“After this, however, the excitement grew apace.  Mueller had been dismissed, and had retired from the court altogether, leading away Mrs. Kershaw, who had completely broken down.

“Constable D 21 was giving evidence as to the arrest in the meanwhile.  The prisoner, he said, had seemed completely taken by surprise, not understanding the cause or history of the accusation against him; however, when put in full possession of the facts, and realizing, no doubt, the absolute futility of any resistance, he had quietly enough followed the constable into the cab.  No one at the fashionable and crowded Hotel Cecil had even suspected that anything unusual had occurred.

“Then a gigantic sigh of expectancy came from every one of the spectators.  The ‘fun’ was about to begin.  James Buckland, a porter at Fenchurch Street railway station, had just sworn to tell all the truth, etc.  After all, it did not amount to much.  He said that at six o’clock in the afternoon of December the 10th, in the midst of one of the densest fogs he ever remembers, the 5.5 from Tilbury steamed into the station, being just about an hour late.  He was on the arrival platform, and was hailed by a passenger in a first-class carriage.  He could see very little of him beyond an enormous black fur coat and a travelling cap of fur also.

“The passenger had a quantity of luggage, all marked F.S., and he directed James Buckland to place it all upon a four-wheel cab, with the exception of a small hand-bag, which he carried himself.  Having seen that all his luggage was safely bestowed, the stranger in the fur coat paid the porter, and, telling the cabman to wait until he returned, he walked away in the direction of the waiting-rooms, still carrying his small hand-bag.

“‘I stayed for a bit,’ added James Buckland, ’talking to the driver about the fog and that; then I went about my business, seein’ that the local from Southend ‘ad been signalled.’

“The prosecution insisted most strongly upon the hour when the stranger in the fur coat, having seen to his luggage, walked away towards the waiting-rooms.  The porter was emphatic.  ’It was not a minute later than 6.15,’ he averred.

“Sir Arthur Inglewood still had no questions to ask, and the driver of the cab was called.

“He corroborated the evidence of James Buckland as to the hour when the gentleman in the fur coat had engaged him, and having filled his cab in and out with luggage, had told him to wait.  And cabby did wait.  He waited in the dense fog—­until he was tired, until he seriously thought of depositing all the luggage in the lost property office, and of looking out for another fare—­waited until at last, at a quarter before nine, whom should he see walking hurriedly towards his cab but the gentleman in the fur coat and cap, who got in quickly and told the driver to take him at once to the Hotel Cecil.  This, cabby declared, had occurred at a quarter before nine.  Still Sir Arthur Inglewood made no comment, and Mr. Francis Smethurst, in the crowded, stuffy court, had calmly dropped to sleep.