Detective and mystery stories, English; English fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, English
"Yes," he replied, "Arthur Clarke has been cleared of every
suspicion. He left the court a free man. His innocence was proved
beyond question through what every one thought was the most damnatory
piece of evidence against him--the evidence of the khaki tunic. The
khaki tunic exonerated Arthur Clarke as completely as the most
skilful defender could do. Because it did not fit him. Arthur
Clarke was a rather heavy, full-grown, broad-shouldered man, the
khaki tunic would only fit a slim lad of eighteen. Clarke had
admitted the tunic was his, but he had never thought of examining it,
and certainly, not of trying it on. It was Miss St. Jude who thought
of that. Trust a woman in love for getting an inspiration.
"When she was called at the end of the day to affirm the statements
which she had previously made to the police and realised that these
statements of hers were actually in contradiction with Clarke's own
assertions, she worked herself up into a state bordering on hysteria,
in the midst of which she caught sight of the khaki tunic on the
coroner's table. Of course, she, like every one else in the
neighbourhood, knew all about the tunic, but when April St. Jude
actually saw it with her own eyes and realised what its existence
meant to her sweetheart, she gave a wild shriek.
"'I'll not believe it,' she cried, 'I'll not believe it. It can't
be. It is not Arthur's tunic at all.' Then her eyes dilated, her
voice sank to a hoarse whisper, and with a trembling hand she pointed
at the tunic. 'Why,' she murmured, 'it is so small--so small!
Arthur! Where is Arthur? Why does he not show them all that he
never could have worn that tunic?'
"Proverbially there is but a narrow dividing line between tragedy and
farce: While some people shuddered and gasped and men literally held
their breath, marvelling what would happen next, quite a number of
women fell into hysterical giggling. Of course you remember what
happened. The papers have told you all about it. Arthur Clarke was
made to try on the khaki tunic, and he could not even get his arms
into the sleeves. Under no circumstances could he ever have worn
that particular tunic. It was several sizes too small for him. Then
he examined it closely and recognised it as one he wore in his school
O.T.C. when he was a lad. When he was originally confronted with it,
he explained, he was so upset, so genuinely terrified at the
consequences of certain follies which he undoubtedly had committed,
that he could hardly see out of his eyes. The tunic was shown to
him, and he had admitted that it was his, for he had quite a
collection of old tunics which he had always kept. But for the
moment he had forgotten the one which he had worn more than eight
years ago at school.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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