The inquest had already begun when Purdie and his companions forced their
way into the court. In the witness-box was the dead man's widow--a
pathetic figure in heavy mourning, who was telling the Coroner that on the
night of her husband's death he went out late in the evening--just to take
a walk round, as he expressed it. No--she had no idea whatever of where he
was going, nor if he had any particular object in going out at all. He had
not said one word to her about going out to get money from any one. After
he went out she never saw him again until she was fetched to St. Mary's
Hospital, where she found him in the hands of the doctors. He died,
without having regained consciousness, just after she reached the
hospital.
Nothing very startling so far, thought Purdie, at the end of the widow's
evidence, and he wondered why Ayscough had sent them round. But more
interest came with the next witness--a smart, bustling, middle-aged man,
evidently a well-to-do business man, who entered the box pretty much as if
he had been sitting down in his own office, to ring his bell and ask for
the day's letters.
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