MR. WALTERS: And he directed you? WITNESS: He did. MR. WALTERS: Very far? WITNESS: No; not far: Mrs. Tope’s house. MR. WALTERS: Did you find it easily? WITNESS: No. That would not have done. I wandered about a bit in the wrong direction, and inquired, and at last found it. MR. WALTERS: The reason for all that? WITNESS: I wanted to put everybody off the scent, and tried to act as to the manner born, so that if anybody were watching me they would really take me for the man I wanted to be. MR. WALTERS: You thought it best to take every precaution, in case you were watched? WITNESS: Yes. MR. WALTERS: And they would think you had lost your way, and were a stranger? WITNESS: Yes. MR. WALTERS: As a matter of fact, you were not a stranger. Did you meet Mr. Jasper? WITNESS: I made an excuse, and I went up and asked him if he could tell me anything as to the respectability of the Tope family. MR. WALTERS: So that you bearded the lion in his den. Did he recognise you? WITNESS: No; he did not know the mouse. MR. WALTERS: There are other ways of detecting people than by appearance. Jasper is a musician with a very delicate ear. What about your voice? WITNESS: Mr. Jasper had only heard it once, and that was months ago, and, besides, I can change it (_changing her voice_)—change the tone of my voice, and speak like a man. MR. WALTERS: You can disguise it, Miss Landless, so that people would really think it was a man’s voice? WITNESS: Yes. MR. WALTERS: Tell us what you discovered as to Mr. Jasper’s movements at this time. WITNESS: He absented himself from the Cathedral every now and then, and made periodical disappearances. MR. WALTERS: Where did he go? WITNESS: To London. MR. WALTERS: Were you in correspondence with Mr. Grewgious, the family solicitor, in London? WITNESS: Yes. MR. WALTERS: Did he tell you he had seen Jasper? WITNESS: Yes. MR. WALTERS: So that, between you, you knew all about him? WITNESS: Yes. MR. WALTERS: In the character of Datchery, did you meet people? WITNESS: Yes. MR. WALTERS: Durdles? WITNESS: Yes. MR. WALTERS: The old opium woman? WITNESS: Yes. MR. WALTERS: Mr. Sapsea, the Mayor? WITNESS: Yes. MR. WALTERS: Did you talk to them familiarly? WITNESS: Yes. I really knew their idiosyncrasies—everyone of them—so I fooled them to the top of their bent, and got everything out of them. MR. WALTERS: I have no doubt but that you asked the old opium woman some questions? WITNESS: She had been following Jasper to the Gate House, and she asked me, in a whisper, would I mind telling her who he was, his name, and where he lived. MR. WALTERS: And you said it was John Jasper? WITNESS: Yes. She asked, would I give her three-and-sixpence to buy some opium. She said that on Christmas Eve a young gentleman gave her three-and-sixpence, and he said that his name was Edwin. And she said where could she see Jasper? And I told her in the Cathedral. MR. WALTERS: Did she go to the Cathedral next morning?