“A drum, if it please your honor,” corrected Mr. Riggsley, bowing deeply.
The court frowned heavily as if the disclosure did not please him a bit, and motioned for the witness to proceed.
Much elated with the effect of her statement the housekeeper eagerly added,
“Before I could say anything, he gave the drum several loud taps and explained that was the signal I was to always answer. Then he called in other servants and instructed each as to what signals he or she was to heed.”
“Did he use the drum, as you’ve described, up to and after the time the will was drawn up?”
“He did,” replied the witness, whereat Mr. Riggsley announced he had no further questions.
Mr. Butterworth, after whispering briefly with his assistant, took up the cross-examination, first asking,
“For all you know to the contrary, witness, Professor Quell was at the junction the night your master sent a rig for him?”
“The man didn’t bring him back and said he wasn’t there,” stiffly answered the witness.
“But for all you know he might have been there that night?” persisted Mr. Butterworth.
“I would like to ask counsel what he means by this line of inquiry?” warmly demanded Mr. Riggsley. “His questions smack of the unwholesome and constitute a veiled attack on the integrity of my client.”
“I make no veiled attacks, sir!” hotly rejoined Mr. Butterworth. “But I openly aver that on the afternoon before Christmas Day Reuben Asher received a telephone communication from the junction, the speaker purporting to be his nephew and asking that the tandem rig, wheels and all, be sent, as a good joke on a friend who was visiting in this country for the first time.”
Pounding the table vehemently, Mr. Riggsley declared,
“This is an insult, your honor! I demand that counsel produce his witnesses to substantiate his statement, or else withdraw it.”
“Do you expect to offer proof in this connection?” severely inquired the court, upon whom the contestant’s grisly beard had made a favorable impression.
Mr. Butterworth sighed and said,
“The telephone operator who was on duty at the junction that day has disappeared, and I have been unable to locate him. He has vanished like the stableman.”
As he said the last he turned and smiled grimly into the red face of his adversary.
“Your honor, this — this is an infamous innuendo!” choked counsel. “He is intimating that I have spirited a witness away. I demand that he retract his words.”
“Surely I am not in fault for stating a simple fact,” softly said Mr. Butterworth. “The operator has disappeared; so has the stableman!”
“Gentlemen, we’ll pass on to the facts connected with this case,” uneasily warned the court.
Mr. Butterworth turned to the witness and gravely asked,
“Isn’t it a fact that on the day he sent the stableman to the junction he had a telephone conversation with someone? On your oath, yes or no.”
Before Mr. Riggsley could frame any objection, the witness wilted perceptibly and replied in the affirmative.
“And isn’t it a fact,” thundered the old lawyer, shaking an admonitory finger at the perturbed witness, “that you overheard his end of the conversation?”
“I didn’t!” loudly denied the witness.
“And didn’t he say he would send the car and three horses because he agreed it would be a good joke on the newcomer, leading him to believe that wheels were used the year round in the Asher neighborhood?”
“No, he didn’t!” warmly replied the witness.
“But how do you know he didn’t if you didn’t hear any of the conversation?” asked the old lawyer, dropping his voice to a gentle key.
“Well, because... because I don’t believe he did,” faltered the witness. “That’s better, although it’s immaterial,” smiled Mr. Butterworth. “Now for the drum. Don’t you know that Mr. Asher was passionately fond of music, that he played the snare-drum in his younger days, and even in after years that he spent much time rehearsing with the village band?”
“I knew he was fond of music,” admitted the witness after some hesitation.
“And don’t you know that Professor Quell, his nephew, brought him the drum as a Christmas present and suggested to him that he use it in summoning the servants instead of ringing the bell?”
“Your honor,” broke in Mr. Riggsley in his most dramatic voice, “I resent this cowardly attack upon my client. Counsel practically charges him with plotting to gain possession of this property, whereas he appears here only to establish his rights against this young woman, who, tempted by the bait of gold—”
“We mask none of our charges, your honor!” exploded Mr. Butterworth. “We openly assert that Reuben N. Asher was surrounded by oddities and eccentricities by that person who hoped to profit by his seemingly irrational conduct and gain control of this estate! We insist that the testator never displayed the least trace of irrationality except after some visit from his loving nephew, and that his intellect was as clear as mine when he did those things which the servants and outsiders, not knowing what had prompted him, construed as symptoms of a failing mind.”
“This is strong language, gentlemen,” sternly cried the court, pounding his gavel loudly. “I insist that you abandon this unworthy exhibition of temper and proceed with the hearing.”
As the old lawyer took his seat, Mr. Riggsley, now angry in earnest, expressed a desire to put another question to the witness.
“Tell us about the letter, Miss Tubbs.”
“One day I found him in tears, holding a piece of paper in his hand. He said he had just got word from a hospital that his niece was there, seriously injured. I took the paper from his hand, and it was blank! There wasn’t a word on it. I showed it to him and he was greatly upset, but insisted he had just read it.”
“Would you like to question the witness further?” jeered Mr. Riggsley.
“No,” slowly replied Mr. Butterworth, “but I am very glad to receive the last bit of information. However, I suppose it would be useless to ask the witness if she believes that an expert chemist could prepare a paper, or an ink, so that a written communication would be but transient in its legibility if exposed to the light.”
“We rest our case, your honor,” said Mr. Riggsley.
“I ask for an adjournment until to-morrow, when I will call our principal witness, Dr. Elisha W. Pinkey, who is now out of town and will not return till to-night,” said Mr. Butterworth.
“Court will take a recess till to-morrow morning,” announced the Surrogate.
II
It was generally believed by those who had followed the evidence that the calling of Dr. Pinkey was the pivotal point in the case. Miss Asher would win or lose as the result of his testimony. Dr. Pinkey was celebrated the length of the land as an alienist, and his testimony had been determinative in many a similar contest. It was obvious that Mr. Butterworth would be unable to substantiate his charges that there had been a plot to surround the decedent with every semblance of mental weakness, because of the disappearance of two or more witnesses.
And while the old lawyer had cleverly combated the various points scored by his opponent, he had offered no corroboration of his suspicions. But if the alienist took the stand and came out flat-footed in favor of the proponent, the contestant would be hard-put to maintain any advantage accruing to him through the recitals of the domestics. For Dr. Pinkey was one whose word could not be impeached and whose opinion could not be purchased.
Ordinarily Mr. Butterworth and his taciturn assistant would have relied implicitly upon this witness and would have considered all that had gone before as so much skirmishing, if it had not been for the deportment of Mr. Riggsley at the opening of court in the morning. The contestant’s counsel moved to and fro inside the enclosure continuously, yet his whole bearing was one of exulting expectancy rather than of uneasiness. The founder of the Bureau read his mood in a glance, and nodded shortly when Jethuel whispered,