There was matter and to spare for the papers the next day. The striking
ceremony--Mr. Gladstone's speech--the sensational arrest--these would of
themselves have made excellent themes for reports and leaders. But the
personality of the man arrested, and the Big Bow Mystery Battle--as it
came to be called--gave additional piquancy to the paragraphs and the
posters. The behavior of Mortlake put the last touch to the
picturesqueness of the position. He left the hall when the lights went
out, and walked unnoticed and unmolested through pleiads of policemen to
the nearest police station, where the superintendent was almost too
excited to take any notice of his demand to be arrested. But to do him
justice, the official yielded as soon as he understood the situation. It
seems inconceivable that he did not violate some red-tape regulation in
so doing. To some this self-surrender was limpid proof of innocence; to
others it was the damning token of despairing guilt.
The morning papers were pleasant reading for Grodman, who chuckled as
continuously over his morning egg, as if he had laid it. Jane was
alarmed for the sanity of her saturnine master. As her husband would
have said, Grodman's grins were not Beautiful. But he made no effort to
suppress them. Not only had Wimp perpetrated a grotesque blunder, but
the journalists to a man were down on his great sensation tableau,
though their denunciations did not appear in the dramatic columns. The
Liberal papers said that he had endangered Mr. Gladstone's life; the
Conservative that he had unloosed the raging elements of Bow
blackguardism, and set in motion forces which might have easily swelled
to a riot, involving severe destruction of property. But "Tom Mortlake,"
was, after all, the thought swamping every other. It was, in a sense, a
triumph for the man.
But Wimp's turn came when Mortlake, who reserved his defense, was
brought up before a magistrate, and, by force of the new evidence, fully
committed for trial on the charge of murdering Arthur Constant. Then
men's thoughts centered again on the Mystery, and the solution of the
inexplicable problem agitated mankind from China to Peru.
In the middle of February, the great trial befell. It was another of the
opportunities which the Chancellor of the Exchequer neglects. So
stirring a drama might have easily cleared its expenses--despite the
length of the cast, the salaries of the stars, and the rent of the
house--in mere advance booking. For it was a drama which (by the rights
of Magna Charta) could never be repeated; a drama which ladies of
fashion would have given their earrings to witness, even with the
central figure not a woman. And there was a woman in it anyhow, to judge
by the little that had transpired at the magisterial examination, and
the fact that the country was placarded with bills offering a reward for
information concerning a Miss Jessie Dymond. Mortlake was defended by
Sir Charles Brown-Harland, Q. C., retained at the expense of the
Mortlake Defense Fund (subscriptions to which came also from Australia
and the Continent), and set on his mettle by the fact that he was the
accepted labor candidate for an East-end constituency. Their Majesties,
Victoria and the Law, were represented by Mr. Robert Spigot, Q. C.
Mr. Spigot, Q. C., in presenting his case, said: "I propose to show that
the prisoner murdered his friend and fellow-lodger, Mr. Arthur Constant,
in cold blood, and with the most careful premeditation; premeditation so
studied, as to leave the circumstances of the death an impenetrable
mystery for weeks to all the world, though fortunately without
altogether baffling the almost superhuman ingenuity of Mr. Edward Wimp,
of the Scotland Yard Detective Department. I propose to show that the
motives of the prisoner were jealousy and revenge; jealousy not only of
his friend's superior influence over the workingmen he himself aspired
to lead, but the more commonplace animosity engendered by the disturbing
element of a woman having relations to both. If, before my case is
complete, it will be my painful duty to show that the murdered man was
not the saint the world has agreed to paint him, I shall not shrink from
unveiling the truer picture, in the interests of justice, which cannot
say _nil nisi bonum_ even of the dead. I propose to show that the murder
was committed by the prisoner shortly before half-past six on the
morning of December 4th, and that the prisoner having, with the
remarkable ingenuity which he has shown throughout, attempted to prepare
an alibi by feigning to leave London by the first train to Liverpool,
returned home, got in with his latch-key through the street-door, which
he had left on the latch, unlocked his victim's bedroom with a key which
he possessed, cut the sleeping man's throat, pocketed his razor, locked
the door again, and gave it the appearance of being bolted, went
downstairs, unslipped the bolt of the big lock, closed the door behind
him, and got to Euston in time for the second train to Liverpool. The
fog helped his proceedings throughout." Such was in sum the theory of
the prosecution. The pale defiant figure in the dock winced perceptibly
under parts of it.
Mrs. Drabdump was the first witness called for the prosecution. She was
quite used to legal inquisitiveness by this time, but did not appear in
good spirits.
"On the night of December 3d, you gave the prisoner a letter?"
"Yes, your ludship."
"How did he behave when he read it?"
"He turned very pale and excited. He went up to the poor gentleman's
room, and I'm afraid he quarreled with him. He might have left his last
hours peaceful." (Amusement.)
"What happened then?"
"Mr. Mortlake went out in a passion, and came in again in about an
hour."
"He told you he was going away to Liverpool very early the next
morning."
"No, your ludship, he said he was going to Devonport." (Sensation.)
"What time did you get up the next morning?"
"Half-past six."
"That is not your usual time?"
"No, I always get up at six."
"How do you account for the extra sleepiness?"
"Misfortunes will happen."
"It wasn't the dull, foggy weather?"
"No, my lud, else I should never get up early." (Laughter.)
"You drink something before going to bed?"
"I like my cup o' tea. I take it strong, without sugar. It always
steadies my nerves."
"Quite so. Where were you when the prisoner told you he was going to
Devonport?"
"Drinkin' my tea in the kitchen."
"What should you say if prisoner dropped something in it to make you
sleep late?"
Witness (startled): "He ought to be shot."
"He might have done it without your noticing it, I suppose?"
"If he was clever enough to murder the poor gentleman, he was clever
enough to try and poison me."
The Judge: "The witness in her replies must confine herself to the
evidence."
Mr. Spigot, Q. C.: "I must submit to your lordship that it is a very
logical answer, and exactly illustrates the interdependence of the
probabilities. Now, Mrs. Drabdump, let us know what happened when you
awoke at half-past six the next morning."
Thereupon Mrs. Drabdump recapitulated the evidence (with new
redundancies, but slight variations) given by her at the inquest. How
she became alarmed--how she found the street-door locked by the big
lock--how she roused Grodman, and got him to burst open the door--how
they found the body--all this with which the public was already familiar
_ad nauseam_ was extorted from her afresh.
"Look at this key" (key passed to the witness). "Do you recognize it?"
"Yes; how did you get it? It's the key of my first-floor front. I am
sure I left it sticking in the door."
"Did you know a Miss Dymond?"
"Yes, Mr. Mortlake's sweetheart. But I knew he would never marry her,
poor thing." (Sensation.)
"Why not?"
"He was getting too grand for her." (Amusement).
"You don't mean anything more than that?"
"I don't know; she only came to my place once or twice. The last time I
set eyes on her must have been in October."
"How did she appear?"
"She was very miserable, but she wouldn't let you see it." (Laughter.)
"How has the prisoner behaved since the murder?"
"He always seemed very glum and sorry for it."
Cross-examined: "Did not the prisoner once occupy the bedroom of Mr.
Constant, and give it up to him, so that Mr. Constant might have the two
rooms on the same floor?"
"Yes, but he didn't pay as much."
"And, while occupying this front bedroom, did not the prisoner once lose
his key and have another made?"
"He did; he was very careless."
"Do you know what the prisoner and Mr. Constant spoke about on the night
of December 3d?"
"No; I couldn't hear."
"Then how did you know they were quarreling?"
"They were talkin' so loud."
Sir Charles Brown-Harland, Q. C. (sharply): "But I'm talking loudly to
you now. Should you say I was quarreling?"
"It takes two to make a quarrel." (Laughter.)
"Was the prisoner the sort of man who, in your opinion, would commit a
murder?"
"No, I never should ha' guessed it was him."
"He always struck you as a thorough gentleman?"
"No, my lud. I knew he was only a comp."
"You say the prisoner has seemed depressed since the murder. Might not
that have been due to the disappearance of his sweetheart?"
"No, he'd more likely be glad to get rid of her."
"Then he wouldn't be jealous if Mr. Constant took her off his hands?"
(Sensation.)
"Men are dog-in-the-mangers."
"Never mind about men, Mrs. Drabdump. Had the prisoner ceased to care
for Miss Dymond?"
"He didn't seem to think of her, my lud. When he got a letter in her
handwriting among his heap he used to throw it aside till he'd torn open
the others."
Brown-Harland, Q. C. (with a triumphant ring in his voice): "Thank you,
Mrs. Drabdump. You may sit down."
Spigot, Q. C.: "One moment, Mrs. Drabdump. You say the prisoner had
ceased to care for Miss Dymond. Might not this have been in consequence
of his suspecting for some time that she had relations with Mr.
Constant?"
The Judge: "That is not a fair question."
Spigot, Q. C.: "That will do, thank you, Mrs. Drabdump."
Brown-Harland, Q. C.: "No; one question more, Mrs. Drabdump. Did you
ever see anything--say when Miss Dymond came to your house--to make you
suspect anything between Mr. Constant and the prisoner's sweetheart?"
"She did meet him once when Mr. Mortlake was out." (Sensation.)
"Where did she meet him?"
"In the passage. He was going out when she knocked and he opened the
door." (Amusement.)
"You didn't hear what they said?"
"I ain't a eavesdropper. They spoke friendly and went away together."
Mr. George Grodman was called and repeated his evidence at the inquest.
Cross-examined, he testified to the warm friendship between Mr. Constant
and the prisoner. He knew very little about Miss Dymond, having scarcely
seen her. Prisoner had never spoken to him much about her. He should not
think she was much in prisoner's thoughts. Naturally the prisoner had
been depressed by the death of his friend. Besides, he was overworked.
Witness thought highly of Mortlake's character. It was incredible that
Constant had had improper relations of any kind with his friend's
promised wife. Grodman's evidence made a very favorable impression on
the jury; the prisoner looked his gratitude; and the prosecution felt
sorry it had been necessary to call this witness.
Inspector Howlett and Sergeant Runnymede had also to repeat their
evidence. Dr. Robinson, police-surgeon, likewise retendered his evidence
as to the nature of the wound, and the approximate hour of death. But
this time he was much more severely examined. He would not bind himself
down to state the time within an hour or two. He thought life had been
extinct two or three hours when he arrived, so that the deed had been
committed between seven and eight. Under gentle pressure from the
prosecuting counsel, he admitted that it might possibly have been
between six and seven. Cross-examined, he reiterated his impression in
favor of the later hour.
Supplementary evidence from medical experts proved as dubious and
uncertain as if the court had confined itself to the original witness.
It seemed to be generally agreed that the data for determining the time
of death of anybody were too complex and variable to admit of very
precise inference; _rigor mortis_ and other symptoms setting in within
very wide limits and differing largely in different persons. All agreed
that death from such a cut must have been practically instantaneous, and
the theory of suicide was rejected by all. As a whole the medical
evidence tended to fix the time of death, with a high degree of
probability, between the hours of six and half-past eight. The efforts
of the Prosecution were bent upon throwing back the time of death to as
early as possible after about half-past five. The Defense spent all its
strength upon pinning the experts to the conclusion that death could not
have been earlier than seven. Evidently the Prosecution was going to
fight hard for the hypothesis that Mortlake had committed the crime in
the interval between the first and second trains for Liverpool; while
the Defense was concentrating itself on an alibi, showing that the
prisoner had traveled by the second train which left Euston Station at a
quarter-past seven, so that there could have been no possible time for
the passage between Bow and Euston. It was an exciting struggle. As yet
the contending forces seemed equally matched. The evidence had gone as
much for as against the prisoner. But everybody knew that worse lay
behind.
"Call Edward Wimp."
The story Edward Wimp had to tell began tamely enough with
thrice-threshed-out facts. But at last the new facts came.
"In consequence of suspicions that had formed in your mind you took up
your quarters, disguised, in the late Mr. Constant's rooms?"
"I did; at the commencement of the year. My suspicions had gradually
gathered against the occupants of No. 11, Glover Street, and I resolved
to quash or confirm these suspicions once for all."
"Will you tell the jury what followed?"
"Whenever the prisoner was away for the night I searched his room. I
found the key of Mr. Constant's bedroom buried deeply in the side of
prisoner's leather sofa. I found what I imagine to be the letter he
received on December 3d, in the pages of a 'Bradshaw' lying under the
same sofa. There were two razors about."
Mr. Spigot, Q. C., said: "The key has already been identified by Mrs.
Drabdump. The letter I now propose to read."
It was undated, and ran as follows:
"Dear Tom--This is to bid you farewell. It is the best for us all.
I am going a long way, dearest. Do not seek to find me, for it will
be useless. Think of me as one swallowed up by the waters, and be
assured that it is only to spare you shame and humiliation in the
future that I tear myself from you and all the sweetness of life.
Darling, there is no other way. I feel you could never marry me
now. I have felt it for months. Dear Tom, you will understand what
I mean. We must look facts in the face. I hope you will always be
friends with Mr. Constant. Good by, dear. God bless you! May you
always be happy, and find a worthier wife than I. Perhaps when you
are great, and rich, and famous, as you deserve, you will sometimes
think not unkindly of one who, however faulty and unworthy of you,
will at least love you till the end. Yours, till death,
"Jessie."
By the time this letter was finished numerous old gentlemen, with wigs
or without, were observed to be polishing their glasses. Mr. Wimp's
examination was resumed.
"After making these discoveries what did you do?"
"I made inquiries about Miss Dymond, and found Mr. Constant had visited
her once or twice in the evening. I imagined there would be some traces
of a pecuniary connection. I was allowed by the family to inspect Mr.
Constant's check-book, and found a paid check made out for £25 in the
name of Miss Dymond. By inquiry at the Bank, I found it had been cashed
on November 12th of last year. I then applied for a warrant against the
prisoner."
Cross-examined: "Do you suggest that the prisoner opened Mr. Constant's
bedroom with the key you found?"
"Certainly."
Brown-Harland, Q. C. (sarcastically): "And locked the door from within
with it on leaving?"
"Certainly."
"Will you have the goodness to explain how the trick was done?"
"It wasn't done. (Laughter.) The prisoner probably locked the door from
the outside. Those who broke it open naturally imagined it had been
locked from the inside when they found the key inside. The key would, on
this theory, be on the floor as the outside locking could not have been
effected if it had been in the lock. The first persons to enter the room
would naturally believe it had been thrown down in the bursting of the
door. Or it might have been left sticking very loosely inside the lock
so as not to interfere with the turning of the outside key in which case
it would also probably have been thrown to the ground."
"Indeed. Very ingenious. And can you also explain how the prisoner could
have bolted the door within from the outside?"
"I can. (Renewed sensation.) There is only one way in which it was
possible--and that was, of course, a mere conjurer's illusion. To cause
a locked door to appear bolted in addition, it would only be necessary
for the person on the inside of the door to wrest the staple containing
the bolt from the woodwork. The bolt in Mr. Constant's bedroom worked
perpendicularly. When the staple was torn off, it would simply remain at
rest on the pin of the bolt instead of supporting it or keeping it
fixed. A person bursting open the door and finding the staple resting on
the pin and torn away from the lintel of the door, would, of course,
imagine he had torn it away, never dreaming the wresting off had been
done beforehand." (Applause in court, which was instantly checked by the
ushers.) The counsel for the defense felt he had been entrapped in
attempting to be sarcastic with the redoubtable detective. Grodman
seemed green with envy. It was the one thing he had not thought of.
Mrs. Drabdump, Grodman, Inspector Howlett, and Sergeant Runnymede were
recalled and re-examined by the embarrassed Sir Charles Brown-Harland as
to the exact condition of the lock and the bolt and the position of the
key. It turned out as Wimp had suggested; so prepossessed were the
witnesses with the conviction that the door was locked and bolted from
the inside when it was burst open that they were a little hazy about the
exact details. The damage had been repaired, so that it was all a
question of precise past observation. The inspector and the sergeant
testified that the key was in the lock when they saw it, though both the
mortise and the bolt were broken. They were not prepared to say that
Wimp's theory was impossible; they would even admit it was quite
possible that the staple of the bolt had been torn off beforehand. Mrs.
Drabdump could give no clear account of such petty facts in view of her
immediate engrossing interest in the horrible sight of the corpse.
Grodman alone was positive that the key was in the door when he burst it
open. No, he did not remember picking it up from the floor and putting
it in. And he was certain that the staple of the bolt was not broken,
from the resistance he experienced in trying to shake the upper panels
of the door.
By the Prosecution: "Don't you think, from the comparative ease with
which the door yielded to your onslaught, that it is highly probable
that the pin of the bolt was not in a firmly fixed staple, but in one
already detached from the woodwork of the lintel?"
"The door did not yield so easily."
"But you must be a Hercules."
"Not quite; the bolt was old, and the woodwork crumbling; the lock was
new and shoddy. But I have always been a strong man."
"Very well, Mr. Grodman. I hope you will never appear at the
music-halls." (Laughter.)
Jessie Dymond's landlady was the next witness for the prosecution. She
corroborated Wimp's statements as to Constant's occasional visits, and
narrated how the girl had been enlisted by the dead philanthropist as a
collaborator in some of his enterprises. But the most telling portion of
her evidence was the story of how, late at night, on December 3d, the
prisoner called upon her and inquired wildly about the whereabouts of
his sweetheart. He said he had just received a mysterious letter from
Miss Dymond saying she was gone. She (the landlady) replied that she
could have told him that weeks ago, as her ungrateful lodger was gone
now some three weeks without leaving a hint behind her. In answer to his
most ungentlemanly raging and raving, she told him it served him right,
as he should have looked after her better, and not kept away for so
long. She reminded him that there were as good fish in the sea as ever
came out, and a girl of Jessie's attractions need not pine away (as she
had seemed to be pining away) for lack of appreciation. He then called
her a liar and left her, and she hoped never to see his face again,
though she was not surprised to see it in the dock.
Mr. Fitzjames Montgomery, a bank clerk, remembered cashing the check
produced. He particularly remembered it, because he paid the money to a
very pretty girl. She took the entire amount in gold. At this point the
case was adjourned.
Denzil Cantercot was the first witness called for the prosecution on the
resumption of the trial. Pressed as to whether he had not told Mr. Wimp
that he had overheard the prisoner denouncing Mr. Constant, he could not
say. He had not actually heard the prisoner's denunciations; he might
have given Mr. Wimp a false impression, but then Mr. Wimp was so
prosaically literal. (Laughter.) Mr. Crowl had told him something of the
kind. Cross-examined, he said Jessie Dymond was a rare spirit and she
always reminded him of Joan of Arc.
Mr. Crowl, being called, was extremely agitated. He refused to take the
oath, and informed the court that the Bible was a Fad. He could not
swear by anything so self-contradictory. He would affirm. He could not
deny--though he looked like wishing to--that the prisoner had at first
been rather mistrustful of Mr. Constant, but he was certain that the
feeling had quickly worn off. Yes, he was a great friend of the
prisoner, but he didn't see why that should invalidate his testimony,
especially as he had not taken an oath. Certainly the prisoner seemed
rather depressed when he saw him on Bank Holiday, but it was overwork on
behalf of the people and for the demolition of the Fads.
Several other familiars of the prisoner gave more or less reluctant
testimony as to his sometime prejudice against the amateur rival labor
leader. His expressions of dislike had been strong and bitter. The
Prosecution also produced a poster announcing that the prisoner would
preside at a great meeting of clerks on December 4th. He had not turned
up at this meeting nor sent any explanation. Finally, there was the
evidence of the detectives who originally arrested him at Liverpool
Docks in view of his suspicious demeanor. This completed the case for
the prosecution.
Sir Charles Brown-Harland, Q. C., rose with a swagger and a rustle of
his silk gown, and proceeded to set forth the theory of the defense. He
said he did not purpose to call any witnesses. The hypothesis of the
prosecution was so inherently childish and inconsequential, and so
dependent upon a bundle of interdependent probabilities that it crumbled
away at the merest touch. The prisoner's character was of unblemished
integrity, his last public appearance had been made on the same platform
with Mr. Gladstone, and his honesty and highmindedness had been vouched
for by statesmen of the highest standing. His movements could be
accounted for from hour to hour--and those with which the prosecution
credited him rested on no tangible evidence whatever. He was also
credited with superhuman ingenuity and diabolical cunning of which he
had shown no previous symptom. Hypothesis was piled on hypothesis, as in
the old Oriental legend, where the world rested on the elephant and the
elephant on the tortoise. It might be worth while, however, to point out
that it was at least quite likely that the death of Mr. Constant had not
taken place before seven, and as the prisoner left Euston Station at
7:15 a. m. for Liverpool, he could certainly not have got there from Bow
in the time; also that it was hardly possible for the prisoner, who
could prove being at Euston Station at 5:25 a. m., to travel backward
and forward to Glover Street and commit the crime all within less than
two hours. "The real facts," said Sir Charles impressively, "are most
simple. The prisoner, partly from pressure of work, partly (he had no
wish to conceal) from worldly ambition, had begun to neglect Miss
Dymond, to whom he was engaged to be married. The man was but human, and
his head was a little turned by his growing importance. Nevertheless, at
heart he was still deeply attached to Miss Dymond. She, however, appears
to have jumped to the conclusion that he had ceased to love her, that
she was unworthy of him, unfitted by education to take her place side by
side with him in the new spheres to which he was mounting--that, in
short, she was a drag on his career. Being, by all accounts, a girl of
remarkable force of character, she resolved to cut the Gordian knot by
leaving London, and, fearing lest her affianced husband's
conscientiousness should induce him to sacrifice himself to her;
dreading also, perhaps, her own weakness, she made the parting absolute,
and the place of her refuge a mystery. A theory has been suggested which
drags an honored name in the mire--a theory so superfluous that I shall
only allude to it. That Arthur Constant could have seduced, or had any
improper relations with his friend's betrothed is a hypothesis to which
the lives of both give the lie. Before leaving London--or England--Miss
Dymond wrote to her aunt in Devonport--her only living relative in this
country--asking her as a great favor to forward an addressed letter to
the prisoner, a fortnight after receipt. The aunt obeyed implicitly.
This was the letter which fell like a thunderbolt on the prisoner on the
night of December 3d. All his old love returned--he was full of
self-reproach and pity for the poor girl. The letter read ominously.
Perhaps she was going to put an end to herself. His first thought was to
rush up to his friend, Constant, to seek his advice. Perhaps Constant
knew something of the affair. The prisoner knew the two were in not
infrequent communication. It is possible--my lord and gentlemen of the
jury, I do not wish to follow the methods of the prosecution and confuse
theory with fact, so I say it is possible--that Mr. Constant had
supplied her with the £25 to leave the country. He was like a brother to
her, perhaps even acted imprudently in calling upon her, though neither
dreamed of evil. It is possible that he may have encouraged her in her
abnegation and in her altruistic aspirations, perhaps even without
knowing their exact drift, for does he not speak in his very last letter
of the fine female characters he was meeting, and the influence for good
he had over individual human souls? Still, this we can now never know,
unless the dead speak or the absent return. It is also not impossible
that Miss Dymond was entrusted with the £25 for charitable purposes. But
to come back to certainties. The prisoner consulted Mr. Constant about
the letter. He then ran to Miss Dymond's lodgings in Stepney Green,
knowing beforehand his trouble would be futile. The letter bore the
postmark of Devonport. He knew the girl had an aunt there; possibly she
might have gone to her. He could not telegraph, for he was ignorant of
the address. He consulted his 'Bradshaw,' and resolved to leave by the
5:30 a. m. from Paddington, and told his landlady so. He left the letter
in the 'Bradshaw,' which ultimately got thrust among a pile of papers
under the sofa, so that he had to get another. He was careless and
disorderly, and the key found by Mr. Wimp in his sofa must have lain
there for some years, having been lost there in the days when he
occupied the bedroom afterward rented by Mr. Constant. Afraid to miss
his train, he did not undress on that distressful night. Meantime the
thought occurred to him that Jessie was too clever a girl to leave so
easy a trail, and he jumped to the conclusion that she would be going to
her married brother in America, and had gone to Devonport merely to bid
her aunt farewell. He determined therefore to get to Liverpool, without
wasting time at Devonport, to institute inquiries. Not suspecting the
delay in the transit of the letter, he thought he might yet stop her,
even at the landing-stage or on the tender. Unfortunately his cab went
slowly in the fog, he missed the first train, and wandered about
brooding disconsolately in the mist till the second. At Liverpool his
suspicious, excited demeanor procured his momentary arrest. Since then
the thought of the lost girl has haunted and broken him. That is the
whole, the plain, and the sufficing story." The effective witnesses for
the defense were, indeed, few. It is so hard to prove a negative. There
was Jessie's aunt, who bore out the statement of the counsel for the
defense. There were the porters who saw him leave Euston by the 7:15
train for Liverpool, and arrive just too late for the 5:15; there was
the cabman (2,138), who drove him to Euston just in time, he (witness)
thought, to catch the 5:15 a. m. Under cross-examination, the cabman got
a little confused; he was asked whether, if he really picked up the
prisoner at Bow Railway Station at about 4:30, he ought not to have
caught the first train at Euston. He said the fog made him drive rather
slowly, but admitted the mist was transparent enough to warrant full
speed. He also admitted being a strong trade unionist, Spigot, Q. C.,
artfully extorting the admission as if it were of the utmost
significance. Finally, there were numerous witnesses--of all sorts and
conditions--to the prisoner's high character, as well as to Arthur
Constant's blameless and moral life.
In his closing speech on the third day of the trial, Sir Charles pointed
out with great exhaustiveness and cogency the flimsiness of the case for
the prosecution, the number of hypotheses it involved, and their mutual
interdependence. Mrs. Drabdump was a witness whose evidence must be
accepted with extreme caution. The jury must remember that she was
unable to dissociate her observations from her inferences, and thought
that the prisoner and Mr. Constant were quarreling merely because they
were agitated. He dissected her evidence, and showed that it entirely
bore out the story of the defense. He asked the jury to bear in mind
that no positive evidence (whether of cabmen or others) had been given
of the various and complicated movements attributed to the prisoner on
the morning of December 4th, between the hours of 5:25 and 7:15 a. m.,
and that the most important witness on the theory of the prosecution--he
meant, of course, Miss Dymond--had not been produced. Even if she were
dead, and her body were found, no countenance would be given to the
theory of the prosecution, for the mere conviction that her lover had
deserted her would be a sufficient explanation of her suicide. Beyond
the ambiguous letter, no tittle of evidence of her dishonor--on which
the bulk of the case against the prisoner rested--had been adduced. As
for the motive of political jealousy that had been a mere passing cloud.
The two men had become fast friends. As to the circumstances of the
alleged crime, the medical evidence was on the whole in favor of the
time of death being late; and the prisoner had left London at a quarter
past seven. The drugging theory was absurd, and as for the too clever
bolt and lock theories, Mr. Grodman, a trained scientific observer, had
pooh-poohed them. He would solemnly exhort the jury to remember that if
they condemned the prisoner they would not only send an innocent man to
an ignominious death on the flimsiest circumstantial evidence, but they
would deprive the workingmen of this country of one of their truest
friends and their ablest leader.
The conclusion of Sir Charles' vigorous speech was greeted with
irrepressible applause.
Mr. Spigot, Q. C., in closing the case for the prosecution, asked the
jury to return a verdict against the prisoner for as malicious and
premeditated a crime as ever disgraced the annals of any civilized
country. His cleverness and education had only been utilized for the
devil's ends, while his reputation had been used as a cloak. Everything
pointed strongly to the prisoner's guilt. On receiving Miss Dymond's
letter announcing her shame, and (probably) her intention to commit
suicide, he had hastened upstairs to denounce Constant. He had then
rushed to the girl's lodgings, and, finding his worst fears confirmed,
planned at once his diabolically ingenious scheme of revenge. He told
his landlady he was going to Devonport, so that if he bungled, the
police would be put temporarily off his track. His real destination was
Liverpool, for he intended to leave the country. Lest, however, his plan
should break down here, too, he arranged an ingenious alibi by being
driven to Euston for the 5:15 train to Liverpool. The cabman would not
know he did not intend to go by it, but meant to return to 11, Glover
Street, there to perpetrate this foul crime, interruption to which he
had possibly barred by drugging his landlady. His presence at Liverpool
(whither he really went by the second train) would corroborate the
cabman's story. That night he had not undressed nor gone to bed; he had
plotted out his devilish scheme till it was perfect; the fog came as an
unexpected ally to cover his movements. Jealousy, outraged affection,
the desire for revenge, the lust for political power--these were human.
They might pity the criminal, they could not find him innocent of the
crime.
Mr. Justice Crogie, summing up, began dead against the prisoner.
Reviewing the evidence, he pointed out that plausible hypotheses neatly
dove-tailed did not necessarily weaken one another, the fitting so well
together of the whole rather making for the truth of the parts. Besides,
the case for the prosecution was as far from being all hypothesis as the
case for the defense was from excluding hypothesis. The key, the letter,
the reluctance to produce the letter, the heated interview with
Constant, the misstatement about the prisoner's destination, the flight
to Liverpool, the false tale about searching for a "him," the
denunciations of Constant, all these were facts. On the other hand,
there were various lacunae and hypotheses in the case for the defense.
Even conceding the somewhat dubious alibi afforded by the prisoner's
presence at Euston at 5:25 a. m., there was no attempt to account for
his movements between that and 7:15 a. m. It was as possible that he
returned to Bow as that he lingered about Euston. There was nothing in
the medical evidence to make his guilt impossible. Nor was there
anything inherently impossible in Constant's yielding to the sudden
temptation of a beautiful girl, nor in a working-girl deeming herself
deserted, temporarily succumbing to the fascinations of a gentleman and
regretting it bitterly afterward. What had become of the girl was a
mystery. Hers might have been one of those nameless corpses which the
tide swirls up on slimy river banks. The jury must remember, too, that
the relation might not have actually passed into dishonor, it might have
been just grave enough to smite the girl's conscience, and to induce her
to behave as she had done. It was enough that her letter should have
excited the jealousy of the prisoner. There was one other point which he
would like to impress on the jury, and which the counsel for the
prosecution had not sufficiently insisted upon. This was that the
prisoner's guiltiness was the only plausible solution that had ever been
advanced of the Bow Mystery. The medical evidence agreed that Mr.
Constant did not die by his own hand. Someone must therefore have
murdered him. The number of people who could have had any possible
reason or opportunity to murder him was extremely small. The prisoner
had both reason and opportunity. By what logicians called the method of
exclusion, suspicion would attach to him on even slight evidence. The
actual evidence was strong and plausible, and now that Mr. Wimp's
ingenious theory had enabled them to understand how the door could have
been apparently locked and bolted from within, the last difficulty and
the last argument for suicide had been removed. The prisoner's guilt was
as clear as circumstantial evidence could make it. If they let him go
free, the Bow Mystery might henceforward be placed among the archives of
unavenged assassinations. Having thus well-nigh hung the prisoner, the
judge wound up by insisting on the high probability of the story for the
defense, though that, too, was dependent in important details upon the
prisoner's mere private statements to his counsel. The jury, being by
this time sufficiently muddled by his impartiality, were dismissed, with
the exhortation to allow due weight to every fact and probability in
determining their righteous verdict.
The minutes ran into hours, but the jury did not return. The shadows of
night fell across the reeking, fevered court before they announced their
verdict--
"Guilty."
The judge put on his black cap.
The great reception arranged outside was a fiasco; the evening banquet
was indefinitely postponed. Wimp had won; Grodman felt like a whipped
cur.