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74 TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER.
would say, " Dr. Parkman is in the Medical College, and will be found
there, if ever found anywhere." I never could go out of the building,.
without hearing such remarks. All other parts of the building had been
searched, and, if nothing should be found in the privy, I could con-
vince the public, that Dr. Parkman had not met with foul play in the
College.
I went down the front scuttle, with a lamp, to the back side of the
building, where Mr. Fuller, and 1, went the Tuesday before. The tools
I used, were a hatchet, and a mortising chisel. I worked an hour, or
an hour and a half, but found that I could not make much progress,
with the tools I had. I got out two courses of brick, and then gave up
the job for the night. Nothing further occurred, on that day. I was
out that night, until four o'clock the next morning, at a ball, at Cochitu-
ate Hall, given by a Division of the Sons of Temperance. There were
twenty dances, and I danced eighteen out of the twenty.
On Friday, I got up, a little before nine o'clock. My wife had called
me, a little before eight, and wanted me to finish digging through the
walls. I did .not, however, get up, when she called me. While we were
at breakfast, Dr. Webster came into the kitchen. He came in, and took
up a newspaper, and asked, " Is there any more news?-do you hear
anything further of Dr. Parkman?" He said, that he had just come
from Dr. Henchman's apothecary-shop; that Dr. Henchman had said,
that a woman had seen a large bundle put into a. cab, that she had
taken the number of the cab, and that they had found the cab all cov-
ered with blood. I said, "There are so many flying reports about Dr.
Parkman, that we do not know what to believe." Dr. Webster then
went up stairs.
Some time in the forenoon, towards noon, I was up under the anatomi-
cal lecture-room, helping some men carry some plaster-busts, from
Dr. Warren's museum, into Dr. Holmes's lecture-room, .when I had
some conversation with Dr. Henry J. Bigelow, about digging through
the wall.
[Mr. Bemis here stated, that he proposed to ask the witness, " If he
had sought, or had received any directions from the Professors having
charge of the College, in regard to digging through the wall, before so
doing?" Objected to, by counsel for the defence; but ruled admissible,
by the Court.]
I asked Dr. Henry Bigelow, if he knew, that there was a suspicion
about Dr. Webster. As near as I can recollect, he said, that he did. I
told him, that I had commenced digging through the wall; and I under-
stood him to say, " Go ahead with it." I told him all about Dr. Web-
ster's keeping his doors shut from me. In a few minutes, I went into
the demonstrator's room, and there found Dr. J. B. S. Jackson, alone,
at work. He is a Professor, also. I told Dr. Jackson, that I was dig-
ging through the wall; and he said, " Mr. Littlefield, I feel dreadfully
about this; and do you go through that wall, before you sleep, to-night."
He did pot give me any directions about secrecy. He asked me, "If I
foupd anything, what I intended to do?" I told him, that I should
go .to Dr. Holmes. Said he, " You had better not go to him; but go
to the elder Dr. Bigelow, in Summer street, and then come and tell me.
If I am not at home, leave your name on my slate, and I shall under-
stand it."
In the afternoon, about two o'clock, I went and asked Mr. Leonard
Fuller, if he would lend me a crowbar. He went and got it, and asked
me what I wanted to do with it. I told him, that I wanted to dig a
hole in a brick wall, to carry a lead pipe in, to let water pass through.
He replied, " I guess you do." He said no more; and I took the crow-
bar and left. I spoke jocosely; suppose that he suspected what I was
doing. I went to the house, and locked every door, so that Dr. Web-
ster, could not get in, nor any one else. I dropped the dead-latch of
the front door, and put my wife to watch the doors, telling her to let
no one in, unless she saw who it was. I told her, if Dr. Webster came
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