Ghosts and Family Legends: A Volume for ChristmasCrowe, Catherine
General
Ghosts and Family Legends: A Volume for Christmas
Crowe, Catherine
Folklore -- Great Britain; Ghosts -- Great Britain; Legends -- Great Britain
"I saw Mr. Wills and my father exchange looks when this evidence was
given, and then for the first time the question occurred to me, could
Healy be the murderer? I could hardly entertain the suspicion--it is so
difficult to believe such a thing of a person one is having constant
intercourse with. Healy was recalled and asked if he remembered seeing
Mr. Gould and the lawyer together on that day. He declared he did not.
"The harness was afterwards produced; and it appeared that the traces
had been cut, which was a strong confirmation of the worst suspicions.
"The inquest was once more adjourned; and Healy plied his trade as usual
for the next two days, though everybody had a strange feeling towards
him; and he retained his dogged, sulky look; on the third night we
missed him. We had expected a parcel from B----, but he did not come;
and the next day we heard he had been arrested on suspicion of being the
murderer of Mr. Gould. A gentleman's servant, who had been out without
leave to some festivity at B----, and had come home and got in at the
pantry window without being discovered, at last came forward, and said,
that as he was going to the rendezvous, he had seen a cart, which he
believed to be Healy's, though it was very dark, drawn right across the
road; the horse was out of the shafts and tied to a gate, for he nearly
ran against him; he did not see any person with the cart, but the driver
might be behind it. It was just where there are some large trees
over-hanging the road, which made it darker than in other parts; and a
person driving would not see the obstruction till he was on it. He
himself, thinking it was Healy, slipt quietly by, for he did not want to
be recognised, as the carrier often came to his master's, and might have
betrayed him. He met a one-horse carriage about a couple of miles
further on; the horse was trotting pretty fast. He thought it was Mr.
Gould, but he could not positively say, as the night was so dark.
"The spot described was precisely where Mr. Gould's body was found; and
the man added, that it struck him when he met the gig, that if the cart
had not moved out of the way, there would be an accident, and he should
have warned the driver to look out, if he had not been upon a lark
himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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