Chapter 46
when win a romance of the why by main read volume two chapter twenty six found drowned as a pack of hounds thrown off the scent but a moment before hot now cold are the coroner and his jury but only in one sense like the dogs these human searchers there is nothing of the sleuth in their search and they are but too glad to find the game they have been pursuing and lost is a noble stag instead of a treacherous wicked wolf not a doubt remains in their minds of the innocence of captain ryecroft not a shadow of one if there were it is soon to be dissipated for while they are deliberating on what had best next be done a noise outside a buzz of voices excited exclamations at length culminating in a cheer tell of some one fresh arrived and received triumphantly they are not left long to conjecture who the new arrival is one of the policemen stationed at the door stepping aside tells who the man after captain ryecroft himself most wanted no need saying it is jack
but a word about how the waterman has come thither arriving at such a time and why not sooner it is all in a nutshell but the hour before he returned from the duck-shooting expedition on the shores of the severn sea with his boat brought back by road on a donkey-cart on arrival at his home and hearing of the great event at llangorren he had launched his skiff leaped into it and pulled himself down to the court as if rowing in a regatta in the pathos of the american prairies he is now a row and still panting for breath is brought before the coroner's court and submitted to examination his testimony confirms that of his old fare in every particular about which he can testify all the more credible is it from his own character the young waterman is well known as a man of veracity incapable of bearing false witness when he tells them that after the captain had joined him and was still with him in the boat he not only saw a lady in the little house overhead but recognised her as the young mistress of llangorren
when he positively swears to the fact no one any more thinks that she whose body lies dead was drowned or otherwise injured by the man standing bowed and broken over it least of all the other who alike suffers and sorrows for soon as wingate has finished giving evidence george shenstone steps forward and holding out his hand to his late rival says in the hearing of all forgive me sir for having wronged you by suspicion i now make reparation for it in the only way i can by declaring that i believe you as innocent as myself the generous behaviour of the baronet's son strikes home to every heart and his example is imitated by others hands from every side are stretched towards that of the stranger giving it a grasp which tells of their owner's being also convinced of his innocence but the inquest is not yet ended not for hours over the dead body of one in social rank as she no more perfunctory investigation would satisfy the public demand nor would any coroner dare to withdraw
till everything has been thoroughly sifted and to the bottom in view of the new facts brought out by captain ryecroft and his boatman above all that cry heard by them suspicions of foul play are rife as ever though no longer pointed at him as everything in the shape of verbal testimony worth taking has been taken the coroner calls upon his jury to go with him to the place where the body was taken out of the water leaving it in charge of two policemen they sally forth from the house two and two he preceding the crowd pressing close first they visit the little dock in which they see two boats the gwendoline and mary lying just as they were on that night when captain ryecroft stepped across the one to take his seat in the other he is with the coroner so is wingate and both questions give minute account of that embarkation again in brief resume going over the circumstances that preceded and followed it
the next move is to the summer-house to which the distance from the dock is noted one of the juror men stepping it the object to discover how time will correspond to the incidents as detailed not that there is any doubt about the truth of captain ryecroft's statements nor those of the boatman for both are fully believed the measuring is only to assist in making calculation how long time may have intervened between the lovers quarrel and the death-like cry without thought of their having any connection much less that the one was either cause or consequence of the other again there is consultation at the summer-house with questions asked some of which are answered by george shenston who shows the spot where he picked up the ring and outside standing on the cliff's brink ryecroft and the waterman point to the place near as they can fix it where their boat was when the sad sound reached their ears again recounting what they did after
remaining a while longer on the cliff the coroner and jury with craned necks look over its edge directly below is the little embayment in which the body was found it is angular somewhat horse-shoe shaped the water within stagnant which accounts for the corpse not having been swept away there is not much current in the backwash at any part enough to have carried it off had the drowning been done elsewhere but beyond doubt it has been there such is the conclusion arrived at by the coroner's jury firmly established in their minds at sight of something hitherto unnoticed by them for though not in a body individually each had already inspected the place negligently but now in official form with wits on the alert one looking over detects certain abrasions on the face of the cliff scratches on the red sandstone distinguishable by the fresher tint of the rock unquestionably made by something that had fallen from above and what but the body of gwendoline
they see moreover some branches of a juniper bush near the cliff's base broken but still clinging through that the falling form must have descended there's no further doubting the fact there went she over the only questions undetermined being whether with her own will by misadventure or man's violence in other words was it suicide accident or murder to the last many circumstances point and especially the fact of the body remaining where it went into the water a woman being drowned accidentally or drowning herself in the death struggle would have worked away some distance from the spot she had fallen or thrown herself in still the same would occur if thrown in by another only that this other might by some means have extinguished life beforehand this last thought or surmise carries coroner and jury back to the house and to a more particular examination of the body in which they are assisted by medical men surgeons and physicians
several of both being present unofficially among them the one who administers to the ailings of miss linton there is none of them who has attended gwendoline wynne who never knew ailment of any kind their post-mortem examining does not extend to dissection there is no need without it there are tests which tell the cause of death that of drowning beyond this they can throw no light on the affair which remains mysterious as ever flung back on reasoning of the analytical kind the coroner and his jury can come to no other conclusion then that the first plunge into the water in whatever way made was almost instantly fatal and if a struggle followed it ended by the body returning to and sinking in the same place where it first went down among the people outside pass many surmises guesses and conjectures suspicions also but no more pointing to captain ryecroft they take another and more natural direction still nothing has transpired to inculpate any one
or in the finding of a coroner's jury connect man or woman with it this is at length pronounced in the usual formula with its customary tag found drowned but how etc etc with such ambiguous rendering the once beautiful body of gwendoline wynne is consigned to a coffin and in due time deposited in the family vault under the chancel of llangorren church chapter twenty six read by
