The question was asked in a persuasive tone and accompanied by what Goddard no doubt regarded as his winning smile.
Shirley raised his head a fraction, as though resting from his survey of every thread in the canvas stretched over the deck. Before answering, he stood up and walked the three or four paces to Jenkins's place at the table, retrieved some slips of paper and returned to his seat. He reached under his chair for a leather pouch, opened it and put away the slips, taking out several more.
Only then did he look up at Goddard and say in a monotone: "I have no more questions to put to this witness."
Goddard sighed and then stared heavy-eyed at Ramage. "Do you have any questions? As he'll be called later as a defence witness, you must restrict your questions to the points raised by the prosecution."
"I have some questions, sir." He turned to Aitken. "The first question asked by the prosecution was to describe your role when the Jason was boarded. You omitted to describe my orders to you before the Calypso went alongside the Jason."
Ramage was conscious that Goddard's great bulk was tense; he could imagine the man's mind working quickly, trying to spot hidden meanings or traps.
"Your orders were brief, sir. I was to lead one of the boarding parties." He waited while Jenkins wrote the sentence and then looked at Ramage, as if waiting for the next question. Then he added: "And I was to help secure the captain."
Goddard neither shouted nor banged the table: he was learning quickly how to deal with questions and answers he did not want in the trial minutes. "Strike out the last part of that reply."
Ramage took a step forward. "May I ask why, sir?"
"Indeed you may; that is your privilege," Goddard said amiably. "The question is not allowed because it has nothing to do with the question asked by the prosecutor. I warned you about that a few moments ago, and your very first question ignored the warning."
"But sir, Captain Shirley asked about Lieutenant Aitken's role. Tell the deputy judge advocate to read out that part of the minutes. If Captain Shirley can ask Lieutenant Aitken about his role, surely I can - I am the one on trial!"
"Your question did not ask Lieutenant Aitken about his role," Goddard said, his voice oozing with reasonableness. "You asked him what orders you gave him."
"But my orders concerned his role!" Ramage protested. "He answered that he was to lead a boarding party -"
"Exactly," snapped Goddard. "That was the answer to the question. If the witness decides that is his answer to the prosecutor's question, that is the end of it. You can only question him on that."
Ramage knew that Goddard held too many aces. The president controlled what Jenkins wrote down in the minutes: he controlled the questions asked; he controlled the answers given because he could always order sentences struck out of the minutes on the grounds of them not being relevant. Who could argue - there was no record of - Ramage's question, the witness's reply or of Goddard's reason for striking anything out. In theory the safeguard for the accused (and the witnesses, for that matter) lay in the members of the court, the captains sitting round the table. But those captains, Ramage understood only too well, were serving officers with careers (and therefore promotion) to think about. The defect in the system was in making the president of the court the senior officer. In ports of the United Kingdom it was usually the second-in-command to the commander-in-chief; abroad a flag officer if available, otherwise the senior captain. It would be a bold and foolhardy captain who argued with a flag officer whose gossip, let alone a written report, would lose him his command and ensure that he would stay on half-pay for the rest of his life ... on the beach drawing half-pay while the other captains round the table, who had kept their mouths shut, went on to find glory and prize money in battle.
Ramage bowed towards Goddard and said, speaking every word slowly and with deliberate clarity, and watching Jenkins to make sure he entered it all in the minutes: "In view of what you have just said, sir, there are no other questions I can ask this witness."
Goddard, seeing no ambiguity, said: "Very well, the witness may stand down."
Jenkins waved his pen at Aitken. "Wait, I must read the minutes back to you and then you must sign them."
As Jenkins read in a monotone, Aitken caught Ramage's eye and raised an eyebrow. Ramage gave an imperceptible nod. Aitken had a quick grasp in normal times: in these somewhat unusual circumstances he seemed to be even faster.
Jenkins finished reading and, looking across at Aitken, held up the quill. "Please sign here that the minutes are a true record of the evidence you have given."
"Ahhhh," Aitken shook his head, "now there we have a problem, mister. You know quite well the minutes are by no means a true record of the evidence I've been giving, so thanking you for your trouble, but I'll no be signing the noo."
Shirley continued looking down at the black and white squares painted on the deck canvas, but both Goddard and Jenkins looked at Aitken as though he was a barrel of powder which a fast-burning fuse had only a couple of inches to go.
Goddard smiled reassuringly but his thick lips betrayed his nervousness at this unexpected turn. "My dear Aitken, you must sign the minutes. The regulations, you know."
"That's not my understanding of them, if you'll forgive me, sir. I may be wrong," he added sorrowfully, and Ramage almost laughed aloud as he saw a flicker of hope cross Goddard's face. "Aye, I might be wrong, and for that matter so might you, sir. But of course that's why we have the deputy judge advocate, and why he's paid extra per diem while the court is sitting, to act as our legal adviser. Would you be good enough, sir, to have him consult the court-martial statutes?"
"Look here, Aitken, you'll save everyone a great deal of trouble if you just sign the minutes. It won't do your chances of promotion any good if you get a reputation for fussing about ..."
Ramage was staggered at the barefaced threat and suddenly regretted having been responsible for getting Aitken in this position, and yet curiously thankful that because of the prize money Aitken had earned under his command, he could resign his commission this moment and walk on shore wealthier, in all probability, than any of the twelve captains sitting round the table.
Captain Swinford said unexpectedly but firmly: "I think that the lieutenant has every right to hear what the court-martial statutes have to say on the matter. In all my years, I haven't come across the point before."
Captain Royce, sitting next to him, said: "Personally, I'm quite clear on the point. If the witness isn't satisfied with the minutes, he does not have to sign 'em."
Swinford said: "I must say, if a witness is expected to sign the minutes as 'a true record' of his evidence, then it seems only right that if they aren't 'a true record' he shouldn't sign 'em."
Goddard rapped the table. "Clear the court," he ordered.
"Sir," Jenkins said meekly, standing up, "the witness and the prisoner are involved in this argument, and if you clear the court, they will be removed from . . ."
"Oh very well," Goddard said petulantly, "why don't you cite some references?"
"I have several here, sir."
"Well, damnation, why didn't you mention it? What do they say?"
"They are clear on the point, sir," Jenkins said. "Quite clear."
"There you are," Goddard told Swinford and Royce. "Now I hope you will stop interfering. Sign and leave the court," he told Aitken.
"But sir," Jenkins wailed, "the statutes are clear upon the point that a witness should sign the minutes only if he is satisfied they correctly record his evidence."
Goddard sat with his eyes shut. Clearly, as far as Ramage was concerned, the rear-admiral was trying to recall the earlier part of Aitken's evidence because, of course, if Aitken refused to sign the minutes then none of his evidence would be admissible. Was there anything in that evidence that Shirley wanted? After a minute or two, Ramage decided that Goddard could not clearly remember. This was confirmed by Goddard's next words: "Very well, Lieutenant, if you do not sign the minutes you had better remember my words, and remember that the court can recall you as a witness any time it wishes."