Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into the open,
that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet I have a vague
impression that as I ran forward something lay upon the ground to the
left of me. It seemed to me to be something grey in colour, a coat of
some sort, or a plaid perhaps. When I rose from my father I looked
round for it, but it was gone.
Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?
Yes, it was gone.
You cannot say what it was?
No, I had a feeling something was there.
How far from the body?
A dozen yards or so.
And how far from the edge of the wood?
About the same.
Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen yards of
it?
Yes, but with my back towards it.
This concluded the examination of the witness.
I see, said I as I glanced down the column, that the coroner in his
concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. He calls
attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his father having
signalled to him before seeing him, also to his refusal to give details
of his conversation with his father, and his singular account of his
father s dying words. They are all, as he remarks, very much against
the son.
Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon the
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