looking man who was talking to the police. He dug his elbow into
Lauriston.

"Mister!" he whispered. "You be careful what you say when you get into
that there witness-box. See that man there, a-talking to the detectives?--
him with the gold nippers on his blooming sharp nose? That's Mr.
Parminter!--I knows him, well enough. He's a lawyer chap, what the police
gets when there's a case o' this sort, to ask questions of the witnesses,
d'ye see? Watch him, Mr. Lauriston, if he starts a-questioning you!--he's
the sort that can get a tale out of a dead cod-fish--s'elp me, he is! He's
a terror, he is!--the Coroner ain't in it with him--he's a good sort, the
Coroner, but Parminter--Lord love us! ain't I heard him turn witnesses
inside out--not half! And here is the Coroner."

Lauriston almost forgot that he was an important witness, and was tempted
to consider himself nothing but a spectator as he sat and witnessed the
formal opening of the Court, the swearing-in of the twelve jurymen, all
looking intensely bored, and the preliminaries which prefaced the actual
setting-to-work of the morning's business. But at last, after some opening
remarks from the Coroner, who said that the late Mr. Daniel Multenius was
a well-known and much respected tradesman of the neighbourhood, that they
were all sorry to hear of his sudden death, and that there were
circumstances about it which necessitated a careful investigation, the
business began--and Lauriston, who, for professional purposes, had heard a
good many legal cases, saw, almost at once, that the police, through the
redoubtable Mr. Parminter, now seated with his clerk at the table, had
carefully arranged the presenting of evidence on a plan and system of
their own, all of which, so it became apparent to him, was intended to
either incriminate himself, or throw considerable suspicion upon him. His
interest began to assume a personal complexion.