He dug his elbow into
Lauriston.
"Mister!" he whispered. "You be careful what you say when you get into
that there witness-box. See that man there, a-talking to the detectives?--
him with the gold nippers on his blooming sharp nose? That's Mr.
Parminter!--I knows him, well enough. He's a lawyer chap, what the police
gets when there's a case o' this sort, to ask questions of the witnesses,
d'ye see? Watch him, Mr. Lauriston, if he starts a-questioning you!--he's
the sort that can get a tale out of a dead cod-fish--s'elp me, he is! He's
a terror, he is!--the Coroner ain't in it with him--he's a good sort, the
Coroner, but Parminter--Lord love us! ain't I heard him turn witnesses
inside out--not half! And here is the Coroner."
Lauriston almost forgot that he was an important witness, and was tempted
to consider himself nothing but a spectator as he sat and witnessed the
formal opening of the Court, the swearing-in of the twelve jurymen, all
looking intensely bored, and the preliminaries which prefaced the actual
setting-to-work of the morning's business. But at last, after some opening
remarks from the Coroner, who said that the late Mr.
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