Explore "The Case of the Dead Skipper" by Arthur Morrison on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
It is a good few years ago now that a suicide was investigated by a / coroner's jury before whom Martin Hewitt gave certain simple and / direct evidence touching the manner of the death, and testifying to / the fact of its being a matter of self-destruction. The public got / certain suggestive information from the bare newspaper report, but / they never learnt the full story of the tragedy that led up to the / suicide that was so summarily disposed of.
The time I speak of was in Hewitt's early professional days, not / long after he had left Messrs. Crellan's office, and a long time / before I myself met him. At that time fewer of the police knew him / and were aware of his abilities, and fewer still appreciated them at / their true value. Inquiries in connection with a case had taken him / early one morning to the district which is now called "London over / the border," and which comprises West Ham and the parts there / adjoining. At this time, however, the district was much unlike its / present self, for none of the grimy streets that now characterize it / had been built, and even in its nearest parts open land claimed more / space than buildings.