Witness: Not as I am aware on, sir. There was a ’igh wind on, and I left the kitchen door open, and when I come back I noticed a blaze in the fire, as though a bit of paper had been blown into it.
Mr. White Lush: Then your presumption is that the letter is burnt?
Witness: It air, sir.
Mr. White Lush: You have searched for it since?
Witness: I’ve ’unted ’igh and low, sir, without ever settin’ eyes on it.
CHAPTER IV
THE EXAMINATION OF MRS. PREEDY, CONTINUED FROM THE “EVENING MOON.”
MR. WHITE LUSH: You are quite confident in your own mind that the letter is no longer in existence.
Witness: I can’t swear to that, sir.
Mr. White Lush: You swear that you know nothing of it whatever?
Witness: Yes, sir.
Mr. White Lush: Now, what were the contents of the letter?
Witness: It were to inform me that the droring-rooms had bolted —
Magistrate: Bolted?
Witness: Run away, and wasn’t coming back, and that I might ’elp myself to what was in the trunk to pay my bill.
Mr. White Lush: Did you help yourself?
Witness: The meanness! I went up to the droring-room, and opened the trunk.
Mr. White Lush: Was it locked?
Witness: It were, sir.
Mr. White Lush: How did you open it?
Witness: With a poker.
Mr. White Lush: What did you find in it?
Witness: Bricks.
Mr. White Lush: Nothing else?
Witness: Not a blessed thing.
Mr. White Lush: What occurred then?
Witness: I were overcome with a ’orrid suspicion.
Mr. White Lush: Concerning what?
Witness: My second floorer.
Magistrate: 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?