The Leavenworth Case, Page 2

  II. THE CORONER’S INQUEST

  “The baby figure of the giant mass Of things to come.” --Troilus and Cressida.

  FOR a few minutes I sat dazed by the sudden flood of light greeting mefrom the many open windows; then, as the strongly contrastingfeatures of the scene before me began to impress themselves uponmy consciousness, I found myself experiencing something of the samesensation of double personality which years before had followed anenforced use of ether. As at that time, I appeared to be living twolives at once: in two distinct places, with two separate setsof incidents going on; so now I seemed to be divided between twoirreconcilable trains of thought; the gorgeous house, its elaboratefurnishing, the little glimpses of yesterday’s life, as seen in the openpiano, with its sheet of music held in place by a lady’s fan, occupyingmy attention fully as much as the aspect of the throng of incongruousand impatient people huddled about me.

  Perhaps one reason of this lay in the extraordinary splendor of the roomI was in; the glow of satin, glitter of bronze, and glimmer of marblemeeting the eye at every turn. But I am rather inclined to think itwas mainly due to the force and eloquence of a certain picture whichconfronted me from the opposite wall. A sweet picture--sweet enough andpoetic enough to have been conceived by the most idealistic of artists:simple, too--the vision of a young flaxen-haired, blue-eyed coquette,dressed in the costume of the First Empire, standing in a wood-path,looking back over her shoulder at some one following--yet with such adash of something not altogether saint-like in the corners of her meekeyes and baby-like lips, that it impressed me with the individuality oflife. Had it not been for the open dress, with its waist almost beneaththe armpits, the hair cut short on the forehead, and the perfection ofthe neck and shoulders, I should have taken it for a literal portrait ofone of the ladies of the house. As it was, I could not rid myself of theidea that one, if not both, of Mr. Leavenworth’s nieces looked down uponme from the eyes of this entrancing blonde with the beckoning glanceand forbidding hand. So vividly did this fancy impress me that I halfshuddered as I looked, wondering if this sweet creature did not knowwhat had occurred in this house since the happy yesterday; and if so,how she could stand there smiling so invitingly,--when suddenly I becameaware that I had been watching the little crowd of men about me with ascomplete an absorption as if nothing else in the room had attractedmy attention; that the face of the coroner, sternly intelligent andattentive, was as distinctly imprinted upon my mind as that of thislovely picture, or the clearer-cut and more noble features of thesculptured Psyche, shining in mellow beauty from the crimson-hung windowat his right; yes, even that the various countenances of the jurymenclustered before me, commonplace and insignificant as most of them were;the trembling forms of the excited servants crowded into a far corner;and the still more disagreeable aspect of the pale-faced, seedyreporter, seated at a small table and writing with a ghoul-like aviditythat made my flesh creep, were each and all as fixed an element in theremarkable scene before me as the splendor of the surroundings whichmade their presence such a nightmare of discord and unreality.

  I have spoken of the coroner. As fortune would have it, he was nostranger to me. I had not only seen him before, but had held frequentconversation with him; in fact, knew him. His name was Hammond, and hewas universally regarded as a man of more than ordinary acuteness, fullycapable of conducting an important examination, with the necessary skilland address. Interested as I was, or rather was likely to be, in thisparticular inquiry, I could not but congratulate myself upon our goodfortune in having so intelligent a coroner.

  As for his jurymen, they were, as I have intimated, very much likeall other bodies of a similar character. Picked up at random from thestreets, but from such streets as the Fifth and Sixth Avenues,they presented much the same appearance of average intelligence andrefinement as might be seen in the chance occupants of one of our citystages. Indeed, I marked but one amongst them all who seemed to takeany interest in the inquiry as an inquiry; all the rest appearing to beactuated in the fulfilment of their duty by the commoner instincts ofpity and indignation.

  Dr. Maynard, the well-known surgeon of Thirty-sixth Street, was thefirst witness called. His testimony concerned the nature of the woundfound in the murdered man’s head. As some of the facts presented by himare likely to prove of importance to us in our narrative, I will proceedto give a synopsis of what he said.

  Prefacing his remarks with some account of himself, and the manner inwhich he had been summoned to the house by one of the servants, he wenton to state that, upon his arrival, he found the deceased lying on abed in the second-story front room, with the blood clotted about apistol-wound in the back of the head; having evidently been carriedthere from the adjoining apartment some hours after death. It was theonly wound discovered on the body, and having probed it, he had foundand extracted the bullet which he now handed to the jury. It was lyingin the brain, having entered at the base of the skull, passed obliquelyupward, and at once struck the _medulla oblongata,_ causing instantdeath. The fact of the ball having entered the brain in this peculiarmanner he deemed worthy of note, since it would produce not onlyinstantaneous death, but an utterly motionless one. Further, from theposition of the bullet-hole and the direction taken by the bullet, itwas manifestly impossible that the shot should have been fired by theman himself, even if the condition of the hair about the wound did notcompletely demonstrate the fact that the shot was fired from a pointsome three or four feet distant. Still further, considering the angle atwhich the bullet had entered the skull, it was evident that the deceasedmust not only have been seated at the time, a fact about which therecould be no dispute, but he must also have been engaged in someoccupation which drew his head forward. For, in order that a ball shouldenter the head of a man sitting erect at the angle seen here, of 45degrees, it would be necessary, not only for the pistol to be held verylow down, but in a peculiar position; while if the head had been bentforward, as in the act of writing, a man holding a pistol naturallywith the elbow bent, might very easily fire a ball into the brain at theangle observed.

  Upon being questioned in regard to the bodily health of Mr. Leavenworth,he replied that the deceased appeared to have been in good condition atthe time of his death, but that, not being his attendant physician,he could not speak conclusively upon the subject without furtherexamination; and, to the remark of a juryman, observed that he had notseen pistol or weapon lying upon the floor, or, indeed, anywhere else ineither of the above-mentioned rooms.

  I might as well add here what he afterwards stated, that from theposition of the table, the chair, and the door behind it, the murderer,in order to satisfy all the conditions imposed by the situation, musthave stood upon, or just within, the threshold of the passageway leadinginto the room beyond. Also, that as the ball was small, and from arifled barrel, and thus especially liable to deflections while passingthrough bones and integuments, it seemed to him evident that the victimhad made no effort to raise or turn his head when advanced upon byhis destroyer; the fearful conclusion being that the footstep was anaccustomed one, and the presence of its possessor in the room eitherknown or expected.

  The physician’s testimony being ended, the coroner picked up the bulletwhich had been laid on the table before him, and for a moment rolledit contemplatively between his fingers; then, drawing a pencil from hispocket, hastily scrawled a line or two on a piece of paper and, callingan officer to his side, delivered some command in a low tone. Theofficer, taking up the slip, looked at it for an instant knowingly, thencatching up his hat left the room. Another moment, and the front doorclosed on him, and a wild halloo from the crowd of urchins without toldof his appearance in the street. Sitting where I did, I had a full viewof the corner. Looking out, I saw the officer stop there, hail a cab,hastily enter it, and disappear in the direction of Broadway.