But Mr. Pope, though seated, was not silenced. "I desire," said he, "to have my protest put on record."
"I can't do that," said the coroner, "and I can't allow you to interrupt the witnesses."
"I am acting," said Mr. Pope, "in the interests of my friend here and the members of a honourable----"
But here the butcher turned on him savagely, and, in a hoarse stage-whisper, exclaimed: "Look here, Pope; you've got too much of what the cat licks--"
"Gentlemen! gentlemen!" the coroner protested, sternly; "I cannot permit this unseemly conduct. You are forgetting the solemnity of the occasion and your own responsible positions. I must insist on more decent and decorous behaviour."
There was profound silence, in the midst of which the butcher concluded in the same hoarse whisper: "--licks 'er paws with."
The coroner cast a withering glance at him, and turning to the witness, resumed the examination.
"Can you tell us, Doctor, how long a time has elapsed since the death of the deceased?"
"I should say not less than eighteen months, but probably more. How much more it is impossible from inspection alone to say. The bones are perfectly clean--that is, clean of all soft structures--and will remain substantially in their present condition for many years."
"The evidence of the man who found the remains in the watercress-bed suggests that they could not have been there more than two years. Do the appearances, in your opinion, agree with that view?"
"Yes; perfectly."
"There is one more point, Doctor; a very important one. Do you find anything in any of the bones, or all of them together, which would enable you to identify them as the bones of any particular individual?"
"No," replied Dr. Summers; "I found no peculiarity that could furnish the means of personal identification."
"The description of a missing individual has been given to us," said the coroner; "a man, fifty-nine years of age, five feet eight inches in height, healthy, well preserved, rather broad in build, and having an old Pott's fracture of the left ankle. Do the remains that you have examined agree with that description?"
"Yes, in so far as agreement is possible. There is no disagreement."
"The remains might be those of that individual?"
"They might; but there is no positive evidence that they are. The description would apply to a large proportion of elderly men, except as to the fracture."
"You found no signs of such a fracture?"
"No. Pott's fracture affects the bone called the fibula. That is one of the bones that has not yet been found, so there is no evidence on that point. The left foot was quite normal, but then it would be in any case, unless the fracture had resulted in great deformity."