CHAPTER XVII
"James Hill!" called the court crier.
The butler stepped forward, mounted the witness-stand, and bowed his headdeferentially towards the judge. He was neatly dressed in black, and hissandy-grey hair was carefully brushed. His face was as expressionless asever, but a slight oscillation of the Court Bible in his right hand as hewas sworn indicated that his nerves were not so calm as he strove toappear. He looked neither to the right nor left, but kept his glancedowncast. Only once, as he stood there waiting to be questioned, did hecast a furtive look towards the man whose life hung on his evidence, butthe malevolent vindictive gaze Birchill shot back at him caused him tolower his eyelids instantly.
Hill commenced his evidence in a voice so low that Mr. Walters stoppedhim at the outset and asked him to speak in a louder tone. It soon becameapparent that his evidence was making a deep impression on the court. SirHenry Hodson listened to him intently, and watched him keenly, as Hill,with impassive countenance and smooth even tones, told his strange storyof the night of the murder. When he had drawn to a conclusion he gaveanother furtive glance at the dock, but Birchill was seated with his headbowed down, as though tired, and with one hand supporting his face.
Mr. Walters methodically folded up his brief and sat down, with asidelong glance in the direction of Mr. Holymead as he did so. Every eyein court was turned on Holymead as the great K.C. settled his gown on hisshoulders and got up to cross-examine the principal Crown witness.
His cross-examination was the admiration of those spectators whosesympathies were on the side of the man in the dock as one of themselves.Hill was cross-examined as to the lapse from honesty which had sent himto gaol, and he was reluctantly forced to admit, that so far from thetheft being the result of an impulse to save his wife and child fromstarvation, as the Counsel for the prosecution had indicated, it was theresult of the impulse of cupidity. He had robbed a master who had trustedhim and had treated him with kindness. Having extracted this fact, inspite of Hill's evasions and twistings, Holymead straightened himself tohis full height, and, shaking a warning finger at the witness, said:
"I put it to you, witness, that the reason Sir Horace Fewbanks engagedyou as butler in his household at Riversbrook was because he knew you tobe a man of few scruples, who would be willing to do things that a moreupright honest man would have objected to?"
"That is not true," replied Hill.
"Is it not true that your late master frequently entertained women ofdoubtful character at Riversbrook?" thundered the K.C.
Hill gasped at the question. When he had first heard that his latemaster's old friend, Mr. Holymead, was to appear for Birchill, he hadimmediately come to the conclusion that Mr. Holymead was taking up thecase in order to save Sir Horace's name from exposure by dealingcarefully with his private life at Riversbrook. But here he wasruthlessly tearing aside the veil of secrecy. Hill hesitated. He glancedround the curious crowded court and saw the eager glances of the women asthey impatiently awaited his reply. He hesitated so long that Holymeadrepeated the question.
"Women of doubtful character?" faltered the witness. "I do notunderstand you."
"You understand me perfectly well, Hill. I do not mean women off thestreets, but women who have no moral reputation to maintain--women who donot mind letting confidential servants see that they have no regard forthe conventional standards of life. I mean, witness, that your latemaster frequently entertained at Riversbrook, women--I will not call themladies--who were not particular at what hour they went home. Sometimesone or more of them stayed all night, and you were entrusted with theconfidential task of smuggling them out of the house without otherservants knowing of their presence. Is not that so?"
"I--I--"
"Answer the question without equivocation, witness."
"Y-es, sir."
There was a slight stir in the body of the court due to the fact thatMiss Fewbanks and Mrs. Holymead had risen and were making their way tothe door. The fashionably-dressed women in the court stared with muchinterest at the daughter of the murdered man, whom most of them knew, inorder to see how she was taking the disclosures about her dead father'sprivate life.
"And sometimes there were quarrels between your late master and thesevisitors, were there not?" continued Holymead.
"Quarrels, sir?"
"Surely you know that under the influence of wine some people becomequarrelsome?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, did your late master's nocturnal visitors ever becomequarrelsome?"
"Sometimes, sir."
"In the exercise of your confidential duties did you sometimes seequarrelsome ladies off the premises?"
"Sometimes, sir."
"And it was no uncommon thing for them to say things to you about yourmaster, eh?"
"Sometimes they didn't care what they said."
"Quite so," commented Counsel drily. "They indulged in threats?"
"Not all of them," replied Hill, who at length saw where thecross-examination was tending.
"I do not suggest that all of them did--only that the more violent ofthem did so."
"Quite so, sir."
"So we may take it that the quarrel between your late master andMiss Fanning was not the only quarrel of the kind which came underyour notice?"
"There were not many others," said Hill.
"It was not the only one?" persisted Counsel.
"No, sir."
"In your evidence-in-chief you said nothing about Miss Fanning usingthreats against your master when you were showing her out?"
"No, sir."
"She did not use any?"
"Not in my hearing, sir."
There was a pause at this stage while Mr. Holymead consulted the notes hehad made of Mr. Walters's cross-examination of the witness.
"What o'clock was it when you left Riversbrook on the 18th of Augustafter your master's return from Scotland?"
"About half-past seven, sir."
"And what time did Sir Horace arrive home?"
"About seven o'clock, sir."
"What were you doing between seven and seven-thirty?"
"I unpacked his bags and got his bedroom ready. I took him somerefreshment up to the library."
"And he told you he wouldn't want you again until the following nightabout eight o'clock?"
"Yes, sir. He said he thought he would be going back to Scotland by thenight express, and I was to get his bag packed and lock up the house."
"You told Counsel for the prosecution in the course of your evidencethat you were afraid of Birchill," continued Holymead.
"Yes, sir."
"Were you afraid of physical violence from him, or only that he wouldexpose your past to the other servants?"
"I was afraid of him both ways," said Hill.
"Was it because of this fear that you made out for him a plan ofRiversbrook to assist him in the burglary?"
"Yes, sir."
"When did you make out this plan?"
"The day after Sir Horace left for Scotland."
"Was that on your first visit to Miss Fanning's flat in Westminsterafter the prisoner had sent her to Riversbrook to tell you he wantedto see you?"
"Yes, sir."
"Did Birchill stand over you while you made out this plan?"
"Yes, sir."
"Would you know the plan again if you saw it?"
"Yes, sir."
Mr. Finnis, who had been hiding the plan under the papers before him,handed a document up to his chief.
Mr. Holymead unfolded it, and with a brief glance at it handed it up tothe witness.
"Is that the plan?" he asked.
Hill was somewhat taken aback at the production of the plan. It was drawnin ink on a white sheet of paper of foolscap size, with a slightly bluishtint. The paper was by no means clean, for Birchill had carried it aboutin his pocket. The witness reluctantly admitted that the plan was the onehe had given to Birchill. To his manifest relief Counsel asked no furtherquestions about it. In a low tone Mr.
Holymead formally expressed hisintention to put the plan in as evidence. He handed it to Mr. Walters,who, after a close inspection of it, passed it along to the judge'sAssociate for His Honour's inspection.
The rest of Hill's cross-examination concerned what happened at the flaton the night of the burglary. He adhered to the story he had told, andcould not be shaken in the main points of it. But Mr. Holymead made someeffective use of the discrepancy between the witness's evidence at theinquest as to his movements on the night of the murder and his evidencein court. He elicited the fact that the police had discovered hisevidence at the inquest was false and had forced him to make a confessionby threatening to arrest him for the murder.
Mr. Holymead signified that he had nothing further to ask the witness,and Mr. Walters called his last witness, a young man named Charles Ryder,a resident of Liverpool, who had spent a week's holiday in London fromthe 14th to the 21st of August. Ryder had stayed with some friends atHampstead, and when making his way home on the night of the 18th ofAugust had walked down Tanton Gardens in the belief that he was taking ashort cut. The time was about 11.20. He saw a man running towards himalong the footpath from the direction of Riversbrook. He caught a goodglimpse of the man, who seemed to be very excited. He was sure theprisoner was the man he had seen. In cross-examination by Mr. Holymead hewas far less positive in his identification of the prisoner, and finallyadmitted that the man he saw that night might be somebody else whoresembled the prisoner in build.