Part 21 (1/2)
THE Ma.s.sIXGHAM AFFAIR.
so baffled poor Sugden, and one gathered that on the whole he thought well of it. A model witness.
Under this treatment the court itself relaxed. After the tensions of Sugden's evidence, with its undertones of tragedy, Henderson brought such a comfortable humour to bear on everything, even his own afflictions. That they had been richly deserved he left little doubt in anyone's mind. But being without self-pity, he absolved others from the need of feeling pity and enlisted their sympathy instead. Without playing for comedy, he achieved it. Perhaps his best moment was his handling of his old gun, the one he admitted firing at the Verneys, but one forgot the crime in the affecting nature of the scene. Not even fear of the judge's displeasure could prevent the laughter that rippled over the court as these companions of old poaching days were reunited, but it was kindly laughter, and significantly the judge made no attempt to check it in spite of the shocked expression on Jessop's face. It came as an astonis.h.i.+ng thing to Justin to see how his 'Other Man', the dark shadow that had brooded over his thoughts for so long, could bring light and humour with him.
As for Henderson's evidence in general, it followed the confession with only minor variations, describing how he and Sugden had been poaching in the woods near Ma.s.singham when the suggestion had been made to 'try the priest's'.
”Well, Geordie and me ganned roond bi the plantation and ower the medders tae the back o' Mr Verney's hoose. We'd a muckle bag made of owd poke ... of sackin' as ye might say . . . and we tore it up and put it roond us boots.”
”So your boots were covered. Are you sure of that?” enquired Gil-more, holding up his hand.
”Aye, sir: gay sure.”
”It is important. Please go on.”
”In a byre we finds a bit chisel. ”The verra thing,' says Geordie. He'd a rare eye for things had Geordie.”
”Keep to your story,” warned Gilmore, detecting a restless movement on the bench.
And keep to it he did, with a relevance surprising in so untutored a man. Perhaps an interpreter would have been an advantage at times, but there could be no other complaint against the witness, at least from the Crown's point of view. Breaking-in, theft, arrival at THE TRIAL: IO99.
Verney's, scuffle, escape, dawn search by the Police-everything was in order and accounted for with a rare candour.
It was this that chiefly seemed to exasperate Jessop when he rose to cross-examine. ”What you have been giving is a catalogue of crimes,” he remarked bleakly. ”You have been telling us how you plotted to break into an old man's house by night to steal, how you took his goods, nearly killing him in the process, how you escaped and allowed other men to suffer for what you say you did. Does that describe it?”
”Aye,” admitted the witness cheerfully.
”It seems to amuse you very much.”
”Wouldn't say that, sir.”
”But 7 am saying it and the jury can see you for themselves. It amuses you. You have been basking in the limelight. Isn't this an act you have been putting on?”
”It's truth, sir.”
”Haven't you just been repeating a part you've learnt by rote?” Henderson shook his head with a smile of incomprehension on his face, and Jessop burst out furiously: ”Don't smirk at me, man. Respect the court.”
”I hope my friend will respect the witness,” put in Gilmore with a dutiful glance at the judge.
”Certainly, when he merits it,” replied Jessop, standing his ground. ”I don't feel obliged to tolerate his insolence and prevarications though. I was suggesting to him that he had learnt a part. And he had some props, I think. Take a look at this exhibit, please. Is that the eagle and ruby seal you stole?”
”That's 'er, sir.”
”What did you do with it?”
Justin was suddenly aware from Jessop's voice and manner that the little man was becoming violently excited.
”I give it away to someone,” the witness said.
”To someone. You have not said to whom, you have never said to whom. May I suggest to you that you have been so constantly evasive about it because you never gave it to anyone, because you never had it to give?”
”I give it like I telt ye.”
”No, wasn't it Kelly who gave it?” said Jessop, suddenly very still. ”Didn't he give it to his fiancee, Amy Dodds, who took it to Mr Coates the jeweller. I will be calling him. Mr Coates remembers now.”
There was a stir of movement and voices rising and dying away like the wash and hiss of a wave against the sh.o.r.e, and into the trough that followed, Jessop said: ”Were you at Ma.s.singham that night?”
”Aye, sir, I were, and Geordie too.”
”Then there were four of you. You and Sugden as you confess. And Milligan and Kelly, as the jury found.”
Justin heard the voices and the sound of people craning forward in their seats. Part of his mind was very clear and a.n.a.lytical. If Amy Dodds had had the seal, then in all probability she had got it from her fiance, Kelly, which meant that Kelly had been at Ma.s.singham, and Milligan too, and therefore Blair was innocent and he had been on a fool's errand. It was too hard a thought to bear. There was a buzzing in his ears. The court had begun to go dark, though he could see shapes moving in the gloom, and words came to him from a long way off, mixed up with other voices, Amy Dodds's among them, trying to tell him something . . . perhaps about the seal. Someone was saying loudly, defiantly: ”All right: I give it 'er: not Kelly: yon's the truth.” And suddenly his senses cleared and he knew who had spoken and what a hostage to fortune it was.
”My dear fellow, are you all right?” he heard a voice whisper urgently in his ear.
”Of course I am,” he answered testily. He had not known that Mr Lumley was in court that morning.
”Are you sure?”
”Quite sure.”
”You went so pale. If you'd only come outside for a while and take a rest. This constant strain ... so bad for you.”
People were rebuking them from behind. Jessop himself had glanced round at them, and it was interesting to see how his petulant glare was transformed, as he swung back towards the witness, into an incredulity that spoke louder than words. ”Come Henderson,” they heard him say, ”you are not seriously telling us now, after all this time, that it was you who gave Miss Verney's seal to Amy Dodds! Why should you give it her?”
”She were my la.s.s,” the witness said.
”Not Kelly's?”
”Aye, she had binn.”
”I suggest to you that you had never even spoken to the girl?”
”That I had, sir.”
”Can you prove you knew her?”
”Just me word, sir.”
”And nothing else! Your word! Why didn't you mention her before?”
”An tell on the la.s.s!” cried Henderson. ”To ye an' a'!”
Far up in the public gallery there sounded a burst of delighted laughter, instantly stilled as the judge glanced up. No one had laughed below. Justin saw the intent jury and Jessop's face registering his long-suffering endurance of the witness.
”Of course to 'tell', that is to tell the truth, even to me, is what you have sworn on your oath to do,” the insinuating voice reminded them. ”I hope you understand that.”
”Aye, I do.”
”Why couldn't you 'tell' on Amy Dodds?”