CHAPTER XXVIII.—THE VOICE AT THE BACK OF THE COURT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2375, 7 September 1899, Page 50

CHAPTER XXVIII.—THE VOICE AT THE BACK OF THE COURT.

[Pollie Hills was accompanied into court Iby a constable. He kept close to her shoulder, escorting her through the people $0 the witness-box. There was a look upon 4ier face which suggested that for very kittle she would have torn and rent him; Ihe wore an air of watchfulness and caujtion as if of opinion that at any moment she might mark her estimation of his character by some action of the kind. [ Up to that point the prisoner had displayed but faint interest in the proceedings. Now and then he had smiled, as if amused at something which was being said, but for the most part he had looked as if, no matter now it might be with others, the proceedings bored him, and he wished that they would make haste and get them jthrough. [ On the appearance of the girl his demeanour changed. He had wakened up at the mention of her name. He had turned (n the dock, and, watching her entrance into court, had followed her progress towards the witness-box. Now he kept his fyes fixed upon her, as if he could not re-. love .them if he would; from the workang of his countenance it would seem as af ne were being torn, mentally and physically, by a torrent of conflicting emotion, j&he, on the other hand, studiously averted 2xer glance from the dock, never once peepsang at the man whose life was already "tanging on a thread; yet one felt' that was conscious of his presence in every fibre of her being, and that, quite probably, his gaze was playing havoc with jher nervous system, as if it had been a reduot knife. ■ Sir Haselton Jardine took her in hand liimself, and found her not an easy witness to manage. Her name was Pollie Hills. Never mind J^hat she was. That was no business of juis. Yes, she had seen,the ring which was handed to her before, likewise the bracelet. Of course she had. Hadn't they been , iiers? "Where did you get them?" ."Found 'em." , "What do you say?" ■ ' "Say I found "em." Sir Haselton regajded the witness in silence for a moment. His tone was drier than usual. " Please to remember you are on your oath. Since, I take it, you don't wish to commit perjury, I would recommend you to reconsider that reply. I ask you again *-where did you get that ring and bracelet? " 41 Blowed if I'll tell you." " The girl was gripping the ledge in front *of her with both hands. She was staring into space as if something which she saw "ihere had induced her to screw her courage to the sticking point. The judge interposed. "If you don't take care, witness, you will get yourself into serious trouble. If your purpose is to serve the prisoner you will probably do him more harm than good by attempted evasion. Repeat your question, Sir Haselton." " Where did you get this ring and bracelet V" " They were give me." "By whom? " '• Him." She nodded the back of her head towards the dock. "Do you mean the prisoner?" " Course I do." While the brief contest was taking place between witness and counsel, the prisoner clung to the rail of the dock as if he were hanging on the witness's words. Now that the required answer had been obtained he lounged back, his hands in his pockets. "My Gawd! " he muttered, in a voice tphich was audible all over the court. *'My Gawd!" -_ She turned on him like a wild cat. "I can't help it. You've brought it on " yourself! 'Why couldn't you. keep your nose out of what was no concern of ' yours?" " Order. Order! " cried the usher. And the "judge pointed out that it" was contrary to all rule and custom for prisoner ' and ivitness to bandy words. But neither was in time to prevent the prisoner's repiy: "All dght, JPollie. you can hang me if you like " The examination was continued like some game of cross questions and crooked answers The girl tried her utmost to evade the inquiries which were pressed upor her, replying to them in as vague, loose, and misleading a manner as on the snur of the

moment she was able to. More than once sue came into conflict -with both judge and lawyer. Yet her struggles -were -worse than vain. The impression she left upon the minds of her auditors "was that she had been endeavouring, at all and any cost, to screen a criminal from the well-merited consequences of his notorious guilt, and that that criminal was Robert Foster. John Armitage, however, seemed to be oi a different opinion. He rose to crossexamine. " I believe that you have known the prisonei some time?" "A good time." "Has he ever been your lover?" " Never " " Has he ever been on terms of familiarity with you?" " Not he; — nothing like." "That you swear?" "I do." "He has been merely an ordinary acquaintance?" ' "That's it." ' Then how came he to give you this ring and bracelet ? " I don't know ; you had better ask him." "I am asking you — and I intend to be answered. But first of all, you will describe to the court in detail the exact circumstances under which these things were given you." She had a bad time with Mr Armitage. He involved her' in a mass of contradictions. It was some time before she perceived his drift. Before she had dearly realised that it was his intention, if possible, to convict her out of her own mouth of having lied, she had already made more than one bad slip. When she understood her danger she made an effort to pull herself together ; then she gave the. story a more consistent form. But, on the whole, John Armitage succeeded with her much better than he had done with either of her predecessors — so well, indeed, as actually to incur his client's resentment. v»nen, having been summoned to the prisoner's side, he was expecting to receive some possibly important suggestion, which might be of material assistance to him in his cross-examination, he was astonished to have, instead, addressed to him this gruff and. even threatening inquiry, " Why can't you leave the girl alone.?'' John Armitage looked his client straight in the face — evidently taking him aback with his rejoinder. "That girl's lying. You know she' 3 lying, and I. know she's lying; and I intend that the judge and jury shall know it too before I've done with her. If I oan help it, I don't mean that you should be indulged in your taste for suicide." He did not succeed in laying the girl's perjury perfectly clear, not so clear as he would like to have done. But he did manage to create an atmosphere of distrust about everything which she had said. And .when, finally, he suffered her to leave the. witness box, she left a strong feeling behind her that complete reliance could not be placed on any statement she -had made. It was felt that there was some story about her connection with those incriminating articles of jewellery which had not been made plain, and that she had devoted all her energies to prevent its being made plain. I "If I could only have got the whole truth out of her," observed Armitage, as he resumed his seat, to Mr Maguire, the' solicitor who had instructed him, " the case would have been at an end. ~ Unless I'm mistaken she holds the key of the puzzle in her hands. I believe that she, and she alone, knows who killed Howard Shapcott." " In that case, she's gone out of the wit- , | ness box still the sole repository of that knowledge — which means she's beaten you." " She has beaten me. I admit it. But one reason for that is my own client's with her and against me; and a pretty strong reason that is, confound the fellow !" Henry Baynes, solicitor, of Lincoln's Inn Fields, informed the court that the dead man was his client and the acqaintance of a lifetime. He recognised the ring and bracelet produced as having been the property of the deceased. He was emphatically of opinion that Howard Shapcott was an unlikely man to commit suicide. He knew no reason why he should have been guilty of such an act. Gregory Lysaght, of Tip ton Court, Devonshire, and Brook street, London, who stated that he had probably been the dead man's most intimate friend, corroborated Mr Baynes. He also recognised the ring and the bracelet. He was quite certain that Howard Shapcott would have allowed neither of them to quit his custody while it was in his power to prevent it. As for suicide, he scouted the idea. They had lunched together only that morning, when they had arranged to go to Cairo together after the New Year. Mr Armitage made no serious attempt to cross-examine either of these witnesses. Two men swore that they were on the embankment, close to Embankment Chambers, on the night of the murder, and that between 10 and 11 o'clock the prisoner passed them.?, He was carrying something in his hand, and walking very fast. One oi these men, who was an acquaintance of his, called out to him as he went by ; but, instead of stopping, he quickened his pace, nearly breaking into a run. One of them remarked to the other that he moved " as if the coppers was after him." Then came the medical testimony — which went to show that while it Avas not actually impossible foi this to have been a case of suicide, it was, to say the least, extremely improbable. The doctors were strongly of opinion that murder had been done. When it came to Mr Armitage's turn to produce his witnesses foi the defence, it was found that he had none. Instead, he dilated with much skill on ihe weakness of the case foi the Crown. He pointed out that all- the evidence was circumstantial, that much of it was flimsy, that some was untrustworthy. Foi instance, it was impossible to give much credit to the statements of the girl Hills. It was not for him to sort out the false from the true, and to do .o would be beyond his capacity; but, after her behaviour in the box and her seU-cojiiwdictionj^ itjvgpl be doiim a g§-

rious injustice to his client to attach importance to anything she had said. Then, again, the manner in which other of the Avitnesses, after a considerable lapse of time, had attached dates to casual conversations and trivial occurrences was noth mg short of extraordinary. ' They remein bered with precision which was truly as tonishing the most insignificant details which had an apparent bearing on the case in hand, while he had shown, out of their own mouths, that they were far from carrying this habit of exactitude into the important personal concerns of their own daily lives. In conclusion, he desired the jury to observe that, even supposing all that had been said by the witnesses for the Crown was true — and, foi himself, very much of it was markedly incredible — it did not necessarily point to his client's guilt. Very much^the contraiy. It was admitted, even by the police, and the Crown's own witnesses, that Robert Foster's general character was good ; that he was honest, sober, industrious. There was nothing whatever to show why he should have so suddenly and wantonly broken loose from the whole tenor of his life. Was it suggested that, being filled with an instant instinct for murder, he had run amuck in search of a victim? The suggestion was absurd. It was not Asserted that he had any sort of acquaintance with the dead aian. Why, then, should he have set out tq murder him? Counsel for the defence had no hesitation in expressing a strong opinion that this crime, if crime it was — which had not bean conchisively established — had been committed by someone who had an intimate knowledges of the peculiarities of Embankment Chambers. Everything pointed to that conclusion. There was the question of entrance and egress. How had anyone gob eithei in . or out? It was an admitted puzzle. Until it was shown that under tht circumstances anyone could have got either in or flut, he asked the jury to accept the alternative of suicide. But, in any case, il was in the highest degree improbable that such- a person as his client could have been capable of such a feat of legerdemain. Murder must be proved up to the dJlt. Before a man could bo condemned to tho gallows his guilt must be established beyond the possibility of doubt. The mere suggestion that there could be no doubt about his client's guilt was puerile. Th^re were all sorts of doubts. And while -t shred of one of them remained, it was their simple bounden duty to give this man the benefit. Therefore, he confidently left his client's case in their hands. The Judge paid Mi Armitage % warm compliment on his speech. He agreed with much that he had said. But. as regards his remarks on circumstantial evidence^ it was necessary for the jury to reflect that, possibly, in 16 or 16 cases of murder out of. 20, the only evidence which can be brought is what is termed circumstantial, very seldom is a human eye the actual witness of a homicide's crime. He went through the evidence with' sufficient impartiality, yet could not refrain from observing that, while it seemed to him that much of it might have been rebutted. ,if rebuttal had been possible, no attempt to do anything of the kind had Jaeen made. Still it was true that if there was room for reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the man in front of them it was their duty to acquit him. It was for them to weigh the matter carefully in their own minds, inclining neither to -the one side nor the other, a*d to say, without fear or favour, if there was such a doubt. The jury retired to consider their verdict. The judge also withdrew. ' After an hour, returning into court, he sent a messenger to inquire if they were agreed. The answer came back that they were not. After an interval of another hour he sent again. The same reply was returned. It was then about 7 o'clock. He directed the messenger to learn if there was any likelihood of their shortly agreeing, as, in that case, he would continue to sit, since it was of importance that the case should be concluded that night. There came a message to the effect" that, if they were allowed a few minutes longer, they might arrive at an agreement. Presently the 12 filed into court. The foreman announced that they had agreed on their verdict. It was their unanimous opinion that the prisoner was guilty. The foreman's voice shook as he proclaimed the fact. He kept his eyes averted from the dock. He was a very young man, probably under 30. The prisoner was asked if he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be pronounced upon him. Someone at the back of the court exclaimed : " I have something to say." All eyes were turned to discover the speaker. Even the foreman of the jury found courage to glance in the direction from which the voice had come. (To be concluded).