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قراءة كتاب The Day of Temptation
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did.”
“Was there anything curious in the demeanour of either of them?”
“I noticed nothing strange. The gentleman told me to drive along Pall Mall and the Haymarket, or of course I’d ’ave taken the proper route, up Charin’ Cross Road and Leicester Square.”
“You would recognise this gentleman again, I suppose?” the Coroner asked.
“I’d know him among a thousand,” the man promptly replied.
Inspector Elmes, who was present on behalf of the Criminal Investigation Department, asked several questions through the Coroner, when the latter afterwards resumed his cross-examination.
“You have told us,” he said, “that just before entering the cab the gentleman was accosted by a friend. Did you overhear any of their conversation?”
“I heard the missing man address the other as ‘Major,’” the cabman replied. “He introduced the Major to the lady, but I was unable to catch either of their names. The two men seemed very glad to meet, but, on the other hand, my gentleman seemed in a great hurry to get away.”
“You are certain that this man you know as the Major did not arrive by the same train, eh?” asked the Coroner, glancing sharply up from the paper whereon he was writing the depositions of this important witness.
“I am certain; for I noticed him lounging up and down the platform fully ’arf an hour before the train came in.”
“Then you think he must have been awaiting his friend?”
“No doubt he was, sir, for as soon as I drove the lady and gentleman away, he, too, started to walk out of the station.”
Then the Coroner, having written a few more words upon the foolscap before him, turned to the jury, exclaiming—“This last statement of the witness, gentlemen, seems, to say the least, curious.”
In an instant all present were on tip-toe with excitement, wondering what startling facts were likely to be revealed.
Chapter Four.
“The Major.”
No further questions were put to the cab-driver at this juncture, but medical evidence was at once taken. Breathless stillness pervaded the court, for the statement about to be made would put an end to all rumour, and the truth would be known.
When the dapper elderly man had stepped up to the table and been sworn, the Coroner, in the quick, business-like tone which he always assumed toward his fellow medical men, said—
“You are Doctor Charles Wyllie, house-surgeon, Charing Cross Hospital?”
“I am,” the other answered in a correspondingly dry tone.
“The woman was brought to the hospital, I suppose?”
“Yes, the police brought her, but she had already been dead about three-quarters of an hour. There were no external marks of violence, and her appearance was as though she had died suddenly from natural causes. In conjunction with Doctor Henderson, I yesterday made a careful post-mortem. The body is that of a healthy woman of about twenty-three, evidently an Italian. There was no trace whatever of organic disease. From what I noticed when the body was brought to the hospital, however, I asked the police to let it remain untouched until I was ready to make a post-mortem.”
“Did you discover anything which might lead to suspicion of foul play?” inquired the Coroner.
“I made several rather curious discoveries,” the doctor answered, whereat those in court shifted uneasily, prepared for some thrilling story of how the woman was murdered. “First, she undoubtedly died from paralysis of the heart. Secondly, I found around the left ankle a curious tattoo-mark in the form of a serpent with its tail in its mouth. It is beautifully executed, evidently by an expert tattooist. Thirdly, there was a white mark upon the left breast, no doubt the scar of a knife-wound, which I judged to have been inflicted about two years ago. The knife was probably a long narrow-bladed one, and the bone had prevented the blow proving fatal.”
“Then a previous attempt had been made upon her life, you think?” asked the Coroner, astonished.
“There is no doubt about it,” the doctor answered. “Such a wound could never have been caused by accident. It had no doubt received careful surgical attention, judging from the cicatrice.”
“But this had nothing to do with her death?” the Coroner suggested.
“Nothing whatever,” replied the doctor. “The appearance of the body gives no indication of foul play.”
“Then you assign death to natural causes—eh?”
“No, I do not,” responded Dr Wyllie deliberately, after a slight pause. “The woman was murdered.”
These words produced a great sensation in the breathlessly silent court.
“By what means?”
“That I have utterly failed to discover. All appearances point to the fact that the deceased lost consciousness almost instantly, for she had no time even to take out her handkerchief or smelling-salts, the first thing a woman does when she feels faint. Death came very swiftly, but the ingenious means by which the murder was accomplished are at present entirely a mystery. At first my suspicions were aroused by a curious discoloration of the mouth, which I noticed when I first saw the body; but, strangely enough, this had disappeared yesterday when I made the post-mortem. Again, in the centre of the left palm, extending to the middle finger, was a dark and very extraordinary spot. This I have examined microscopically, and submitted the skin to various tests, but have entirely failed to determine the cause of the mark. It is dark grey in colour, and altogether mysterious.”
“There was no puncture in the hand?” inquired the Coroner.
“None whatever. I examined the body thoroughly, and found not a scratch,” the doctor answered quickly. “At first I suspected a subcutaneous injection of poison; but this theory is negatived by the absence of any puncture.”
“But you adhere to your first statement that she was murdered?”
“Certainly. I am confident that the paralysis is not attributable to natural causes.”
“Have you found any trace of poison?”
“The contents of the stomach were handed over by the police to the analyst. I cannot say what he has reported,” the doctor answered sharply.
At once the Coroner’s officer interposed with the remark that the analyst was present, and would give evidence.
The foreman of the jury then put several questions to the doctor.
“Do you think, doctor,” he asked, “that it would be possible to murder a woman while she was sitting in a cab in so crowded a place as Piccadilly Circus?”
“The greater the crowd, the less the chance of detection, I believe.”
“Have you formed no opinion how this assassination was accomplished? Is there absolutely nothing which can serve as clue to the manner in which this mysterious crime was perpetrated?”
“Absolutely nothing beyond what I have already explained,” the witness answered. “The grey mark is on the palm of the left hand, which at the time of the mysterious occurrence was gloved. On the hand