Detective and mystery stories, English; English fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, English
"All the while that the divisional surgeon gave evidence, going into
technical details which the layman could not understand, Dr. Percy
Jutt had obvious difficulty to control himself. He had a fidgety,
nervous way with him and was constantly biting his nails. When he,
in his turn, entered the witness-box, he was as white as a sheet and
tried to hide his nervousness behind a dictatorial, blustering
manner. In answer to the coroner, he explained that he had been
acting as _locum tenens_ for Dr. Fanshawe-Bigg, who was away on his
holiday. He had visited the deceased once or twice during the past
fortnight, and had last seen him on the Thursday preceding his death.
Dr. Fanshawe-Bigg had left him a few notes on the case.
"'I found,' he went on to explain, 'the deceased in an advanced stage
of uræmia, and there was very little that I could do, more especially
as I was made to understand that my visits were not particularly
wanted. On the Thursday, deceased was in a very drowsy state, this
being one of the best-known symptoms of the disease, and I didn't
think that he could live much longer. I told Mr. Charles Ashley so;
at the same time, I did not think that the end would come quite so
soon. However, I was not particularly surprised when on the Monday
morning I received a visit from Mr. Charles Ashley who told me that
his father was dead. I found him very difficult to understand,' Dr.
Jutt continued, in reply to a question from the coroner, 'emotion
had, I thought, addled his speech a little. He may have tried to
tell me something in connection with his father's death, but I was so
rushed with work that morning, and, as I say, I was fully prepared
for the event, that all I could do was to promise to come round some
time during the day, and, in the meanwhile, in order to facilitate
arrangements for the funeral, I gave the necessary certificate. I
was entirely within my rights,' he concluded, with somewhat
aggressive emphasis, 'and, as far as I can recollect, Mr. Charles
Ashley said nothing that in any way led me to think that there was
anything wrong.'
"Mr. Oldwall, the solicitor, was the next witness called, and his
testimony was unimportant to the main issue. He had drafted the late
Mr. Thornton Ashley's will in 1919, and had last seen him alive
before starting on a short holiday some time in June. Deceased had
just heard then of his son's engagement and witness thought him
looking wonderfully better and brighter than he had been for a long
time.
"'Mr. Ashley,' the coroner asked, 'didn't say anything to you then
about any alteration to his will?'
"'Most emphatically, no!' the witness replied.
"'Or at any time?'
"'At no time,' Mr. Oldwall asserted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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