The Judas Window

'Tell me: did you go down to that shed on the morning of Sunday, January 5th, the day after the murder?'

'Yes, sir. I know it was Sunday, but even so, considering -'

'Did you notice anything different in the shed?'

'I did, sir. Somebody'd been at that tool-box, or what I call a tool-box. It's directly under the bench, you see, sir; and there's shavings and dust (falls on it, like a coating, you see, sir; and so if you loo'k at it you can tell right away, without thinking anything of it, if someone has been at it.'

'Did you look in the box?'

'Yes, sir, of course. And one of the cross-bows were not there.'

'What'd you do when you found this out?'

'Well, sir, of course I spoke to Miss Mary about it; but she said not to bother about such things, considering; and so I didn't.'

'Could you identify that cross bow, if you saw it again?' 'I could, sir.'

From his own hidden lair (which he kept jealously guarded) H.M. made a gesture to Lollypop. There was produced a weapon very similar in appearance to the cross-bow H.M. had used yesterday for the purposes of illustration. It was perhaps not quite so long, and had a broader head; steel studs were set in a line down the stock, and there was a little silver plate let into it.

'Is this, the cross-bow?' said; H.M.

'That's it; yes, sir. Here's even Mr Hume's name engraved on the little plate.'

'Look at the drum of the windlass there, where you'll see the teeth. Just tell me if there's somethin' caught in there - ah, you got itl Take it out. Hold it over so the jury can see. What is it?' j

'It's a bit of feather, sir, blue feather.'

Sir Walter' Storm was on 'his feet. He was not amused now; only grave, heavy and polite.

'My lord, are we to assume that this is being suggested as the mysterious piece of feather about which so many questions have been asked?’

'Only a part of it, milord,' grunted H.M. 'If it's examined, we'll see that there's still a little bit of it missin’. Not much. Only a piece about a quarter by half an inch square. But enough. That, we're suggestin', is the second piece. There are three of them. One's yet to come.' After the amenities, he turned back to the witness. 'Could you say definitely whether or not the piece you've got in your hand came off that broken guide-feather on the arrow?'

'I think I could, sir,' said the witness, and blinked.

'Just look at it, then, and tell us.'

While Shanks screwed up his eyes and hunched his shoulders over it, therewas a sound of shuffling or sliding in court. People were frying surreptitiously to rise and get a look. The prisoner, his face sharper now and less muddled, was also staring at it; but he seemed as puzzled as anyone else.

'Ah, this is right, sir,' declared Shanks. 'It come off here.'

'You're sure of that, now? I mean, one part of a broken feather might be deceptive, mightn't it? Even if it's a goose-feather, and even if it's got a special kind of dye on it, can you still identify it as comin' from that particular arrow?'

'This one I can; yes, indeed, yes. I put on this dye myself. I put it on with a brush, like paint. That's what I meant by saying it fitted. There's a slip in the paint here that makes a lighter mark in the blue like a question-mark. You can see the upper part of the question-mark, but the little dot and part of the tail I don't see ...'

"Would you swear,' said H.M. very gently, 'would you swear that the part of feather you see stickin' in that crossbow came from the feather on the arrow in front of you?'

'I would indeed, sir.'

'For the moment,' said H.M., 'that's all.'

The Attorney-General got up with a suavity in which there was some impatience. His eye evidently made Shanks nervous.

'The arrow you have there bears the date 1934, I think. Does that mean you prepared the arrow, or dyed it, in 1934?.

'Yes, sir. About the spring, it would be.'

'Have you ever seen it since, close enough to examine it? What I mean is this: After winning the annual wardmote in 1934, Mr Hume hung that arrow on the wall of his study?'

'Yes, sir.'

'During all that time since, have you ever been close enough to examine it since?'

'No, sir, not until that gentleman' - he nodded towards H.M. - 'asked me to look at it a month ago.'

'Oh I But from 1934 until then you had not actually looked at the arrow?'

'That's so, sir.'

'During that time you must, I presume, have handled and prepared a good many arrows for Mr Hume?' 'Yes, sir.'

'Hundreds, should you say?'

'Well, sir, I shouldn't quite like to go as far as that.' Just try to give an approximate number. Would it be fair to say that you had handled or prepared over a hundred arrows?'

‘Yes, sir, it might be that. They use an awful lot.'

'I see. They use "an awful lot". Do you tell us, then, that out of over a hundred arrows, over a space of years, you can infallibly identify one arrow on which you put dye in 1934? I remind you that you are upon oath.'

At this tremendous reminder, the witness cast an eye up at the public gallery as though for support. 'Well, sir, you see, it's my job -'

'Please answer the question. Out of over a hundred arrows, over a space of years, can you infallibly identify one on which you put dye in 1934?'

'I shouldn't like to say, sir, may I go to he - may I be - that is, to say everything should happen to me -'

'Very well,' said the Attorney-General, who had got his effect. 'Now -'

'But I'm sure of it just the same, mind I'

'Though you cannot swear to it. I see. Now,' continued the other, picking up some flimsy typewritten sheets, T have here a copy of the prisoner's statement to the police. (Please hand this across to the witness.) Will you take that statement, Mr Shanks, and read out the first paragraph for us?'

Shanks, startled, took the paper with an automatic gesture. First he blinked at it in the same doubtful way he had shown before. Then he began to fumble in his pockets, without apparent result while the delay he was giving the court evidently preyed worse and worse on his mind, until such a gigantic pause upset him completely.

'I can't seem to find my specs, sir. I'm afraid that without my specs -'

'Do I understand,' said the other, who had rightly interpreted that blinking of the eyes, 'that without your spectacles you cannot read the statement?'

'It's not exactly to say I can't, sir; but -

'Yet you can identify an arrow on which you put dye in 1934?' asked Sir Walter Storm - and sat down.

This time H.M. did roar up for re-examination, girded for war. But his questions were short.

'How many times did Avory Hume win the annual competitions?'

'Three times, sir.'

'The arrow was a special prize on those occasions, wasn't it?' 'Yes, sir.'

'So it wasn't just "one out of over a hundred", was it? It was a special thing, a keepsake?' 'Yes, sir.'

'Did he show you the arrow, and call your attention to it, after he'd won the first-shot competition?' 'Yes, sir.'

'Ha,' said H.M., lifting his robe in order to hitch up his trousers. 'That will do. No, not that way out, son; that's the judge's bench; the warder'Il show you.' He waited until Shanks had been taken away, and then he got up again.

'Call Reginald Answell,' said H.M.

XVII

'At the Opening of the Window -'

REGINALD ANSWELL was not exactly under escort: when the warder took charge of him, and led him to the box, he seemed a free man. But just behind him I saw a familiar figure whose name eluded me until I remembered Sergeant-Major Carstairs, who guards the entrance to H.M.'s lair at Whitehall. On the sergeant-major's face was the sinister look of a benevolent captor.

Again you could hear the rustle of the wind in trees of scandal; every eye immediately tried to find Mary Hume as well, but she was not in court. Reginald's long and bony face was a little pale, but very determined. I remember thinking then that he looked a tricky customer, and had better be handled as such - whatever H.M. had in mind. But this may have been due to a surge of dislike caused by the slight (manufactured) wave in his dark-yellow hair, or the cool gaze of self-possession oh his features: the latter more than the former. He took the oath in a clear, pleasant voice.