Free Honourable Intentions by Gavin Lyall Page A

of cold comestibles and beverages was provided by the ground-floor restaurant. Lieut, jay commented unfavourably on the quality of the sausage rolls.
    The minutes of the last meeting, held some ten years previously, having been presumed lost, the Chairman opened the proceedings by inviting Lieut. Jay to report on events at Bow St Police Court that morning. Jay said that the witness Guillet had failed to appear for hisresumed cross-examination. The barrister representing the Crown apologised for the witness’s absence and said he had been assured that every effort was being made by the police to find him. Broad hints were then dropped by Mr Noah Quinton that he had been about to expose said witness as a perjurer and this might not be unconnected with his disappearance. The magistrate then adjourned the hearing for twenty-four hours.
    The Chairman said he had been told by Captain R that he had seen the deceased witness on the previous night but been assured that he had not brought about the witness’s decease, although he was sure that Captain R had been justified in doing so if he had, in fact, done so. When Captain R could get a word in edgeways, he said that he had neither killed nor interfered with said witness, merely listened to him in a nearby public house. He might have pointed out that the witness’s testimony could result in a perjury charge, but had come to the conclusion that the witness was more frightened of some unnamed person or persons than he was of such a charge,
    Discussion ensued concerning the possible identity of the above-mentioned person (s), the Paris
Préfecture
of police being mentioned.
    Mr O’G opined that he did not think the
Préfecture
was guilty of such conduct, nor that it really intended to put Grover Langhorn on trial in France. In his view, its intention was to establish a hold over him and compel him to give evidence incriminating others at the
Café des Deux Chevaliers.
The police would rather convict such others than an American youth.
    He further opined that little distinction was drawn by the Paris police between anarchists who robbed banks etc. as “expropriation” and criminals who just robbed banks etc. Lieut. Jay said that casual discussions at Bow St had led him to believe that London policemen thought the same way.
    The Chairman asked Mr O’G if he thought Grover Langhorn was a sincere anarchist. O’G said that he had received that impression from Paris newspapers which had interviewed Mme Berenice Collomb. She had been represented as saying that Langhorn wanted to slaughter every capitalist in the world but would not, on the other hand, hurt a fly. Capt. R commented that such a remarkseemed to him consistent with Mme Collomb’s mode of thought.
    Some pointless discussion then ensued. The Chairman called the meeting to order and asked Lieut. Jay what he had discovered at Somerset House. Jay reported that he had uncovered a marriage certificate showing that Ethan James Langhorn and Enid Elizabeth Bowman were married at St Jude’s church in Southsea, Portsmouth, on May 9 1890. The Chairman calculated that the bride had then been nearly three months pregnant and commented favourably on her skill in acquiring a husband in that time.
    Continuing, Jay said that the certificate revealed the bride to have been aged 25, the groom a boatswain aged 42, his address being a seamen’s hostel in Southampton. The bride’s address was given as 15 Abercromby Road, Southsea. No parents were among the witnesses
.
Of these, three were female and assumed to be friends of the bride; the fourth, George Pavlides, might have been a shipmate of the groom.
    It was then decided by the Chairman that Capt. R and Mr O’G would proceed immediately to Portsmouth to see if they could acquire any additional information, despite the passage of some twenty-three years. There being no objections to this except from Capt. R and Mr O’G, the meeting was declared closed at approximately 1.30 p.m.
    He must