“What a time he takes!” I heard a fat woman in front of me whispering.  “He’s only pretending.  Of course he can’t do it!  Who ever heard of talking to a dog?  He must think we’re children.”

“Haven’t you finished yet?” the judge asked the Doctor.  “It shouldn’t take that long just to ask what I had for supper.”

“Oh no, Your Honor,” said the Doctor.  “The dog told me that long ago.  But then he went on to tell me what you did after supper.”

“Never mind that,” said the judge.  “Tell me what answer he gave you to my question.”

“He says you had a mutton-chop, two baked potatoes, a pickled walnut and a glass of ale.”

The Honorable Eustace Beauchamp Conckley went white to the lips.

“Sounds like witchcraft,” he muttered.  “I never dreamed—­”

“And after your supper,” the Doctor went on, “he says you went to see a prize-fight and then sat up playing cards for money till twelve o’clock and came home singing, ‘We wont get—­’ "

“That will do,” the judge interrupted, “I am satisfied you can do as you say.  The prisoner’s dog shall be admitted as a witness.”

“I protest, I object!” screamed the Prosecutor.  “Your Honor, this is—­”

“Sit down!” roared the judge.  “I say the dog shall be heard.  That ends the matter.  Put the witness in the stand.”

And then for the first time in the solemn history of England a dog was put in the witness-stand of Her Majesty’s Court of Assizes.  And it was I, Tommy Stubbins (when the Doctor made a sign to me across the room) who proudly led Bob up the aisle, through the astonished crowd, past the frowning, spluttering, long-nosed Prosecutor, and made him comfortable on a high chair in the witness-box; from where the old bulldog sat scowling down over the rail upon the amazed and gaping jury.

THE SEVENTH CHAPTER

THE END OF THE MYSTERY

The trial went swiftly forward after that.  Mr. Jenkyns told the Doctor to ask Bob what he saw on the “night of the 29th;” and when Bob had told all he knew and the Doctor had turned it into English for the judge and the jury, this was what he had to say: 

“On the night of the 29th of November, 1824, I was with my master, Luke Fitzjohn (otherwise known as Luke the Hermit) and his two partners, Manuel Mendoza and William Boggs (otherwise known as Bluebeard Bill) on their gold-mine in Mexico.  For a long time these three men had been hunting for gold; and they had dug a deep hole in the ground.  On the morning of the 29th gold was discovered, lots of it, at the bottom of this hole.  And all three, my master and his two partners, were very happy about it because now they would be rich.  But Manuel Mendoza asked Bluebeard Bill to go for a walk with him.  These two men I had always suspected of being bad.  So when I noticed that they left my master behind, I followed them secretly to see what they were up to.  And in a deep cave in the mountains I heard them arrange together to kill Luke the Hermit so that they should get all the gold and he have none.”