"I have one or two questions to ask you, Mr Job Walker. You say you
were in the boiler-shop during the whole of the evening in question.
Where was the proper foreman of the shop at the time?"
"He was out."
"Was work going on as usual in his absence?"
"Pretty much."
"What do you mean by pretty much? Were _you_ working yourself?"
Great delight of the juniors, for Blyth had been one of the chief
rioters.
"Well," said he, "perhaps I was a little slack." (Laughter.)
"Who was in charge of the shop at the time?"
"The prisoner and another workman called Flounders."
"And pray were they `slack,' too, as you call it?"
"Yes--they were no good at all." (Laughter.)
"Were you present when the proper foreman returned?"
"Yes, I was."
"Did he say anything to the prisoner?"
"He seemed in a great rage."
"Did they come to blows?"
"No--but I shouldn't have been surprised if they had."
"That will do, Mr Job Walker."
Barnworth asked another question before Mr Walker stepped down.
"Did you notice what took place between the prisoner and the deceased?"
"Yes. The deceased, when he came in, told the prisoner he was no good,
and sent him to his place and took charge of the shop. The prisoner was
very angry, and said he would like to pay Smith out."
The general opinion was that Blyth had acquitted himself well, and he
was cheered by the public as he stood down.
Timothy Simple was next called, and Simson, rather pale and scared-
looking, answered to the name.
The examination of this witness was left to Ranger, who got him to
narrate the circumstances of his finding the body of the "deceased" on
the morning of the 5th. The unfortunate youth seemed to forget that the
trial was a mock one, and coloured up and stammered and corrected
himself, as if the life of a fellow-being actually depended on his
evidence.
Felgate, after a hurried communication from his junior, only asked a
very few questions in cross-examination.
"Did you observe if the body was lying with its head to the door or its
feet?"
"I really couldn't say. It was so dark, and I was so horrified."
"Was the key of the cellar always on the outside of the door?"
"Yes, generally; it must have been, because I locked it behind me when I
ran out."
"Who would be the last person at night to go to the cellar? Would the
foreman go round and lock up?"
"I don't know; I suppose so."
"You wouldn't swear that the foreman did not usually keep the key at
night in his own room?"
"No--that is, yes. Do you mean I wouldn't swear he did, or didn't?"
"You would not swear he did not keep it?"
"I don't know."
"But you wouldn't swear he didn't?"
"I couldn't, because if I don't know--"
"If you don't know you couldn't swear he didn't do it. Come, tell the
jury, Yes, or No, Mr Simple; it is an important question."
Simson looked up and down. Half a dozen friends were winking at him
suggestively from different parts of the court, and he couldn't make out
their meaning. At length he perceived Munger nodding his head, and as
Munger had lent him a crib to Ovid the day before, he decided to refer
to him.
"Yes," he said.
"I thought so," said Felgate. "Why could you not say that before, Mr
Simple?"
And Simson descended from his perch amid laughter and jeers, not quite
sure whether he had not committed a crime beside which the offence of
the prisoner at the bar was a trifle.
"Call William Tomkins," said Barnworth.
William Tomkins was called, and Dig, with his tawny mane more than
usually dishevelled, and an excited look on his face, entered the box.
He glared round him defiantly, and then dug his hands into his pockets
and waited for his questions.
"Your name is William Tomkins?" began Barnworth.
"Sir William Tomkins, Baronet," said the witness, amidst laughter.
"To be sure, I beg your pardon, Sir William. And what are you, pray?"
"A baronet." (Loud laughter.)
"A baronet in reduced circumstances, I fear. You work in the boiler
department of this factory?"
"All right, go on."
Here the judge interposed.
"The witness must remember that he is bound to answer questions
properly. Unless he does so I shall order him to be removed."
This somewhat damped the defiant tone of Digby, and he answered the
further questions of counsel rather more amiably. These had reference
to the discovery of the body on the morning of the 5th, with the details
of which the reader is already acquainted. The public began to get a
little tired of this constant repetition of the same story, and were
about to vote the proceedings generally slow, when a double event served
to rouse their flagging attention.
Mr Railsford entered the court as a spectator, and was accommodated
with a seat on the bench, beside the judge. At the same moment,
Barnworth, having ended his questions, Arthur Herapath, junior counsel
for the defence, rose to his feet, and said,--
"Now, Sir William Tomkins, Baronet, have the goodness to look at me and
answer a few questions. I would advise you to be careful."
The baronet replied by putting his tongue in his cheek, and giving a
pantomimic wave of his fist in the direction of the learned counsel.
"Now, Sir William Tomkins, Baronet, how old are you, my lad?"
"Find out," said Sir William hotly.
"That's what I mean to do. Answer me, sir, or I'll get the beak to run
you in for contempt of court."
"Come and do it," said the witness, red in the face.
Here the judge again interposed.
"The learned junior must confine himself to the case before us, or I
shall have to ask Mr Felgate to conduct the cross-examination."
"All serene, my lord," rejoined the learned junior, who was thoroughly
enjoying himself. "Of course, if your lordship think the question's not
important I won't press it against your lordship's desire. I'm obliged
to your lordship for your lordship's advice, and I'll pull your nose,
Dimsdale"--this was in a parenthesis--"if you don't shut up. Now, Sir
William Tomkins, Baronet, you say you saw the prisoner pulled out of the
sack?"
"I never said anything of the sort."
"My lord, I must ask your lordship to commit this man for perjury. He's
telling crackers."
"I think he said he saw the murdered man pulled out of the sack," said
the judge.
"That's what I said. How came you to say you didn't, eh, sir? Didn't I
tell you to be careful or you'd get your hair combed a way you don't
fancy? Now, what I want to know is, what's the width of the door of the
cellar?"
"Look here," said the witness, "if you want to make an ass of yourself
you'd better shut up. What's that got to do with it?"
"It's quite a proper question," said the judge.
"There you are!" said Arthur, delighted. "I'm obliged to your lordship
for your lordship's remarks. Now, Sir William Thingamy, what do you
mean, sir, by refusing to answer the question? I've a good mind to ask
his lordship to send you to penal servitude. Now, what about the door?"
"I don't know anything about it, and I don't care."
"Ha! ha! You'll _have_ to care, my boy. Could two chaps go through it
together?"
"Come and try," said the baronet, snorting with wrath.
"You must answer the question, witness," said the judge.
"No; _he_ knows two chaps couldn't. He measured it himself and found it
was only twenty-eight inches wide."
"Who measured it?" asked one of the jury.
"Why, Herapath, that idiot there."
Arthur was somewhat sobered by this piece of evidence, as well as by a
significant consultation on the bench, which he rather feared might
relate to his conduct of the case.
"That's what I wanted to get at," said he. "Now, Sir William, what's
the _height_ of that door, eh?"
"What's the good of asking me when you measured it yourself, you duffer?
Didn't you tell me yourself it was seven feet two to the top of the
ledge?"
"There you are! Keep your hair on! That's what I wanted! Seven foot
two. Now suppose you were told a box of wax lights was found stuck upon
that ledge, and that two of the matches out of it were found on the
floor of the boot-box--cellar, I mean--what should you think?"
"It is hardly evidence, is it, to ask a witness what he would think?"
suggested Barnworth.
"Oh, isn't it? Easy a bit, and you'll see what we're driving at, your
lordship! I'll trouble your lordship to ask the learned chap not to put
me off my run. Come, Mr What's-your-name, what should you think?"
Dig mused a bit, and then replied, "I should think it was a little
queer."
"Of course you would! So it _is_ a little queer," said Arthur, winking
knowingly at his future brother-in-law. "Now, could _you_ reach up to
the top of that ledge, my little man?"
"You be blowed!" responded the baronet, who resented this style of
address.
"That means you couldn't. When you're about four feet higher than you
are you'll be able to do it. Now could the prisoner reach up to it?"
"No, no more could you, with your boots and three-and-sixpenny Sunday
tile on!"
"Order in the court! Really, your lordship, your lordship ought to sit
on this chap. Perhaps your lordship's friend on your lordship's right
would kindly give him a hundred lines when next he comes across him.
Now, Mr Baron, and Squire, and Knight of the Shire, and all the rest of
it, I want to know if there's any chap in our house--I mean the boiler-
shop--could reach up there? Mind your eye, now!"
"Ainger could by jumping."
"I didn't ask you anything about jumping, you duffer! How tall would a
chap need to be to reach up there?"
"About double your measure--over six foot."
"There you are! Now is there any chap in our boiler-shop over six
feet?"
"No."
"I knew you'd say that. Think again. What about the foreman?" and he
gave a side inclination of his head towards the unconscious Railsford.
"Oh, him! Yes, _he's_ over six foot."
"Go down two places, for saying _him_ instead of _he_. There you are,
my lord, we've got it at last. Bowled the chap out clean, first ball.
That's our case, only there's plenty more to be got out first. We'll
trouble your lordship to bring the chap in not guilty, when it's all
done." And he nodded knowingly to the jury.
Railsford had sat and listened to all this in a state of the completest
mystification. Not having heard Barnworth's opening statement, he had
no glimmer of a suspicion that the _cause celebre_ occupying the
attention of this august assembly was anything but a pleasant fiction
from beginning to end, and he had been wondering to himself whether such
performances, conducted in the irregular style which he had witnessed,
could be of any good. However, coming as a guest (for the master of the
house was always a visitor on such occasions), he deemed it best not to
interfere just then. He would give Arthur a little friendly advice as
to the conduct of a junior counsel later on.
But he was the only unconscious person in the court. The listeners had
been quick to pick up the drift of Barnworth's opening story, and
equally quick to detect the line of defence taken up by Felgate and his
vivacious junior. They kept their eyes fixed most of the time on
Railsford, to note how he took it; and when Arthur reached his
triumphant climax, some among the juniors fully expected to see their
master fall on his knees and plead guilty before the whole court.
Instead of that he laughed, and, turning to the judge, said, in an
audible voice,--
"This seems very amusing, but it's all Hebrew to me. Is this the end?"
"I think we've had nearly enough for to-night," said Ainger, who himself
felt rather uneasy lest matters should go any further. Not that he laid
any stress on Arthur's wonderful discovery--that merely amused him; but
he foresaw a danger of the tone of the proceedings becoming offensive,
and considered it better to interpose while yet there was time.
"Gentlemen," he said, "as far as the case has gone I think I may say it
has been ably conducted and patiently listened to. As our time is
nearly up I adjourn the hearing till a future occasion."
"Jolly hard luck," said Arthur to his senior. "I'd got plenty more to
come out."
"You've done quite enough for one evening," said Felgate, grinning, "the
rest will keep."