Part 47 (2/2)
The doctor steps promptly forward and receives it from his hand.
”Did you ever see that knife before?”
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”Did you ever see that knife before?”]
”I can't say, sir,” turning it carelessly in his hands, and examining the spots upon the blade.
”Did you ever see one like it?”
”Yes, sir.”
”Did you ever own one like it?”
”I _do_ own one like it.”
”Are such knives common?”
”They are--to the surgical profession.”
”Do you own more than one knife of this sort?”
”I do not.”
”Did you ever own more than one like this?”
”Not at the same time.”
”Then you have lost a knife like this?”
”No; but I have broken two.”
”When did you last see deceased alive?”
”Not since our encounter on the street; that was a week ago, I should think, perhaps longer.”
”Who witnessed that affair?”
”Mr. Vandyck was with me; the others were strangers.”
”That is all, Doctor Heath.”
Lawyer O'Meara comes next; his testimony is brief, and impatiently given. He adds nothing new to the collected evidence.
Next comes the man Rooney, and he rehea.r.s.es the scene at ”Old Forty Rods,” sparing himself as much as possible.
”We didn't really think he'd go to Doctor Heath's,” he says in conclusion. ”We all called it a capital joke, and agreed to go out and look him up after a little. He was reeling drunk when he went out, and we all expected to find him floored on the way. After a while, an hour perhaps, we started out, half a dozen of us, with a lantern, and went along the road he had taken; we went almost to Heath's cottage, looking all about the road as we went. When we did not find him, we concluded that he had gone straight home, and that if we staid out longer the laugh would be on us. So we went back, and agreed to say nothing about the matter to Burrill when we should see him.”
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