He had been sitting half hypnotised by the progress of the evidence. Each of the witnesses had seemed to him strange and unfamiliar. This subdued, tight-lipped Susan was not the girl who came passionately to his arms. Mr Hind was pale, shabby, shrunken. Even Mick was not the radiant companion that he knew. He heard his own name in a dream. George Malpas pushed him forward as the sergeant took an officious step in his direction. He stood at the foot of the long table, staring at the top of the coroner’s head and the buffalo horns above it. The foreman of the jury was examining him closely, much as on market days he would have examined a likely bullock. The man with the white beard went on writing in a large, fluent hand, while the sergeant thrust the Testament into Abner’s fingers and dictated the oath to him. He had to clear his throat, for his voice had left him. The coroner blotted his notes methodically and looked up. ‘Yes. . . . Abner Fellows. Age?’ ‘Twenty.’ ‘Occupation?’ ‘Labourer.’ ‘Tell me all you know of what happened last night . . . not too fast, I have to write it down.’ Slowly Abner told his own story. ‘Very good! You say that Badger hit you in the face. Are you on bad terms with Badger?’ ‘I never spoke to him before.’ ‘When he struck you you lost your temper?’ ‘Any one would.’ ‘You say Malpas is a friend of yours?’ ‘I lodge with him.’ ‘And Malpas was not drunk?’ ‘Not that I could see.’ ‘Do you know where Malpas had been that evening?’ Abner hesitated. He felt that George’s eyes were on him from behind. ‘No.’ ‘Very well.’ Abner went back to his seat. He saw Mr Hind rubbing his hands together nervously, saw the white face of Susie. He flopped down heavily into the seat beside George. Malpas never stirred. He still sat with his hands to his head, drumming with his finger on his temple. ‘William Badger!’ William Badger, gamekeeper in the employment of Sir George Delahay, said he had been to the Pound House on business. His business was to try and pick up information about poaching on his master’s land. Nothing was safe in Lesswardine since the navvies had been working there. He was watching three men. ‘Name them.’