Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 47: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

30 REYNOLDS’ WORKS farther along the bank than where the murder had been per- petrated, but the torrents of rain which fell during the night had obliterated all traces of footmarks everywhere round- about. He had likewise searched in the adjacent fields for any evidence to prove that the parcel had been opened, — if brown paper or string, for instance, had been thrown away, but nothing had transpired to show the track which the murderer or murderers had pursued after committing the crime. He had likewise made inquiries at some of the cottages as to whether any suspicious-looking individuals had been seen lurking about the neighbourhood, but he could obtain no positive information upon the subject. The surgeon gave his evidence last of all. It was to the effect that Mademoiselle d’Alembert had been shot in the head, her servant through the heart. From certain indica- tions, it was evident that the pistol or pistols must have been fired close to them, and that death must have been instanta- neous in both cases. The examination, which lasted three hours, was now con- cluded so far as the depositions of the witnesses were con- cerned, and the coroner summed up to the jury. He repre- sented the deed as one of those mysterious tragedies which occasionally occur, without leaving the slightest clue to the diabolical perpetrators. In the present instance it would appear, judging by all the evidence given, that the author or authors of the crime had been disturbed immediately after its perpetration by the ejaculations of alarm sent forth by Mr. Deveril and Mr. Gunthorpe, and that not having time to rifle the victims, the murderer or murderers had snatched up the parcel and fled precipitately with it. The coroner went very carefully through all the evidence, and one portion of his summing up was too remarkable, for several reasons, not to be recorded here: ““T can conceive, gentlemen, no position more unpleasant for any persons to be placed in than that of Mr. Gunthorpe and Mr. Deveril in the present instance. Itis too frequently — the case that thoughtless individuals, and those who are in the habit of arriving at rash and hasty conclusions, greedily seize upon the slightest circumstances which seem to be suspicious, and thus do at once affix the taint of suspicion upon innocent persons. I feel it to be my duty to make these \ remarks upon the present occasion, inasmuch as the discov- Gomichbooks (e(oyl