THE TRIAL
A couple of hours later Calamity, with the Lieutenant and Mr. Vayne--the
latter having been permitted to accompany them in his character of
solicitor to the accused--was ushered into a spacious room where several
men sat round a large table, at the head of which was a bronzed,
hard-featured man in naval uniform, evidently the president.
"You are John Brighouse, otherwise known as Captain Calamity, I
believe?" said the latter, addressing the prisoner.
"That is correct," answered the Captain.
"Briefly, the charge against you is that you did wilfully and
feloniously seize in this harbour a steamer called the _Arrow_,
belonging to Jacob Rossenbaum of Johore, and did detain and use the same
with criminal intent. Are you guilty or not guilty?"
"Not guilty."
Mr. Rossenbaum having been called upon to give evidence, stated that,
having contracted with Isaac Solomon of Singapore for the repair of his,
witness's ship, the _Arrow_, the latter was sent round to Mr. Solomon's
shipyard. Witness had every reason to believe that the repairs were
carried out, for he received a wire from Mr. Solomon telling him to
send a crew to take over the _Arrow_, which had then left the yard and
was lying in Singapore harbour. He had duly despatched a crew, but, on
the following morning, received another wire from Mr. Solomon asking him
to come to Singapore at once. On arrival, he learnt that his vessel had
been boarded and taken out of the harbour under her own steam by a
person known as Captain Calamity.
The president then called upon Isaac Solomon. The latter, who had
carefully abstained from looking at Calamity, took his stand as far from
him as he possibly could.
"According to the statement previously laid before us," said the
president, "you undertook to repair the steamer, _Arrow_, belonging to
Mr. Rossenbaum. The repairs having been duly executed, the steamer was
anchored in the harbour to await a crew which you had wired Mr.
Rossenbaum to send?"
"That is so," answered the witness.
"But while the steamer was waiting for this crew, she disappeared
mysteriously?"
"Yes."
"And you have reason to believe that the accused committed the offence?"
"I can prove it," said Mr. Solomon eagerly, but still carefully avoiding
the Captain's eye.
"That will do," said the president, and Mr. Solomon, with a grin of
triumph on his face, was about to retire, when the solicitor rose from
his chair.
"With your permission, sir," he said, addressing the president, "I
should like to ask this witness a question."
"Proceed then."
"Was there anything in the nature of a partnership existing between
yourself and the accused?" asked the solicitor.
"Most emphatically not!" exclaimed the witness. "I have never had any
dealings vith the man. He showed me a paper vich purported to be a
privateer's licence, but in my opinion it vas a forgery."
"That was all I wanted to know," said Mr. Vayne, and sat down.
The next witness was Tilak Sumbowa, Solomon's water-clerk, who, in
answer to the president, proceeded to give a long and detailed account
of how, on the very day that the _Arrow_ disappeared, his employer, Mr.
Solomon, had instructed him to wire Mr. Rossenbaum that his steamer was
awaiting a crew.
"That wire," said the witness impressively, "is in Mr. Rossenbaum's
possession now. On returning to the office I found that Mr. Solomon had
gone out and left a note saying that he had been called away on
business, and would not be back till next morning. I still have that
note. Then, having certain business to do myself, I went out of town and
did not get back till the following day."
"Then neither you nor your employer were in Singapore on the night the
_Arrow_ disappeared?" suggested the president as the witness paused.
"No, sir."
Other witnesses were then called--all of them natives or half-castes--to
show that Mr. Solomon was not in Singapore on the night of the _Arrow's_
departure, and that he had never had any business dealings with
Calamity.
"I will now call upon the accused to make his defence and examine any
witnesses he thinks fit," said the president.
Mr. Vayne at once stood up, and, adjusting his pinc-nez, addressed the
tribunal.
"I think it only right to inform the court that my client is not quite
the nameless adventurer the prosecutor would have you believe," he said
in a loud, sonorous voice. "It is true that he is known in these parts
as Captain Calamity, and it is equally true that his name is John
Brighouse. But he is also Viscount Redhurst of Redhurst--a fact which I
mention, gentlemen, because I assume that, when we come to deal with
conflicting statements, you will grant that the word of an English peer
is at least equal to that of a semi-Asiatic ship-chandler."
Mr. Vayne paused for a moment or two after this _dénouement_, in order
to let the full significance of his statement sink into the minds of his
opponents. He had taken their measure pretty accurately, and calculated
upon the effect which his words would produce.
"With the permission of the court," he went on, "I will recall the
prosecutor and put a few questions to him."
At a gesture from the president, Mr. Solomon stepped forward. The air of
conscious rectitude which had distinguished him when giving evidence
against Calamity was not now so apparent.
"I understand," said the lawyer, focussing his pinc-nez upon the
ship-chandler, "that it was you, and not Rossenbaum, who informed the
authorities that my client had illegally appropriated the steamer,
_Arrow_?"
"Yes," replied the witness.
"How soon, after you had discovered that the _Arrow_ was missing, did
you inform the authorities of the fact?"
"About three veeks," answered the witness reluctantly.
"You mean that three weeks elapsed before the authorities were made
aware of what had taken place?"
"Yes."
"Then do you wish the court to believe that if a man stole your watch
and chain, or broke into your office, you would wait three weeks before
informing the police?"
"That vould be a different thing."
"I believe you. Now," added the lawyer with sudden vehemence, "I put it
to you, sir, that your reason for waiting such a long time was that the
accused might get safely away before the authorities had a chance to
capture him."
"It vas not!" cried Mr. Solomon hotly. "Vy should I not wish him to be
captured?"
The lawyer placed both hands on the back of his chair and leaned
forward.
"Because," he said in a denunciatory tone, "you were the accused's
partner; because, having partly financed his scheme, you wanted to reap
all the profits by swindling your partner out of his share. I maintain,"
he went on, waving aside an interruption that Mr. Solomon was about to
make, "that your object was to let my client capture what prizes he
could, and then, by contriving his arrest, seize for yourself all the
proceeds of the expedition, together with any money that might accrue
from the Government."
"It is a lie, a vicked lie!" the witness almost shrieked.
"I will go even further," pursued the lawyer, ignoring Mr. Solomon's
indignant protest. "I will assert that the whole thing was a plot,
engineered by you as soon as my client had laid his plans before you.
With or without the connivance of Mr. Rossenbaum, the _Arrow_ was
brought round to Singapore, coaled, provisioned, and armed by you, and,
after you had caused the name _Hawk_ to be substituted for _Arrow_, was
handed over to my client with the understanding that it was your ship."
Mr. Solomon attempted to make a reply, but was so overcome with
indignation, anger, and other emotions that he could only utter
inarticulate sounds.
"I should like to recall the witness, Tilak Sumbowa," went on Mr. Vayne,
and the ship-chandler sat down, biting his nails with rage.
The water-clerk came forward looking very nervous.
"I gathered from your evidence that neither you nor Mr. Solomon were in
Singapore on the night the _Arrow_, or, as she was then called, the
_Hawk_, left," said Mr. Vayne.
"No; Mr. Solomon left me a note at mid-day saying he was called away on
business. I have it here," and the witness triumphantly produced an
envelope from his pocket.
"Let me see it."
Sumbowa passed the note to the lawyer, who scrutinised the envelope
critically.
"This envelope is addressed to Mr. Solomon," he said.
"Yes. The note was lying on his desk without an envelope, so I picked
one out of the waste-paper basket and put the note in it."
"And this is the identical envelope which you picked up out of the
waste-paper basket?"
"Yes."
"At the time you found the note?"
"Directly I had finished reading it."
"All of which circumstance took place a few hours before the _Hawk_ left
Singapore and during the time that Mr. Solomon was out of town?"
"Yes."
"Then," said the lawyer quietly, "how do you account for the fact that
this envelope bears on it a postmark dated a week after the _Arrow's_
departure?"
There was a dead silence. The witness looked from one to the other with
an almost pitiful expression of bewilderment.
"Well," said the lawyer after a long pause, "what explanation have you
to offer us? I presume you will not suggest that the postal authorities
post-date letters?"
"I--I must have made a mistake," faltered the unhappy Sumbowa. "Now I
come to think of it, I didn't put the note into the envelope till some
days afterwards."
"Oh yes, you've made a mistake," commented the lawyer drily, "but not
exactly in the way you would have us believe. However, we will let that
pass for the moment. Were you in the office yourself on the night that
the _Arrow_ left?"
"No."
"What time did Mr. Solomon arrive at the office on the following
morning?"
"I don't know."
"Don't you go to the office in the mornings, then?"
"Oh yes, I went to the office at eight o'clock as usual, but Mr. Solomon
was not there. I waited about for a little while and then went away.
When I came back at half-past ten he had returned."
"Was there anyone in the office at the time he arrived?"
"Oh no."
"How do you know?"
"It was locked up. That was why I went away."
A gleam came into the lawyer's eye as he realised, in a flash, what he
had accidentally stumbled upon. Without looking, he knew that Solomon
was making frantic but stealthy signs to Sumbowa, and by a kind of
hypnotism he kept the little water-clerk's attention fixed upon himself.
It would never do to let the half-caste guess what a mess he was getting
his employer into. Mr. Vayne's next question, therefore, was purposely
casual.
"You, yourself, had no key to the office then?"
"Oh no."
"Mr. Solomon had the only one?"
"Yes."
"Then do you suggest that he went away and left the office unlocked,
because, if not, how did you get in and find the note? And if it was
unlocked when you went in, how came it to be locked when you returned in
the morning, you having no key and Mr. Solomon not having arrived?"
The witness looked bewildered for a moment and then, catching sight of
Mr. Solomon's face, seemed to crumple up.
"Come, answer my question," rapped out the other.
"He--he must have come back to the office after I found the note,"
whimpered Sumbowa.
"You have simply been telling the court a tissue of lies from beginning
to end," thundered the lawyer. "You have contradicted yourself so many
times that you can't remember what you have said. Now let me tell you
this, my man: unless you are prepared to confess the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth, you will find yourself in the dock on a charge of
perjury and with the moral certainty of being sentenced to a long term
of imprisonment with hard labour. Now, answer me; did you receive that
note before or after the departure of the _Hawk_?"
"Af-after," sobbed the witness.
"How long after?"
"About a fortnight."
"Do you know why Mr. Solomon gave you that note?"
"No."
"But he told you to swear that you found it in his office on the day in
question?"
"Yes."
"You knew that it was he who provided the vessel with guns and
ammunition, and also caused the name _Hawk_ to be substituted for that
of _Arrow_?"
Sumbowa hesitated for the fraction of a minute.
"Well?" rapped out the lawyer.
"Er--yes."
"Thank you; that will do."
The witness tottered back to his seat and almost collapsed in it. Never
had he passed through such an ordeal before, and, for the time being, he
was a nervous wreck.
Mr. Vayne turned to the tribunal.
"I shall not waste your time, gentlemen," he said, "by calling witnesses
for the defence--as, for instance, my client's chief officer, who was
with him when he visited the prosecutor on the night of sailing--or by
arguing a matter which I regard as proven. All I shall do is to draw
from the evidence conclusions which, beyond a doubt, prove my client's
innocence of the charge brought against him. After having treated us to
a series of palpable falsehoods at the instigation of his employer, the
witness Sumbowa has admitted that Solomon did not give him the note
saying that he would be out of town until a fortnight after the
_Arrow's_ departure and the inference is that Solomon _did_ see my
client on that particular night. Had he not done so, why should he have
tried to establish an alibi; why should he have taken such pains to try
and prove that he was not in Singapore that night?
"Further, I contend that these deductions are confirmed by the fact that
Solomon, on his own admission, did not make known the alleged offence
until three weeks after the steamer had left. I put it to you,
gentlemen, as men of the world, that this was an extraordinary
procedure, and can only be accounted for by the assumption that the
prosecutor did not want his victim to be arrested before the latter had
secured what, for want of a better term, I shall call a generous profit
on the initial outlay.
"In short, I submit that Solomon entered into a conspiracy with divers
persons to bring about the ruination of my client in order that he, the
prosecutor, might reap the entire benefits of this privateering
expedition.
"And now a word concerning the allegation that my client possessed
forged Letters of Marque. I don't think it necessary to prove or
disprove this charge, seeing that, under the circumstances, Letters of
Marque were quite unnecessary. Any British ship, or any ship belonging
to an allied Power, has the right to attack and destroy an enemy vessel,
a statement which is borne out by the fact that the British Government
offered rewards to any merchant captain who could prove that he had
sunk, captured, or destroyed an enemy submarine. This, gentlemen, is
all I have to say."
After a few minutes' whispered consultation with his colleagues, the
president turned towards Calamity.
"We are unanimously of opinion that the charge brought against you is
without the smallest foundation, and that you have been the victim of a
malicious conspiracy," he said. "You are, therefore, acquitted. As to
the prosecutor and his witnesses, they will be dealt with in due course
upon charges arising out of this case."
As the president ceased speaking, Calamity rose and, drawing some papers
from his pocket, handed them to him. They were the forged clearance
papers and the secret instructions from a German source, addressed to
Mr. Solomon, which he had taken from the _Ann_.
The president hastily glanced through them, asked Calamity a few
questions in a low voice, and then touched a little bell at his side. A
sergeant of marines entered in answer to the ring and stood at
attention.
"Arrest that man and see that he is well guarded," said the president,
indicating the ship-chandler.
With the sergeant's vice-like grip upon his arm, Mr. Isaac Solomon was
dragged protesting from the room and so vanished for ever from the ken
of friends and enemies alike.