FOR THE DEFENSE.
How she became possessed of the Voodoo stone Dido refused to say. Jen
had learned from Inspector Arkel that Etwald wore the talisman on his
watch chain, and he wondered in what fashion Dido had contrived to
penetrate into the prison and to obtain it from the doctor. The whole
result of the trial depended upon the transfer of the stone. If Etwald
kept it, Dido would not dare to give evidence against him, and so, in
the absence of the incriminating details, he would go free. As it was,
the stone was now in the possession of Dido, and for some reason,
which Jen was unable to fathom, she was quite content to betray her
share in the plot. By changing hands, the Voodoo stone had transformed
Dido into a traitress.
However, as the advantage derived from the transfer was all on the
side of the prosecution, Jen did not think it wise to inquire too
closely into the means which Dido had employed to regain the talisman.
He saw nothing of David, who pointedly kept out of his way. He made no
inquiries of Dido, and simply informed the inspector that the negress
was ready to explain Etwald's secrets, without telling him why she was
willing to do so.
Her Majesty's judges on circuit came to Deanminster, the court was
formally opened, and after some trivial cases had been disposed of,
the trial of Regina v. Etwald was announced. The hall in which the
court sat was crowded with people from far and near. There were even
reporters from London, sent down by the great dailies, for the case
had obtained more than a local celebrity. Inspector Arkel, with his
seven witnesses on behalf of the crown, was at the table before the
judges, and with Major Jen had held several conversations with the
public prosecutor. David, calm and composed, but paler than a corpse,
was in his place glancing over his brief and exchanging curt sentences
with Etwald's solicitor. Lastly, Etwald himself, the terrible criminal
who, in the eyes of the public, was a hardened and bloodthirsty
monster, stepped into the dock. Suave and smiling, he pleaded not
guilty to the indictment, and the trial commenced.
The public prosecutor stated the case in all its fullness. The
prisoner, said he, was a medical man practicing in Deanminster. He had
seen Miss Isabella Dallas, and had fallen in love with the lady, and
also--which was more important--with the fortune of the lady.
Evidently he had made up his mind that no obstacle should stand in the
way of his marriage with Miss Dallas. But it so happened that there
was one obstacle--the young lady was in love with Mr. Maurice Alymer,
a young gentleman of position, who held a commission in Her Majesty's
army. Her love was returned, and the young people were engaged.
Interruption by the prisoner's counsel: "But without the consent of
the mother."
The public prosecutor thought that the interruption of his learned
friend was out of place; as the refusal of Mrs. Dallas--"mother,
gentlemen of the jury, to the young lady engaged to the deceased
gentleman, Mr. Maurice Alymer"--had nothing to do with the actual
facts of the case. The prisoner, seeing that while Mr. Alymer lived,
he could never marry Miss Dallas, determined to rid himself of a
rival. The prisoner had been in Barbadoes, and while there he had
learned many things concerning African witchcraft, and had become
possessor of the Voodoo stone, a talisman which the black race held in
peculiar reverence. On his return to England the prisoner had become
acquainted with Mrs. Dallas, with the daughter, whom he designed to
marry, and with a negress called Dido, the servant of the aforesaid
Mrs. Dallas. By means of the Voodoo stone, the prisoner made an
absolute slave of the negress, and could command her services at any
time, even to the extent of crime.
The counsel for the defense objected to the use of the word crime.
Nothing, he submitted, had yet been proved.
Counsel for the prosecution accepted the correction of his learned
friend, and withdrew the obnoxious word crime--if not altogether, at
all events for the time being. He would resume his explanation of the
case. Major Jen, the adopted father of the deceased, possessed a
barbaric curiosity called by civilized people the devil-stick; by
barbarians the wand of sleep. This he had obtained from Ashantee,
where it was used to kill people inimical to the king by the injection
of poison. There was no need to describe the devil-stick, as it was on
the table, and would be shown to the jury. This devil-stick--
With some impatience prisoner's counsel admitted that the devil-stick
had been used to kill the deceased, and requested the prosecutor to
pass on to more important details.
The counsel for the crown thanked his learned friend for the
admission, and would continue. The devil-stick was stolen by Mrs.
Dallas, who committed the theft under the hypnotic influence of the
negress Dido. By the direction of Dr. Etwald, Dido refilled the stick
with fresh poison, being enabled to manufacture the same from a recipe
of her grandmother's--said grandmother having come from Ashantee,
where the stick--the devil-stick, be it understood--had been
constructed and used. She had given this terrible weapon to the
prisoner, who with it had killed Mr. Alymer, his rival.
Counsel for the defense submitted that the crime had yet to be proved.
His learned friend was assuming too much.
The public prosecutor said that he asserted no more than he could
prove to their lordships and the gentlemen of the jury. The prisoner
had killed Mr. Alymer, and it was for this offense that he stood in
yonder dock. As regards the theft of the body---
The lesser offense, said prisoner's counsel, was swallowed up and
merged in the greater; therefore, he protested against the
introduction of the theft of the body.
The judge thought that the two crimes were, judicially speaking, one
and the same. It was right that the crown prosecutor should place
before him the whole facts of the case. One part might neutralize or
enhance or explain the other. The crown prosecutor was quite in order.
Counsel for the prosecution accepted his lordship's ruling and would
proceed. The body of Mr. Alymer was taken to the residence of his
adopted father. Major Jen. There it was placed in the bedroom which
had formerly belonged to the living man. Thence it was stolen by the
prisoner.
Counsel for the prisoner: "All this has yet to be proved."
Counsel for the crown: "I shall prove it and at once. The jury are now
in possession of all the facts of this very interesting case, and
every detail will be confirmed by the most responsible witnesses. Call
Major Jen."
Evidence--in brief--of Major Jen: "I was the guardian of the deceased
Maurice Alymer. I adopted him as my son. He was in love with, and
engaged to, Miss Dallas, but the mother did not approve of the
engagement. Dr. Etwald, the prisoner, also loved Miss Dallas, but she
refused to marry him. I showed the prisoner the devil-stick and
explained its use, whereupon he wished to purchase it. I declined to
part with it, and afterward it was stolen. After its disappearance,
Mr. Alymer was killed by means of the devil-stick poison. His hand was
but slightly scratched, and he could not have died from so trivial a
cause had not the weapon used been poisoned. Moreover, I recognized
the perfume which emanated from the body as that of the devil-stick
poison. Dr. Etwald had threatened the deceased once or twice.
Afterward the body of deceased disappeared, and the drug used to
stupefy the watcher of the dead was the poison of the devil-stick."
Miss Dallas deposed that she had been engaged to deceased. Prisoner
wished to marry her, and was jealous of the late Mr. Alymer. Once or
twice he had threatened him. The negress, Dido, was accustomed to
hypnotize Mrs. Dallas for nervous headaches. While under the influence
of hypnotism Mrs. Dallas would act according to the dictates of Dido.
On the night that the devil-stick was stolen from the house of Major
Jen, Mrs. Dallas had been hypnotized by Dido. Witness had followed
her, and had seen the theft of the stick. Afterward Mrs. Dallas had
delivered it into the hands of Dido. Witness never saw the devil-stick
again. She had seen Mr. Alymer on the night he was murdered, as he had
called to see her. Witness had parted with him at the gates, and had
seen him go down the road toward "Ashantee." It was the last time
witness saw him. It was well known to witness that Dido was under the
influence of Dr. Etwald, on account of the latter possessing the
Voodoo stone charm. Dido had manufactured the fresh poison of the
devil-stick as a panacea for nervous headache, from which witness
suffered. So far as witness knew, deceased was in the best of spirits
at the time of his death, and had no intention of putting an end to
his life. Witness could swear that prisoner was a bitter and jealous
enemy of deceased.
Mrs. Dallas declared that she suffered--like her daughter--from
nervous headaches. To cure these she submitted frequently to hypnotic
treatment at the hands of Dido, who was gifted with a strong will. On
the night the devil-stick was stolen she had been hypnotized, but she
did not know what she did while under the influence. While in the
trance--as it may be called--she never knew what she did, and she had
hitherto had every confidence in Dido, as an old and faithful servant,
that she--Dido--would not induce her to do wrong things while
hypnotized. She had never seen the devil-stick, either at the house of
Major Jen or in her own. The negress had prepared a drug for the cure
of headaches, which witness believed was similar--as was judged from
the perfume--to the poison contained in the devil-stick. She knew
that her daughter wished to marry the deceased, but for certain
reasons--not pertinent to the case--she had declined to sanction the
engagement. She would not have permitted her daughter to marry Dr.
Etwald, as she did not like him or approve of the influence which he
exercised over Dido. She knew that prisoner possessed the Voodoo
stone, and by means of it could make any member of the black race do
his will. Prisoner was a declared enemy of the deceased, as a jealousy
existed between them on account of her daughter. In presence of
witnesses prisoner had threatened deceased. She knew nothing of the
theft of the body.
Lady Meg Brance was called by the prosecution to prove that a certain
mendicant, by name Battersea, had offered her the devil-stick for sale
as a curiosity. Knowing that it was the weapon with which Mr. Alymer
had been killed--according to the reports which were current at the
time--she had brought it to Major Jen, along with the tramp.
Battersea entered the witness-box and deposed that he was of mixed
negro blood, and by reason of his superstition, under the influence of
Dido. At times she hypnotized him, but he did not know when she did
it; he thought it was Obi--African witchcraft. Sometimes he carried
messages between her and the prisoner. Dr. Etwald had told him to say
one single word to Dido--that was "devil-stick." He did not know what
it meant. Afterward the devil-stick--as he was told--had disappeared,
and Mr. Alymer was murdered. He found the devil-stick on the grass,
near the bushes, within the gates of "The Wigwam." Not knowing what it
was, he took it to Lady Meg Brance, who sometimes gave him money. She
took witness and the devil-stick to Major Jen, who now possessed it.
With regard to the stealing of the body, witness said that he saw it
placed in a carriage, and by clinging on behind he had traced the
carriage to the house of Dr. Etwald, in Deanminster. Prisoner drove
the carriage himself. Witness tried to get money out of prisoner by
telling what he had seen; but Dr. Etwald had forced him to hold his
tongue by threatening him with the vengeance of the Voodoo stone.
Being half an African, witness was very much afraid of the charm.
In his turn Jaggard, but lately recovered from his illness, related
how he had been drugged by Dido, and how she had been concealed under
the bed. After his evidence, which did not take long, had been given,
the principal witness for the prosecution was called, and the negress
Dido, whose name had been so often mentioned, entered the witness-box.
In brief, her evidence was as follows: "I am a full-blooded negress,
born in Barbadoes. My grandmother came from 'Ashantee,' and knew all
about the wand of sleep. She taught me how to manufacture the poison.
I came to England with my mistress and met with prisoner, who called
at the house. He knew a great deal about Obi and showed me the Voodoo
stone. A spirit dances in the stone, and I was bound to do what the
spirit told me. It said I was to obey prisoner. Dr. Etwald wanted to
marry my young mistress, but she was engaged to Mr. Alymer. Prisoner
told me that Mr. Alymer must be got out of the way, and suggested the
use of the devil-stick, which he had seen in the smoking-room of Major
Jen. I agreed to help him, and by hypnotizing my mistress I made her
steal the devil-stick. She brought it to me, all unconscious of having
done so, and I filled it with fresh poison. On the night of the murder
Mr. Alymer called to see my mistress, also Dr. Etwald. When Mr. Alymer
left I gave the stick to prisoner, and he followed deceased to kill
him. Next day I heard that Mr. Alymer was dead. After a time prisoner
told me that we must steal the body, so that traces of poison should
not be found when a post-mortem examination was made. I agreed to help
him, and gaining admission into the chamber of death I hid under the
bed. When Jaggard fell asleep I drugged him with the poison of the
devil-stick and opened the window, outside of which prisoner was
waiting. I assisted him to carry the body to his carriage, and then
left him. That is all I know."
This evidence closed the case for the prosecution, and--as may be
guessed--it caused a profound sensation in court. Everyone without
exception looked upon the prisoner as guilty, and they considered it
futile when David Sarby rose to deliver his speech for the defense.
The young man was even paler than usual, and when he rose laid down
the devil-stick, at which he had been looking. When on his feet he
glanced round the court and caught the gaze of Isabella, who was
staring eagerly at him. Then he turned to his client. Dr. Etwald,
still composed--even after the frightful evidence which had been
given--smiled coldly on his counsel. David shuddered, and picking up
the devil-stick spoke sharply and to the point.
"My lord and gentlemen of the jury, you have heard the evidence of the
crown, which makes out that my client is guilty. That evidence is
wrong, as can be proved by one witness. I am the witness. In my rooms
there is lying a confession, signed and witnessed, which sets forth
that I am the guilty person. It was I, not Dr. Etwald, who murdered
Maurice Alymer." (Sensation in the court.) "Yes. I was in love with
Miss Dallas, and therefore was jealous of Maurice. I knew that Dido
possessed the devil-stick--how, it does not matter--and I bribed her
to give it to me. I pretended to go to London on the night of the
murder, but instead of doing so I remained in the grounds of Mrs.
Dallas, where I obtained the devil-stick from Dido. I saw Maurice meet
with Miss Dallas. I saw them kiss and part. Inflamed by jealousy, I
rushed after him and met him on the road. He turned in surprise, and
flung out his arms to keep me off. The devil-stick, with its poison
fang protruding, was in my grasp, and in throwing out his arm I
wounded him in the palm of the hand, thus--"
David took the devil-stick firmly in his grasp and compressed the
handle. At once the iron tongue with its drop of venom appeared. With
the sharp point he made an irregular wound on the palm of his hand,
and cast the devil-stick on the table before him. A moment afterward,
amid the silent horror of the crowded court, he fell down--dead.