 Chapter 15 of The Hampstead Mystery This is a LibriVox recording, or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Reading by Lars Rolander The Hampstead Mystery by John Watson and Arthur Rees Chapter 15 When Rolf left crew's office, he went back to Scotland Yard. He found Inspector Chippenfield still in his office, and related to him the substance of his interview with crew. The inspector listened to the recital in growing anger. Bertul, not the right man, he spluttered. Why, of course he is. The case against him is purely circumstantial, but it's as clear as daylight. Then you don't think there is anything in crew's points? Asked Rolf. I think so little of them that I look upon Bertul as good as hanged. That for crew's points. Inspector Chippenfield snapped his fingers contemptuously. And I'm surprised to think that you, Rolf, whose loyalty to your superior officer is a thing I would have staked my life on, should have sat there and listened to such rubbish. I wouldn't have listened to him for two minutes. No, not for half a minute. He was trying to pick our case to pieces out of blind spite and jealousy, because we've got ahead of him in the biggest murder case London's had for many a long day. A man who jaunts off to Scotland looking for clues to a murder committed in London is a fool. Rolf. That's what I call him. We have beaten him, beaten him badly, and he doesn't like it. But it's not the first time Scotland Yard has beaten him, and it won't be the last. I suppose you're right, said Rolf, but there's one point he made which rather struck me. I must say that about Bertul telling him he'd found the dead body, would Bertul have told him that if he'd committed the murder? Nothing more likely, exclaimed the Inspector. My theory is that Bertul, while committing the burglary at Riversbrook, was surprised by Sir Horace Few Banks. It is possible that a judge tried to capture Bertul to hand him over to the police, and Bertul shot him. I believe that Bertul fired both shots, that he had two revolvers, but whatever to place, a dangerous criminal like Bertul would not require much provocation to silence a man who interrupted him while he was on business bent, and a man, moreover, against whom he nursed a bitter grudge. In this case it is possible there was no provocation at all. Sir Horace Few Banks may have simply heard a noise, entered the room where Bertul was, and been shot down without mercy. Bertul heard him coming and was ready for him with a revolver in each hand. You've got to bear in mind that Bertul went to the house in a dangerous mood, half mad with drink, and furious with anger against Sir Horace Few Banks for cutting off the allowance of the girl he was living with. He threatened, before he left the flat, to commit the burglary, that he'd do for the judge if he interfered with him. That's according to Hill's statement, said Rolf. Inspector Chippenfied glanced at his subordinate in some surprise. Of course it's Hill's statement, he said. Isn't he our principal witness, and doesn't his statement fit in with all the facts we've been able to gather? Well, the murder of Sir Horace, no matter how it was committed, was committed in cold blood. But immediately Bertul had done it, the fact that he had committed a murder would have a sobering effect on him. Although he bragged before he left the flat for Riversbrook about killing the judge if he came across him, he had no intention of jeopardizing his snack unnecessarily. And after he had shot down the judge in a moment of drunken passion, he would be anxious to keep Hill, whom he mistrusted, from knowing that he had committed the murder. But he was fully aware that Hill would be the person who'd discover the body next day, and that if he wasn't put on his guard, he would bring in the police and probably give away everything that Bertul had said and done. So, to obviate the risk and prepare Hill, Bertul hit on the plan of telling him that he'd found the judge's dead body while burglaring the place. It was a bold idea, and not without its advantages when you consider what an awkward fix Bertul was in. Not only did it keep Hill quiet, but it forced him into the position of becoming a kind of silent accomplice to the crime. He did not give the show away until he was trapped, and then he only confessed to save his own skin. He's a dangerous and deep scoundrel, this Bertul, but Hill's swing this time, and you'll find that his confession of finding the body will do more than anything else to hang him properly put to the jury, and I'll see that it is properly put. Rolf pondered much over these two conflicting points of use. Cruz and Inspector Chippenfields for the rest of the day. He inclined to Inspector Chippenfield's conclusions regarding Bertul's admission about the body. The idea that he had assisted in arresting the wrong man and that had helped to build up a case against him was too unpalatable for him to accept it. But he was forced to admit that Cruz's theory was distinctly a plausible one. Though it was impossible for him to give up the conviction that Bertul was the murderer, he felt that Cruz's analysis of the case for the prosecution contained several telling points, which might be used with some effect on a jury in the hands of an experienced counsel. Rolf had no doubt that Hollymead would make the most of those points, and he also knew that the famous barrister was at his best in attacking circumstantial evidence. That night, while walking home, the idea occurred to Rolf of going over to Camden Town after supper to see if by questioning Hill again he could throw a little more light on what had taken place at Doris Fanning's flat the night Sir Horst Feubanks was murdered. Hill had been questioned and cross questioned at Scotland Yard by Inspector Chippenfield concerning the events of that night, and professed to have confessed to everything that had happened. But Rolf thought it possible he might be able to extract something more which might assist in strengthening what Cruz regarded as the weak points in the police case against Bertul. Rolf had every justification for such a visit, for though Hill had not been arrested, he had been ordered by Inspector Chippenfield to report himself daily to the Camden Town police station, and the police of that district had been instructed to keep a strict eye on his movements. Inspector Chippenfield did not regard his principal witness in the forthcoming murder trial as the sort of man likely to bolt. But if he permitted him for political reasons to retain his liberty, he took every precaution for that Hill should not abuse his privilege. Rolf lived in lodgings at King's Cross, and as the evening was fine and he was fond of exercise, he decided to walk across to Hill's place. As he walked along, his thoughts revolved round the murder of Sir Horst Feubanks and the baffling perplexities which had surrounded its elucidation. Had they got hold of the right man, the real murderer in Fred Burchell, Rolf kept asking himself that question again and again. A few hours ago, he had not the slightest doubt on the point. He had looked upon the great murder case as satisfactorily solved, and he had thought with increasing satisfaction of his own share in bringing the murderer to justice. He had anticipated newspaper praise on his sharpness, judicial commendation, a favourable official entry in the departmental records of the Scotland Yard, with perhaps promotion for the good work he had accomplished in this celebrated case. These rossive visions had been temporarily dissipated by the conversation he had had with the crew that morning. If crew had not succeeded in destroying Rolf's conviction that the murder of Sir Horst Feubanks had been caught, he had pointed out sufficient flaws in the police case to shake Rolf's previous assurance of the legal conviction of Burchell for the crime. The way in which crew had pulled the police case to pieces had shown Rolf that the conviction of Burchell was by no means a foregone conclusion and had left him a prey to doubts and anxiety, which Inspector Chippenfield's subsequent depreciation of the detective's views had not altogether removed. The little shop kept by the hills was empty when Rolf entered it, but Mrs Hill appeared from the inner room in answer to his knock. The faded little woman did not recognise the police officer at first, but when he spoke she looked into his face with a start. She timidly said in reply to his inquiry for her husband that he had just stepped out down the street. Then you had better send your little girl after him, said Rolf, seating himself on the one bricketed chair on the outside of the counter. I want to see him. Mrs Hill seemed at a loss to reply for a moment. Then she answered, nervously plucking at her apron the while. I don't think it bit much use doing that, sir. You say Mr Hill doesn't always tell me where he's going and I don't really know where he is. Then why did you tell me that he had just stepped out down the street? I'll stroll sharply. Because I thought he mightn't be far away. Then as a matter of fact you don't know where he is or when he'll be back? No, sir. Her prompt and uncompromising reply indicated that she did not want him to wait for her husband. I think I'll wait, said Rolf, looking at her steadily. Yes, sir. Daphne appeared at the door of the parlour which led into the shop and her mother waved her back angrily. Go to bed this instant, miss. It's long past your bedtime, she said. It was obvious that Mrs Hill retained a vivid recollection of how disastrous had been Daphne's appearance during Inspector Chippenfield's first visit to the shop. Perhaps your little girl knows where her father is? said Rolf maliciously. No, she doesn't, replied Mrs Hill with some spirit. You can ask her if you like. Rolf was suddenly struck with an idea and he decided to test it. I won't wait. I've changed my mind. But if your husband comes in, tell him not to go to bed until I've seen him. I'll be back. Yes, sir, she replied. Do you think he was going to Riversbrook? he asked. The woman flushed suddenly and then went pale. She knew as well as Rolf that her husband was strictly forbidden pending the trial to go near the place of his former employment and that the police had relieved him of his keys and taken possession of the silent house and locked everything up. No, sir, she replied with trembling lips. Mr Hill hasn't gone over there. How can you be certain if he didn't tell you where he was going? asked Rolf. Of course it's the last place in the world you think of going to, gasped Mrs Hill. Such a thought would never enter his head. I do assure you, sir, Mr Hill would never dream of going over there, sir. You can take my word for it. Rolf walked thoughtfully up High Street. Was it possible that Hill had gone to his late master's residence in defiance of the orders of the police? If so, only some very powerful motive and probably one which affected the crime could have induced him to risk his liberty by making such a visit after he had been commanded to keep away from the place. And how would he get into the house? Rolf had himself locked up the house and had locked the gates and the bunch of keys was at that moment hanging up in Inspector Chippenfield's room in Scotland Yard. But even as he asked that question, Rolf found himself smiling at himself for his simplicity. Nothing could be easier for a man like Hill, an ex-criminal to have obtained a duplicate key before handing over possession of the keys. Rolf had noticed with surprise when he was locking up the house that the French windows of the morning room were locked from the outside by a small key as well as being bolted from the inside. Hill had explained that the late Sir Horace Few Banks had generally used this French window for gaining access to his room after an nocturnal excursion. Rolf looked at his watch. It was nine o'clock. He decided to go to Hampstead and put his suspicion to the test. It was quite possible he was mistaken. But if on the other hand Hill was paying a nocturnal visit to Riversbrook and he had the luck to capture him, he might extract from him some valuable evidence for the forthcoming trial that Hill had kept back. And Rolf was above all things interested at that moment in making the case for the prosecution as strong as possible. Rolf walked to the Camden Town Underground Station, bought a ticket for Hampstead and took his seat in the tube in that state of accelerated excitement which comes to the detective when he feels that he's on the road to disclosure. The speed of the train seemed all too slow for the police officer and he looked at his watch at least a dozen times during the short journey from Camden Town to Hampstead. When Rolf arrived at Hampstead, he set out at a rapid walk for Riversbrook. It was quite dark when he reached Tanton Gardens. He turned into the rustling avenue of Chestnut Trees and strode swiftly down till he reached the deserted house of the murdered man. The gate was locked as he had left it, but Rolf climbed over it. A late moon was already throwing a refulgent light through the evening mists silvering the tops of the fir trees in front of the house. Rolf walked through the plantation, his footsteps falling noiselessly on the pine needles which strode the pass. He quickly reached the other side of the little wood and the Italian garden lay before him, stretching in a silver glory to the dark old house beyond. Rolf stood still at the edge of the wood and glanced across the moonlit garden to the house. It seemed dark, deserted and desolate. There was no sign of a light in any of the windows facing the plantation. The moon, rising above the fringe of trees in the woodland which skirted the meadows of the east side of the house, cast a sudden ray at thwart the upper portion of the house. But the windows of the retreating first story still remained in shadow. Rolf scrutinized these windows closely. There were three of them. He knew that two of them opened out from the bedroom the dead man used to occupy and a third one belonged to the library adjoining, the room where the murder had been committed. The moonlight, gradually stealing over the house, revealed the windows of the bedroom closed and the blinds down. But the library was still in shadow for a large test nut tree which grew in front of the house was directly in the line of Rolf's vision. Rolf remained watching the house for some time but no sign or sound of life could be he detect in its silent desolation. I must have been mistaken. He muttered with a final glance at the windows of the first story. There's nobody in the house. He turned to go and had taken a few steps through the pine wood and suddenly he started and stood still. His quick air had caught a faint sound a kind of rattle coming from the direction of the house. What was that noise which sounded so strangely familiar to his ears? He had it. It was the fall of a Venetian blind. Instantaneously there came to Rolf the remembrance that Inspector Chippenfield had ordered the library blind to be left up so that when the sun was high in the heavens its rays striking in through the window over the top of the chestnut tree might dry up the stain of blood on the floor which washing had failed to efface. Somebody was in the library and had dropped the blind. Rolf hurriedly retraced his steps to the edge of the plantation and raced across the Italian garden feeling for his revolver as he ran. Some instinct told him that he would find entrance through the French windows on the west side of the morning room and thither he directed his steps. He pulled out his electric torch and tried the windows. They were shut and the first one was locked. The second one yielded to his hand. He pulled it open and stepped into the room. Making his way by the light of his torch to the stairs he swiftly but silently crept up them and turned to the library on the left of the first landing. The door was closed but not locked and a faint light came through the keyhole. Rolf pushed the door open and looked into the room. A man was leaning over the dead judge's writing desk examining its contents by the lights of a candle which he had set down on the desk. He was so engrossed in his occupation that he did not hear the door open. What are you doing there? demanded Rolf sternly. His voice sounded hollow and menacing as it reverberated through the room. The man at the desk started up and round. It was Hill. When he saw Rolf he looked as though he would fall. He made as if to step forward. Then he stood quite still looking at the officer with ashen face. Hill said Rolf quietly what does this mean? The butler had regained his self-composure with wonderful quickness. The mask of reticence dropped over his face again and it was in the smooth differential tones of a well-trained servant that he replied. Nothing, sir. I just slipped over from the shop to see if everything was all right. How did you get into the house? By the French window, sir, I had a duplicate key which Sir Horace had made and I see you also have a duplicate key of the desk. Why didn't you give these keys up with the others to Inspector Chippenfield? I forgot about them at the time, sir. I found them in an old pocket this evening and I was so uneasy about the house shut up with a lot of valuable things in it and nobody to give an eye to them that I just slipped across to see everything was all right. You came here after dark and let yourself in with a private key after you had been strictly ordered not to come near the place? You have the audacity to admit you have done this? Well, it's this way, sir. I was a trusted servant of Sir Horace's. I knew a great deal about his private life. If I may say so. I know he kept a lot of private papers in this room and I wanted to make sure they were safe. I didn't like them being in this empty house, sir. I couldn't sleep in my bed of nights for thinking of them, sir. I felt last night as if my poor dead master was standing at my bedside, urging me to go over. I'm very sorry I disobeyed the police orders, Mr. Rolf, but I acted for the best. Hill, you are lying. You are keeping something back. Unless you immediately tell me the real reason of your visit to this house tonight, I will take you down to the Hampstead police station and have you locked up. This visit of yours will take a lot of explaining away after your previous confession, Hill. It's enough to put you in the dock with Birch Hill. Hill's eyes, which had been fixed on Rolf's face, wavered towards the doorway, as though he were meditating a rush for freedom, but he merely remarked, I've told you the truth, sir, though perhaps not all of it. I came across to see if I could find some of Sir Horace's private papers which are missing. How do you know there are any papers missing? As I said before, Mr. Rolf, Sir Horace trusted me and he didn't take the trouble to hide things from me. You mean that he often left his desk open with important papers scattered about it? Yes, sir. And you made a practice of going through them? I didn't make a practice of it, protested Hill. But sometimes I glanced at one or two of them. I thought there was no harm in it, knowing that Sir Horace trusted me. And some papers that you knew were there are now missing. Do you mean stolen? Yes, sir. When did you see them last? Just before Inspector Chippenfield came, the morning after the body was discovered, you remember, sir, that he came straight up here while you stayed downstairs talking to Constable Flack. Do you mean to suggest that Inspector Chippenfield stole them? Oh, no, sir, I don't think he saw them. Sir Horace kept them in this little place at the back of the desk. Look at it, sir, it's a sort of secret drawer. Rolf went over to the desk and Hill explained to him how the hiding place could be closed and opened. It was at the back of the desk under the pigeonholes and the fact that the pigeonholes came close down to the desk hid the secret drawer and the spring which controlled it. What was the nature of these papers? asked Rolf. Well, sir, I never read them. Sir Horace said such store by them that I never dared to open them for fear he would find out. They were mostly letters and they were tied up with a piece of silk ribbon. A lady's letters, of course, said Rolf. Judging from the writing on the envelopes they were sent by a lady, said Hill. Rolf breathed quickly for he felt that he was on the verge of a discovery. Here was evidence of a lady in the case which might lead to a startling development. Perhaps Crue was right in declaring that Bertschild was the wrong man, he said to himself. Perhaps the murderer was not a man, but a woman. And who do you think stole them? he asked Hill. That is more than I would like to say, replied the butler. Are you sure they were in this hiding place when Inspector Chippenfield took charge of everything? Oh yes, sir. I dusted out the room the morning you and he came to Riversbrook together and the papers were there then, because I happened to touch the spring as I was dusting the desk and it flew open and I saw the bundle there. Why didn't you tell Inspector Chippenfield about the papers and the secret drawer? That is what I intended to do, sir, if he didn't find them himself. But when I had found they had gone I didn't like to say anything to him because, as you may say, I had no right to know anything about them. When did they go? When did you find they were missing? When Inspector Chippenfield went out for his lunch, I looked in the desk and found they had gone. Who could have taken them? Who had access to the room? Well, sir, Mr. Chippenfield had some visitors that morning? Yes. There were about a dozen newspaper reporters during the day at various times. There were Dr. Slingspie and his assistant who came out to make the post mortem, Inspector Seldon who came to arrange about the inquest and there was that man from the undertakers who came to inquire about the funeral arrangements, but none of these men were likely to take the papers and still less to know where they were hidden. In any case, no visitor could get at the desk while Mr. Chippenfield was in the room and he is too careful to have left any visitor alone in this room. It was here that the murder was committed. He left one of his visitors alone here for a few minutes, said he'll in a voice which was little more than a whisper. Which one? asked Rolf Eagley. A lady. Who was she? Mrs. Hollermied. Oh! Rolf's exclamation was one of disappointment. She is a friend of the family. She came out to see Miss Fewbanks. It was a visit of condolence. Yes, sir, said the obsequious butler. She was a friend of the family, as you say. She was a friend of Sir Horace's. I've heard that Sir Horace paid her considerable attention before she married Mr. Hollermied. It was a toss-up which of them she married, so I've been told. Rolf saw that he had made a mistake in dismissing the idea of Mrs. Hollermied having anything to do with the missing papers. Do you think that she stole these letters, these papers? he asked. Do you think she knew where they were? While she was in the room, Inspector Chippenfield came rushing downstairs for a glass of water. He said she had fainted. Rolf gave a low, prolonged whistle. And after she left, you took the first opportunity of looking to see if the papers were still there and you found they were gone? Yes, sir. What made you suspect Mrs. Hollermied would take them? Well, sir, I didn't suspect her at the time. I just looked to see if Inspector Chippenfield had found them. I saw they had gone and as I couldn't see any sign of them about anywhere else, I concluded they must have been taken without Inspector Chippenfield knowing anything about it. The reason I came over here tonight was to have another careful look round for them. What would you have done with the papers if you had found them? he asked suddenly. I would have handed them over to the police, sir, said the butler, who obviously had been prepared for the question of the kind. And what explanation would you have given for having found them, for having come over here in defiance of your orders from Inspector Chippenfield? The true explanation, sir, said the butler with a mild note of protest in his voice. I would have told Inspector Chippenfield what I have already told you. And it is the simple truth. Rolf was plainly taken back at this tribute, but he did not reply to it. In your statement of what took place when Bertschild returned to the flat after committing the murder, he said something about having seen a woman leave the house by the front door as he was hiding in the garden, a fashionably dressed woman, I think he said. Yes, sir, that was it. Do you believe that part of his story was true? Well, sir, with a man like Bertschild it is impossible to say when he is telling the truth and when he isn't. There was no lady with Sir Horace when you left him that night when he returned from Scotland? No, sir. I think you said he was in a hurry to get you out of the house and told you not to come back? That is what I thought at the time, sir. Well, Hill, said Rolf, resuming his severe official tone. All this does not excuse in any way your conduct in coming over here and forcing your way into the house in defiance of the police. Opening this desk and prying about for private papers that don't concern you. The proper course for you to adopt was to come to Scotland Yard and tell your story about these missing papers to Inspector Chippenfield or to myself. However, I don't propose to take any action against you at present. Only there is to be no more of it. If you come hanging about here again on your own account, you'll find yourself in the dock beside Bertschild. Hand me over the duplicate key of the door by which you came in and also the key of the desk which you had still less right to have in your possession. Say nothing to anyone about those papers until I give you permission to do so. End of Chapter 15 of The Hampstead Mystery by John Watson and Arthur Rhys. Read by Losch Rolander. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Hampstead Mystery by John R. Watson and Arthur J. Rhys. Chapter 16. The day fixed for the trial of Frederick Bertschild was wet, dismal, and dreary. The rain pelted intermittently through a hazy, chilly atmosphere, building the gutters and splashing heavily on the slippery pavements. But in spite of the rain, a long queue, principally of women, assembled outside the portals of the Old Bailey, long before the time fixed for the opening of the court. A private entrance to the courthouse arrived fashionably dressed ladies accompanied by well-groomed men. They had received cards of admission and had seats reserved for them in the body of the court. Many of them had personally known the late Sir Horace Fewbanks and their interest in the trial of the man accused of his murder was intensified by the rumors afloat that there were to be some spicy revelations concerning the dead judges' private life. The arrival of Mr. Justice Hodgson, who was to preside at the trial, caused a stir among some of the spectators, many of whom belonged to the criminal class. Sir Henry Hodgson had presided at so many murder trials that he was known among them as the hanging judge. Among the spectators were some whom Sir Henry had put into mourning at one time or another. There were others whom he had deprived of their breadwinners for specified periods. These spectators looked at him with curiosity, fear, and hatred. Mr. Holymead Casey drove up in a taxi cab a few minutes later and his arrival created an impression akin to admiration. In the eyes of the criminal class, he was an heroic figure who had assumed the responsibility of saving the life of one of their fraternity. The eminent counsel's success in the few criminal cases in which he had consented to appear had gained him the respectful esteem of those who considered themselves oppressed by the law and the spectators on the pavement might have raised a cheer for him if their exuberance had not been restrained by the proximity of the policeman guarding the entrance. When the court was opened, Inspector Chippenfield took a seat in the body of the court behind the barrister's bench. He raised his eye over the closely packed spectators in the gallery and shook his head with manifest disapproval. It seemed to him that the worst criminals in London had managed to elude the vigilance of the sergeant outside in order to see the trial of their notorious colleague, Fred Burchill. He pointed out their presence to Ralph who was seated alongside him. There's that scoundrel Bob Rogers who slipped through our hands over the Ealing case and his pal, Breaker Jim, who's just done seven years, looking down and greeting at us he angrily whispered, I'll give them something to grin about before they're much older. You think Breaker would have had enough of the old Bailey to last him a lifetime and look at that row alongside of them. There's Morris, Hart, Harry the Hooker and that chap Willis who murdered the pawnbroker in Commercial Road last year. Only we could never sheet it home to him. And two rows behind them is old Charlie, the Covenant garden drop with Holder Jack and Camp Burchill's mate. Why there everywhere, the inquest was nothing to this, Ralph. Camp must be thanking his lucky stars. He wasn't in that Riversbrook job with Fred Burchill, said Ralph, for they usually work together. And there's crew up in the gallery where exclaimed Inspector Chippenfield with an indignant start. Not there behind that pillar there. No, the next one. See, he's looking down at you. Crew caught the Inspector's eye and nodded and smiled in a friendly fashion. But Inspector Chippenfield returned the salutation with a hutty glare. The impudence of that chap is beyond belief, he said to his subordinate. One would have thought he'd have kept away from court after his wild goose chase to Scotland and piling up expenses, but not him. Brazen impudence is the socket trade of the private detective. If Scotland Yard had a little more of the impudence of the private detective, Ralph, we should be better appreciated. I suppose he's come in the hopes of seeing the jury acquit Burchill, said Ralph. No doubt replied Inspector Chippenfield, but he's come to the wrong shop. A good jury should convict without leaving the box if the case is properly put before them by the prosecution. Crew would like to triumph over us, but it is our turn to win. But Inspector Chippenfield was wrong in thinking that Crew's presence in court was due to a desire for the humiliation of his rivals. Crew had spent most of the previous night reading and revising his summaries and notes of the Riversbrook case and in minutely reviewing his investigations of it. Over several pipes in the early morning hours he pounded long and deeply on the secret of Sir Horace Viewbanks' murder without finding a solution which satisfactorily accounted for all the strange features of the case. But one thing he felt sure of was that Burchill had not committed the murder. He based that belief partly on the butler's confession and partly on his own discoveries. He believed Hill to be a cunning scoundrel who had overreached the police for some purpose of his own by accusing Burchill and who, to make his story more probable, had even implicated himself in the supposed burglary as a terrorized accomplice. And Crew had been unable to test the butler's story or to find out what game he was playing because of the assiduity with which the principal witness for the prosecution had been nursed by the police from the moment he made his confession. Crew bit hard into his amber mouthpiece in vexation as he recalled the ostrich-like tactics of Inspector Chippenfield. Who, having accepted Hill's story as genuine, had officially balked all his efforts to see the man and question him about it. He had come to court with the object of witnessing Burchill's behavior in the dock and the efforts of any of his criminal friends to communicate with him. As a man who had had considerable experience in criminal trials, he knew the irresistible desire of the criminal in the gallery of the court to encourage the man in the dock to keep up his courage. Communications of this kind had to be made by signs. It was Crew's impression that by watching Burchill in the dock and Burchill's friends in the gallery he might pick up a valuable hint or two. It was also his intention to study closely the defense which counsel for the prisoner intended to put forward. It was therefore with a feeling of mingled annoyance and surprise that Crew, looking down from his point of vantage at the bevy of fashionably dressed ladies in the body of the court, recognized Mrs. Holymead, Mademoiselle Chiron and Ms. Fubanks seated side by side engaged in earnest conversation. Before he could withdraw from their view behind the pillar in front of him, Ms. Fubanks looked up and saw him. She bowed to him in a friendly recognition and Crew saw her whisper to Mrs. Holymead who glanced quickly in his direction and then as quickly averted her gaze. But in that fleeting glance of her beautiful dark eyes Crew detected an expression of fear as though she dreaded his presence and he noted that she shivered slightly as she turned to resume her conversation with Ms. Fubanks. His honor, Mr. Justice Hodson entered and the persons in the court scrambled hurriedly to their feet to pay their tribute of respect to British law as exemplified in the person of a stout red-faced old gentleman wearing a scarlet gown and black sash and intended by four of the sheriffs of London in their fur-trimmed robes. The judge bowed in response and took his seat. The spectators resumed theirs, craning their necks eagerly to look at the accused man, Birchhill, who was brought into the dock by two warders. The work of impaneling a jury commenced and, when it was completed, Mr. Walters KC opened the case for the prosecution. Mr. Walters was a long-winded counsel who had detested the late Mr. Justice Fubanks because of the latter's habit of interrupting the addresses of counsel with the object of inducing them to curtail their remarks. This practice was not only annoying to counsel, who necessarily knew better than a judge what the jury ought to be told, but it also tended to hold counsel up to ridicule in the eyes of ignorant jurymen as a man who could not do his work properly without the watchful correction of the judge. But Mr. Walters, whose legal training had imbued him in a respect for Latin tags, subscribed to the adage, De Mortuus neonissi bonum. Therefore he began his address to the jury with a glowing reference to the loss. He might almost say the irreparable loss which the judiciary had sustained. He would go so far as to say the loss which the nation had sustained by the death, the violent death in short, the murder of an eminent judge of the high court bench, whose clear and vigorous intellect, whose marvelous mastery of illegal principles laid down by the judicial giants of the past, whose inexhaustible knowledge drawn from the storehouses of British law, whose virile interpretations of the principles of British justice, whose unfailing courtesy and consideration to counsel, the memory of which would long be cherished by those who had had the privilege of pleading before him, had made him an acquisition and an ornament to a bench which in the eyes of the nation had always represented and at no time, more than the present, at this point Mr. Walters bowed to the presiding judge. The embodiment of legal knowledge, legal experience, and legal wisdom. After this tribute to the murdered man and the presiding judge, Mr. Walters proceeded to lay the facts of the crime before the jury who had read all about them in the newspapers. With methodical care he built up the case against the accused man, classifying the points of evidence against him in categorical order for the benefit of the jury. The most important witness for the prosecution was a man known as James Hill, who had been in Soho's few banks as employed as a butler. Hill's connection with the prisoner was in some aspects unfortunate for himself, and no doubt counsel for the defense would endeavor to discredit his evidence on that account. But the jury, when they heard the butler tell his story in the witness box, would have little difficulty in coming to the conclusion that the man Hill was the victim of circumstances and his own weakness of temperament. However much they might be disposed to blame him for the course he had pursued, he was innocent of all complicity in his master's death, and had done his best to help the ends of justice by coming forward with a voluntary confession to the police. Mr. Walters made no attempt to conceal or extenuate the black page in Hill's past, but he asked the jury to believe that Hill had bitterly repented of his former crime and would have continued to lead an honest life as Soho's few banks' butler if ill fate had not forged a cruel chain of circumstances to link him to his past life and drag him down by bringing him in contact with the accused man, Birch Hill, whom he had met in prison. Soho's few banks was the self-appointed guardian of a young woman named Doris Fanning, the daughter of a former employee on his country estate who had died leaving her penniless. Soho's had deemed it his duty to bring up the girl and give her a start in life. After educating her in a style suitable to her station, he sent her to London and paid for music lessons for her in order to fit her for a musical career, for which she showed some aptitude. Unfortunately, the young woman had a self-willed and unbalanced temperament and she gave her benefactor much trouble. Soho was more patiently with her until she made the chance acquaintance of Birch Hill and became instantly fascinated by him. The acquaintance speedily drifted into intimacy and the girl became the pliant tool of Birch Hill who acquired an almost magnetic influence over her. As the intimacy progressed, she seemed to have become a willing partner in his criminal schemes. When Soho's few banks heard that the girl had drifted into an association with a criminal like Birch Hill, he endeavored to save her from her folly by remonstrating with her and the girl promised to give up Birch Hill, but did not do so. When Soho's found out that he was being deceived, he was compelled to renounce her. Birch Hill, who had been living on the girl, was furious with anger and he learned that Soho's had cut off the monetary allowance he had been making her and, undiscovering by some means that his former prison associate, Hill, was now the butler. As Soho's few banks' house, he planned his revenge. He sent the girl fanning to Riversbrook with a message to Hill directing him under threaded exposure to see him at the Westminster flat. Hill, who dreaded nothing so much as an exposure of that past life of his, which he hoped was a secret between his master and himself, kept the appointment. Birch Hill told him he intended to rob the judge's house in order to revenge himself on Soho's for cutting off the girl's allowance and he asked Hill to assist him in carrying out the burglary. Hill strenuously demurred at first, but weakly allowed himself to be terrorized into compliance under Birch Hill's death of exposure. Hill's participation in the crime was to be confined to preparing a plan of Riversbrook as a guide for Birch Hill. Birch Hill said nothing about murder at the time, but there is no doubt he contemplated violence when he first spoke to Hill. When Hill, alarmed by his master's return on the actual night for which the burglary had been arranged, hurried across to the flat in the contemplated burglary. Birch Hill obstinately decided to carry out the crime and left the flat with a revolver in his hand, threatening to murder Soho's if he found him. Because of his harsh treatment, as he termed it, of the girl, fanning. Birch Hill left the flat at nine o'clock, continued Mr. Walters, who had now reached the vital facts of the night of the murder. I asked the jury to take careful note of the time and the subsequent times mentioned, and they have an important bearing on the circumstantial evidence against the accused man. He returned, according to Hill's evidence, shortly after midnight. Evidence will be called to show that Birch Hill, or a man answering his description, boarded a tram car at Euston Road at 9.30 p.m. and journeyed in it to Hampstead. He was observed both at Euston Road and the Hampstead terminus and was hired to avoid attention. There were only two other passengers on the top of the car when it left Euston Road. The conductor directed the attention of the driver to his movement, and they both watched him till he disappeared in the direction of the heath. In fairness to the prisoner, it is necessary to point out, however, that neither the conductor nor the driver can identify him positively as the man they had seen on their car that night. But both will swear to their belief Birch Hill is the man. Assuming that it was the prisoner who traveled to Hampstead by the Euston Road tram, a route he would probably prefer because it took him to Hampstead by the most unfrequent way. He would have a distance of nearly a mile to walk across Hampstead heath to Tanton Gardens where Sohorus Few Banks' house was situated. The evidence of the tram man is that he set off to the heath at a very rapid rate. The tram reached Hampstead at four minutes past ten, so that by walking fast it would be possible for a young, energetic man to reach Riversbrook before a quarter to eleven. Another five minutes would see an experienced housebreaker like Birch Hill inside the house. At twenty minutes past eleven a young man named Ryder who had wandered into Tanton Gardens while endeavoring to take a shortcut home heard the sound of a report which at the time he took to be the noise of a door violently slammed coming from the direction of Riversbrook. A few moments afterwards he saw a man climb over the front fence of Riversbrook to the street. He drew back cautiously into the shade of one of the chestnut trees of the street avenue and saw the man plainly as he ran past him. Ryder will swear that that man he saw was Birch Hill. It's a lie, it's a lie. You're trying to hang him, you wicked man. Oh, Fred, Fred! The cry proceeded from the girl Doris Fanning. Her unbalanced temperament had been unable to bear the strain of sitting there and listening to Mr. Walters' cold inexorable construction of a legal chain of evidence against her lover. She rose to her feet shrieking wildly and gesticulating menacingly Mr. Walters. The society ladies turned eagerly in their seats to take in through their learn-yant every detail of the interruption. Remove that woman the judge sternly commanded. Several policemen hastened to her and the girl was partially hustled and partially carried out of the court, shrieking as she went. When the commotion caused by the scene subsided, the judge irritably requested to be informed who the woman was. I don't know, my lord, replied Mr. Walters. Perhaps. He stopped and bent over to Detective Rolf, who was pulling at his gown. Yes, I'm informed by Detective Rolf of Scotland Yard, my lord, that the young woman is a witness in the case. Then why was she permitted to remain in court? asked Sir Henry Hudson angrily. It is a piece of gross carelessness. I do not know, my lord. I was aware she was a witness until this moment, returned Mr. Walters with a discreet glance in the direction of Detective Rolf as an indication to his honor that the judicial storm might safely veer in that direction. Sir Henry took the hint and administered such a stinging review to Detective Rolf that that officer's face took on a much redder tint before it was concluded. Then the judge motioned to Mr. Walters to resume the case. Counsel with his index finger still in the place in his brief where he had been interrupted rose to his feet again and turned to the jury. Birchhill returned to the flat at Westminster shortly after midnight he continued. Hill had been compelled by Birchhill's threats to remain at the flat with the girl while Birchhill visited Riversbrook and the first thing Birchhill told was that the few banks dead in his house when he entered it. On his way back from committing the crime belated caution had probably dictated to Birchhill the wisdom of endeavoring to counteract his previous threat to murder Sir Horace Few Banks. He probably remembered that Hill who had heard the threat was an unwilling participator in the plan for the burglary and might therefore denounce him to the police for the greater crime admitted that he had committed it. In order to guard against this contingency still further Birchhill forced Hill to join in writing a letter to Scotland Yard acquainting him with the murder and the fact that the body was lying in the empty house. Birchhill's object enacting thus was a twofold one. He dared not trust Hill to pretend to discover the body the next day and give information to the police for fear he should not be able sufficient control of himself to convince the detectives that he was wholly ignorant of the crime and he also thought that if Hill had a share in writing the letter he would feel an additional complicity in the crime and keep silence for his own sake. Birchhill was right in his calculations up to a point. Hill was at first too frightened to disclose what he knew but as time went on his affection for his murder master and his desire to bring the murderer to justice overcame his feelings of fear for his own share in bringing about the crime and he went and confessed everything to the police regardless of the consequences that might recoil upon his own head. The case against Birchhill depends largely on Hill's evidence and the jury when they have heard his story in the witness box and bearing in mind the extenuating circumstances of his connection with the crime will have little hesitation in coming to the conclusion that the prisoner in the dock murdered Sir Horace Fubanks. The first witness called was Inspector Seldin who gave evidence as to his visit to Riversbrook shortly before 1 p.m. on the 19th of August as a result of information received and his discovery of the dead body of Sir Horace Fubanks. In the room in which the body was found the position of the body and he identified the blood stained clothes produced by the prosecution as being those in which the dead man was dressed when the body was discovered. In cross examination by Holymead he stated that Sir Horace Fubanks was fully dressed when the body was found. The witness also stated in cross examination that none of the electric lights in the house were burning when the body was discovered. The next witness was Dr. Slingesby the pathological expert from the home office who had made the post-mortem examination and who was much too great a man to be kept waiting while other witnesses of more importance to the case but of less personal consequence went into the box. Dr. Slingesby stated that his examinations had revealed that the death had been caused by a bullet wound which had penetrated the left lung causing internal hemorrhage. Mr. Finnis the junior counsel for the defense suggested to the witness that the wound might have been self-inflicted but Dr. Slingesby permitted himself to be positive that such was not the case. With professional caution he assured Mr. Finnis who briefly cross examined him that it was impossible for him to state how long Sir Horace Fubanks had been dead. In the case of the human body set in from 8 to 10 hours after death and it was between 3 and 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the day the crime was discovered that he first saw the corpse. The body was quite stiff and cold then. Is it not possible for death to have taken place 19 or 20 hours before you saw the body asked Mr. Finnis eagerly quite possible replied Dr. Slingesby. Is it not also possible from the state of the body when you examined it that death took place within 16 hours of your examination of the body asked Mr. Walters as Mr. Finnis sat down with the air of a man who had elicited an important point. Quite possible replied Dr. Slingesby with the prim air of a professional man who valued his reputation too highly to risk it by committing himself to the crime. Dr. Slingesby was allowed to leave the box and Inspector Chippenfield took his place. Inspector Chippenfield did not display any professional reticence about giving his evidence at least not on the surface though he by no means took the court completely into his confidence as to all that had passed between him and Hill. On the other hand he told the judge and jury everything that his professional evidence prompted him as necessary and proper for them to know in order to bring about a conviction. In the course of his evidence he made several attempts to introduce damaging facts as to Birch Hill's past but Mr. Holimi protested to the judge counsel for the defense protested that he had allowed his learned friend in opening the case a great deal of latitude as to the relations which had previously existed between the witness Hill and the prisoner because the defense did not intend to attempt to hide the fact that the prisoner had a criminal record but he had no intention of allowing a police witness to introduce irrelevant matter in order to prejudice the jury against the prisoner. His honor told the witness to confine himself to answering the questions put to him after this rebuke inspector Chippenfield resumed giving evidence. He related what Birch Hill had said when arrested and declared that he was positive that the footprints found outside the kitchen window were made by the boots produced in court which Birch Hill had been wearing at the time he was arrested he produced a gemmy which he had found at Fanning's flat and said that it fitted the marks on the window at Riversbrook which had been forced on the night of the 18th of August. Inspector Chippenfield's evidence was followed by that of the two Tramway employees who declared that to the best of their belief Birch Hill was the man who boarded their tram at half past nine on the night of the 18th of August and rode to the terminus at Hampstead which they reached at 10.04 p.m. Both the witnesses showed proper respect for the law and were obviously relieved when the brief cross examination was over and they were free to go back to their tram car end of chapter 16 Chapter 17 of the Hampstead mystery This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Reading by Lars Rulander The Hampstead mystery by John R. Watson and author Rhys Chapter 17 James Hill called the court crier The butler stepped forward mounted the witness stand and bowed his head differentially towards the judge He was neatly dressed in black and his sandy grey hair was carefully brushed His face was as expressionless as ever but a slight oscillation of the court bible in his right hand as he was sworn indicated that his nerves were not so calm as he strode to appear He looked neither to the right nor left but kept his glance downcast Only once as he stood there waiting to be questioned did he cast a furtive look towards the man whose life hung on his evidence but the malevolent vindictive gay spurchill shot back at him caused him to lower his eyelids instantly He commenced his evidence in a voice so low that Mr. Walters stopped him at the outset and asked him to speak in a louder tone It soon became apparent that his evidence was making a deep impression on the court Sir Henry Hodson listened to him intently and watched him keenly as Hill with impassive countenance and smooth even tones told his strange story of the night of the murder When he had drawn to a conclusion he gave another furtive glance but Burchill was seated with his head bowed down as though tired and with one hand supporting his face Mr. Walters methodically folded up his brief and sat down with a side-long glance in the direction of Mr. Hollamid as he did so Every eye in court was turned on Hollamid as the great K.C. settled his gown on his shoulders and got up to cross-examine the principal crown witness His cross-examination was the admiration of those spectators who sympathizes were on the side of the man in the dock as one of themselves Hill was cross-examined as to the lapse from honesty which had sent him to jail and he was reluctantly forced to admit that so far from the theft being the result of an impulse to save his wife and child his salvation as the counsel for the prosecution had indicated it was the result of the impulse of cupidity He had robbed a master who had trusted him and had treated him with kindness Having extracted this fact in spite of hill's evasion and twistings Hollamid straightened himself to his full height and shaking a warning finger at the witness said that the reason Sir Horace Feubanks engaged you as a butler in his household at Riversbrook was because he knew you to be a man of few scruples who would be willing to do things that a more upright honest man would have objected to That is not true replied Hill Is it not true that your late master frequently entertained women a doubtful character at Riversbrook? Thunder the Casey Hill gasped at the question When he had first heard that his late master's old friend Mr. Hollamid was to appear for Bertil he had immediately come to the conclusion that Mr. Hollamid was taking up the case in order to save Sir Horace's name from exposure by dealing carefully with his private life at Riversbrook but here he was ruthlessly tearing aside the veil of secrecy Hill hesitated he glanced round the curious crowded court and saw the eager glances of the women as they impatiently awaited his reply he hesitated so long that Hollamid repeated the question Women a doubtful character faltered the witness I do not understand you you understand me perfectly well Hill I do not mean women of the streets but women who have no moral reputation to maintain women who do not mind letting confidential servants see that they have no regard for the conventional standard of life I mean witness that your late master entertained at Riversbrook women I will not call them ladies who were not particular at what hour they went home sometimes one or more of them stayed all night and you were entrusted with a confidential task of smuggling them out of the house without other servants knowing of their presence is not that so I I answer the question without a certain witness yes sir there was a slight stir in the body of the court due to the fact that miss few banks and mrs. Hollamid had risen and were making their way to the door the fashionably dressed women in the court stared with much interest at the daughter of the murdered man who most of them knew in order to see how she was taking the disclosures about her dead father's private life and sometimes there were quarrels between your late master in these visitors where they not continued hollamid quarrel sir surely you know that under the influence of wine some people become quarrel some yes sir well did your late masters nocturnal visitors ever become quarrel some sometimes sir in the exercise of your confidential duties did you sometimes see quarrel some ladies of the premises sometimes sir and it was no uncommon thing for them to say things to you about your master a sometimes they didn't care what they said quite so commented council dryly they indulged in threats not all of them replied hill with links saw where the cross examination was tending I do not suggest that all of them did only that the more violent of them did so quite so sir so we may take it that the quarrel between your late master and miss fanning was not the only quarrel of the kind which came under your notice there were not many others said hill it was not the only one persisted council no sir in your evidence in chief you said nothing about miss fanning using threats against your master when you were showing her out no sir she did not use any not in my hearing sir there was a pause at this stage while mr hollermid consulted the notes he had made of mr walters cross examination of the witness what o'clock was it when you left riversbrook on the 18th of august after your master's return from scotland about half past seven sir and what time did sir horrors arrive home about seven o'clock sir what were you doing between seven and seven thirty I unpacked his bags and got his bedroom ready I took him some refreshment up to the library and he told you he wouldn't want you again until the following night about eight o'clock yes sir he said he thought he would be going back to scotland by the night express and I was to get his bag packed and lock up the house you told counsel for the prosecution in the course of your evidence that you were afraid of virtual continued hollermid yes sir were you afraid of physical violence from him or only that he would expose your past servants I was afraid of him both ways said hill was it because of this fear that you made out for him a plan of riversbrook to assist him in the burglary yes sir when did you make out this plan the day after sir horrors left for scotland was that on your first visit to miss fanning's flat in westminster after the prisoner had sent her to riversbrook to tell you that he wanted to see you yes sir did birchill stand over you while you made out this plan yes sir would you know the plan again if you saw it yes sir mr. finnis who had been hiding the plan under the papers before him handed a document up to his chief mr. hollermid unfolded it and with a brief glance at it handed it up to the witness is that the plan he asked hill was somewhat taken aback at the production of the plan it was drawn in ink on a white sheet of paper of full scup size with a slightly bluish tin the paper was by no means clean for birchill had carried it about in his pocket the witness reluctantly admitted that the plan was the one he had given to birchill to his manifest relief counsel asked no further questions about it in a low tone mr. hollermid formally expressed his intention to put the plan in as evidence he handed it to mr. walters who after a close inspection of it passed it along to the judges associate for his honors inspection the rest of hill's cross examination concerned what happened at the flat on the night of the burglary he adhered to the story he had told and could not be shaken in the main points of it but mr. hollermid made some effective use of the discrepancy between the witness's evidence at the inquest as to his movements on the night of the murder and his evidence in court he elicited the fact that the police had discovered his evidence at the inquest was false and had forced him to make confession by threatening to arrest him for the murder mr. hollermid signified that he had nothing further to ask the witness and mr. walters called his last witness a young man named charles rider a resident of liverpool who had spent a weeks holiday in London from the 14th to the 21st of august rider had stayed with some friends at hamston and when making his way home on the night of the 18th of august had walked down tanton gardens in the belief that he was taking a shortcut the time was about 1120 he saw a man running towards him along the footpath from the direction of riversbrook he caught a good glimpse of the man who seemed to be very excited he was sure the prisoner was the man he had seen in cross examination by mr. hollermid he was far less positive in his identification of the prisoner and finally admitted that the man he saw that night might be somebody else who resembled the prisoner in build end of chapter 17 of the hamsted mystery by john watson and ather reese read by lorsch rolander chapter 18 of the hamsted mystery this is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org reading by lorsch rolander the hamsted mystery by john watson and ather reese chapter 18 the second day of the trial began promptly when mr. justus hotzen took his seat mr. hollermid's opening statement to the jury was brief he reminded them that the life of a fellow creature rested on their verdict if there was any doubt in their minds whether the prisoner had fired the shot which kills her horus few banks the prisoner was entitled to a verdict of not guilty it was obligatory on the prosecution to prove guilt beyond all reasonable doubt he submitted that the prosecution had not established their case after hearing the case for the prosecution the jury must have grave doubts as to the guilt of the prisoner and it was his duty as counsel for the prisoner to put before the jury facts which would not only increase their doubts but bring them to the positive conclusion that the prisoner was not guilty he was not going to attempt to deny that the prisoner went to riversbrook on the night of the murder he went there to commit a burglary but so far from hill being terrorized into complicity in that crime it was he who had first suggested it to birchul and had arranged it material evidence on that point would be submitted to the jury hill was a man who was incapable of gratitude his disposition was to bite the hand that fed him after being well treated by sir horus few banks he had made up his mind to rob him as he had robbed his former master lord melhurst he knew that sir horus had quarrelled with this girl fanning because of her association with birchul and he went to birchul and put before him a proposal to rob riversbrook birchul consented to the plan and when on the night of the 18th of august he broke into the house he found the murdered body of sir horus in the library that was the full extent to the prisoner's connection with the crime to the superficial and suspicious mind it might seem an improbable story but to an earnest mind it was a story that carried conviction because of its simple straight awareness its crudity if the jury liked to call it that it lacked the subtlety and the finish of concocted story the murder took place before birchul reached riversbrook on his burglarious errand it is my place added mr. hollameed in concluding his address to convince you that my client is not guilty or in other words to convince that the murder was committed before he reached the house it is only with the greatest reluctance that I take upon myself the responsibility of pointing an accusing finger at another man in crimes of this kind you cannot expect to get anything but circumstantial evidence but there are degrees of circumstantial evidence and my duty to my client lays upon me the obligation of pointing to you that there is one person against whom the existing circumstantial evidence is stronger than it is against my client crew who had secured his former place in the gallery of the court looked down on the speaker he had carefully followed every word of hollameed's address but the concluding portion almost electrified him he flattered himself that he was the only person in court who understood the whole significance of the sonorous sentences with which the famous K.C. concluded his address to the jury as his eyes wandered over the body of the court below crew saw that mrs hollameed and mademoiselle chéran were sitting in one of the back seats but that they were not accompanied by miss few banks it was evident to him by the way in which mrs hollameed followed the proceedings the interest in the case was something far deeper than wifely interest in her husband's connection with it as counsel for the defense leaning forward in her seat with her hands clasped in her lap she listened eagerly to every word during the day his case went back to her at intervals and on several locations he became aware that she had been watching him while he watched her husband the first witness for the defense was doris fanning the drift of her evidence was to exonerate the prisoner at the expense of hill she declared that she had not gone to riversbrook to see hill after the final quarrel with sir horris hill had come to her flat in westminster of his own court and had asked for birchill she went out of the room while they discussed their business but after hill had gone birchill told her that hill had put up a job for him at riversbrook birchill showed her the plan of riversbrook that hill had made and asked her if it was correct as far as she knew yes she was sure she would know the plan again if she saw it the judges associate handed it to mr hollamead who passed it to the witness is this it he asked yes she replied emphatically almost without inspecting it i want you to look at it closely said counsel when birchill showed you the plan immediately after hill's departure what impression did you get regarding it she looked at him blankly i don't understand you she said you can tell the difference between ink that has been newly used and ink that has been on the paper for some days was the ink fresh no it was old ink she said how do you know that because ink doesn't go black till a long while after it is written at least the letters i write don't she shot a veiled conquetish glance at the big kc from under her long eyelashes the kc returned the glance with a genial smile what do you write your letters on miss fanning she almost at the question i use a writing tablet she replied ruled or unruled ruled i couldn't write straight if there weren't lines she smiled again and what color do you think grey rose pink or white paper always white is that all the paper you have at your flat for writing purposes yes then what did bird she'll write on when he wanted to write a letter he used mine are you sure of that yes when he wanted to write a letter he used to ask me for my tablet and an envelope and generally he used to borrow a stamp as well with another conquetish glance look at that plan again said the kc have you ever had paper like it at your flat she shook her head never have you ever seen paper of that kind in birch's procession before he showed you the plan never when he showed you the plan had the paper been folded yes kc took the witness now very much at her ease to the night of the murder she denied strenuously that he'll try to dissuade birchill from carrying out the burglary because surhorus few banks had returned unexpectedly from scotland it was birchill who suggested postponing the burglary until surhorus left but he urged that the original plan should be adhered to he declared that surhorus would remain at home at least a fortnight and perhaps longer his master was a sound sleeper he said and if birchill waited until he went to bed there would be no danger of awakening him she contradicted many details of hill's evidence as to what took place when the prisoner returned from breaking into riversbrook it was untrue she said that there was a spot of blood on birchill's face or that his hands were smeared with blood he was a little bit excited when he returned but after one glass of whiskey he spoke quite calmly of what had happened the next witness was a representative of the firm of Holmes and Jackson paper makers who was handed the plan of riversbrook which hill had drawn he stated that the paper on which the plan was drawn was manufactured by his firm and supplied to a majesty stationery office he identified it by the quality of the paper and the watermark in reply to Mr. Walters the witness was sure that the paper he held in his hand had been manufactured by his firm for the government it was impossible for him to be mistaken other firms might manufacture paper of a somewhat similar quality and tint but it would not be exactly similar besides he identified it by his firm's watermark and he held the plan up to the light and pointed it out to the court counsel for the defence called two more witnesses on this point one to prove that supplies of the paper on which the plan was drawn were issued to legal departments of the government and an elderly man named Cobb Sir Horace Feubanks former tip staff who stated that he took some of the paper in question to riversbrook on Sir Horace's instructions and then to the astonishment of the junior members of the bar who were in court watching his conduct of the case in order to see if they could pick up a few hints he intimidated that his case was closed it seemed to them that the great Casey had put up a very flimsy case for the defence and that in spite of the fact that the prosecutor's case rested mainly on the evidence of a tainted witness Holly Mead would be very hard put to it this man off isn't my learned friend going to call the prisoner suggested Mr. Walters with a cunning design of giving the jury something to think of when they were listening to his learned friend's address it's scarcely necessary said Mr. Holly Mead who saw the trap and replied in a tone which indicated that the matter was not worth a moment's consideration he began his address to the jury emphasising the fact that a fellow creature's life depended on the result of their deliberations the duty that rested upon them of saying whether the prosecution had established beyond all reasonable doubt that the prisoner shot Sir Horace Few Banks was a solemn and impressive one he asked them to consider the case carefully in all its bearings he could not claim for his client that he was a man of spotless reputation the prisoner belonged to a class who earned their living by warring against society but that fact did not make him a murderer on what did the case for the prosecution rest on the evidence of Hill and three other witnesses who on the night of the murder had seen a man somewhat resembling the prisoner in the vicinity of Riversbrook or making towards the vicinity of that house but so far from wishing to emphasise the weakness of identification he admitted that the prisoner went to Riversbrook with the intention of committing a burglary we admit that he went there the night Sir Horace Few Banks returned from Scotland he continued cancer for the prosecution will make the most of those admissions in the course of its address to you but the point to which I wish to direct your attention is that we make this damaging admission so that you may decide between the prisoner and the man who led him into a trap by instigating the burglary now we come to the evidence of Hill I know you will not convict a man of murder on the unsupported evidence of a fell of criminal but I want to point out to you that even if Hill's evidence were true in every detail even if Hill had not swerved one yota from the truth there is nothing in his evidence to lead to the positive conclusion that the prisoner murdered Hill's master Sir Horace Few Banks what does Hill's evidence against the prisoner amount to let us accept it for the moment as absolutely true later on I will show you plainly that the man is a liar that he is a cunning scoundrel and that his evidence is utterly unreliable but accepting for the moment his evidence is true the case against the prisoner amounts to this by threats of exposure Birchhill compelled Hill to consent to Riversbrook being robbed while the owner was in Scotland Hill's complicity according to his own story extend only to supplying a plan of the house and giving Birchhill some information as to where various articles of values would be found on the 18th of August Hill went to Riversbrook to see that everything was in order for the burglary that night while he was there his master returned unexpectedly Hill then went to the flat in Westminster and told Birchhill that Sir Horace had returned his own story is that he tried to get Birchhill to abandon the idea of the burglary and drinking swore that he would carry out the plan and that if he came across Sir Horace he would shoot him what grudge had Birchhill against Sir Horace few banks the fact that Sir Horace had discarded the woman fanning because of her association with Birchhill gentlemen does a man commit a murder for a thing of that kind let us test the credibility of the man who has tried to swear the life of the prisoner you saw him in the witness box and I have no doubt formed your own conclusion as to the type of man he is did he strike you as a man who would stand by the truth above all things or a man who would lie persistently in order to save his own skin that the man cannot be believed even when on his oath has been publicly demonstrated in the courts of the land the story told the court yesterday in the witness box of his movements of the day of the murder is quite different to the story told on his oath at the inquest on the body of Sir Horace few banks let me read to you the evidence he gave at the inquest Mr. Finnis handed to his leader a copy of Hill's evidence at the inquest and Mr. Hollamid read it out to the jury he then read out a short-hand writer's account of Hill's evidence on the previous day which of these accounts are we to believe he said turning to the jury the latter one the prosecution says but why I ask because it tallies for the statement exhorted from Hill by the police under the threat of charging him with a murder does that make it more credible is a man like Hill is placed in that position likely to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth it is an insult to the jury as men of intelligence to ask you to believe Hill's evidence I do not ask you to believe the story told at the inquest in preference to the story he told here in the witness box yesterday I ask you to regard both stories as the evidence of a man who is too deeply educated in this crime to be able to speak the truth I will prove to you gentlemen of the jury that the man is a criminal by instinct and a liar by necessity the necessity of saving his own skin he robbed his former master Lord Melhurst and he planned to rob his late master Sir Horace Fewbanks but knowing that his former crime when the police came to investigate a robbery at Riversbrook he was too cunning to rob Riversbrook himself he looked about him for an accomplice and he selected Birchill you heard him say in the witness box that he drew Birchill a plan of Riversbrook the plan I now hold in my hand I will ask you to inspect the plan closely Hill told us that Birchill terrorized him into drawing this plan by threats of exposure exposure of what his master, Sir Horace Fewbanks knew he had been in jail so what had he to fear from exposure his proper course if he were an honest man would have been to tell his master that Birchill was planning to rob the house and had endeavoured to draw him into the crime he did nothing of the kind for the simple reason that the plan to rob Riversbrook was his own and not Birchills now gentlemen you have all seen the plan which this tainted witness declares was drawn by him because Birchill terrorized him and stood over him while he drew it is there anything in that plan to suggest that it was drawn by man in a state of a nervous terror why the lines are as firmly drawn as if they had been made by an architect working at his leisure in his office was this plan drawn by a man in a state of nervous terror with his tormentor standing threateningly over him or was it drawn by a man working at leisure free not only from terror but from interruption the answer to that question is applied in the evidence given by three witnesses as to the paper used Hill says the plan was drawn at the flat two other witnesses swore that it was paper supplied exclusively for government departments and another witness swore that he had taken such paper to Riversbrook for the use of Sir Horace Fewbanks who like every one of his majesty's judges found it necessary to do some of his judicial work at home what is the inevitable inference? I ask you if you can have any doubt after looking at that plan and after hearing the evidence giving today about the paper that a proposal to Robb Riversbrook was Hill's own proposal that Hill drew a plan of the house on paper he abstracted from his master's desk paper which this confidential servant was apparently in the habit of using for private purposes and that he gave it to Burchill when he asked Burchill to join him in the crime when one of the main features of Hill's story is proved to be false how can you believe any of the rest? in the light in which we now see him with his cunning exposed what significance is to be attached to his statement that Burchill in his presence threatened to shoot Sir Horace Fewbanks the master of Riversbrook interfered with him such a threat was not made but why should Hill say it was made for the same reason that he lied about the plan to save his own skin I submit to you gentlemen that when Hill went to see Burchill at the Westminster flat on the night arranged for the burglary Sir Horace Fewbanks was dead murdered and that Hill knew he was murdered his own story is that he tried to persuade Burchill to abandon the proposed burglary but according to the witness fanning he did all in his power to induce Burchill to carry out the original plan when he saw that Burchill was disposed to postpone the burglary in view of the return of the master of Riversbrook why did he want Burchill to carry out the burglary because he knew that his master's murdered body was being in the house and he wanted to be in the position to produce evidence against Burchill as the murderer if he found himself in a tight corner as the result of the subsequent investigation of the police remember that the body of the victim was fully dressed when it was discovered by the police and that none of the electric lights were burning does not that prove conclusively that the murder was not committed by Burchill that Sir Horace Few Banks was dead when Burchill broke into the house Burchill, an experienced criminal would not break into the house while there was any body moving about he would wait until the house was in darkness and the inmates asleep to do otherwise would increase enormously the risks of capture but the fact that the police found the body of the murdered man fully dressed shows that Sir Horace was murdered before he went to bed before Burchill broke into the house it shows conclusively that the murder was committed before dusk your only alternatives to that conclusion are that the murdered man went to bed with his clothes on or that the murderer broke into the house before Sir Horace had gone to bed and after killing Sir Horace went coolly around the house turning out the lights instead of fleeing in terror at his stead without even waiting to collect any booty I am sure that as reasonable men you will reject both these alternatives as absurd no evidence has been produced to show that anything has been stolen from the place it was evidently the theory of the prosecution that the prisoner after shooting Sir Horace had fled the evidence of Hill was that he arrived at Fanning's flat in a state of great excitement his excitement would be consistent with his story of having discovered the body of a murdered man but not consistent with the conduct of a cold blooded calculating murderer who had broken into the house before Sir Horace had undressed for bed and had then gone round the house turning out the lights without having any apparent object in doing so gentlemen I think you will admit that the crime must have been committed before dusk before any lights were turned on I do not ask you to say that Hill is guilty the responsibility of saying what man other than the prisoner shot Sir Horace few banks does not rest with you but I do urge you to ask yourselves whether as between Hill and the prisoner the probability of guilt is not on the side of this witness who lied to the coroner's court about his movements on the night of the murder and who lied to this court about the plan for the robbery of Riversbrook I have shown you that Hill was the mastermind in planning the burglary and that being so did not Burchill have consented to the postponement of the burglary if Hill had urged him to do so when he visited the flat after the unexpected return of the master of Riversbrook is not the evidence of the witness fanning that Hill urged Burchill to carry out the burglary after Sir Horace had gone to sleep more credible than Hill's statement that he endeavored to induce Burchill to abandon the proposed crime knowing what you know of Hill's past as a man who will rob his master knowing that he attempted to deceive you with regard to this plan of Riversbrook in order that you might play your part in his cunning scheme I urge you to ask yourselves whether it is not more probable that Hill fired the shot which kills Sir Horace few banks then that the prisoner did so not extremely probable that the unexpected return of Sir Horace upset Hill who was giving a final look around the house before the burglary took place that instead of answering his master with a suave obsequious humility of the well trained servant he revealed the baffled ferocity of a criminal whose carefully arranged plan seemed to have miscarried that his master angrily rebuked him and Hill losing control of himself sprang at Sir Horace and the struggle ended with Hill drawing a revolver and shooting his master the rest of the story from that point can be constructed without difficulty the murderer's first thought was to divert suspicion from himself and the best way to do that was to divert suspicion elsewhere he locked up the house and went to see Burchill he urged Burchill to break into Riversbrook in which the dead body of the murdered man lay it is true that he need not have told Burchill that Sir Horace had returned unexpectedly but his object in doing so was to make Burchill's search about the house until he inadvertently stumbled across the dead body had Burchill been under the impression that he had broken into an entirely empty house he would have collected the valuables and might not have entered the library in which the dead body lay it was necessary for Hill's purpose that Burchill should come across the corpse then he would be vitally interested in diverting suspicion from himself Burchill and that is why he cunningly revealed to Burchill that Sir Horace had returned I put it to the jury that such is a more probable explanation of how Sir Horace met his death than that he was shot down by Burchill I ask you again to remember that the body was fully dressed when it was found by the police I put it to you that in this matter the prisoner walked into a trap prepared by his more cunning fellow criminal I urge you with all the earnestness it is possible for a man to use when the life of a fellow creature is at stake not to be led into a trap not to play the part this cunning criminal Hill has designed for you in the sacrifice of the life of an innocent man for the purpose of saving himself from his just desserts looking at the whole case as you will not fail to do with the breadth of view of experienced men of the world with some knowledge of the working of human nature with the natural horror of the depth of cunning of which some natures are capable with the deep sense of the solemn responsibility for a human life upon you I confidently appeal to you to say that the prisoner was not the man who shot Sir Horace few banks and to bring in a verdict of not guilty a short discussion arose between the bench and bar on the question of adjourning the court or continuing the case in the hope of finishing it in a few hours Sir Henry Hodson wanted to finish the case that night but counsel for the prosecution intimidated that his address to the jury would take nearly two hours as it was then nearly five o'clock and his honour had to sum up before the jury could retire it was hardly to be hoped that the case could be finished that night but the jury might be some time in arriving at a verdict his honour decided to adjourn the court and finish the case next day End of Chapter 18 of The Hamstered Mystery by John Watson and Arthur Rees Read by Lars Rulander