CHAPTER VIII
The Hand of the Law
FOR a full moment the coroner stood looking down at the pistol in his hand without speaking, but his face hardened and grew stern, so far as lay in the power of a countenance so rubicund.
“I t’ink I shall have to see Mr. Drysdale before I go back to Babylon,” he said. “But first, let us try to account for t’e presence of t’is pistol in t’at boat.”
“How can it be accounted for?” demanded Delroy impatiently. “Good God! I tell you Jack Drysdale never killed that man. Perhaps he was boating yesterday—no, he was in New York yesterday—well, Sunday, then, and had the pistol with him and left it in the boat by mistake. How else could it have got there? The murderer wouldn’t have put it there.”
“Nobody’s used th’ boat, sir,” said William.
“How do you know t’at?” asked the coroner sharply.
“Because, sir, I tied it t’ the buoy, an’ I know my knot. It’s th’ same one I jest unfastened.”
“You mean that boat hasn’t been away from the buoy since you tied it there?” asked Delroy.
“Jest that, sir.”
“Then how did the revolver get in it?” Delroy and Heffelbower looked at each other help-
197
