Was it not presumable that he had slipped his foot and had fallen?
He reminded them that Wilson was lame on one leg.

If the fall were the result of a blow, was it not preposterous to suppose that a man of Sim's slight physique could have inflicted it?
Under ordinary circumstances, only a more powerful man than Wilson himself could have killed him by a fall.
At this the murmur rose again among the bystanders, but it sounded to Ralph like the murmur of beasts being robbed of their prey.
As to the tailor having been seen abroad at night, was not that the commonest occurrence?
With the evidence of Sim's landlord Ralph did not deal.
It was plain that Sim could not be held over for trial on evidence such as was before them.

He was discharged, and an open verdict was returned.

The spectators were not satisfied, however, to receive the tailor back again as an innocent man.

Would he go upstairs and look at the body?
There was a superstition among them that a dead body would bleed at a touch from the hand of the murderer.