27
but thinking that Prof. Webster heard me, I desisted from- my work,- and
afterwards laid down
on the floor hear the door, and looked through the crevice between the door
and the floor; pre-.
sently I saw Prof. Webster come along with a coal-hod in his hand; I could
see as high as his
knees i 8e went to a coal bin, which is in the laboratory, near the privy,
and which contains coal
and, bark, which had been put in before the lectures commenced; I heard him
moving things
abot the room; I laid in this position about five minutes and then went
back to my wife.
About three o'clock I went up through the laboratory entry, and discovered
that the right
hand walls, along the stairs, were very hot; I knew that the eat proceeded
from a furnace,
where I never made a fire; could not bear my hands on the walls but a short
time; was afraid
that the building would take fire, and went to the store-room to get my
keys; tried several of
the doors, and found them locked; then went to the lecture-room, to see if
I could get into the
laboratory, but the doors were all looked; I finally got into one of the
laboratories, where the
small furnace=not the'fhrnace which heated the walls-was, and going to
that, found that there
was some fire in it ; the rim of the furnace was covered over with minerals
and stone pots; I then
went and got into the lower laboratory, through the window, and on looking
into the hogsheads,
found that the water which had filled them previously, had been taken. out;
there was a copper
spout leading from the hogsheads to the sink; I looked into the barrels
used to contain pitch-pine
kindlingc, and it looked as though about two-thirds'had been taken out; I
went up the stairway,
to the upper laboratory and there I saw spots of a peculiar appearance, not
like anything I had
ever seen before; I tasted of the material and thought it was acid; in
going into his back private
room 1 noticed the same peculiar spots on the floor of that room; the
Cochituate water was still
running; what made this appear unusual was that when some time before I had
left the water
running he had stopped it and said he didn't like to have it running; I had
noticed in the entry,
a box of grape vines and a bag of tan, and they laid in the entry some time
; I tried several
times to put them into Prof. W.'s room, but the doors were fastened and I
could not do it: my
wife told me to put them down cellar; I received the order for the turkey
on Wednesday, not
Thursday, as stated before the Coroner's Jury ; I made the mistake and told
one of the Jury of it
in the afternoon on which I had the order for the turkey given me; Prof.
W-sentme to buy for
him a piece of lime about as big as my head.
Here the Court adjourned until three and a half o'clock P. M.
Afternoon Session.
The Court came in at twenty minutes before four o'clock.
Ephraim Littlefield reealled.-On Thanksgiving day I put the boa of
grape-vines, and .bag of
them, in the cellar, in the forenoon; I actually made the attempt to put
them in the Professor's
room on that day, in the afternoon; about three o'clock I began to work at
the wall, under the
vault ; I wanted to satisfy myself as to there being anything under the
vault, for I could not go
out of the College without somebody saying to me that Dr. P. was in the
Medical College-that
he would be found there if he was ever found anywhere; all the rest of the
building had been
f searched except that part of it; that I knew had not been searched
because I had the key of it;
I went down the front scuttle, lifted up the trap-door, went to the back
side of the wall, where
officer Fuller and myself 'had been the Tuesday before, and began to work;
I had there a ham-
mer.and a morticing chisel; I worked some time-got out two courses of
brick-but as I could
not do more with those tools, I gave up work about 4 P. M. ; that night I
went to the Thanks-
giving Ball of the Shakspeare Division of the Sons of Temperance, at
Cochituate Hall; next morn-
ing I got up about nine o'clock, and, as I sat at breakfast, Dr. W. came
into the kitchen and took
up a paper slid appeared to be reading it.
He said, °° Is tfiere any more news?" I said there was none. He said that
he had been in
Mr. Henchman's apothecary shop, and Mr. H. had told him that a woman had
seen a large bun-
dle put into a cab; she remembered the number of the cab, and the cab was
found, and discover-
ed to be all covered with blood; I replied that there were so many stories
about Dr. P., that we
could not tell what to believe; Prof. W. then went up stairs; some time
after this I was over-
seeing the arrangement of some busts which I had employed some men to bring
for Dr. Warren's
museum; Dr. Bigelow was present; I told Dr. Henry J. Bigelow that I had
commenced digging
through the wall; I understood him to say, °° Go a-head with it;" I told
Dr. B. all about Prof
W. keeping his doors locked. [This last was ruled out as incompetent.] I
went into the demon'-
atration room, and there I found Dr. J. S. Jackson alone; I told him I was
-digging through the
wall; he got up and came toward me; said he, "Littlefield, I feel
dreadfully about this matter,
and do you go through that wall before you sleep;" he asked me what I
should do if I found any-
thing there; I told him I should go to Dr. Holmes; he said, "don't you go
there, but go to old
Dr. Bigelow, in Summer street, and then come and tell me; write your name
on my slate, and.
shall understand it;" I did so.
Attorney General-" Oh, well, we will come to that presently."
I then went to Leonard Fuller, and asked him to lend me a crow-bar. He
asked me what I
wanted to do with it. I told him I wanted to dig a hole in a; brick wall,
to carry a lead pipe
through the hole for water. He then replied, 11 I guess you do." I then
went to the house, and
locked all the outside doors, and left the keys on the inside, so that no
one, not even Prof. Web-
ster, could get in; let down the latch of the front door; then told my wife
to keep watch, and
see if anybody came, for I was going to work at the wall; told her, if she
Saw Prof. W. come, to
give four rape with a hammer on the kitchen floor, so that I could hear it
before she let him in;
- J -
Nkomo i~
|