It further came out, under skilful examination, that this worthy Mr.
Jervis Fanshawe had actually got the prisoner away to London, and had
refused to reveal the whereabouts of Gavin Hockley; had only yielded, in
fact, under the belief that the two young men were to make up their
differences. I watched him closely during this time, but he avoided my
eyes as much as possible, and gave his evidence in short jerky
sentences; I believe it was felt that he was labouring under strong
emotion.
My counsel had before him a task that was hopeless enough. I would tell
him nothing save that I had killed the man; I was deaf to all his
pleadings. He could only do what was in his power to upset the evidence
that had been given; he started on a track with my guardian that amazed
and frightened me.
"You went down to Hammerstone Market, Mr. Fanshawe, with your ward, to
attend a wedding?" he began. "Can you tell us if the prisoner had any
interest in any way in that wedding?"
"He knew the parties, as I did," replied my guardian.
"There was no possibility of any quarrel having arisen out of any
jealous motive?"
I held my breath, and wondered what the man would say. He glanced at me
for a moment; I do not exaggerate when I say that he cowered beneath the
look I gave him.
"I do not understand the question," he said. "The people were intimately
known to me, but were mere acquaintances of the prisoner."
There came the speech of the prosecuting counsel. This young man, of
good education and good prospects, had gambled recklessly with another
man, and had found himself in an impossible position. He might have
gone, gentlemen of the jury, with confidence to this guardian, who was
his best and his dearest friend, and have appealed to him to liquidate
his debt; instead of that it was evident that he had determined to try
conclusions with the man who held these incriminating scraps of paper.
What passed behind the closed doors of the unfortunate man's rooms it
was impossible to say; they could only conjecture. It must, however, be
suggested that the prisoner, terrified at the thought of the position in
which he had placed himself, had gone late at night to the rooms of the
man to whom he owed this considerable sum of money; they might imagine
him pleading with that man, then threatening and demanding, then
endeavouring to obtain by force that which he could obtain in no other
way. It might be urged that these papers had been found upon the dead
man, but surely that could easily be accounted for. Even the most
callous could scarcely stoop to search the blood-stained thing that lay
in that quiet room at night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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