'No. I am sorry. I suppose I incur penalties for not telling this -'
I make a pause here, for there was a similar kind of blankness in the room. We have heard much of last-minute witnesses for the defence. This one, though called for the defence, was a last-minute witness for the prosecution who put the rope firmly round the prisoner's neck. James Answell's face was a colour it had not been at any time during the trial; and he was staring at his cousin in a vague and puzzled way.
But there was another kind of pause or change as well - that is, if it did not exist only in my own prejudiced mind. Up to this time, sallow-faced and stiff-lipped Reginald , had seemed (in a quiet way) inspired. He compelled belief. He brought to this case what it had heretofore lacked: an eyewitness to support circumstantial evidence. It may have been a certain turn in his last sentence. 'I suppose I shall incur penalties for not telling this -' which gave a slightly different glimpse. It did not last long. But it was as though a cog had failed to mesh, or a shutter had been drawn aside, or the same glutinous quality of hypocrisy had appeared in his speech which had appeared once before. The man was lying: I felt convinced of that. More, you could see he had gone into the box with the deliberate intention of lying in just that way. He had made an obvious attempt to draw Sir Walter Storm's attack –
But surely H.M. knew that? H.M. must have been prepared for it? At the moment H.M. was sitting in the same quiet way, his fists at his temples. And the point was its effect, not on H.M., but on the jury.
'I have no more questions,' said Sir Walter Storm. He seemed puzzled.
H.M. roused himself to a re-examination which was really a cross-examination of his own witness. And when H.M. did get up, he used words that are not common at the Old Bailey, and have not been since the days of Serjeant Arabin. But there was not only violence in it; there was a sort of towering satisfaction which made him seem about a foot taller.
‘I’ll give you just two seconds’ said H.M., 'to admit that you had an attack of delirium tremens, and that everything you said in that examination was a lie.'
'You will retract that, Sir Henry,' said the judge.-'You are entitled to question the witness on any matters that have arisen out of Sir Walter's cross-examination; but you will express yourself in a proper manner.'
'If yrludship pleases,' said H.M. 'It'll be understood why I'm takin' this line when I do question ... Captain " Answell, do you want to retract any statement you've made?'
'No. Why should I?'
'All right,' said H.M. with massive unconcern. 'You saw all this through the glass panel of the door, did you?' 'Yes.'
'Was the door open ?' 'No. I didn't go inside.'
'I see. Aside from the night of January 4th, when was the last time you visited that house?'
'Nearly a year ago, it may have been.'
'Uh-huh. I thought so. But didn't you hear Dyer testify yesterday that the door with the glass panel, the old door, had been removed six months ago; and they substituted an ordinary solid wooden door? If you got any doubts on the matter, look up the official surveyor's report - it's one of the exhibits here - and see what he has to say about it. What do you have to say about it?'
The witness's voice seemed to come out of a gulf. 'The - the door may have been open -'
'That's all,' said H.M. curtly. 'At the conclusion of our evidence, my lord, I'm goin' to suggest that somethin' is done about this.'
To say that the blow was a staggerer would be to put the matter mildly. A witness had come out of the void to testify to James Answell's certain guilt, and, just eight seconds later, he was caught in flat perjury. But that was not the most important point. It was as though a chemical change had affected the sympathies of the jury. For the first time I saw some of them honestly looking at the prisoner, and that is the beginning of all sympathy. The word 'frame-up' was in the air as palpably as though it had been spoken. If H.M. had expected Reginald to play a trick like that, it could have been no more effective. And the sympathy was mounting. If H.M. had expected ... ?
'Call your next witness. Sir Henry,' said the judge mildly.
'My lord - if the Attorney-General's got no objection -I'd like to ask for one of the Crown's witnesses to be recalled. It's merely for the purpose of identifyin' some articles I'd like to put in in evidence; and it could be done best by a member of the household whose knowledge of the articles has been established.'
'I have no objection, my lord,' said Sir Walter Storm, who was surreptitiously mopping his forehead with a handkerchief.
'Very well. Is the witness in court?'
'Yes, my lord. I'd like to have Herbert William Dyer recalled.'
We had not time to reflect over each new twist of this infernal business when Dyer entered the box. But the prisoner was sitting up, and his eyes were shining. The grave Dyer, as neat as yesterday if in slightly less sombre clothes, bent his grizzled forehead attentively. By this time Lollypop was busy arranging near the table a series of exhibits mysteriously swathed in brown paper. H.M.'s first move was to display a brown tweed suit with plus-fours - a golf-suit. Evelyn and I looked at each other.
'Ever see this suit before?' questioned H.M. 'Hand it up to him.'
'Yes, sir,' said Dyer, after a pause. 'It is a golf-suit belonging to Dr Spencer Hume.'
'Dr Hume not bein' within call, I presume you can identify it? So. Is that the suit you were lookin' for on the night of the murder?'
‘It is.'
'Now just feel in the right-hand coat pocket. What do you find there?'
'An ink-pad and two rubber stamps,' said Dyer, producing them.
'Is that the ink-pad you were lookin' for on the night of the murder?' 'It is.'
'Good. We got some other stuff here,' continued H.M. off-handedly: 'laundry, and a pair of Turkish slippers, and the like; but that'd be out of your province. We can get it properly identified by Miss Jordan. But tell me if you can identify this?'
This time there was produced a large oblong suitcase of black leather, having the initials stamped in gold on the flap beside the handle.
'Yes, sir,' replied Dyer, stepping back a little. 'It is undoubtedly Dr Hume's. I believe it is the one Miss Jordan packed for Dr Hume on the night of the - circumstance. Both Miss Jordan and I forgot all about it; or at least -she having been very ill afterwards; and, when she asked me what had happened to it, I could not remember. I have not seen it since.'
'Yes. But here's just one more thing that you're the one to identify. Look at this cut-glass decanter, stopper and all. You'll see it's full of whisky except for about two drinks poured out. Ever see it before?'
For a moment I thought H.M. had got hold of one of the prosecution's own exhibits. The decanter he produced was indistinguishable from the one the Crown had put in evidence. Evidently Dyer thought so too.
'It looks -' said the witness. 'It looks like the decanter which Mr Hume kept on the sideboard in the study. Like - that other -'
'It does. It was meant to. Between those two, could you swear which was which?' 'I'm afraid not, sir.'
'Take one in each hand. Can you swear that my decanter, in your right hand, is not the real one you bought from Hartley's of Regent Street; and that the first exhibit, in your left hand, ain't a copy in inferior glass?'
'I do not know, sir.'
'No more questions.'
Three witnesses then passed in rapid succession, being not more than five minutes in the box among all of them. Mr Reardon Hartley, of the firm of Hartley and Son, Regent Street, testified that what H.M. called 'my’ decanter was the original one supplied by him to Mr Hume; the prosecutor's exhibit was a copy which Avory Hume had bought on Friday afternoon, January 3rd. Mr Dennis Moreton, analytical chemist, testified to having examined the whisky in 'my' decanter, and to having discovered in. it one hundred and twenty grains of brudine, a derivative of scopolamine. Dr Ash ton Parker, Professor of Applied Criminology at the University of Manchester, gave the real evidence of the three.