidental, and that the
memorandum on the piece of paper written under the influence of
delirium might be an idea created by chloroform, or while suffering
from a relapse of the old disease which seized him at Florence years
ago."
"The same story identically. Did he say anything more?"
"Yes. I asked him did anything unpleasant occur between himself and
Mr. Davenport that night?"
"What did he say to that?" eagerly asked the attorney.
"He looked at me doubtfully for a moment. 'O'Brien,' he said, 'you
know more about this than the outside public. You are interested in
it?' I said I was interested in it very indirectly. 'Very well,
then,' said he, 'I'm going to the inquest. You come with me and then
you shall hear the truth as far as I know it.'"
"This put me in a queer fix. I had not up to this told him I was on
my way to this place. I could not keep the fact any longer to myself,
so I told him I expected to find friends here, nothing more; and I
asked him if I might communicate the substance of what he had said to
them. He gave me full liberty. After all this, you will see I could
not very well shake him off. When we got here he shook himself off.
Mrs. Davenport's name was never mentioned by either of us. He did not
show the least curiosity when I said I took an indirect interest in
the case."
A few minutes after this the four men moved into the inn, and the
coroner having arrived, the jury were sworn, and after returning from
Crescent House, the business of taking evidence began.
After formal identification of the body by Mr. Edward Davenport, the
witness examined was Alfred Paulton. He told his story simply and
briefly, and answered the questions of the coroner and jury with
precision. When what may be regarded as the examination-in-chief was
over, Mr. Bertram Spencer, legal representative of Mr. Edward
Davenport, put a few questions through the coroner. Paulton's replies
were in effect:
No, he had never seen Mr. Davenport alive. When Dr. Santley and he
entered the room where Mr. Davenport lay, deceased was then dead. At
least, so he believed. He had no acquaintance with the effects of
chloroform. He had never been in the room with a dead person before.
Mrs. Davenport, upon his invitation, accompanied him to his father's
house, also in Half Moon Lane. Paulton was asked a few more
questions, but nothing new came out.
Dr. Santley was then examined. He stated that Mr. Paulton called him
on the morning of the death. That he went immediately, as he happened
to be dressed and disengaged at the time. He found Mr. Davenport
quite dead. He thought life had been extinct for an hour or so; it
was impossible to say accurately. The body was not cold. He was
familiar with cases of spasmodic asthma. Practically it never killed
directly; that is, one never died of the spasm. In a spasm, the
heart, or head, or lungs, or aorta might give way, causing death. He
had never known a case of death from spasmodic asthma, pure and
simple.
He was, of course, familiar with chloroform as an anæsthetic. He had
once seen a case of poisoning by chloroform. That case was
accidental. Chloroform was frequently used as a palliative in severe
cases of asthma. A small quantity sprinkled on a napkin or
handkerchief and held close to the nose and mouth very often afforded
temporary relief. This treatment had no effect on the disease beyond
mitigating the violence or putting an end to the spasm. Chloroform
should always be administered with great care, as it had frequently
been known to cause death. In the present case he found no napkin or
handkerchief lying near the body. In administering chloroform for
spasmodic asthma, the usual way was to fold a napkin so that when
open it would resemble rudely a funnel. Into the sharper end of the
funnel the chloroform was dropped, and then the mouth and nose of the
patient thrust into the more open end. The handkerchief of deceased
showed no trace of being used in the administration of chloroform,
nor did either of the napkins found in the room. There was a very
strong smell of chloroform about the place, and a large, a very large
quantity had been spilled over the beard and shirt and waistcoat of
deceased. The bottle produced was what was known as a two-ounce
bottle. The full of it, or half the full of it would, if sprinkled
over the shirt and beard and waistcoat, in all likelihood cause
death, provided the natural course of the vapour upwards towards the
mouth and nostrils was not interfered with. He could form no certain
opinion as to the cause of death. He had declined to certify because
he did not know. He would prefer giving no opinion. The brain, or
aorta, or heart might have given way without displaying any external
symptom. If the lungs had yielded, there would no doubt have been an
outward sign. In deaths by chloroform he was not acquainted with any
infallible outward sign. A _post-mortem_ examination would, he
thought, determine the cause of death.
A few questions were then put on behalf of Mrs. Davenport. The case
of poisoning by chloroform which had come directly under his notice
was unquestionably accidental. A man who suffered acutely from
neuralgia was in the habit of using chloroform to allay pain. He was
found dead in his bed one morning with an empty bottle, which had
contained an ounce of the drug, by the side of his face and partly
under the clothes. It was possible, but very unlikely, that in the
present case the bottle might have been accidentally emptied by
deceased. Chloroform was denser than water, and would not run out of
such a bottle very quickly. It was most unlikely that any man in
possession of his senses would allow an ounce and a half of that
fluid to escape from such a bottle and fall on his beard and chest.
Assuming he was recumbent at the time, he would be obliged to hold
the bottle on a level with his eyes in order to pour the spirit on
his beard, and he would have to hold the bottle in that position for
an appreciable time. In his opinion, the poison had not got on
deceased accidentally.
Up to this point the questions had all been put through the coroner.
Now Pringle suggested that it would be for the convenience of all
concerned if he himself might, by favour of the coroner, directly
interrogate the witness. This was agreed to, the coroner, before
proceeding any further, giving notice that no further evidence would
be taken that day, and that as soon as Dr. Santley's evidence was
concluded, the inquiry would be adjourned pending the result of the
_post-mortem_ examination.
At this announcement Mr. Pringle expressed the greatest surprise. He
had been curious to learn why the medical evidence had been gone into
so early in the case. But knowing the coroner always acted with the
greatest tact and judgment, he had made no remark at the time. For
his part, he believed such a course, if followed, would be found very
inconvenient.
Mrs. Davenport, in whose interest he was watching the case, was
particularly anxious to be examined to-day, as she felt the strain of
expectation in such an ordeal very great.
The coroner said if Mrs. Davenport was anxious to be examined he
should be happy to take her evidence.
In that case Mr. Pringle begged as a favour that he might be allowed
to reserve the few questions he had to ask Dr. Santley until after
Mrs. Davenport had been examined. To this also, after a little show
of resistance, the coroner acceded.
Pringle had resolved to have her evidence taken to-day at any risk.
Several reasons urged him to this determination. It would look
better, or, rather, less bad, in the eyes of the public to state that
in a week's time her strength would be diminished by waiting and
anxiety; and to get her examined thus, after the point at which the
coroner had intended practically to close the evidence for that day
would, he felt certain, tend to mitigate the rigours of the
examination.
Mrs. Davenport was called.