The White Lie

t Noel Barclay caused a wave of

e first aviator to fly from land and greet the King on the occasion of a great review off Weymouth. Many splendid feats of airmanship had he accom

had been fitted with wireless apparatus and experiments carried out with success. He had done excellent servic

ind a tragic picture of his wrecked machine, and beneath was printe

er the accident, and, in addition to representatives of the Admiralty, a

us policy of the Admiralty, certain of their aeroplanes were not of the same stability as those owned by pr

s, and representatives of that select body whose dictum in all aviation is law-the Royal Aero Club. And

t's departure, and eyewitnesses had described his fall, there came a quantity of highly technical evidence put forward by the Admiralty with the object of proving that the machine had been in a perfectly satisfactory condition. The Gn

ng held in the same hotel where Ralph An

substituted the small steel bolt with one of wood with such an expert, unerring hand-the man who had stood up in

little Jean, with the neat figure and great, dark eyes, in her innocence and ignorance, loved him so dearly

erts stood up one after the other, each expressing

ed out of all recognition, and both arms were broken. So utterly wrecked was the machine that it presented

lt was missing and search failed to find it. A quantity of evidence was forthcoming, and many theories advanced, the conclusion

which the twelve honest me

steel bolt holding the main-stay cable and secured by a split-pin could not be found. It had evide

s the jury returned a ver

rs, together with expressions of deep sympathy and

the little market-town of North Walsham, which, though inland, is the relay for the telegraph-cables divergin

ublic and witnesses sat upon the school benches,

s, but from the first the crowd at t

ad Norfolk brogue, described how he had discovered the b

talham, when just after I turned into the Norwich road I saw sawmthin' a-lyin' in the dit

official, looking

und it was 'im,"

ho

eman what

you mean," sa

he reply. "I thought 'e wor drunk at first, but when I see blood on

e body when you discover

eet in the water an' 'is '

had fall

o the side o' the road. There was bl

did yo

sty cut in 'is throat. So I drove on

hing

, nawthi

?" inquired the coroner, looking ac

, a stout f

ss if the gentleman was dead whe

" was the witnes

? He may not have been

d on 'is 'eart an'

official holding the i

vidence regarding the discovery. He described how the previous witness had called at t

tary appearance, who was seated at the back of the room, leaned forward attentively to catch every word. "The thorn bushes beside the ditch were broken down by the body apparently

n carried back from the spot

ere were distinct marks on the damp road where the heels of the de

se present in cour

action in regard t

detectives from Norwich ha

e track of deceas

blood appeared, for there were marks of a struggle. The gentleman must have been struck down

ds Nor

-in that

tense look. The coroner noticed him, and became puzzled, even suspicious. Nobody knew the man or why he

of the adventurer. A close observer would have noticed that his clothes bore the cut of a foreign tailor-French or Italian-and his boots were too long and pointed to be English. His well-kept, white hands were the hand

et to the narrative of how Richard Harborne was discovered he

ir of mystery surrounding the stranger, and resolved

answer to further question

I was soon able to ascertain by telephone that he had been stopping there for some little time. Most of the letters were private ones, but two of them were enclosed in double envelopes, and written on plain paper without any address o

ed them with considerable curiosity, while the stranger at the back

linen to the coroner. "As far as I can make out, it is a tracing of some p

his writing-pad and looked at

else?" h

fficer produced the torn ha

he coroner remarked, holding it before him, while the court saw

me across the front of it, too,

side pocket of his wallet," the inspector said. "On

on the back the number and letter

nspector went on, producing them carefully from an enve

ndeed. They are all signed across, yet only half the card is

of further interest. Indeed, just at that moment, when the whole court was on

r fully loaded," the officer added; "but he was so sudd

r. Dennan, of North Walsham, whom the police called, a short, white-haired, business-like little man, stepped for

tered a cry. The blade of the instrument was, I should judge, only about half an inch wide, extremely keen, and tapered to a fine point. Whoever struck the blow was, I am inclined to think, possessed of some surgical knowledg

his thin neck, listening to every w

oroner noticed