But Sir Gilbert Gildersleeve sat there, transfixed with horror. No answering gleam now shot through his dull, glazed3 eye. For he alone knew that whatever made the case against the prisoner look worse, made his own position each moment more awful and more intolerable.
Through the rest of the case, Cyril sat in his place like a stone figure. Counsel for the Crown generously abstained4 from putting him into the witness-box to give testimony5 against his brother. Or rather, they thought the facts themselves, as they had just come out in court, more telling for the jury than any formal evidence. The only other witness of importance was, therefore, the lad who had sat on the gate by the entrance to The Tangle6. As he scrambled7 into the box Sir Gilbert’s anxiety grew visibly deeper and more acute than ever. For the boy was the one person who had seen him at Mambury on the day of the murder; and on the boy depended his sole chance of being recognised. At Tavistock, eighteen months before, Sir Gilbert had left the cross-examination of this witness in the hands of a junior, and the boy hadn’t noticed him, sitting down among the Bar with gown and wig8 on. But to-day, it was impossible the boy shouldn’t see him; and if the boy should recognise him—why, then, Heaven help him.
The lad gave his evidence-in-chief with great care and deliberateness. He swore positively9 to Guy, and wasn’t for a moment to be shaken in cross-examination. He admitted he had been mistaken at Tavistock, and confused the prisoner with Cyril—when he saw one of them apart—but now that he saw ‘em both together before his eyes at once, why, he could take his solemn oath as sure as fate upon him. Guy’s counsel failed utterly10 to elicit11 anything of importance, except—and here Sir Gilbert’s face grew whiter than ever—except that another gentleman whom the lad didn’t know had asked at the gate about the path, and gone round the other way as if to meet Mr. Nevitt.
“What sort of a gentleman?” the cross-examiner inquired, clutching at this last straw as a mere12 chance diversion.
“Well, a vurry big zart o’ a gentleman,” witness answered, unabashed. “A vine vigger o’ a man. Jest such another as thik ‘un with the wig ther.”
As he spoke13 he stared hard at the judge, a good scrutinizing14 stare. Sir Gilbert quailed15, and glanced instinctively16, first at the boy, and then at Elma. Not a spark of intelligence shone in the lad’s stolid17 eyes. But Elma’s were fixed2 upon him with a serpentine18 glare of awful fascination19. “Thou art the man,” they seemed to say to him mutely. Sir Gilbert, in his awe20, was afraid to look at them. They made him wild with terror, yet they somehow fixed him. Try as he would to keep his own from meeting them, they attracted him irresistibly21.
A ripple22, of faint laughter ran lightly through the court at the undisguised frankness of the boy’s reply. The judge repressed it sternly.
“Oh, he was just such another one as his lordship, was he?” counsel repeated, pressing the lad hard. “Now, are you quite sure you remember all the people you saw that day? Are you quite sure the other man who asked about passers-by wasn’t—for example—the judge himself who’s sitting here?”
Sir Gilbert glanced up with a quick, suspicious air. It was only a shot at random—the common advocate’s trick in trying to confuse a witness over questions of identity; but to Sir Gilbert, under the circumstances, it was inexpressibly distressing23. “Well, it murt ‘a been he,” the lad answered, putting his head on one side, and surveying the judge closely with prolonged attention. “Thik un ‘ad just such another pair o’ ‘ands as his lordship do ‘ave. It murt ‘a been his lordship ‘urself as is zitting there.”
“This goes quite beyond the bounds of decency,” Sir Gilbert murmured faintly, with a vain endeavour to hold his hands on the desk in an unconcerned attitude. “Have the kindness, Mr. Walters, to spare the Bench. Attend to your examination. Observations of that sort are wholly uncalled for.”
But the boy, once started, was not so easily repressed. “Why, it was his lordship,” he went on, scanning the judge still harder. “I do mind his vurry voice. It was ‘im, no doubt about it. I’ve zeed a zight o’ people, since I zeed ‘im that day, but I do mind his voice, and I do mind his ‘ands, and I do mind his ve-ace the zame as if it wur yesterday. Now I come to look, blessed if it wasn’t his lordship!”
Guy’s counsel smiled a triumphant24 smile. He had carried his point. He had confused the witness. This showed how little reliance could be placed upon the boy’s evidence as to personal identity! He’d identify anybody who happened to be suggested to him! But Sir Gilbert’s face grew yet more deadly pale. For he saw at a glance this was no accident or mistake; the boy really remembered him! And Elma’s steadfast25 eyes looked him through and through, with that irresistible26 appeal, still more earnestly than ever.
Sir Gilbert breathed again. He had been recognised to no purpose. Even this positive identification fell flat upon everybody.
At last the examination and cross-examination were finished, and Guy’s counsel began his hopeless task of unravelling27 this tangled28 mass of suggestion and coincidence. He had no witnesses to call; the very nature of the case precluded29 that. All he could do was to cavil30 over details, to point out possible alternatives, to lay stress upon the absence of direct evidence, and to ask that the jury should give the prisoner the benefit of the doubt, if any doubt at all existed in their minds as to his guilt31 or innocence32. Counsel had meant when he first undertook the case to lay great stress also on the presumed absence of motive33; but, after the fatal accident which resulted in the disclosure of Montague Nevitt’s pocket-book, any argument on that score would have been worse than useless. Counsel elected rather to pass the episode by in discreet34 silence, and to risk everything on the uncertainty35 of the actual encounter.
At last he sat down, wiping his brow in despair, after what he felt himself to be a most feeble performance.
Then Sir Gilbert began, and in a very tremulous and failing voice summed briefly36 up the whole of the evidence.
Men who remember Gildersleeve’s old blustering37 manner stood aghast at the timidity with which the famous lawyer delivered himself on this, the first capital charge ever brought before him. He reminded the jury, in very solemn and almost warning tones, that where a human life was at stake, mere presumptive evidence should always carry very little weight with it. And the evidence here was all purely38 presumptive. The prosecution39 had shown nothing more than a physical possibility that the prisoner at the bar might have committed the murder. There was evidence of animus40, it was true; but that evidence was weak; there was partial identification; but that identification lay open to the serious objection that all the persons who now swore to Guy Waring’s personality had sworn just as surely and confidently before to his brother Cyril’s. On the whole, the judge summed up strongly in Guy’s favour. He wiped his clammy brow and looked appealingly at the bar. As the jury would hope for justice themselves, let them remember to mete41 out nothing but strict justice to the accused person who now stood trembling in the dock before them.
All the court stood astonished. Could this be Gildersleeve? Atkins would never have summed up like that. Atkins would have gone in point-blank for hanging him. And everybody thought Gildersleeve would hang with the best. Nobody had suspected him till then of any womanly weakness about capital punishment. There was a solemn hush42 as the judge ended. Then everybody saw the unhappy man was seriously ill. Great streams of sweat trickled43 slowly down his brow. His eyes stared in front of him. His mouth twitched44 horribly. He looked like a person on the point of apoplexy. The prisoner at the bar gazed hard at him and pitied him.
“He’s dying himself, and he wants to go out with a clear conscience at last,” some one suggested in a low voice at the barristers’ table. The explanation served. It was whispered round the court in a hushed undertone that the judge to-day was on his very last legs, and had summed up accordingly. Late in life, he had learned to show mercy, as he hoped for it.
There was a deadly pause. The jury retired45 to consider their verdict. Two men remained behind in court, waiting breathless for their return. Two lives hung at issue in the balance while the jury deliberated. Elma Clifford, glancing with a terrified eye from one to the other, could hardly help pitying the guiltiest most. His look of mute suffering was so inexpressibly pathetic.
The twelve good men and true were gone for a full half-hour. Why, nobody knew. The case was as plain as a pikestaff, gossipers said in court. If he had been caught red-handed, he’d have been hanged without remorse46. It was only the eighteen months and the South African episode that could make the jury hesitate for one moment about hanging him.
At last, a sound, a thrill, a movement by the door. Every eye was strained forward. The jury trooped back again. They took their places in silence. Sir Gilbert scanned their faces with an agonized47 look. It was a moment of ghastly and painful suspense48. He was waiting for their verdict—on himself, and Guy Waring.
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1
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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2
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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3
glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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4
abstained
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| v.戒（尤指酒），戒除( abstain的过去式和过去分词 )；弃权（不投票） | |
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5
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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6
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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7
scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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8
wig
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| n.假发 | |
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9
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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10
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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11
elicit
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| v.引出,抽出,引起 | |
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12
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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13
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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14
scrutinizing
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| v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的现在分词 ) | |
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15
quailed
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| 害怕，发抖，畏缩( quail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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17
stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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18
serpentine
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| adj.蜿蜒的，弯曲的 | |
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19
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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20
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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21
irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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22
ripple
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| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
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23
distressing
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| a.使人痛苦的 | |
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24
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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25
steadfast
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| adj.固定的，不变的，不动摇的；忠实的；坚贞不移的 | |
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26
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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27
unravelling
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| 解开，拆散，散开( unravel的现在分词 )； 阐明； 澄清； 弄清楚 | |
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28
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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29
precluded
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| v.阻止( preclude的过去式和过去分词 )；排除；妨碍；使…行不通 | |
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30
cavil
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| v.挑毛病，吹毛求疵 | |
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31
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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32
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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33
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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34
discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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35
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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36
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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37
blustering
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| adj.狂风大作的，狂暴的v.外强中干的威吓( bluster的现在分词 )；咆哮；（风）呼啸；狂吹 | |
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38
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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39
prosecution
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| n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营 | |
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40
animus
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| n.恶意；意图 | |
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41
mete
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| v.分配；给予 | |
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42
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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43
trickled
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| v.滴( trickle的过去式和过去分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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44
twitched
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| vt.& vi.（使）抽动，（使）颤动（twitch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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45
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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46
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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47
agonized
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| v.使（极度）痛苦，折磨( agonize的过去式和过去分词 )；苦斗；苦苦思索；感到极度痛苦 | |
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48
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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