Part 39 (1/2)
”No, sir.” This again with that quiet philosophy, the stolid fatalism, peculiar to those who live from day to day, from hand to mouth, who have neither leisure nor desire to peer outside the very circ.u.mscribed limits of their own hearths.
”You never made any effort to know more about what your son was doing or how he was living?” suggested the coroner, who, though accustomed to this same quiet philosophy in men and women of that cla.s.s, was nevertheless strangely moved in this instance by the expression of a fatalism that carried in its train such extraordinary consequences.
But Jim Baker, mildly astonished at the coroner's insistence over so obvious a matter, explained meekly:
”We knew that Paul was doin' well, you see, sir. 'E was that splendidly dressed when Emily and young Smith seed 'im they was quite respectful like to 'im. So we knew 'e was all right.”
”And you never troubled any further about your son?”
”We didn't want to interfere with 'im, sir. Gentlemen don't allus like their servants to be 'aving visitors, or to 'obn.o.b with poor people like us.”
More calm philosophy not unmixed with a delicate sense of pride this time, and a sublime if unconscious vein of selflessness.
”Well,” rejoined the coroner, not unkindly this time--the man who looked so like a beetle, who was so humble and apologetic, compelled quite a certain amount of regard--”we'll leave that matter for the moment, Mr. Baker. Now will you tell the jury what made you come to this court to-day? What led you to think that the man who had been murdered in a cab the night before last, and of whom all the newspapers spoke as Mr. Philip de Mountford--what made you think that he was your son?”
Jim Baker by way of a reply plunged one of his thin hands in the pocket of his shabby coat and drew out a portion of very grimy newspaper carefully folded up quite small. He undid the folds until his eyes lighted on that which they sought. Then he held the paper out toward the coroner and pointed to a picture sandwiched in among the letter-press.
”I saw this,” he said, ”in the _Daily Graphic_ yesterday. It's the picture of Paul, I says to myself.”
The coroner took the paper from the witness and laid it down on the table, glancing at it casually. There had been innumerable portraits of the murdered man published both in the morning and the evening papers of yesterday.
”It's Paul to the life,” insisted Jim Baker. ”I was at my work, you understand, when I seed the paper in one o' the other chaps' 'ands. I couldn't give up my work then. I 'ad to wait till evenin' to speak to my missus. Then we talked it all over, and young Smith 'e took a day off and me too, and Mrs. Baker and Emily and Jane Smith, they all come along.”
”And you looked on the face of the dead man, and you swear that it is your son?”
”I take my oath, sir. Ask 'is mother there. She knows 'er own son.
She'll tell you just what vaccination marks 'e 'ad on 'is arm, and about the scar on 'is leg and all. The ladies, sir, they are that sharp----”
Jim Baker--feeling no doubt that his ordeal was nearly over--was losing his nervousness, or perhaps it took a new form, that of jocularity. The coroner thought it best to check his efforts at humour in the bud.
”That will do!” he said curtly.
And the Clapham bricklayer at once retired within his sh.e.l.l of humble self-deprecation. He answered a few more questions that the coroner put to him, but clearly his own circle of vision was so circ.u.mscribed that, willing as he undoubtedly was, he could throw no light whatever on the unknown events which led up to the extraordinary fraud practised on the Earl of Radclyffe and which culminated in the mysterious murder in the taxicab.
The father of the strangely enigmatic personality, who indeed had taken many a secret with him to the grave, was far too indifferent, too fatalistic, to put forth any theory as to his son's motives, or the inducements and temptations which had first given birth to the astoundingly clever deception.
Wearied and impatient at last the coroner gave up his questionings. He turned to the jury with the accustomed formula:
”Would any of you gentlemen like to ask this witness any questions?”
The foreman of the jury wanted to know if the witness's son had any birthmarks on him, or other palpable means of identification.
”Yes, sir,” replied Jim Baker, ”but 'is mother'll tell you better'n me--she knows best--about the vaccination marks and all.”
The foreman then asked the coroner whether the jury would be allowed to identify the marks. On being a.s.sured by the coroner that after adjournment this very day every means would be taken to corroborate Jim Baker's statement, the jury seemed satisfied.