Note 185 — Chapter VIII · (continued 2)

Margaret Higgins, a servant of Mrs. James, told a very different story when put into the box for cross-examination, her evidence not being taken for the prosecution. “On the morning of the 10th I went into Mrs. James’s bedroom, about half-past eight, and found two or three spoonsful of warmsago in a tea-cup by the bedside, and two cups on the table. I took the cup from the chair by the bedside down stairs, and ate the sago, which did me no harm.”[As the prisoner said he took it in about 5 a.m., the sago, being in an open cup, could not have been warm at 8·30. It was also clear, from other parts of her evidence, that she was in favour of the prisoner, and anxious to throw the crime on the Cafferatas.