the plantation to the edge of the garden in front of the house.  From there he could hear voices in a room upstairs.  He tried to make out what was being said, but he was too far away for that.  In about half an hour the voices stopped, and a minute later a man came out of the house and walked down the path through the garden, and entered the carriage drive close to where witness was concealed in the plantation.  As he passed him witness saw that it was Mr. Holymead.

About five minutes afterwards the window upstairs in the room where the voices had come from was opened, and Sir Horace Fewbanks leaned out and looked at the sky as if to ascertain what sort of a night it was.  He was quite certain that it was Sir Horace Fewbanks.  He was well acquainted with that gentleman’s features, having been sentenced by him three years ago.  Sir Horace seemed quite calm and collected.  Witness was so surprised to see him, after having been told by Birchill that he was in Scotland, that he did not take his eyes off him during the two or three minutes that he remained at the window, breathing the night air.  Sir Horace was fully dressed.  He had on a light tweed suit, and he was wearing a soft shirt of a light colour, with a stiff collar, and a small black bow tie.  When Sir Horace closed the window witness jumped over the fence back into the wood and made his way to the Hampstead Tube station with the intention of warning Birchill that Sir Horace Fewbanks was at home.  He waited at the station over an hour, and as he did not see Birchill he then made his way home.  During the time he was in the garden at Riversbrook listening to the voices, he heard no sound of a shot.  He was certain that no shot had been fired inside the house from the time the prisoner entered the house until he left.  Had a shot been fired witness could not have failed to hear it.

There could be no doubt that the effect produced in court by the evidence of the witness was extremely favourable to the prisoner.  Kemp had told a plain, straightforward story.  The fact that he had shown no reluctance in disclosing in his evidence that he was a criminal and the associate of criminals seemed to add to the credibility of his evidence.  It was felt that he would not have come to court to swear falsely on behalf of a man who was so far removed from the class to which he belonged.

While Kemp was giving his evidence, Crewe had despatched a messenger to his chambers in Holborn for Joe.  When the boy returned with the messenger Kemp was still in the witness-box, undergoing an examination at the hands of the judge.  Sir Henry Hodson seemed to have been impressed by the witness’s story, for he asked Kemp a number of questions, and entered his answers in his notebook.

“Joe,” whispered Crewe, as the boy stole noiselessly behind him, “look at that man in the witness-box.  Have you ever seen him before?”

“Rayther, guv’nor!” whispered the boy in reply.  “Why, it’s ’im who tried to frighten me in the loft if I didn’t promise to give up watching Mr. Holymead.”