Cavendish."
This bit of cross-examination had caused great excitement in
court. The heads of the many fashionably attired women present
were busily laid together, and their whispers became so loud that
the judge angrily threatened to have the court cleared if there
was not immediate silence.
There was little more evidence. The hand-writing experts were
called upon for their opinion of the signature of "Alfred
Inglethorp" in the chemist's poison register. They all declared
unanimously that it was certainly not his hand-writing, and gave
it as their view that it might be that of the prisoner disguised.
Cross-examined, they admitted that it might be the prisoner's
hand-writing cleverly counterfeited.
Sir Ernest Heavywether's speech in opening the case for the
defence was not a long one, but it was backed by the full force
of his emphatic manner. Never, he said, in the course of his
long experience, had he known a charge of murder rest on slighter
evidence. Not only was it entirely circumstantial, but the
greater part of it was practically unproved.
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