MR. WALTERS: Yes: speak up, please.
JUDGE: I must interpose. The witness cannot possibly know
what Mr. Jasper went to the Cathedral for.
MR. WALTERS: My Lord, with respectful submission to you, the
prisoner might have told him.
JUDGE: But for that purpose you must examine the prisoner in
chief.
MR. WALTERS: I think, my Lord, that you will find a
conversation took place between Durdles and the prisoner, and that I
am perfectly justified in asking what the conversation was.
JUDGE: Yes; I think so.
MR. WALTERS (_to witness_): Let us know what the
conversation was between you and Mr. Jasper.
WITNESS: He says to me, “Is there anything new in the
crypt?” and I says, “Anything new! Anything old, you mean.”
MR. WALTERS: Yes?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: What happened then?
WITNESS: We went down in the crypt, and he give me a drink
out of his bottle. Fine stuff it was, too.
MR. WALTERS: And what about that bundle which I believe you
carried?
WITNESS: He asked me if he could carry my bundle.
MR. WALTERS: Yes?
WITNESS: Ay.
MR. WALTERS: What was in your bundle?
WITNESS: Durdles knows what was in his bundle. Keys, among
other things.
MR. WALTERS: Oh, keys. And I suppose you let him carry your
bundle?
WITNESS: I did. Well, I had another drink out of his bottle.
MR. WALTERS: Did you happen on that occasion to see any
quicklime lying about?
WITNESS: Well, there’s always quicklime lying about the
crypt. Always.
MR. WALTERS: You noticed it. Did Jasper happen to notice it?
WITNESS: He did. He asked me what it was for.
MR. WALTERS: Oh, he asked you what it was for. And did you
tell him?
WITNESS: Yes; I told him it ’ud burn anything; burn your
boots, and with a little handy stirring, it ’ud burn your bones.
MR. WALTERS: It would burn your bones with handy stirring.
And when he put that curious question to you, did it occur to you
there was a reason for it?
WITNESS: Durdles thinks everybody ’as a reason for
everything they says and does.
MR. WALTERS: When he asked you would that quicklime burn,
you thought he must have a reason for it?
WITNESS: Yes; so I did.
MR. WALTERS: People use quicklime for quite innocent
purposes, I believe, don’t they?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: They use it for cement?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: What else do they use it for?
WITNESS: Bodies.
MR. WALTERS: Did you think, by the way he was making his
inquiries, that he wanted to know if it would burn something else
besides ordinary stuff?
WITNESS: I didn’t think as ’ow he wanted a heap of quicklime
to burn his waste paper with.
MR. WALTERS: What happened next? You had a drink out of the
bottle, and you had a little talk: what happened then? Did you go
home?
WITNESS: No; I fell asleep.
MR. WALTERS: Oh, you fell asleep?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: Anything else?
WITNESS: I had a dream.
MR. WALTERS: You had a dream before you woke up?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: What was the nature of that dream?
WITNESS: I dreamt that Mister Jarsper was a-moving around
me, handling my keys, and I thought I was left alone in the dark.
Then I see a light coming back, and then I found Mr. Jarsper waking
me up, saying “Hi! wake up!”
MR. WALTERS: Did you wake up?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: Did you remember how long you had been asleep?
WITNESS: A long time. I remember the clock struck two.
MR. WALTERS: And you went in about midnight?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: You had two hours’ sleep?
WITNESS: Yes, I suppose so.
MR. WALTERS: Anything else? Did you notice anything?
WITNESS: When I woke up, I sees my key on the ground, and
I says, “I dropped you, did I?” So I picks it up, and asks Mister
Jarsper for my bundle.
MR. WALTERS: Did he give it to you?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: I think you had on that occasion a little
conversation about a curious art of yours—tapping the tombs?
WITNESS: Yes; oh, yes—yes.
MR. WALTERS: Would you mind telling the court?
WITNESS: I told him, with my little hammer I could tap and
go on tapping, and I could tell whether anything was solid or whether
it was hollow. For instance, I says, “Tap, tap, old ’un crumbled up
in stone coffin in the vault!”
MR. WALTERS: That’s what you said, is it?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: And what did Mr. Jasper say to that?
WITNESS: He said it was wonderful, and I says, “No; I ain’t
going to take it as a gift, ’cause it’s all out o’ my own head.”
MR. WALTERS: I understand you told him what you could do by
tapping the walls—tell whether it was hollow or solid?
WITNESS: Yes, Durdles can tell whether it’s hollow or solid
by its tap.
MR. WALTERS: Was he interested in your conversation?
WITNESS: Very much, sir.
MR. WALTERS: Did you happen to notice the Sapsea tomb?
WITNESS: Durdles knows the Sapsea tomb.
MR. WALTERS: There is only one body in that tomb at present?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: Did you tap the Sapsea tomb with your hammer,
and did it sound surprising there?
WITNESS: It sounded more solid than usual.
MR. WALTERS: Since then, you have tapped it lately, and it
sounds a little more solid?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: This is contrary to an understanding. This
is a formal witness, not to be cross-examined.
MR. WALTERS: Very well, I will go on. (_To witness._) Did
you meet him at another time?
MR. CHESTERTON: This is only formal evidence.
JUDGE: What is the point?
MR. CHESTERTON: You will find before you, my Lord, a
document, and you will find there that certain witnesses who are
to be cross-examined at length will be free to go beyond certain
admitted evidence. The formal witnesses are not to do so.
JUDGE (_after perusing the “Conditions”_): Yes, I think I
take your point, Mr. Chesterman—or Chesterton—whatever it is. The
point, I understand, is that you are cross-examining this witness as
if he were a principal witness of the trial.
MR. CHESTERTON: In the second paragraph I think you will
notice——
MR. WALTERS: It is not of great importance to me.
JUDGE: One moment: I will see. (_After reading the paragraph
referred to._) I think you are justified up to the point to which
you have gone, but I should recommend you to terminate it with some
rapidity.
MR. WALTERS: I only want to ask one question. (_To
witness._) You did have a conversation with Mr. Datchery?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: I ask you to say, my Lord, that the Jury
must entirely disregard the statement about the tapping.
THE FOREMAN: How are we to dismiss it from our minds, my
Lord? It is a very difficult point.
MR. WALTERS: I think I shall leave the Jury to draw their
own conclusions. All I want to know from Durdles is, did he have a
conversation with Datchery?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: Thank you. That is all.
WITNESS: Thank you, sir. I’ll drink your health on the way
home, p’raps twice, and I won’t go home till morning.
[DURDLES CROSS-EXAMINED.]
MR. CROTCH: One moment, please.
WITNESS: Oh, beg pardon, sir, beg pardon.
MR. CROTCH: Now, Durdles, you know all about the destructive
qualities of quicklime?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CROTCH: Do you say that quicklime will not destroy
metals?
WITNESS: No; I don’t think quicklime will destroy metals.
MR. CROTCH: You don’t think it will?
WITNESS: No, I knows it won’t.