The Judas Window

'No, I don't know,' he replied clearly.

Silence.

'You don't know? But there was a reason, wasn't there, why this mistake might have occurred?' Silence.

'There was a reason, wasn't there, why the deceased may have disliked Captain Answell, and wished to "settle his hash"?'

Silence.

'Was it because -?'

'No, Sir Henry,' interposed the judge into that tightening strain, 'we cannot let you lead the witness any further.'

H.M. bowed, and leaned his weight on his fists. He clearly saw that it was useless to go on with this. All sorts of speculations must have been buzzing soundlessly in the court, behind those impassive faces banked up round us. The first thing which occurred to me was that it almost certainly concerned Mary Hume. Suppose, for instance, that there had been an affair of striking proportions between Mary Hume and the penniless Captain Answell? And suppose that the practical Avory Hume meant to cut it through to the core before it spoiled a good marriage? It fitted every circumstance; and yet would the prisoner have put his neck in a rope rather than acknowledge it? This was incredible. Let us face it sensibly: it does not happen nowadays. It is carrying chivalry too far. There must be some other reason which concerned Mary Hume-but what it was none of us, I think, then guessed. When we did learn, we understood.

Presently H.M. relinquished his witness, and the formidable Sir Walter Storm rose to cross-examine. For a moment he did not speak. Then in a tone of calm and detached contempt, he threw out one question.

'Have you made up your mind whether or not you are guilty?'

There are certain tones you must not take with any., man, even when he is helpless. What nothing else could do, this did. Answell pulled up his head. Across the well of the court he looked the Attorney-General in the eye.

'That is like asking: "Have you stopped cheating at poker?"'

'It would be irrelevant to question you about your habits with cards, Mr Answell. Just oblige me by answering my questions,' said the other. 'Are you guilty or not guilty?'

'I did not do it.'

'Very well. I take it that your hearing is normally acute?' 'Yes.'

'If I say to you: "Caplon Answell," and then, "Captain Answell" - even in spite of all the unfortunate noise going on in this court - you will be able to distinguish between the two?'

At the solicitors' table Reginald Answell smiled slightly and turned his eyes round. What impression all this had made on him it was impossible to say.

'Please speak up. I take it that you do not have periodic fits of deafness?'

'No. But as it happens, I did not pay much attention at the time. I was looking at a paper. I picked up the phone with the other hand, and I did not give it close attention until I heard Mr Hume's name.'

'But you heard his name well enough?'

'Yes.'

'I have here your statement, exhibit 31. Regarding this theory that the deceased may have said "Captain Answell" rather than "Caplon Answell" - did you mention this to the police?'

'No.'

'Although you tell us that it occurred to you as early as the night of the murder?'

1 did not think seriously of it at the time.'

'What made you think more seriously of it later?'

'Well - I got to thinking it over.'

'Did you mention it when you were before the magistrates?"

'No.’

'What I am endeavouring to get at is this: When did such an idea first crystallize in your mind?' ‘I don't remember.'

'What caused it to crystallize in your mind, then? Do you remember that? No? In short, can you give one good and solid reason for this whole extraordinary notion of yours?'

'Yes, I can,' shouted the witness, bedevilled out of his torpor. His face was flushed; he looked, for the first time, natural and human.

'Very well; what reason?'

‘I knew that Mary had been very friendly with Reg before we met; it was Reg who introduced me to her, at the Stonemans' -'

'Oh?' enquired Sir Walter, with rich suavity. 'Are you suggesting that you believed there had been anything improper in their relations?'

'No. Not exactly. That is -'

'Had you any reason to suspect anything improper in their relations?' 'No.'

Sir Walter tilted back his head, and seemed to be massaging his face with one hand as though to get curious ideas in order.

'Tell me, then, whether I correctly state the various suggestions you have made. Miss Hume was friendly with Captain Answell, there being nothing to which anyone could take exception. Because of this, the eminently reasonable Mr Hume conceives a violent dislike of Captain Answell and resolves suddenly to "settle his hash". He telephones to Captain Answell, but the message is intercepted by you under the mistaken impression that it is for you. You go unarmed to Mr Hume's house, where he gives you a drink of drugged whisky in the belief that you are Captain Answell. While you are unconscious, someone places Captain Answell's pistol in your pocket and (as I think you have told my learned friend) employs his time in pouring mint-extract down your throat. When you awake, your finger-prints are found on an arrow which you have not touched, and the whisky has flown back into a decanter without finger-prints. Have I correctly stated your position in the matter? Thank you. Can you reasonably expect the jury to believe it?'

There was a silence. Answell put his hands on his hips and glanced round the court. Then he spoke in a natural, off-hand tone. He said:

'So help me, by this time I don't expect anybody to believe anything. If you think everything a person does in life is governed by some reason, just try standing where I am for a while and see how you like listening to yourself.'

A sharp rebuke from the bench cut him short; but his nervousness had been conquered and the glazed fixity was gone from his eyes.

'I see,' intoned Sir Walter imperturbably. 'Do you next suggest that no reason governs any of your own actions?'

'I always thought it did.'

'Did reason govern your actions on the night of January 4th?'

'Yes. I kept my mouth shut when they were talking to me as you are now.'

It earned another reproof from the bench but Answell was making a better impression here than under chief examination. The good impression was quite irrational, for Sir Walter proceeded to tie him into such knots that probably not three people in court believed a word he said. But - after he had let H.M. down badly - there it was. I wondered whether the old man had arranged this to happen exactly as it did.

'You have told us that the reason why you refused to remove your overcoat, and spoke to one witness in a tone that has been described as savage, was because you did not wish to "look like a damned fool". Is that correct?'

'Yes.'

'Did you think that you would look more like a damned fool with your overcoat off than with it on?'

'Yes. No. I mean -'

'What precisely did you mean?'

'It was the way I felt, that's all.'

'I put it to you that the reason why you did not remove that coat was that you did not wish anyone to notice the bulge of the pistol in your hip pocket?'

'No. I never thought of that.'

'You never thought of what? Of the pistol in your pocket?'

'Yes. That is, there was no pistol in my pocket.' 'Now, I call your attention again to the statement you made to the police on the night of January 4th. Are you aware that the suggestions you have made to-day directly contradict this statement you gave to the police?'

Answell drew back, fidgeting again with his tie. 'No, I do not follow that.'

'Let me read you a few of them,' said Sir Walter, with the same unruffled heaviness.' "I went to his house," you say, "at six-ten. He greeted me with complete friendliness." You now imply that his attitude was the reverse of friendly, do you not?'