talked about them to the skipper. But they forgot that the
witnesses called at the inquest, including the mother of the dead
man, had insisted that Bolton had no enemies, so it is difficult
to see what they expected Captain Hervey to say.

After the funeral, the journals made but few remarks about the
mystery. Every now and then it was hinted that a clue had been
found, and that the police would sooner or later track down the
criminal. But all this loose chatter came to nothing, and as the
days went by, the public--in London, at all events--lost
interest in the case. The enterprising weekly paper that had
offered the furnished house and the life income to the person who
found the assassin received an intimation from the Government
that such a lottery could not be allowed. The paper, therefore,
returned to Limericks, and the amateur detectives, like so many
Othellos, found their occupation gone. Then a political crisis
took place in the far East, and the fickle public relegated the
murder of Bolton to the list of undiscovered crimes. Even the
Scotland Yard detectives, failing to find a clue, lost interest
in the matter, and it seemed as though the mystery of Bolton's
death would not be solved until the Day of Judgment.

In the village, however, people still continued to be keenly
interested, since Bolton was one of themselves, and, moreover,
Widow Anne kept up a perpetual outcry about her murdered boy.
She had lost the small weekly sum which Sidney had allowed her
out of his wages, so the neighbors, the gentry of the surrounding
country, and the officers at the Fort sent her ample washing to
do. Widow Anne in a few weeks had quite a large business,
considering the size of the village, and philosophically observed