Mystery of the Inn by the Shore by Florence Warden

To say that you could have heard a pin drop in the crowded court at Stroan, when the doctor announced that he had found a bullet in the brain of poor Jem Stickels, is to understate the deathlike silence which fell upon the dense mass of listeners.

Not one man in twenty among the crowd had been prepared for this sensational disclosure, which had, indeed, been communicated to no one but the police. This new fact threw such a sudden light upon the case, thrusting out, as it did, all possibility of his having come by his death through accident, that every man and woman present needed a moment's breathing space to grasp the new view of the situation thus abruptly presented.

In the meantime the doctor went quietly on with his evidence, much of which was technical and uninteresting to the majority. But the crowd was able to fasten on to the important facts; that the shot had been fired from behind the man, and from the right side of the road, supposing the victim to have been coming toward Stroan; that the injury could not have been self-inflicted; and the crime had been committed within a very short time of the discovery of the body.

"Can you give us any opinion, doctor, as to the length of time which must have elapsed between the firing of the shot and your inspection of the body?"

"My opinion is that death had taken place within an hour, certainly, and probably within a much shorter period."

"Can you give us your reasons for this opinion?"

"The body was still quite warm. As it was a cold night, and the body was lying in a very open situation, the cooling process would be very rapid."

"Can you tell us the time exactly when you made this first examination of the body, and came to this opinion?"

"It was sixteen minutes past eight when I was sent for, and I arrived at the spot where the body lay at between twenty and five-and-twenty minutes past."

"And the body had, in your opinion, been lying there about an hour?"

"Or considerably less."

"You would suppose, then, that death had taken place at about what time? Or is it impossible to get a closer estimate than that?"

"It is difficult to say exactly, of course. But I should be strongly inclined to put the time of death at eight o'clock, or even later."

"At, in fact, a few minutes before the body was first discovered by the boy?"

"A very few minutes."

There was another sensation among the listening throng.

"I should even have expected," went on the doctor, "to hear that the boy had heard the report of a firearm."

Every one looked towards the unhappy boy, Charles Wallett, who, having given his evidence, was now sitting in court. On the suggestion of one of the jurymen, he was called and questioned again. But he maintained, with hot blushes of confusion at the notice thus directed to him, that he had noticed no noise; that he had seen or heard nothing to attract his attention until he came upon the man lying on his face at the side of the road.

"At least -- " He stopped short, and from crimson became very pale.

Then he heard a murmur in the court behind, and he began to look scared and to tremble.