“He also made vague and wholly useless enquiries about young Mervin Ledbury, but in a sleepy, out-of-the-way village like Ayrsham, no one knows anything about what goes on beyond a narrow five-mile radius at most. ‘The Limes’ and the shooting were let to different tenants year after year, and neither Lord Walterton nor Mr. Mervin Ledbury had ever rented them again.” Chapter II “That was the past history of Old Newton,” continued the man in the corner, after a brief pause, “that is to say, of the man who on a dark night last October was found murdered in a lonely lane, not far from Ayrsham. The public, as you may well imagine, took a very keen interest in the case from the outset: the story of Mary Newton, of the threatened breach of promise, of the £5,000 damages, roused masses of conjecture to which no one has yet dared to give definite shape. “One name, however, had already been whispered significantly, that of Mr. Mervin Ledbury, the young Hussar, one of Mary Newton’s admirers at the very time she left home in order, as she said, to be married to some one above her in station. “Many thinking people, too, wanted to know what Samuel Holder, Mary’s jilted _fiancé_, was doing close to the scene of the murder that night, and how he came to make the remark: ‘Hello! Is that you, Mat Newton?’ when the Old Man lived nearly half-a-mile away, and really had no cause for being in that particular lane, at that hour of the night in the drizzling rain. “The inquest, which, for want of other accommodation, was held at the local police station, was, as you may imagine, very largely attended. “I had read a brief statement of the case in the London papers, and had hurried down to Ayrsham Junction, as I scented a mystery, and knew I should enjoy myself. “When I got there, the room was already packed, and the medical evidence was being gone through. “Old Man Newton, it appears, had been knocked on the head by a heavily-loaded cane, which was found in the ditch close to the murdered man’s body. “The cane was produced in court; it was as stout as an old-fashioned club, and of terrific weight. The man who wielded it must have been very powerful, for he had only dealt one blow, but that blow had cracked the old man’s skull. The cane was undoubtedly of foreign make, for it had a solid silver ferrule at one end, which was not English hall-marked. “In the opinion of the medical expert, death was the result of the blow, and must have been almost instantaneous. “The labourers who first came across the body of the murdered man then repeated their story; they had nothing new to add, and their evidence was of no importance. But after that there was some stir in the court. Samuel Holder had been called and sworn to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.