THE FOREMAN: On this point the witness has made a very
remarkable statement; that Mr. Grewgious shook Mr. Drood together.
May I ask how many pieces Drood was in?
JUDGE: I think the question should be answered.
WITNESS: I was not there, my Lord, at the time. I merely
repeat what Mr. Grewgious told me.
JUDGE: You attribute it to a violent metaphor on the part of
Mr. Grewgious?
WITNESS: It is right that I should put the Jury in
possession of all matters.
A JURYMAN (Mr. William Archer): May I ask where Mr.
Grewgious is in the meantime? Met with a violent death?
MR. CHESTERTON: If the Jury will look at the Official
Record——
THE FOREMAN: I am sorry to explain, my Lord, that all our
documents have gone, covered with our autographs. (Further copies
of the Official Documents were handed to the Jury by the Clerk of
Arraigns.)
MR. CHESTERTON: If the Jury have the Document, they will see
the last paragraph but one explains the matter. (_To Witness._) You
then saw Mr. Grewgious. What did Mr. Grewgious say?
WITNESS: What he said was this: that he personally very
strongly suspected Jasper, but that Drood’s recollections as to what
happened on that evening were so confused and incoherent that any
testimony he might have to give would not either clear Landless, or
incriminate Jasper. He therefore said this: that if Landless were
committed for trial it would be necessary to produce Drood, but
failing that, he had better keep his continued existence a secret
until matters had died down at Cloisterham, and until Jasper thought
he was entirely secure.
MR. CHESTERTON: And therefore, what was Mr. Grewgious’s plan?
WITNESS: His plan was this: that if I went down to
Cloisterham prosecuting inquiries there, I should detect Jasper.
MR. CHESTERTON: And you did so?
WITNESS: I did so. Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: When you went down, how did the case present
itself to you as a problem?
WITNESS: I thought from what Mr. Grewgious told me about the
case, that there were three cardinal mysteries. One was why Drood, if
he had been murderously assaulted, could give no clear account, as to
who had assaulted him; the second was why, if the prisoner was the
author of that murderous assault, he had not effected it; and in the
third place, why, having failed to kill Drood, he obviously thought
he had killed him.
MR. CHESTERTON: Having put those three things to yourself,
you went down to Cloisterham and disguised yourself?
WITNESS: I went to a costumier.
MR. CHESTERTON: You did not make up your face?
WITNESS: No.
MR. CHESTERTON: You were not known there?
WITNESS: As far as I know, no.
MR. CHESTERTON: But there might be an offchance, and so you
put on a costume?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: You went to the Crozier, and ordered a veal
cutlet, a mutton chop, and a pint of sherry?
WITNESS: Yes—and I drank the sherry!
MR. CHESTERTON: And asked the waiter about lodgings?
WITNESS: I did.
MR. CHESTERTON: You asked for something Cathedrally?
WITNESS: I thought I ought to get something near the
Cathedral, so as to be near to Jasper.
MR. CHESTERTON: They recommended you to Mr. Tope’s?
WITNESS: They did.
MR. CHESTERTON: And you set out to go there?
WITNESS: I did.
MR. CHESTERTON: What happened?
WITNESS: I was told I should find the house on the
right-hand side. It was so obvious that I went past it. I went on up
a lane called Crow Lane, I believe, into the Vineries, and somewhere
about there I met the boy named Deputy. I asked him to take me to
Tope’s, which he did.
MR. CHESTERTON: He took you to within sight, didn’t he?
WITNESS: Yes; I beg pardon.
MR. CHESTERTON: He pointed out a window?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: You said, “That’s Tope’s”?
WITNESS: Yes; I thought it was.
MR. CHESTERTON: He said it was Jasper’s?
WITNESS: Yes; and I looked at it with some interest.
MR. CHESTERTON: You saw Jasper subsequently?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: You called on him to inquire about the
Tope’s? You made that opportunity to call?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: You walked about the Cathedral; met Sapsea
and Durdles?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: You met Deputy again?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: And there was a conversation, I think,
between you and Deputy, in which you said he was to take you to
Durdles’s house when you wished?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: After you installed yourself in the Tope’s
lodgings, how did you propose to keep a record of your successes?
WITNESS: I rather amused myself by opening the cupboard
door in my room, and chalking it up as is done in taverns which on
occasions I have visited in Ceylon—I mean Norfolk.
MR. CHESTERTON: You were brought up as a boy in Norfolk?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: And they keep chalk scores there?
WITNESS: They used to chalk it up by means of long or short
lines.
MR. CHESTERTON: Generally according to the date of the week?
WITNESS: The big lines at the end of the week.
MR. CHESTERTON: You kept this record in this fashion?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: Will you carry your mind back to one
evening, I think in July, when Jasper came home comparatively late,
and went under the archway, and passed up the staircase?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: Do you remember an old woman following?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: What passed between you?
WITNESS: I asked her if she was looking for anybody, and
she, in substance, said that she would like to know the name and
address of that gentleman. Then we had some further conversation, and
she asked me, first of all for money for her lodgings, and then she
asked for money for what she described as opium, which I gave her.
MR. CHESTERTON: She also mentioned an interview with a young
gentleman on the previous Christmas Eve?
WITNESS: Yes, she told me she had been to Cloisterham before
on Christmas Eve, and that she had met a youth named Ned, I think it
was, who had also given her money. I took it she had been down on the
same business as that night—following the prisoner.
MR. CHESTERTON: When you had done that, you went to your
score?
WITNESS: When I had done that, I met Deputy, and he told
me that “’Er Royal Highness the Princess Puffer” was staying at the
Travellers’ Tuppeny, and that she kept an opium den in the East End
of London, and then I had very little doubt that that was the place
from which she had followed the prisoner.
MR. CHESTERTON: You told her where she could see the
prisoner next morning?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: She saw him, and shook her fist at him?
WITNESS: She used dreadful language which is not even in the
Official Records.
MR. CHESTERTON: When she came out, did you say to her, “Have
you seen him?”?
WITNESS: I did.
MR. CHESTERTON: And did she say that she had seen him, and
knew him better than all the Reverend Parsons put together?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: You then went to the cupboard door, and what
did you do?
WITNESS: I made a great score.
MR. CHESTERTON: What was its meaning?
WITNESS: That my interview with, and observations of the
opium woman had settled the three main questions as to which I had
gone down to Cloisterham to decide.
MR. CHESTERTON: Let us take them seriatim. First, how was it
Drood——
WITNESS: From my conversation with her I gathered that
Jasper took opium, and having opium, I had no doubt at all that he
drugged Drood’s wine, and that Drood was so affected as not to be
able to give any clear account as to the event.
MR. CHESTERTON: The second question—How was it that, if
the prisoner was the author of the assault, he had not achieved his
purpose?
WITNESS: My views as to that also were clear. He had been
at the opium den on the night before the Christmas Eve, when she
last visited Cloisterham, and I have no doubt at all that he failed
because he had an opium seizure—such a seizure as Mr. Grewgious saw
him in, and as his nephew Drood saw him in.
MR. CHESTERTON: The third question—How came it, that having
failed to kill Drood, he obviously thought he had done so?
WITNESS: That, I thought, was obvious, because he would have
completed the murder in an opium trance, such a trance as, later,
the “Princess Puffer” described to me, as Jasper having experienced
inside the opium den.
MR. CHESTERTON: We have already heard from the “Princess
Puffer” about its being unreal for the first time. That would fit in
with your theory?
JUDGE: I am afraid the witness must have no theory. As soon
as the examination has put its main point, we must go on.
MR. CHESTERTON (_to witness_): Then, did you get any
confirmation of that view from Mr. Grewgious?
WITNESS: Yes, I wrote to Mr. Grewgious, and he told me of
the seizure on Boxing Day—I think it was Boxing Day—when he had an
interview with Jasper, the prisoner.
MR. CHESTERTON: And also did he tell you that Edwin Drood
remembered his uncle in a seizure?
WITNESS: I remember that also.
MR. CHESTERTON: Did you gather that Drood had had his wine
drugged on a previous occasion?
WITNESS: I gather that from the Official Records.
MR. CHESTERTON: Then, did you claim your promise from Deputy?
WITNESS: I did.
MR. CHESTERTON: We have been told in evidence that a ring
was put in the crypt.
WITNESS: Yes?
MR. CHESTERTON: Does that surprise you?
WITNESS: Not in the least.
MR. CHESTERTON: Why?
WITNESS: Because I put it there.
MR. CHESTERTON: What was your object in pursuing that course?
WITNESS: This was the ring, I may say, that I had seen pass
from Mr. Grewgious to Drood, of the existence of which, I may perhaps
point out, it is obvious from the study of the Official Records,
Jasper knew nothing at all; and acting under instructions from Mr.
Grewgious, who had received the ring back from Drood, I obtained
with the assistance of my friend Durdles access to the Sapsea vault,
and therein I placed the ring. My object in doing that was, that
subsequently, when Mr. Grewgious offered a reward for the discovery
of the ring, the prisoner could be entrapped into a visit to the
vault.
MR. CHESTERTON: I take it, Mr. Grewgious would plaster
Cloisterham with the description of the ring as believed to be on the
person of Edwin Drood?
WITNESS: That is what he did.
MR. CHESTERTON: It would be a large placard?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. CHESTERTON: Rather like this? (_Handing to the witness a
reproduction of the original cover design for the book._)
WITNESS: Very like the second illustration from the top on
the left-hand side.
MR. CHESTERTON: Very well: that was your plan—that Jasper
should be caught taking the ring, and thus be convicted of attempted
murder?
WITNESS: Quite.
MR. CHESTERTON: Of which you believed him to be guilty?
WITNESS: Beyond doubt.
MR. CHESTERTON: It is not my business to ask you what
happened, but I suppose somehow or other he got arrested for actual
murder. Is that correct?
WITNESS: Quite right.
MR. CHESTERTON: Thank you.
[THOMAS BAZZARD CROSS-EXAMINED.]
MR. WALTERS (_cross-examining_): I think you have said
several times that you come from Norfolk?
WITNESS: I was born in Norfolk.
MR. WALTERS: Is that the country where the dumplings come
from?
WITNESS: Some, no doubt.
MR. WALTERS: Where you come from also!
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: Curious coincidence! You are a farmer’s son?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: And very ambitious?
WITNESS: I have not said so.
MR. WALTERS: Don’t you want to get on?
WITNESS: I don’t think that is very ambitious. I think being
very ambitious is more than wanting to get on.
MR. WALTERS: In order to get on you came to London from
Norfolk?
WITNESS: A good many people have done that before, I am
afraid.
MR. WALTERS: You wanted to give London the benefit of any
genius you had?
WITNESS: Thank you very much indeed. I wanted to be usefully
employed.
MR. WALTERS: And you became professionally engaged to Mr.
Grewgious?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: And you occupied the responsible and honourable
position of “Noser”?
WITNESS: Quite right. The best position I could get.
MR. WALTERS: And he treated you with great respect?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: Remarkable respect from a barrister to his
clerk?
WITNESS: That is due to the fact that he is a man of
exceptional graciousness.
MR. WALTERS: And you treated him with great respect?
WITNESS: I worked for him, I think, very hard, and with very
great fidelity.
MR. WALTERS: I said you treated him with great respect. I
did not ask about your fidelity.
WITNESS: You will forgive my mentioning it, won’t you?
MR. WALTERS: Now do you mind replying to the question? You
treated him with very great respect?
WITNESS: I hope so.
MR. WALTERS: If you ever gave him a surly answer, would that
be respectful?
WITNESS: I don’t know. It would depend on the degree of
surliness.
MR. WALTERS: And you took his money as a good and faithful
servant?
WITNESS: I hope so.
MR. WALTERS: And were absolutely devoted to his interests?
WITNESS: I hope so.
MR. WALTERS: So that on one occasion you fell asleep while
he was talking?
WITNESS: Yes; but in pursuance to his instructions. He told
me that a conversation was going to take place which was no affair of
mine, and that he was not particularly anxious for me to overhear it.
But he was very anxious that I should witness the transaction at the
end of the conversation.
MR. WALTERS: Would it not have been more respectful to walk
out of the room?
WITNESS: I think not. It would place him in an extremely
awkward position.
MR. WALTERS: You preferred to fall asleep and snore?
WITNESS: May I answer? If I had gone out, Mr. Grewgious
would have had to come for me, and to have told Edwin Drood that he
required a witness.
MR. WALTERS: You preferred to fall asleep and snore in the
presence of a client?
WITNESS: I had forty winks after dinner.
MR. WALTERS: You had forty winks, as you call it, while your
employer was engaged with an important client?
WITNESS: In a conversation which I was not supposed to hear.
MR. WALTERS: Do you frequently fall asleep?
WITNESS: No; I have no desire to slumber at present.
MR. WALTERS: No; I think we shall wake you up presently. Do
you usually sleep when respectable clients enter your office?
WITNESS: No; I don’t usually receive such instructions.
MR. WALTERS: That was the only respectful way of treating
your master and client?
WITNESS: I have had no remonstrance from Mr. Grewgious for
it. I am still in his employment. He thought it was worth his while
to go on employing me.
MR. WALTERS: Mr. Bazzard, the story you have told proves to
me that you have rather a strong imagination. Am I right?
WITNESS: If it proves it to you, my good sir, by all means.
I prefer to answer questions.
MR. WALTERS: But probably you have also convinced the Jury
that you are a gentleman of some imagination?
WITNESS: It’s not for me to say—only to tender my evidence.
MR. WALTERS: I believe you have written a Drama?
WITNESS: Once, many years ago, when a young man, I did
write a Tragedy. A dreadful admission! I hope no other witness whose
veracity is challenged——
MR. WALTERS: What was the name of that Tragedy?
WITNESS: It is “The Thorn of Anxiety.”
MR. WALTERS: Has it ever come out?
WITNESS: No.
MR. WALTERS: It is, I suppose, a work of great genius?
WITNESS: I should not like to say.
MR. WALTERS: But all plays are!
WITNESS: Do you think so! If you would like to read it, I
should be delighted.
MR. WALTERS: I don’t wish you to be modest. Dramatists
usually are not. I suppose there are such things as good dramas and
bad dramas?
WITNESS: There are certainly bad dramas.
MR. WALTERS: Just to give us your opinion: do you think
yours was good or bad?
WITNESS: I don’t know. I am naturally impressed in its
favour, but several people—some people to whom I submitted it—they
rather doubt it.
MR. WALTERS: They don’t think there is any “Magic” in it?
WITNESS: No.
MR. WALTERS: I don’t want you to think for a moment that all
dramatists are bad people. I only mean that you may possibly have
written a bad drama.
WITNESS: There are several dramatists on the Jury, and they
can take their impression.
MR. WALTERS: You would not give a reason why it has not come
out?
WITNESS: I don’t think it is up to me. If I am asked for a
reason, one is I have had very little time to push its merits.
MR. WALTERS: I suppose though, that even bad plays are
produced sometimes?
WITNESS: No doubt.
MR. WALTERS: It’s not only the bad ones, though, that are
accepted?
WITNESS: No.
MR. WALTERS: It must be a bad play that does not get
accepted in these days? When a man of genius such as you——
WITNESS: Please; if you don’t mind.
JUDGE: It is not in evidence that this man is a genius.
THE FOREMAN: I respectfully submit that it is in evidence
that he has written a play.
JUDGE: Very true.
MR. WALTERS: When a man of your ability, of some little
ambition, cannot get his play accepted, he sometimes resorts to other
means—other than the ordinary means?
WITNESS: I could not tell you. I have only tried the
ordinary.
MR. WALTERS: You are a legal gentleman?
WITNESS: No, sir.
MR. WALTERS: You are connected with the law?
WITNESS: No, sir.
MR. WALTERS: Not connected with a lawyer?
WITNESS: No, sir.
MR. WALTERS: Know nothing about the law?
WITNESS: I wouldn’t say that. I thought all Englishmen were
supposed to understand the Statutes under which they live. I am in
the office of a barrister who is not acting as a barrister, but as
Receiver and Manager of two large estates.
MR. WALTERS: And therefore no lawyer.
WITNESS: It is not for me to say that.
MR. WALTERS: Do you think you can give a straightforward
answer to any plain question?
WITNESS: I think I have done so.
MR. WALTERS: You have probably heard that unsuccessful
authors and dramatists, when they cannot get their plays or books
accepted by ordinary means, adopt little devices?
WITNESS: I don’t think I have.
MR. WALTERS: You have never heard of an actress losing her
jewels, or an author pretending to commit suicide?
WITNESS: I have heard of them actually doing it.
MR. WALTERS: Ever heard of an author saying he has been
to the North Pole, and writing a book? Would it not be absolutely
providential if something occurred to you to bring you into notoriety?
WITNESS: No.
MR. WALTERS: It would not relieve your “Thorn of Anxiety”?
WITNESS: No.
MR. WALTERS: In other words, would it not rather be to your
advantage to be talked about as a hero.
WITNESS: I have never seriously considered the proposition.
MR. WALTERS: You are rather fond of theatricals, are you not?
WITNESS: No, sir.
MR. WALTERS: Fond of the Drama?
WITNESS: I am rather too busy to be interested in it. As I
have told you, I am too busy——
MR. WALTERS: Yes or no?
WITNESS: You ought to take my answer. I say I have been too
engaged in looking after my livelihood to take a lively interest in
the British Drama.
MR. WALTERS: You do take an interest?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: Does your employer know it?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: He has seen your play?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: It rather interested him?
WITNESS: I think what interested him was my work for him.
MR. WALTERS: He is a keen man, you know.
WITNESS: I know. I can tell you he is not interested in the
Drama.
MR. WALTERS: You have a few friends who are interested in
the Drama? Do you meet a few fellow Dramatists?
WITNESS: No, sir.
MR. WALTERS: But it is in the Official Records that you do!
WITNESS: Then, I must be wrong, and I do. I was told to
answer “yes or no.” I meet a few people who are interested in the
Drama, having attempted plays as I have. I meet them at rather long
but happy intervals.
MR. WALTERS: I suppose they would like their plays produced?
WITNESS: I dare say.
MR. WALTERS: Once more I ask you—and do please give a
straightforward answer—
WITNESS: With great respect, I very much resent that.
MR. WALTERS: Do you think it would be to your advantage to
be a little famous?
JUDGE: I must interpose, because I don’t think I know any
human being in the world who would not think it to his advantage to
be rather famous. Also I must remind the Court that two speeches have
to be made on both sides, and we are all in high hopes of hanging
somebody, and it really ought to be abbreviated if possible. I
don’t think anyone can say that the answers of the present witness
have been such as in any way to expose him to discredit, but if the
barrister examining desires to ask a few more questions, by all means
let him do so, and then I think we should pass on as quickly as
possible.
WITNESS: I could achieve very great notoriety if I were
hanged.
JUDGE: Yes: live in hopes.
MR. WALTERS (continuing his cross-examination): Datchery is
rather a famous person at present?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: And I suppose you consider it an honour to be
considered Datchery?
WITNESS: I am proud to have worked down there.
MR. WALTERS: You knew a little about the Drood case?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: You knew a little of it from Mr. Grewgious?
WITNESS: I have stated that it was Mr. Grewgious’s idea that
I should go down there and investigate in character.
MR. WALTERS: It was not a dramatic inspiration?
WITNESS: The inspiration was Mr. Grewgious’s.
MR. WALTERS: When you fell asleep on that occasion, were you
pretending?
WITNESS: No.
MR. WALTERS: You were not preparing for the part of Datchery
in advance?
WITNESS: Datchery never snored, did he?
MR. WALTERS: You were not preparing a part?
WITNESS: I had no idea that Mr. Drood was going to be
murdered.
MR. WALTERS: You were not pretending, therefore?
WITNESS: I was not.
MR. WALTERS: You are a man of short sentences, according to
the Official Record?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: Very abrupt?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: Have you given us only two or three words
to-night in your sentences?
WITNESS: I have been answering under some provocation.
MR. WALTERS: Did your Counsel provoke you to your long
sentences?
WITNESS: I trust not.
MR. WALTERS: Were you pretending when you gave those short
sentences in Mr. Datchery’s character?
WITNESS: No; but a man in the witness-box is not a good
criterion.
MR. WALTERS: I suppose you can write?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: I suppose your professional standing teaches
you to keep correct records?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: You did not keep the usual records making your
investigations in Cloisterham?
WITNESS: What are the usual records?
MR. WALTERS: I put it to you that you did not write anything
down?
WITNESS: I did.
MR. WALTERS: Why did you use the chalk marks?
WITNESS: Merely as a matter for my own amusement.
MR. WALTERS: Were they to be used in any way?
WITNESS: I should say not.
MR. WALTERS: You valued your time so much that you wasted it
by putting chalk marks on a door!
WITNESS: The amount of time would not be much.
MR. WALTERS: You were not going to take the cupboard door to
London as evidence?
WITNESS: No.
MR. WALTERS: It was all a waste of your time?
WITNESS: Yes; but harmless. Even a rejected dramatist is
entitled to have some hobby.
MR. WALTERS: You know John Jasper?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: Did you ever see him take opium?
WITNESS: Never.
MR. WALTERS: Do you know how long an opium fit lasts?
WITNESS: No. I imagine it rather depends on the amount of
opium taken, and various other circumstances.
MR. WALTERS: Suppose a man was in the habit of having a
particular smoke of opium—mixing it in a particular way; do you think
it would be over in a few minutes?
WITNESS: I could not tell you. Nor do I know whether he had
those habits.
MR. WALTERS: You don’t think it would take a few hours?
WITNESS: No idea.
MR. WALTERS: Would it surprise you to know that after an
orgy he would be clear-headed in the morning?
WITNESS: Nothing would surprise me, I think, from the little
I have read of their literature.
MR. WALTERS: You know nothing about it?
WITNESS: As a matter of experience, that is the exhilarating
fact.
MR. WALTERS: You never saw Jasper taking opium?
WITNESS: No.
MR. WALTERS: And you watched him in Cloisterham?
WITNESS: In the street. He never took any there.
MR. WALTERS: You believe that possibly he made a desperate
attack on Edwin Drood?
WITNESS: Yes, I think so.
MR. WALTERS: He would possibly make an attack on someone
else?
WITNESS: Yes.
MR. WALTERS: Don’t you think, therefore, you were in some
danger?
WITNESS: I don’t think I was.
MR. WALTERS: You don’t think you were in danger from a man
who might make an attack? Are you a man of very great nerve?
WITNESS: It’s not for me to say.
JUDGE: I don’t think you have any right to ask him that.
That is a matter of personal knowledge. It might be settled in a
fight outside.
MR. WALTERS: One or two more questions. Have you a great
affection for Edwin Drood?
WITNESS: I have not.
MR. WALTERS: Nor for Neville Landless?
WITNESS: No.
MR. WALTERS: No interest in Miss Helena Landless?
WITNESS: No.
MR. WALTERS: No interest whatever in any of the parties?
WITNESS: Business interest only.
MR. WALTERS: Then, why did you risk your valuable life?
WITNESS: In the first place, I don’t think I exposed my
life, valuable or otherwise, to any great risk. Why I went down there
was because Mr. Grewgious asked me to do so, and because he had been
a very generous and considerate employer to me, and I also thought
that if I had good results he would reward me suitably.
MR. WALTERS: Can you give me any explanation, if Drood has
disappeared, why he has not communicated with his friends?
JUDGE: That is surely a point for final discussion in
abstract debate?
MR. WALTERS: I only ask if he can offer any explanation.
(_To witness._) Should you expect a man who has disappeared, and
finding all his friends in danger, to communicate with his friends?
WITNESS: On that hypothetical case, I think I should. But
that has no reference to the Drood question.
JUDGE: I think we should confine ourselves as sharply as we
can to bringing out the actual facts, and not to abstract argument.
MR. WALTERS (_to witness_): Can you give us any reason why
he should not communicate?
WITNESS: I cannot: but he has communicated with his friends.
MR. WALTERS: Are you going to produce any evidence?
WITNESS: That is in the hands of Counsel.
MR. WALTERS: Don’t you think the white wig would give you
away?
WITNESS: I can’t tell you. I was in the hands of a costumier.
MR. WALTERS: You can go back to Norfolk, Mr. Bazzard.
WITNESS: Thank you, I am going back to the City.
MR. CHESTERTON: I have no intention of cross-examining this
witness. That concludes my case.
[SPEECH FOR THE DEFENCE.]
Mr. Chesterton proceeded to address the Court for the defence. He
said: