17 Chapter 17 (2/2)

Here Judge Taylor glanced sharply at the witness and must have decided hisspeculations devoid of evil intent, for he subsided sleepily.

”What time was it, Mr. Ewell?”

”Just 'fore sundown. Well, I was sayin' Mayella was screamin' fit to beat Jesus—”

another glance from the bench silenced Mr. Ewell.

”Yes? She was screaming?” said Mr. Gilmer.

Mr. Ewell looked confusedly at the judge. ”Well, Mayella was raisin' this holy racket soI dropped m'load and run as fast as I could but I run into th' fence, but when I gotdistangled I run up to th' window and I seen—” Mr. Ewell's face grew scarlet. He stoodup and pointed his finger at Tom Robinson. ”—I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin' onmy Mayella!”

So serene was Judge Taylor's court, that he had few occasions to use his gavel, buthe hammered fully five minutes. Atticus was on his feet at the bench saying somethingto him, Mr. Heck Tate as first officer of the county stood in the middle aisle quelling thepacked courtroom. Behind us, there was an angry muffled groan from the coloredpeople.

Reverend Sykes leaned across Dill and me, pulling at Jem's elbow. ”Mr. Jem,” hesaid, ”you better take Miss Jean Louise home. Mr. Jem, you hear me?”

Jem turned his head. ”Scout, go home. Dill, you'n'Scout go home.”

”You gotta make me first,” I said, remembering Atticus's blessed dictum.

Jem scowled furiously at me, then said to Reverend Sykes, ”I think it's okay,Reverend, she doesn't understand it.”

I was mortally offended. ”I most certainly do, I c'n understand anything you can.”

”Aw hush. She doesn't understand it, Reverend, she ain't nine yet.”

Reverend Sykes's black eyes were anxious. ”Mr. Finch know you all are here? Thisain't fit for Miss Jean Louise or you boys either.”

Jem shook his head. ”He can't see us this far away. It's all right, Reverend.”

I knew Jem would win, because I knew nothing could make him leave now. Dill and Iwere safe, for a while: Atticus could see us from where he was, if he looked.

As Judge Taylor banged his gavel, Mr. Ewell was sitting smugly in the witness chair,surveying his handiwork. With one phrase he had turned happy picknickers into a sulky,tense, murmuring crowd, being slowly hypnotized by gavel taps lessening in intensityuntil the only sound in the courtroom was a dim pink-pink-pink: the judge might havebeen rapping the bench with a pencil.

In possession of his court once more, Judge Taylor leaned back in his chair. Helooked suddenly weary; his age was showing, and I thought about what Atticus hadsaid—he and Mrs. Taylor didn't kiss much—he must have been nearly seventy.

”There has been a request,” Judge Taylor said, ”that this courtroom be cleared ofspectators, or at least of women and children, a request that will be denied for the timebeing. People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for, and theyhave the right to subject their children to it, but I can assure you of one thing: you willreceive what you see and hear in silence or you will leave this courtroom, but you won'tleave it until the whole boiling of you come before me on contempt charges. Mr. Ewell,you will keep your testimony within the confines of Christian English usage, if that ispossible. Proceed, Mr. Gilmer.”

Mr. Ewell reminded me of a deaf-mute. I was sure he had never heard the wordsJudge Taylor directed at him—his mouth struggled silently with them—but their importregistered on his face. Smugness faded from it, replaced by a dogged earnestness thatfooled Judge Taylor not at all: as long as Mr. Ewell was on the stand, the judge kept hiseyes on him, as if daring him to make a false move.

Mr. Gilmer and Atticus exchanged glances. Atticus was sitting down again, his fistrested on his cheek and we could not see his face. Mr. Gilmer looked rather desperate.

A question from Judge Taylor made him relax: ”Mr. Ewell, did you see the defendanthaving sexual intercourse with your daughter?”

”Yes, I did.”

The spectators were quiet, but the defendant said something. Atticus whispered tohim, and Tom Robinson was silent.

”You say you were at the window?” asked Mr. Gilmer.

”Yes sir.”

”How far is it from the ground?”

”'bout three foot.”

”Did you have a clear view of the room?”

”Yes sir.”

”How did the room look?”

”Well, it was all slung about, like there was a fight.”

”What did you do when you saw the defendant?”

”Well, I run around the house to get in, but he run out the front door just ahead of me. Isawed who he was, all right. I was too distracted about Mayella to run after'im. I run inthe house and she was lyin' on the floor squallin'—”

”Then what did you do?”

”Why, I run for Tate quick as I could. I knowed who it was, all right, lived down yonderin that nigger-nest, passed the house every day. Jedge, I've asked this county for fifteenyears to clean out that nest down yonder, they're dangerous to live around 'sidesdevaluin' my property—”

”Thank you, Mr. Ewell,” said Mr. Gilmer hurriedly.

The witness made a hasty descent from the stand and ran smack into Atticus, whohad risen to question him. Judge Taylor permitted the court to laugh.

”Just a minute, sir,” said Atticus genially. ”Could I ask you a question or two?”

Mr. Ewell backed up into the witness chair, settled himself, and regarded Atticus withhaughty suspicion, an expression common to Maycomb County witnesses whenconfronted by opposing counsel.

”Mr. Ewell,” Atticus began, ”folks were doing a lot of running that night. Let's see, yousay you ran to the house, you ran to the window, you ran inside, you ran to Mayella, youran for Mr. Tate. Did you, during all this running, run for a doctor?”

”Wadn't no need to. I seen what happened.”

”But there's one thing I don't understand,” said Atticus. ”Weren't you concerned withMayella's condition?”

”I most positively was,” said Mr. Ewell. ”I seen who done it.”

”No, I mean her physical condition. Did you not think the nature of her injurieswarranted immediate medical attention?”

”What?”

”Didn't you think she should have had a doctor, immediately?”

The witness said he never thought of it, he had never called a doctor to any of his'n inhis life, and if he had it would have cost him five dollars. ”That all?” he asked.

”Not quite,” said Atticus casually. ”Mr. Ewell, you heard the sheriff's testimony, didn'tyou?”

”How's that?”

”You were in the courtroom when Mr. Heck Tate was on the stand, weren't you? Youheard everything he said, didn't you?”

Mr. Ewell considered the matter carefully, and seemed to decide that the question wassafe.

”Yes,” he said.

”Do you agree with his description of Mayella's injuries?”

”How's that?”

Atticus looked around at Mr. Gilmer and smiled. Mr. Ewell seemed determined not togive the defense the time of day.

”Mr. Tate testified that her right eye was blackened, that she was beaten around the—”

”Oh yeah,” said the witness. ”I hold with everything Tate said.”

”You do?” asked Atticus mildly. ”I just want to make sure.” He went to the courtreporter, said something, and the reporter entertained us for some minutes by readingMr. Tate's testimony as if it were stock-market quotations: ”…which eye her left oh yesthat'd make it her right it was her right eye Mr. Finch I remember now she was bunged.”

He flipped the page. ”Up on that side of the face Sheriff please repeat what you said itwas her right eye I said—”

”Thank you, Bert,” said Atticus. ”You heard it again, Mr. Ewell. Do you have anythingto add to it? Do you agree with the sheriff?”

”I holds with Tate. Her eye was blacked and she was mighty beat up.”

The little man seemed to have forgotten his previous humiliation from the bench. Itwas becoming evident that he thought Atticus an easy match. He seemed to grow ruddyagain; his chest swelled, and once more he was a red little rooster. I thought he'd bursthis shirt at Atticus's next question:

”Mr. Ewell, can you read and write?”

Mr. Gilmer interrupted. ”Objection,” he said. ”Can't see what witness's literacy has todo with the case, irrelevant'n'immaterial.”

Judge Taylor was about to speak but Atticus said, ”Judge, if you'll allow the questionplus another one you'll soon see.”

”All right, let's see,” said Judge Taylor, ”but make sure we see, Atticus. Overruled.”

Mr. Gilmer seemed as curious as the rest of us as to what bearing the state of Mr.

Ewell's education had on the case.

”I'll repeat the question,” said Atticus. ”Can you read and write?”

”I most positively can.”

”Will you write your name and show us?”

”I most positively will. How do you think I sign my relief checks?”

Mr. Ewell was endearing himself to his fellow citizens. The whispers and chucklesbelow us probably had to do with what a card he was.

I was becoming nervous. Atticus seemed to know what he was doing—but it seemedto me that he'd gone frog-sticking without a light. Never, never, never, on cross-examination ask a witness a question you don't already know the answer to, was a tenetI absorbed with my baby-food. Do it, and you'll often get an answer you don't want, ananswer that might wreck your case.

Atticus was reaching into the inside pocket of his coat. He drew out an envelope, thenreached into his vest pocket and unclipped his fountain pen. He moved leisurely, andhad turned so that he was in full view of the jury. He unscrewed the fountain-pen capand placed it gently on his table. He shook the pen a little, then handed it with theenvelope to the witness. ”Would you write your name for us?” he asked. ”Clearly now,so the jury can see you do it.”

Mr. Ewell wrote on the back of the envelope and looked up complacently to see JudgeTaylor staring at him as if he were some fragrant gardenia in full bloom on the witnessstand, to see Mr. Gilmer half-sitting, half-standing at his table. The jury was watchinghim, one man was leaning forward with his hands over the railing.

”What's so interestin'?” he asked.

”You're left-handed, Mr. Ewell,” said Judge Taylor. Mr. Ewell turned angrily to thejudge and said he didn't see what his being left-handed had to do with it, that he was aChrist-fearing man and Atticus Finch was taking advantage of him. Tricking lawyers likeAtticus Finch took advantage of him all the time with their tricking ways. He had toldthem what happened, he'd say it again and again—which he did. Nothing Atticus askedhim after that shook his story, that he'd looked through the window, then ran the niggeroff, then ran for the sheriff. Atticus finally dismissed him.

Mr. Gilmer asked him one more question. ”About your writing with your left hand, areyou ambidextrous, Mr. Ewell?”

”I most positively am not, I can use one hand good as the other. One hand good asthe other,” he added, glaring at the defense table.

Jem seemed to be having a quiet fit. He was pounding the balcony rail softly, andonce he whispered, ”We've got him.”

I didn't think so: Atticus was trying to show, it seemed to me, that Mr. Ewell could havebeaten up Mayella. That much I could follow. If her right eye was blacked and she wasbeaten mostly on the right side of the face, it would tend to show that a left-handedperson did it. Sherlock Holmes and Jem Finch would agree. But Tom Robinson couldeasily be left-handed, too. Like Mr. Heck Tate, I imagined a person facing me, wentthrough a swift mental pantomime, and concluded that he might have held her with hisright hand and pounded her with his left. I looked down at him. His back was to us, but Icould see his broad shoulders and bull-thick neck. He could easily have done it. Ithought Jem was counting his chickens.