“I think you said,” observed Moon absently, “that none of the
prisoner’s shots really hit the doctor.”
“For the cause of science,” cried the complacent Pym, “fortunately
not.”
“Yet they were fired from a few feet away.”
“Yes; about four feet.”
“And no shots hit the Warden, though they were fired quite close to him
too?” asked Moon.
“That is so,” said the witness gravely.
“I think,” said Moon, suppressing a slight yawn, “that your Sub-Warden
mentioned that Smith was one of the University’s record men for
shooting.”
“Why, as to that—” began Pym, after an instant of stillness.
“A second question,” continued Moon, comparatively curtly. “You said
there were other cases of the accused trying to kill people. Why have
you not got evidence of them?”
The American planted the points of his fingers on the table again. “In
those cases,” he said precisely, “there was no evidence from outsiders,
as in the Cambridge case, but only the evidence of the actual victims.”
“Why didn’t you get their evidence?”
“In the case of the actual victims,” said Pym, “there was some
difficulty and reluctance, and—”
“Do you mean,” asked Moon, “that none of the actual victims would
appear against the prisoner?”
“That would be exaggerative,” began the other.
“A third question,” said Moon, so sharply that every one jumped.
“You’ve got the evidence of the Sub-Warden who heard some shots;
where’s the evidence of the Warden himself who was shot at? The Warden
of Brakespeare lives, a prosperous gentleman.”
“We did ask for a statement from him,” said Pym a little nervously;
“but it was so eccentrically expressed that we suppressed it out of
deference to an old gentleman whose past services to science have been
great.”
Moon leaned forward. “You mean, I suppose,” he said, “that his
statement was favourable to the prisoner.”
“It might be understood so,” replied the American doctor; “but, really,
it was difficult to understand at all. In fact, we sent it back to
him.”
“You have no longer, then, any statement signed by the Warden of
Brakespeare.”
“No.”
“I only ask,” said Michael quietly, “because we have. To conclude my
case I will ask my junior, Mr. Inglewood, to read a statement of the
true story—a statement attested as true by the signature of the Warden
himself.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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