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Updated: August 1, 2024
Beneath it, excellently reproduced, was a facsimile of the typewritten letter which Wallingford had shown to Epplewhite and afterwards left in his keeping. "What d'ye think of that for a coup, Mr. Brent?" demanded Peppermore proudly. "Up to Fleet Street form that, sir, ain't it?
Turning to the bench, he put in the depositions taken at the Coroner's inquest with respect to the typewritten threatening letter sent to Wallingford and by him entrusted to Epplewhite; the letter itself, and the facsimile of the letter published as a supplement by the Monitor, with a brief explanation of his reasons for bringing them into evidence.
"Dirty work!" shouted Alderman Crood. "Such as nobody but the likes o' you Radicals and teetotallers and chapel folk! 'ud ever think o' doing. You say straight out before the town what's in your mind, Sam Epplewhite, and I'll see what the law has to say to you! I'm none going to have my character taken away by a fellow o' your sort. Say your say, here in public "
But, as I dare say you're beginning to find out, that's no easy job." "Will the top be lifted at this Local Government Board inspection?" asked Brent. Epplewhite shook his head. "I doubt it, sir!" he answered. "I doubt it very much. I've seen a bit too much of officialism, Mr. Brent, to cherish any hopes of it. I'll tell you what'll probably happen when this inspector comes.
"I am gathering officially, of course from what you are saying that in Hathelsborough Town Council there are two parties, opposed to each other: a party pledged to Reform, and another that is opposed to Reform. Is that so, Mr. Epplewhite?" "Precisely so," answered the witness. "And of the Reform party, the late Mayor was the leader. This is well known in the town it's a matter of common gossip.
"But all that Epplewhite said to-day about the Town Trustees is true. The three men control the financial affairs of the borough. Wallingford, by long and patient investigation, had come to know how they controlled them, and how utterly corrupt and rotten the whole financial administration is. If you could see some of the letters of his which I have in that safe "
"You wish to make some observation, Mr. Epplewhite?" he inquired. "Before you adjourn, sir, if you please," replied Epplewhite, "I should like to make a statement evidence, in fact, sir. I think, after what we've heard, that it's highly necessary that I should." "Certainly," answered the Coroner. "Anything you can tell, of course. Then, perhaps you'll step into the witness-box?"
He'd have it on him, or on his desk in the Mayor's Parlour, when he met his death, I'm certain! Now then where is that book?" "That's highly important!" said Brent. "I never heard of it. It certainly wasn't on him, and it wasn't on the desk, for I examined that myself, in company with the police." "Well, he had such a book, and search should be made for it," remarked Epplewhite.
He invited criticism and objections and got nothing but a general statement of the policy of the reforming party from Epplewhite, as its leader: that party, said Epplewhite, objected to the old constitution as being outworn and wished for a more modern arrangement.
Instead of going away, the greater number of those who had been present lingered around the entrance, and Brent, leaving in Tansley's company a few minutes later, found high words being spoken between Alderman Crood and Epplewhite, who, prominent on the pavement, were haranguing each other amidst a ring of open-mouthed bystanders.
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