‘But then you went backstage.’
‘Yes. I realised that we had been witnessing an unrehearsed effect—’
‘How did you know that?’
‘I had been present at one of the rehearsals. I wanted to find out whether the actor who had been standing on the cart had suffered injury.’
‘And he had, of course.’
‘Yes, indeed. He was dead within moments of my arrival.’
‘Further medical evidence indicates that he died of cerebral suboxia. Would you agree?’
‘Certainly, although I think, in any case, he might have died of shock.’
‘As the doctor first on the scene of the accident, you will be required to give evidence at the inquest.’
The next persons to be questioned were the two students who had been in charge of the cart.
‘Did you not realise the possible danger of slipping a running noose over a pinioned and blindfolded man’s head?’
‘We only did what the stage manager had told us to do. We’d never done the job before. We didn’t know it ought to have been just a loop and not a running noose. Somebody boobed, but it wasn’t us.’
‘You put the white hood over the actor’s head, pinioned his arms behind his back and adjusted the rope around his neck. What else did you do?’
‘We held on to the cart and helped him mount.’
‘Why did you need to hold on?’
‘Well, we didn’t really think we needed to, because we’d been along to make sure the cart was securely fastened.’
‘And was it?’
‘Well, it seemed to be, but we weren’t asked to test the fastenings. They looked all right.’
‘So why did you hold on to the cart?’
‘Well, rope gives a bit when you put any strain on it, and the cart wobbled a bit when he mounted it.’
‘And after he had mounted it?’
‘We left the stage, as we’d been told to do.’
‘Where did you go?’
‘Oh, well, over the road to get a quick one before the pub closed. When we came back to help with the clearing up, there was all this schemozzle – people talking, girls crying and the poor chap done for.’
That seemed to be all from the two students. The police then turned their attention to Ernest Farrow.
‘Wasn’t it a risky thing to entrust the safety precautions to two inexperienced students, Mr Farrow?’
‘But I didn’t!’ exclaimed Ernest, too indignant at this suggestion to feel alarmed by the presence of police. ‘I never liked that cart and the noose. The opera doesn’t call for it and I’ve always been against any tampering with the text. Still, the producer wanted it that way, so, as stage manager, I was bound to carry out his orders.’
‘So you really tested the safety measures yourself?’
‘Certainly I did. The cord which anchored the cart was perfectly secure. The person to blame for this regrettable affair is the practical joker who hid our wedges and untied the cord which fastened the cart to the back of the stage. I only hope his conscience is giving him hell. All the same, I can’t understand what could have happened. The wedges were only an extra precaution, after all. We had held more than one rehearsal without them, and the rake of the stage isn’t enough to send the cart careering away like that.’
‘Why, then, did you decide to use them?’
‘One of the girls – the ladies – got nervous, so I had them made just to pacify her.’
‘But at that last performance they were missing?’
‘Yes. We couldn’t hold up the opera looking for them, so we carried on, but I assure you, Detective-Superintendent, that the cart was perfectly safe when I left it. I secured it myself and inspected my fastenings just before I had to go on in front of the curtain for my last bit of dialogue.’
‘The cord was knotted to secure it?’
‘Certainly.’
‘Are you an expert on knots, Mr Farrow?’
‘I wouldn’t claim that, but I was a Scout and knowing about knots was part of Scout training.’
‘So what kind of knot did you use to secure the cart?’
‘The same as I would use to secure a boat – a round turn and two half-hitches. You can’t have anything much more secure than that.’
‘What, in your opinion, then, caused this fastening to come undone and release the cart?’
‘Human agency, as I said, Detective-Superintendent. A stupid, thoughtless, pinheaded practical joke by one of the students. I only wish Denbigh could find out which one.’
‘We’ve inspected the stage, sir. As you say, it slants gently down towards the footlights. Is that usual?’
‘Yes, I think so. It gives a better view of the people coming on-stage from near the back.’
‘Is the stage at the College where, I understand, the earlier rehearsals took place, similarly tilted?’
‘No. It’s just a flat platform. It’s not the College stage; just a big dais in the music room.’
‘So a student might not have realised the danger at the town hall. Thank you, sir. I think that’s all. Oh, one more thing.’
‘Yes? I may tell you, Detective-Superintendent, that the thriller programmes put out by the BBC have familiarised me with that particular gambit.’
‘Sir?’
‘This business of pretending you’ve finished with a witness and then suddenly throwing a question at him, thinking him to have been disarmed.’
‘Oh, dear me, sir, we don’t work along those sort of lines, I assure you. Still, if you feel like that, I will save my question for another time.’
‘No, no. Out with it, please. I am not a nervous man, but I dislike being left on tenter-hooks.’
‘Very well, sir. You are an officer of your operatic society, I believe?’
‘I’m the honorary treasurer, yes.’
‘I notice that you are inclined to place the blame for what has occurred on the College, sir. I suppose you’re quite sure none of your members might have had a spite against the gentleman?’
‘Enough to murder him? Good heavens, no, of course nobody has!’
‘I had no thought of murder in mind, sir, but, suppose the accident had not ended fatally, could it not have made this Mr Crashaw look rather ridiculous, with his cart running away from him and he left hanging on to the backdrop, or something of that sort?’
‘The cast would know how dangerous that would be,’ said Ernest, after a pause for thought. ‘His hands weren’t really tied, of course – the bonds were just looped over – but even so, taken by surprise, he might not have had time to release himself and clutch at the halter round his neck to save himself from strangulation. Oh, and that’s another thing! That halter was never meant to have a slip-knot. Everybody in the cast knew that, and we are all mature, responsible people, all old enough to know better than to play stupid practical jokes such as changing a fixed loop into a running noose.’
‘Even the schoolboy, Thomas Blaine, sir?’
‘I assure you, my dear chap,’ said Dr Philip Denbigh, ‘that my students are not involved. I have instituted, in collaboration with the principal of the College, the senior staff and the head students, man and girl, the strictest and closest enquiries. You yourself have done the same. There is no student who was present at the performance who cannot be accounted for by witnesses. Apart from that, the students in question are third years. They have sat their final examinations and are intending to teach children. They all know better than to play dangerous practical jokes, I do assure you.’
‘Mr Farrow tells me the same about his members. Your students are young and high-spirited, though, sir, wouldn’t you agree?’
‘Certainly they are, but they are not dangerous lunatics, Superintendent.’
‘One or other of them took the wheels off that cart at the dress rehearsal, sir.’
‘You have no proof of that.’