Page:Doctor Syn - A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh.djvu/95

 lights of Dymchurch: the head preventive officer, three or four well-to-do farmers, two owners of fishing luggers, Denis Cobtree, Mrs. Waggetts, and the schoolmaster, besides two or three other villagers. Nobody took much notice of Jerk when he came in, for all eyes were on the captain, but Doctor Syn not only took notice but the trouble to point out an empty space on one of the benches.

"Are all those summoned for this inquiry present?" asked the captain, looking round at the assemblage.

"All but Mr. Mipps," said the squire, referring to a list of names before him. "While we were waiting for you, he took the opportunity of viewing the body next door."

The captain signed to one of the two sailors who were guarding the door of the adjoining room, and he accordingly summoned the undertaker, who with an eye to business was measuring the corpse. Jerk caught a glimpse of this as the door opened, and of the form of Sennacherib Pepper lying on a table. The undertaker, with a footrule in his hands, took his place on one of the benches. Mipps's entrance seemed to revive the tragedy of the whole business, for there was a pause pending the squire's opening speech; but the captain was the first to speak. He arose and to the astonishment of everybody took up and lit a pipe which had been lying upon the table in front of him.

"Sir Antony Cobtree and gentlemen," he said in his