CHAPTER XVIII.
THE ICE AX The police put Carter in the dock before a full bench of magistrates next morning, and the court was so crowded that it was all Mr.Lindsey and I could do to force our way to the solicitors' table.

Several minor cases came on before Carter was brought up from the cells, and during this hearing I had leisure to look round the court and see who was there.

And almost at once I saw Sir Gilbert Carstairs, who, though not yet a justice of the peace--his commission to that honourable office arrived a few days later, oddly enough,--had been given a seat on the bench, in company with one or two other local dignitaries, one of whom, I observed with some curiosity, was that Reverend Mr.Ridley who had given evidence at the inquest on Phillips.

All these folk, it was easy to see, were in a high state of inquisitiveness about Crone's murder; and from certain whispers that I overheard, I gathered that the chief cause of this interest lay in a generally accepted opinion that it was, as Mr.Lindsey had declared to me more than once, all of a piece with the crime of the previous week.
And it was very easy to observe that they were not so curious to see Carter as to hear what might be alleged against him.
There appeared to be some general surprise when Mr.Lindsey quietly announced that he was there on behalf of the prisoner.

You would have thought from the demeanour of the police that, in their opinion, there was nothing for the bench to do but hear a bit of evidence and commit Carter straight away to the Assizes to take his trial for wilful murder.
What evidence they did bring forward was, of course, plain and straightforward enough.