Detective and mystery stories, English; English fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, English
"After a good deal of tedious and irrelevant evidence had been gone
through the inquest was adjourned, and the public left the court on
the tiptoe of expectation as to what the morrow would bring. Nor was
any one disappointed, for on the morrow the mystery deepened, even
though there was plenty of sensational evidence for newspaper
reporters to feed on.
"The police, it seems, had brought forward a very valuable witness in
the person of the point policeman, who was on duty from eight o'clock
onwards on the evening of the sixteenth at the corner of Clerkenwell
Road and Fulton Gardens. No. 13 is only a few yards up the street.
The man had stated, it seems, that soon after half-past eight he had
seen a man come along Fulton Gardens from the direction of Holborn,
go up to the front door of No. 13 and ring the bell. He was admitted
after a minute or two, and he stayed in the house about half an hour.
It was a dark night, and there was a slight drizzle; the witness
could not swear to the man's identity. He was slight and of middle
height, and walked like a young man. When he arrived he wore a
bowler hat and no overcoat, but when he came out again he had an
overcoat on and a soft grey hat, and carried the bowler in his hand.
Witness noticed as he walked away up Fulton Gardens towards Finsbury
this time he took off the soft hat, slipped it into the pocket of his
overcoat, and put on the bowler. About ten minutes later, not more,
another visitor called at No. 13. He also was slight and tallish,
and he wore an overcoat and a bowler hat. He turned into Fulton
Gardens from Clerkenwell Road, but on the opposite corner to the one
where witness was standing. He rang the bell and was admitted, and
stayed about twenty minutes. He walked away in the direction of
Holborn. Witness would not undertake to identify either of these two
visitors; he had not been close enough to them to see their faces,
and there was a good deal of fog that night as well as the drizzle.
There was nothing suspicious looking about either of the men. They
had walked quite openly up to the front door, rung the bell, and been
admitted. The only thing that had struck the constable as queer was
the way the first visitor had changed hats when he walked away.
"Witness swore positively that no one else had gone in or out of No.
13 that night except those two visitors. How important this evidence
was you will understand presently.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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