the purpose of pressing harder upon the
windpipe, and had apparently forgotten to
remove. A purse of gold was found in one
of his pockets; but another pocket was found
hanging out, and it was conjectured that a
pocket-book had been stolen.

The coachman maintained the truth of his
statements before a magistrate, insisting that
only two persons had rode with him, and
that he had distinctly seen two persons leave
the vehicle at Barnard's Inn. Nothing was
known at the physician's house of the nature
of his errand, or of the contents of the note;
nor could the note itself be found; from
which it was imagined that he had cast it,
after reading it, into the fire. There being
no evidence against the coachman, and no
reason to doubt the honesty of his
statements, he was discharged; and although he
was privately watched by the authorities,
nothing suspicious was discovered in his
conduct.

Considerable excitement was caused by the
intelligence of the murder, and many theories
started to explain the extraordinary
statements of the coachman. What could have
been the nature of the message which was
brought to the Doctor, and which induced
him at a late hour on a wintry night to leave
his study, and direct the man to drive to
Barnard's Inn? Inquiries were made there;
but it could not be discovered that any
person in that quarter had known, or had any
dealings with the murdered man. The
Doctor, though said to be somewhat harsh in
his manners, as men of his profession
frequently are, was known to be at bottom a
good-hearted man, and had few enemies. He
was a tall man, and a man of great strength,
whereas, by the coachman's description, the
stranger who had hired him was a short
man, and in all probability much inferior to
him in that respect. How, then, could he
have obtained such a mastery over him as to
have been able to strangle him without
attracting the attention of the driver? There
was, it is true, the statement of the man,
that two persons had left his vehicle; but
few doubted that the darkness of the street,
and his own natural presumption that as two
persons were within, two must have alighted,
had deceived him, and prevented his observing
the real fact. As to the direction to
drive to Camomile Street, no one believed
that this was any other than a trick to gain
time, and to delay the discovery of the murder.
But the mystery remained unsolved, and
public cusiosity looked eagerly for the
announcement that some person had been fixed
upon as the perpetrator of the crime.

We shall now see in what way the two
strangers who arrived on the night of the
murder at the Three Crowns were found to
be sufficiently connected with the murdered
man to direct attention to the question of
how they had employed themselves on
that evening. Their names were Jonathan
Springett and Samuel Bate. They retired to
rest that night, after playing some games at
cards, at the same time as the other guests;
but the house being then full, they had been
placed in the room generally occupied by
Mallet the head waiter, in which two bedsteads
had been placed for the occasion. They arose
at the ordinary breakfast hour in the morning,
and went out; and about noon they
presented themselves at the door of the house of
Dr. Graves in Warwick Street, and desired
to speak with him. On being informed that
he was dead, they expressed much surprise,
and said that they had not observed that the
shutters were closed. They informed the
servants that they had written to the Doctor
only the night before, appointing to meet
him at twelve o'clock that day on some
business connected with a trusteeship. A letter,
indeed, had arrived there that morning to the
effect stated, which had been opened by the
police. Its contents were simple enough;
but where nothing is known, any fact is eagerly
seized.

Some inquiries were made, and, that evening,
both Springett and Bate were suddenly
arrested at the Three Crowns. It was shown
that Doctor Graves was the sole surviving
trustee of a settlement made upon the wife
of Springett on her first marriage; and that
by the terms of that settlement, Bate would
become trustee on his decease. It was also
found that Bate and Springett were very
intimate, and that the wife of Springett had
been once or twice in London within the last
month, to have an interview with Doctor
Graves, as it was supposed, upon the subject
of his trust. Mrs. Springett admitted that
the object of her visits was to endeavour to
induce the Doctor to allow her husband to
employ a portion of the trust-money in
establishing a business in London, and that
the Doctor had resolutely refused to do
what he declared would be contrary to his
duty. The two men maintained that their
journey to London had no other object than
to endeavour to induce the deceased to
comply with their request, by offering a legal
indemnity from Bate against any loss that
he might suffer in consequence. As to their
absence from the tavern on the night of the
murder, they said that they had walked as
far as a hosier's shop at the corner of Old
Bond Street, Piccadilly, where they had
posted a letter for Richmond, and another
for Doctor Graves, which was the letter
received on the following morning; and
it was admitted that their absence had
been too short to allow the possibility of
their having been engaged in the murder.
The coachman recognised neither of them.
Springett, he said, was most like the man
who hired him; but he had not carried his
arm in a sling, as Springett did. Springett
explained the fact of the sling by saying that
he had injured his arm by a fall some time
previously. His voice, moreover, was unlike