The Creel of Trout

Lord Findhorn, an eminent judge, is resting at his Scottish shooting box with his friend William Brodie, after presiding at a murder trial at a neighouring town. Jean Lomond, the mother of the young man who was accused of killing a worthless woman, arrives to render her thanks for her son's acquittal. She tells them she has brought the judge a creel of trout as a gift. The judge is reluctant, for reasons of legal propriety, to accept either her thanks of the present. When she has retired to another room to rest before returning home, the men realize that she has imparted information not disclosed at the trial but which poitns to her guilt. The Chief Constable arrives with news that this same woman has been recovered, drowned, from the sea. Although this is confirmed by telephone, the others are incredulous. But Jean, they now find, is no longer in the inner room. Yet, lying beyond the porch outside, they discover - a creel of trout.