Witness for the Defence
Page 12
CHAPTER XII
THRESK GIVES EVIDENCE
Thresk's fears were justified. Sympathy for Stella Ballantyne hadalready begun to wane. The fact that Ballantyne had been found outsidethe door of the tent was already assuming a sinister importance. Mrs.Ballantyne's counsel slid discreetly over that awkward incident. Veryfortunately, as it was now to prove, he did not cross-examine the doctorfrom Ajmere at all. But there are always the few who oppose the generalopinion--the men and women who are in the minority because it is theminority; those whom the hysterical glorification made of StellaBallantyne had offended; the austere, the pedantic, the just, thejealous, all were quick to seize upon this disconcerting fact: StellaBallantyne had dragged her dying husband from the tent. It was eithersheer callousness or blind fury--you might take your choice. In eithercase it dulled the glow of martyrdom which for a week or two had been soradiant upon Stella Ballantyne's forehead; and the few who argued thusattracted adherents daily. And with the sympathy for Stella Ballantyneinterest in the case began to wane too.
The magisterial inquiry threatened to become tedious. The pictures ofthe witnesses and the principals occupied less and less space in thenewspapers. In another week the case would be coldly left with a shrug ofthe shoulders to the Law Courts. But unexpectedly curiosity was stirredagain, for the day after Thresk had called upon the lawyer, when the casefor the Crown was at an end, Mrs. Ballantyne's counsel, Mr. Travers,asked permission to recall Baram Singh. Permission was granted, and BaramSingh once more took his place in the witness-box.
Mr. Travers leant against the desk behind him and put his questions withthe most significant slowness.
"I wish to ask you, Baram Singh," he said, "about the dinner-table on theThursday night. You laid it?"
"Yes," replied Baram Singh.
"For how many?"
"For three."
There was a movement through the whole court.
"Yes," said Mr. Travers, "Captain Ballantyne had a visitor that night."
Baram Singh agreed.
"Look round the court and tell the magistrate if you can see here the manwho dined with Captain Ballantyne and his wife that night."
For a moment the court was filled with the noise of murmuring. The ushercried "Silence!" and the murmuring ceased. A hush of expectation filledthat crowded room as Baram Singh's eyes travelled slowly round thewalls. He dropped them to the well of the court, and even hisunexpressive face flashed with a look of recognition.
"There," he cried, "there!" and he pointed to a man who was sitting justunderneath the counsel's bench.
Mr. Travers leant forward and in a quiet but particularly clearvoice said:
"Will you kindly stand up, Mr. Thresk?"
Thresk stood up. To many of those present--the idlers, the people offashion, the seekers after a thrill of excitement who fill the publicgalleries and law-courts--his long conduct of the great Carruthers trialhad made him a familiar figure. To the others his name, at all events,was known, and as he stood up on the floor of the court a swift andregular movement like a ripple of water passed through the throng. Theyleant forward to get a clearer view of him and for a moment there was ahiss of excited whispering.
"That is the man who dined with Captain and Mrs. Ballantyne on the nightwhen Captain Ballantyne was killed?" said Mr. Travers.
"Yes," replied Baram Singh.
No one understood what was coming. People began to ask themselves whetherThresk was concerned in the murder. Word had been published that he hadalready left for England. How was it he was here now? Mr. Travers, forhis part, was enjoying to the full the suspense which his question hadaroused. Not by any intonation did he allow a hint to escape him whetherhe looked upon Thresk as an enemy or friend.
"You may sit down, sir, now," he said, and Thresk resumed his seat.
"Will you tell us what you know of Mr. Thresk's visit to the Captain?"Travers resumed, and Baram Singh told how a camel had been sent to thedak-house by the station of Jarwhal Junction.
"Yes," said Mr. Travers, "and he dined in the tent. How long did hestay?"
"He left the camp at eleven o'clock on the camel to catch the night trainto Bombay. The Captain-sahib saw him off from the edge of the camp."
"Ah," said Mr. Travers, "Captain Ballantyne saw him off?"
"Yes--from the edge of the camp."
"And then went back to the tent?"
"Yes."
"Now I want to take you to another point. You waited at dinner?"
"Yes."
"And towards the close of dinner Mrs. Ballantyne left the room?"
"Yes."
"She did not come back again?"
"No."
"No. The two men were then left alone?"
"Yes."
"After dinner was the table cleared?"
"Yes," said Baram Singh, "the Captain-sahib called to me to clear thetable quickly."
"Yes," said Travers. "Now, will you tell me what the Captain-sahib wasdoing while you were clearing the table?"
Baram Singh reflected.
"First of all the Captain-sahib offered a box of cheroots to his visitor,and his visitor refused and took a pipe from his pocket. TheCaptain-sahib then lit a cheroot for himself and replaced the box on thetop of the bureau."
"And after that?" asked Travers.
"After that," said Baram Singh, "he stooped down, unlocked the bottomdrawer of his bureau and then turned sharply to me and told me to hurryand get out."
"And that order you obeyed?"
"Yes."
"Now, Baram Singh, did you enter the room again?"
Baram Singh explained that after he had gone out with the table-cloth hereturned in a few moments with an ash-tray, which he placed beside thevisitor-sahib.
"Yes," said Travers. "Had Captain Ballantyne altered his position?"
Baram Singh then related that Captain Ballantyne was still sitting inhis chair by the bureau, but that the drawer of the bureau was now open,and that on the ground close to Captain Ballantyne's feet there was a reddespatch-box.
"The Captain-sahib," he continued, "turned to me with great anger, anddrove me again out of the room."
"Thank you," said Mr. Travers, and he sat down.
The prosecuting counsel rose at once.
"Now, Baram Singh," he said with severity, "why did you not mention whenyou were first put in the witness-box that this gentleman was present inthe camp that night?"
"I was not asked."
"No, that is quite true," he continued, "you were not asked specifically,but you were asked to tell all that you knew."
"I did not interfere," replied Baram Singh. "I answered what questionswere asked. Besides, when the sahib left the camp the Captain-sahibwas alive."
At this moment Mr. Travers leaned across to the prosecuting counsel andsaid: "It will all be made clear when Mr. Thresk goes into the box."
And once more, as Mr. Travers spoke these words, a rustle of expectancyran round the court.
Travers opened the case for the defence on the following morning. He hadbeen originally instructed, he declared, to reserve the defence for theactual trial before the jury, but upon his own urgent advice that planwas not to be followed. The case which he had to put before thestipendiary must so infallibly prove that Mrs. Ballantyne was free fromall complicity in this crime that he felt he would not be doing his dutyto her unless he made it public at the first opportunity. That unhappylady had already, as every one who had paid even the most carelessattention to the facts that had been presented by the prosecution mustknow, suffered so much distress and sorrow in the course of her marriedlife that he felt it would not be fair to add to it the strain andsuspense which even the most innocent must suffer when sent for trialupon such a serious charge. He at once proposed to call Mr. Thresk, andThresk rose and went into the witness-box.
Thresk told the story of that dinner-party word for word as it hadoccurred, laying some emphasis on the terror which from time to time hadtaken possession of Stephen Ballantyne,
down to the moment when BaramSingh had brought the ash-tray and left the two men together, Thresksitting by the table in the middle of the room and Ballantyne at hisbureau with the despatch-box on the floor at his feet.
"Then I noticed an extraordinary look of fear disfigure his face," hecontinued, "and following the direction of his eyes I saw a lean brownarm with a thin hand as delicate as a woman's wriggle forward frombeneath the wall of the tent towards the despatch-box."
"You saw that quite clearly?" asked Mr. Travers.
"The tent was not very brightly lit," Thresk explained. "At the firstglance I saw something moving. I was inclined to believe it a snake andto account in that way for Captain Ballantyne's fear and the suddenrigidity of his attitude. But I looked again and I was then quite surethat it was an arm and hand."
The evidence roused those present to such a tension of excitement and toso loud a burst of murmuring that it was quite a minute before order wasrestored and Thresk took up his tale again. He described Ballantyne'ssearch for the thief.
"And what were you doing," Mr. Travers asked, "whilst the search wasbeing made?"
"I stood by the table holding the despatch-box firmly in my hands asBallantyne had urgently asked me to do."
"Quite so," said Mr. Travers; and the attention of the court was nowdirected to that despatch-box and the portrait of Bahadur Salak which itcontained. The history of the photograph, its importance at this momentwhen Salak's trial impended, and Ballantyne's conviction of the extremedanger which its possessor ran--a conviction established by the boldattempt to steal it made under their very eyes--was laid before thestipendiary. He sent the case to trial as he was bound to do, but theverdict in most people's eyes was a foregone conclusion. Thresk hadsupplied a story which accounted for the crime, and cross-examinationcould not shake him. It was easy to believe that at the very moment whenThresk was saying goodbye to Captain Ballantyne by the fire on the edgeof the camp the thief slipped into the marquee, and when discovered byBallantyne either on his return or later shot him with Mrs. Ballantyne'srifle. It was clear that no conviction could be obtained while this storyheld the field and in due course Mrs. Ballantyne was acquitted. OfThresk's return to the tent just before leaving the camp nothing wassaid. Thresk himself did not mention it and the counsel for the Crown hadno hint which could help him to elicit it.
Thus the case ended. The popular heroine of a criminal trial loses, asall observers will have noticed, her crown of romance the moment she isset free; and that good fortune awaited Stella Ballantyne. Thresk calledthe next day upon Jane Repton and was coldly told that Stella had alreadygone from Bombay. He betook himself to her solicitor, who was cordial butuncommunicative. The Reptons, it appeared, were responsible to him forthe conduct of the case. He had not any knowledge of Stella Ballantyne'sdestination, and he pointed to a stack of telegrams and letters asconfirmation of his words.
"They will all go up to Khamballa Hill," he said. "I have noother address."
The next day, however, a little note of gratitude came to Thresk throughthe post. It was unsigned and without any address. But it was in StellaBallantyne's handwriting and the post-mark was Kurrachee. That she didnot wish to see him he could quite understand; Kurrachee was a port fromwhich ships sailed to many destinations; he could hardly set out in ablind search for her across the world. So here, it seemed, was thatchapter closed. He took the next steamer westwards from Bombay, landed atBrindisi and went back to his work in the Law Courts and in Parliament.