Is that a poetical image, Mr. Lush?
Mr. White Lush (smiling): I really cannot say. This is a case with very little poetry in it. (To witness): Your second floorer? Do you mean your tenant on the second floor?
Witness: That were my meaning, sir.
Mr. White Lush: And acting on your horrid suspicion, you —
Witness: Run up stairs as fast as my legs would carry me.
Mr. White Lush: What did you discover? That your second floorer had run away?
Witness (very solemnly): He ’ad, sir.
Mr. White Lush: Did you open his trunk?
Witness: I did, sir.
Magistrate: With your universal key – the poker?
Witness: Yes, sir.
Mr. White Lush: That trunk, surely, was not also full of bricks?
Witness: I am sorry to inform you, sir, it were.
Magistrate: A singular coincidence.
Mr. White Lush: The witness’s two lodgers were evidently regular bricks. (Great laughter.) Were your drawing rooms and your second floorer on terms of intimacy?
Witness: Not as I was aware on, sir.
Mr. White Lush: What did you do then?
Witness: I went out to speak to a neighbour.
Mr. White Lush: To tell her of your misfortunes?
Witness: Yes, sir.
Mr. White Lush: At what time did you return to your house?
Witness: It were eleven o’clock, sir – striking as I opened the door. I stood on the steps, and counted the strokes: One – Two – Three —
Mr. White Lush: That will do. We will imagine the clock has struck. While you were out, did you observe anything unusual in the next house, No. 119?
Witness: Nothink, sir.
Mr. White Lush: You saw no strangers prowling about?
Witness: I did not, sir. Somebody pushed agin me —
Mr. White Lush: Yes?
Witness: It were Mr. Simpson, dining room, three doors off, in his usual condition. He always comes ’ome so.
Mr. White Lush: Did he speak to you?
Witness: He growled at me.
Mr. White Lush: What did you do then?
Witness: I went down to the kitchen, and fell into a doze.
Mr. White Lush: For how long did you doze?
Witness: I can’t rightly say, sir. About arf-an-hour, perhaps.
Mr. White Lush: Was there a candle alight in the kitchen when you fell asleep?
Witness: Yes, sir.
Mr. White Lush: Was it a whole candle?
Witness: No, sir, it were arf burnt down.
Mr. White Lush: What kind of candles do you burn in your kitchen?
Witness: Taller dips, sir – twelves.
Mr. White Lush: For about how long will one of these tallow dips burn?
Witness: Three hours and more.
Mr. White Lush: Was the candle you left burning on your kitchen table when you fell into a doze alight when you awoke?
Witness: It were, sir, and it burnt blue.
Mr. White Lush: What do you mean by that?
Witness: I don’t know, sir. It burnt blue. There was something mysterious about it.
Magistrate: Perhaps the witness smelt sulphur also.
Mr. White Lush: Did you smell sulphur?
Witness: Not as I’m aware on, sir.
Mr. White Lush: When you awoke, was it a natural awaking, or were you suddenly aroused?
Witness: I were suddenly woke, and I was all of a tremble.
Mr. White Lush: You were frightened by something?
Witness: I were, sir, and I were not.
Mr. White Lush: I do not understand you. Was there anybody or anything in the room besides yourself?
Witness: I didn’t see nothink – not even a mouse.
Mr. White Lush: Then what were you frightened at?
Witness: It were a fancy, perhaps – or a dream that I couldn’t remember; and all at once I ’eerd a scream.
Mr. White Lush: From what direction?
Witness: From the next house, No. 119.
Mr. White Lush: You heard a scream proceeding from 119, the house in which the murder was committed?
Witness: As near as I can remember, sir.
Mr. White Lush: That is not what I want. You possess the usual number of senses, I suppose?
Witness: I defy anybody to say anything to the contrairy.
Mr. White Lush: You look like a sensible woman. (Here the witness made an elaborate curtsey to Mr. White Lush, which occasioned much laughter.) Your hearing is good?
Witness: It air, sir. Mrs. Beale was saying to me only yesterday morning, ‘Mrs. Preedy,’ says she —
Mr. White Lush: Never mind what Mrs. Beale was saying to you. Listen to what I am saying to you. On the occasion we are speaking of, you heard a scream?
Witness (after a long pause, during which she seemed to be mentally asking questions of herself): I think I may wenture to say, sir, I did.
Mr. White Lush: Ah, that is more satisfactory. Now, Mrs. Preedy, attend to me.
Witness: I’m a-doing of it, sir.
Mr. White Lush: Thank you. Did the scream proceed from a man or a woman?
Witness (with energy): I couldn’t tell you, sir, if you went down on your bended knees.
Mr. White Lush: Reflect a little; take time. You have heard hundreds of men’s and women’s voices —
Witness: Thousands, sir.
Mr. White Lush: And a woman of your discernment must have perceived a difference between them. Women’s tones are soft and dulcet; men’s, gruffer and more resonant. It is important we should know whether it was a man’s or a woman’s voice you heard?
Witness:
