Detective and mystery stories; English fiction -- 19th century
1. In questioning the Baron as to his suggestion respecting the
tincture of tannin, I put it plainly to him whether he had been led
to make it by any suspicion of poison. This he disclaimed with equal
directness, but with such hesitation as convinced me that the suspicion
was really in his mind.
2. I told the Baron that I had exhibited bark and other similar
remedies, and with what success. He smiled, and turned the conversation.
3. The Baron was not present at the _post mortem_ examination. He
wished very much to be so, but Mr. Prendergast objected so strongly
that I was obliged to refuse him. I promised, however, to let him
know by telegraph the result of the examination, which took place at
Birmingham, where Mr. Prendergast was living at the time. I enclose
a copy of the message sent. He offered to assist in removing the
intestines, &c., from the body, but this I also declined, as Mr.
Prendergast had particularly requested me to allow no one to come near
the body after it was opened but myself and some student or surgeon
from one of the great hospitals, to render such assistance as might
be necessary. The caution was, I think, a very reasonable one, and I
followed it out strictly.
4. The Baron certainly seemed at first, as I thought, annoyed at being
excluded, but I attributed this to his interest in the case. He did
not make the request as to telegraphing at the time, but wrote to me
afterwards on the subject.
5. The object of Mr. Prendergast's precaution was, of course, to
prevent the body from being tampered with.
6. By tampered with I mean in such manner as to destroy the traces of
the poison.
7. It would, of course, be possible to manufacture traces of poison
where none had previously existed, but this could only be done with the
view of fastening on an innocent person the guilt of a murder which
had never been committed, and was by no means what we intended to guard
against in the exclusion of his friends.
8. Certainly had such a thing been successfully attempted in this
instance, it would have rendered the case conclusive against Mr.
Anderton.
9. The other incident to which I have alluded as evincing suspicion
on the part of the Baron, was as follows. We were one morning in
consultation in Mr. Anderton's room. I wished to seal a letter. The
Baron lighted a taper for me with a piece of paper which he took from
the waste basket. As he did so, he appeared struck with something on
the paper, and untwisted it and showed it to me. There were only a few
letters on it, part having been torn off and part burned. The letters
were ... RTAR EME ... and part of what was evidently a T. Beneath was
the upper portion of a capital P in writing. I did not, however, take
much notice of it, and the thing passed from my mind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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