With amiable condescension the coroner put the query to the witness in more concise words.
"No, no," replied the doctor quickly, now that he had understood the question, "the thrust argues no special anatomical knowledge. Most laymen would know that if you pierce the throat from ear to ear suffocation is bound to ensue. It was easily enough done."
"When the deceased's head was turned away?" asked the coroner.
"Why, yes--to look out on the fog, perhaps; or at a passer-by. It would be fairly easy if the would-be murderer was quick and determined and the victim unsuspecting."
And Doctor Blair, with long tapering fingers, pointed toward his own throat, giving illustration of how easily the deed might be done.
After a few more courteous questions of a technical kind, the first witness was dismissed--only momentarily, for he would be required again--when the green baize would be lifted from the hidden Something which lay there ready to hand, and the medical man be asked to pronounce finally whether indeed the dagger stick was the requisite weapon for the deed which had been so easy of accomplishment.
The chauffeur who had driven the taxicab was the next witness called. A thick-set man, in dark blue Melton coat and peaked cap, he came forward with that swinging gait which betrayed the ex-coachman.
He gave his evidence well and to the point. He had been hailed on the night in question by two gentlemen in evening dress. It was in Shaftesbury Avenue, just opposite the Lyric Theatre, and a little while after he had heard St. Martin's Church clock strike nine o'clock. "The fog was so dense," he added, "you could not see your hand before your eyes."
He had just put down at the Apollo and had crossed over to the left, going down toward Piccadilly, when the two swells hailed him from the curb. He couldn't rightly see them, because of the fog, but he noticed that both wore high hats and the collars of their overcoats ware turned up to their ears. He hardly saw their faces, but he noticed that one of them carried a walking stick.
"Or it might 'ave been a umbrella," he added after a moment's hesitation, "I couldn't rightly say."
"You must have seen the faces of your fares," argued the coroner, "if you saw that one of them carried a walking stick--or an umbrella. You must have seen something of their faces," he reiterated more emphatically.