CHAPTER XXXIII.
MR. TENNANT SPEAKS.
"I saw her! I saw her!"
"None of that now. You'd better come quietly."
Mr Tennant looked at the warder who spoke. With the assistance of hiscolleague the man was hurrying him along in a fashion which, even atthat moment of amazement and of horror, in some subtle way reminded himof his school days.
"I saw her!" he repeated.
"So you might have done; nobody says you didn't. Only don't let's haveany fuss."
The man spoke as one might speak, not ill-naturedly, but with thesuperior wisdom of a senior to a fractious child. Mr. Tennant knew thathe was not understood; that it was no use to attempt to make himselfunderstood. His mind was in a chaos. What was he to do?
It had come to him in a flash of revelation that he had been made thesubject of some hideous mockery, the victim of some malevolent plot;that he had been racked and re-racked for nothing at all; that he hadstood his trial for the murder of a woman, who, all the time, wasactually alive; that the law had committed some grotesque blunder; thathe had been condemned to be hung for another person's crime.
What was he to do?
He did nothing till he was back again in gaol. In the condemned cellthis time. Nobody had told him, but he knew what it was. He knew thathere a long line of murderers had awaited their fate, that here hewould be kept until he was hung.
A natural shudder shook him as he realised that they were about tothrust him into this last abiding-place of the damned. He felt that ifhe did not speak so as to make himself understood before they had himfast in there he would never have a chance to speak at all: That ifthat door clanged upon his silence, hope, for him, would have died withits clangour.
He turned to the warder.
"I wish to see the governor."
"You can't see the governor now."
"I must. Listen to me." He tried to restrain his emotion, to holdhimself in hand. "Some extraordinary error has taken place. Just as Iwas leaving the court I saw the woman whom I am charged with havingkilled."
The warder stared, as if inclined to laugh.
"I am not mad, nor am I dreaming; nor did I see a ghost. I saw thiswoman. She was as much alive as you or I. She was among a number ofother women on the bench near the judge. She stood up and she stared atme. I saw her as plainly as I see you. There has been some astoundingmistake. Tell the governor that I must see him at once or it will betoo late. If you do not tell him my blood may be upon your head."
"All right."
The warder clanged the door, and went.
Mr. Tennant was left alone in that abode of the haunted.
Would the man tell him? Would the governor come? Would he listen if hecame? Would they stir a finger? Would they believe him? Would they paythe slightest attention to anything that he said?
It would have been hard enough to hang believing her dead, although hehad not killed her, but now that he had seen her standing up andlooking at him, and smiling at his agony----!
This explained the two ghostly visitations. It was not a ghost, it washerself he had seen. All this time he had been suffering the agonies ofthe damned, and she had been laughing in her sleeve. How she must haveenjoyed the play! Oh, what a fool he had been!
What was that? Was that footsteps ringing on the stone pavement alongthe vaulted corridor? He listened. It was somebody going, not coming.
Suppose the governor would not come?
There was a bell. Should he ring it and make a scene and in that wayemphasise the expression of his desire? If he could succeed in no otherway, he would try that. It was time that was precious. Every momentthat passed made his task the harder. If they had only given him anopportunity to proclaim the woman's identity! If they only had! If hecould only get back into the court even now and stop her before againshe vanished into air!
Would the governor not come?
Then he would ring the bell and wake the echoes of the prison, and keepon ringing until they either disconnected the bell or put him intoirons. He would not hang without a struggle now. He would ring at once.
Ah! There was some one coming.
Two persons. He could hear two separate tramp tramps, one falling alittle behind the other as they came along the flagstones.
The door was opened. It was the governor.
"You wish to see me?"
"I do, sir."
Again Mr. Tennant tried to master himself, to hold himself in hand. Herealised to the full, and very late in the day, how much might hingeupon his being able to preserve his presence of mind.
"What do you wish to say?"
"I wish to say that the woman whom I am charged with having murderedwas actually in the court."
"Nonsense."
"It is not nonsense. It is the simple truth. I saw her as plainly as Isee you."
The governor eyed him with what, for him, was a look offerocity--unofficially, he was one of the softest-hearted creaturesbreathing.
"Man, don't tell such tales to me."
"I am telling you the absolute, literal truth. I have felt all alongthat there was something about the medical evidence which I did notunderstand. The woman they described was not the woman who fell out ofthe train. Now I understand how it was. That woman is not dead. I sawher, just now, alive, in court."
"Why did you not interrupt the proceedings to say so?"
"I did not see her before sentence was pronounced. When I did see her Iwas so astonished that, before I had recovered sufficiently from myastonishment to be able to speak the warders removed me from the court.I told the warders who it was that I had seen."
The governor observed the prisoner, as it was, reflectively. CertainlyMr. Tennant had become on a sudden a different man. He had lost hisawkwardness. He was no longer ill at ease. He held himself erect. Hiseyes were clear, his glance unwavering. His bearing was simple--thesimplicity of the man was what struck one first of all--yet assured. Hespoke with a calmness, and even with a dignity which, considering thatsentence of ignominious death had just been pronounced upon him, couldscarcely fail to be impressive.
"Tennant, so far as it concerns your fate, whatever you may have to saywill be without effect. For you in this world there is no hope. You hadbetter prepare yourself for the world which is to come. Do not buoyyourself up with any hopes that anything you may say will prevent thesentence which has been pronounced upon you being executed. Thatsentence will certainly be carried out."
The condemned man would have spoken, but the governor went on.
"But the warder has just told me what you told him, and in discharge ofwhat I hold to be my duty I have requested the detective who has beenin charge of the case to come and hear what you may have to say. Herehe is."
And there he was--Matthew Holman, the man who looked so like a sailor.
"Well, Tennant, what cock-and-bull story have you to tell us now?"
"None. I have to tell you the truth."
"It is time."
Mr. Holman's tone was biting, his glance was keen.
Mr. Tennant re-told the story of his famous journey. The detectiveseemed not so much to be listening to the words he uttered as searchingfor what might be behind them.
"So you did know her? What was her name?"
"I knew her as Ellen Howth. But she may have had half a dozen namesbefore I knew her and since."
The detective made a note in his pocket-book.
"Where did she live?"
"I have no notion. As I have told you before that night I had not seenor heard of her for years."
"Describe her."
Mr. Tennant described her.
"You understand that, until I heard the medical evidence, I supposedthat she had been killed by the fall from the carriage. When I heardwhat the doctors had to say I began to wonder. It became clearer andclearer to me that they could not be talking of Ellen Howth. The twodescriptions did not tally. I did not believe that she was pregnant. Iknew that
she was over thirty, and it seemed inconceivable that amedical man could mistake a woman of considerably over thirty for agirl under twenty-one. When I saw Ellen Howth standing up there andsmiling at me, in an instant it was all made plain."
"What was all made plain?"
"Many things. For one, it explained what seemed to me to be thediscrepancies between the evidence and what I knew to be the facts--thefacts, that is, so far as they concerned myself."
"Where was the woman whom you say you saw standing--tell me exactly."
Mr. Tennant paused to think. The detective's eyes were on him, and thegovernor's and the warder's at the back.
"She was on the bench. She was on the last row of seats. She sat eithersecond or third from the judge, to his right. When he had pronouncedsentence I noticed her rising and I noticed her remove her veil, andshe looked at me, I have no doubt with the deliberate design ofattracting my attention."
"I believe I noticed the woman to whom you refer."
This was the governor. The detective said nothing. He continued to lookat the prisoner for a moment or two in silence. Then from a pocket inhis coat he took an envelope.
"There is a portrait of Ellen Howth."
He handed a photograph to Mr. Tennant.
"This is not Ellen Howth."
"Then that is."
He passed the prisoner a second photograph.
"Nor is this. Neither of these photographs in the least resembles EllenHowth. Not in any one particular. I have never seen the woman whoseportrait this purports to be. Of that I am sure."
"It beats me, my lad, to think how a man circumstanced as you are, canlie so glibly. You know as well as I do, and indeed better, that youare holding in your hands portraits of the poor young woman whose lifeyou took."
"That is not so. Neither of these portraits at all resembles the woman,Ellen Howth, with whom I travelled from Brighton. If they arephotographs of the woman who was found dead, then it is certain that Ihad no hand whatever in killing her."
"You have seen those portraits before."
"Never!"
"Do you mean to tell me that no one, neither your counsel nor yoursolicitor, nor any one else showed you them?"
"I do. You appear surprised."
"It is not a question of surprise. I don't believe you."
"You can soon ascertain for yourself that what I tell you is a fact.You must remember that from the first I told my solicitor the actualfacts. I took it for granted that the woman who had been found dead wasEllen Howth. Under those circumstances there was no reason why I shouldbe shown or why I should wish to be shown her photograph. I have notseen that portrait before. The woman whose portrait it is is a completestranger to me. Were she here she would tell you that I am equally astranger to her. There is some mystery which, at present, I do notprofess to understand. But of one thing I am certain, that the woman,Ellen Howth, whom I supposed was dead, is as much alive as you are oras I am."
"Give me those portraits. It strikes me that you are one of those menwho will go even to face their God with a lie upon their lips. I don'tbelieve a word that you have said."
"Then you wrong me cruelly. I hope, for your sake, as well as for myown, that you will learn that you do, before it is too late."
The detective made no reply. He went out of the cell without a word.The governor followed him. The door was clanged. The condemned man wasleft alone to get himself, if he could, into a mood in which he shouldbe able to look the gallows squarely and without flinching in the face.
The governor spoke to the detective as they walked side by side.
"What do you think of it?"
"Queer-street."
"I certainly noticed myself the woman of whom he speaks. I wonder youdidn't. Her action was most marked. She certainly did cast at him whatseemed to me to be a glance of exultant recognition, while the sight ofher seemed to fill him with stupefied amazement. I wondered when I sawit what the scene might mean."
"What was she like?"
"He describes her very fairly."
"If she's still in Lewes I'll leave no stone unturned to find her."
"And if she isn't?"
"You know, sir, that if you give him a chance, a man in his positioncan always pitch some sort of a tale to save his neck. And the worsethey are the more they lie like the truth."
"That's true enough."
The governor sighed.
"If ever a man was found guilty on the evidence this man was. If he'snot guilty, then I'll never again put my trust in evidence; and so farI've generally found evidence that will stand sifting quite good enoughfor me. Still, as I say, I'll leave no stone unturned to find the womanof whom he speaks."
"And of whom I speak."
The governor spoke with a little smile.
"Yes, sir, and of whom you speak too."