Quintus Oakes: A Detective StoryJackson, Charles Ross
General
Quintus Oakes: A Detective Story
Jackson, Charles Ross
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
More evidence, of an unimportant nature, was given. The station-master
remembered the man getting off the train and following Moore. He knew
him well; he was Mr. Mark, and had lagged behind and spoken to him.
The body was undiscovered before, because most milk-wagons entered the
town at the Corners, and no one had alighted from the seven o'clock
train to climb the hill.
Charles Clark was now called, and the spectators made room for Oakes, as
he walked down and faced the audience. Watching the crowd, I saw its
excited expectancy. Here and there was a man, pale as death, nearly
overcome by the strain of the evidence. Everyone in that room knew that
the important part was at hand. Many expected the name of the assassin.
A man behind me sighed and said: "Gosh! why don't you hurry?" I knew
that he was nearly ready to collapse.
Oakes, or, as Mona knew him, Clark, crossed his hands behind him and
inclined his body a little. He glanced coldly around, then at the clock,
and instinctively the audience followed the movement. I noticed that the
time was four, and that the ticking was very heavy and noisy. Then I
remembered Oakes's orders, and watched the crowd. The coroner went
through the usual formalities, and Oakes began his testimony.
He spoke in that fluent style of his: "I reached the man ahead of the
others; he was breathing. Realizing that his name was important, I asked
him for it. He was conscious; he opened his eyes and looked at me. 'Mark
is my name; all Mona is my friend,' he answered. At mention of those
words I heard a sob and then another outbreak; the audience was going to
pieces."
Oakes resumed: "I then asked him, 'Who did this deed?' He seemed to be
losing consciousness. I repeated the question. This time he answered, in
an almost inaudible voice: 'The man--the man--with the great arms.'" As
Oakes uttered this sentence, he did it in a strong whisper--heard
clearly all over the court-room. He paused. Moore and I noticed that
one-half the men in sight mechanically put their hands to their
arms--curious is the effect of such scenes.
Others, seeing the actions of their comrades, glanced at them harshly
and suspiciously, but instantly began to smile.
Just then the fat grocer thought it was funny, and laughed outright in a
paroxysm of hysteria. The crowd began to titter, and then a roar, short,
sharp, of pent-up emotion--a laugh of suppressed excitement--pealed
forth like a thunder-clap; then all again was intensity.
Oakes now continued: "He did not say more, so I again asked quickly,
'Who did it? Speak, man! Speak!' Then he answered distinctly--it was a
last effort."
The audience leaned forward in awed expectancy. The faces of some were
hard and set, and the eyes of all were riveted on Oakes.
Moore whispered to me: "Watch the negro." I looked and saw him leaning
forward over the window-sill, his face ashen gray; one arm held on to
the sill, the other hung limply into the room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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