He kept perhaps six or eight
yards in front of me until we had come to within twenty yards or so of the
corner of Clifton Road. Then, all of a sudden--so suddenly that it's
difficult for me to describe it!--he seemed to--well, there's no other
word for it than--collapse. He seemed to give, you understand--shrank up,
like--like a concertina being suddenly shut up! His knees gave--his whole
body seemed to shrink--and he fell in a heap on the pavement!"
"Did he cry out--scream, as if in sudden pain--anything of that sort?"
asked the Coroner.
"There was a sort of gurgling sound--I'm not sure that he didn't say a
word or two, as he collapsed," answered the witness. "But it was so sudden
that I couldn't catch anything definite. He certainly never made the
slightest sound, except a queer sort of moaning, very low, from the time
he fell. Of course, I thought the man had fallen in a fit. I rushed to
him; he was lying, sort of crumpled up, where he had fallen. There was a
street-lamp close by--I saw that his face had turned a queer colour, and
his eyes were already closed--tightly. I noticed, too, that his teeth were
clenched, and his fingers twisted into the palms of his hands.
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