"Ask these gentlemen what they'll have," he said gently. The landlord
made a clatter of glasses, and the threatened storm passed.
"You've aroused my curiosity," remarked Franklin to Peters, but taking
the company at large into the conversation. "This does certainly strike
one as a remarkable case. Is there no suspicion yet as to the actual
murderer?"
"None whatever," said Peters.
"That's what you may call the police opinion," broke in Elkin. "We
Steynholme folk have a pretty clear notion, I can assure you."
"The matter is still _sub judice_, and may remain so a long time," said
Siddle. "It is simply stupid to attach a kind of responsibility to the
man who happens to occupy the house associated with the crime. I have no
patience with that sort of reasoning."
Hobbs, who did not want to quarrel with Elkin, suddenly championed him.
"That's all very well," he rumbled. "But the hevidence you an' me 'eard,
Siddle, an' the hevidence we know we're goin' to 'ear, is a lot stronger
than that."
"I'm sure you'll pardon me, friends," said Siddle, rising with an
apologetic smile, "but I happen to be foreman of the coroner's jury, and
I feel that this matter is not for me, at any rate, to discuss publicly.
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