Page:The Mystery of a Hansom Cab.djvu/141

Rh but I never saw him with any ring such as a gentleman would wear.

Crown Prosecutor: Not even a seal ring.

Witness: No, not even a seal ring.

Sarah Rawlins was then placed in the witness-box, and, after having been sworn, deposed—

I know the prisoner. I delivered a letter addressed to him at the Melbourne Club, at a quarter to twelve o'clock on Thursday, 26th July. I did not know what his name was. He met me shortly after one, at the corner of Russell and Bourke Streets, where I had been told to wait for him. I took him to my grandmother's place, in a lane off Little Bourke Street. There was a dying woman there, who had sent for him. He went in and saw her for about twenty minutes, and then I took him back to the corner of Bourke and Russell Streets. I heard the three-quarters strike shortly after I left him.

Crown Prosecutor: You are quite certain that the prisoner was the man you met on that night?

Witness: Quite certin', s'elp me G—.

Crown Prosecutor: And he met you a few minutes past one o'clock?

Witness: Yes, 'bout five minutes—I 'eard the clock a-strikin one just afore he come down the street, and when I leaves 'im again it were about twenty-five to two, 'cause it took me ten minits to git 'ome, and I 'eard the clock go three-quarters, just as I gets to the door.

Crown Prosecutor: How do you know it was exactly twenty-five to two when you left him?

Witness: 'Cause I sawr the clocks—I left 'im at the corner of Russell Street, and comes down Bourke Street, so I could see the Post Orffice clock as plain as day, an' when I gets into Swanton Street I looks at the Town 'All premiscus like, and see the same time there.

Crown Prosecutor: And you never lost sight of the prisoner the whole time?

Witness: No, there's only one door by the room, 'an I was a-sittin' outside it, an 'when he comes out he falls over me.

Crown Prosecutor: Were you asleep?

Witness: Not a blessed wink.

Calton then directed Sebastian Brown to be called, who deposed—