CHAPTER 13That it was not possible was the only way Mr. Pinkerton ever adequately explained to himself what seemed to him to go on at the inquest into the murder of Sir Lionel Atwater, late of Atwater House, Atwater, Bucks. Because it was quite unlike any inquest he’d been to or read about, in most respects. In the first place, the coroner apparently did not mistake himself for a great wit on the one hand, or the Lord Chief Justice on the other. He did not act as if the whole thing were a show especially put on by Mr. Cochrane for him to star in. He was quiet and businesslike, made every effort to co-operate with the police, and made no effort at all to make the witnesses look like fools. A sober group of townsmen acting as jury, furthermore, had not a village Sir Norman Birkett in the lot
