The Greatest Works of Fergus Hume - 22 Mystery Novels in One Edition. Fergus Hume
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she answered, meeting his look steadily, though her face was very pale; “I must be there. I shall go mad with anxiety unless I know how the trial goes on.”
“But think of the disagreeable amount of attention you will attract,” urged the lawyer.
“No one will recognise me,” she said calmly, “I am very plainly dressed, and I will wear this veil;” and, drawing one from her pocket, she went to a small looking-glass which was hanging on the wall, and tied it over her face.
Calton looked in perplexity at Mr. Frettlby.
“I’m afraid you must consent,” he said.
“Very well,” replied the other, almost sternly, while a look of annoyance passed over his face. “I shall leave her in your charge.”
“And you?”
“I’m not coming,” answered Frettlby, quickly, putting on his hat. “I don’t care about seeing a man whom I have had at my dinner-table, in the prisoner’s dock, much as I sympathise with him. Good-day;” and with a curt nod he took his leave. When the door closed on her father, Madge placed her hand on Calton’s arm.
“Any hope?” she whispered, looking at him through the black veil.
“The merest chance,” answered Calton, putting his brief into his bag. “We have done everything in our power to discover this girl, but without result. If she does not come at the eleventh hour I’m afraid Brian Fitzgerald is a doomed man.”
Madge fell on her knees, with a stifled cry.
“Oh, God of Mercy,” she cried, raising her hands as if in prayer, “save him. Save my darling, and let him not die for the crime of another. God—”
She dropped her face in her hands and wept convulsively, as the lawyer touched her lightly on the shoulder.
“Come!” he said kindly. “Be the brave girl you were, and we may save him yet. The hour is darkest before the dawn, you know.”
Madge dried her tears, and followed the lawyer to the cab, which was waiting for them at the door. They drove quickly up to the Court, and Calton put her in a quiet place, where she could see the dock, and yet be unobserved by the people in the body of the Court. Just as he was leaving her she touched his arm.
“Tell him,” she whispered, in a trembling voice, “tell him I am here.”
Calton nodded, and hurried away to put on his wig and gown, while Madge looked hurriedly round the Court from her point of vantage.
It was crowded with fashionable Melbourne of both sexes, and they were all talking together in subdued whispers. The popular character of the prisoner, his good looks, and engagement to Madge Frettlby, together with the extraordinary circumstances of the case, had raised public curiosity to the highest pitch, and, consequently, everybody who could possibly manage to gain admission was there.
Felix Rolleston had secured an excellent seat beside the pretty Miss Featherweight, whom he admired so much, and he was chattering to her with the utmost volubility.
“Puts me in mind of the Coliseum and all that sort of thing, you know,” he said, putting up his eye-glass and starting round. “Butchered to make a Roman holiday by jove.”
“Don’t say such horrid things, you frivolous creature,” simpered Miss Featherweight, using her smelling-bottle. “We are all here out of sympathy for that poor dear Mr. Fitzgerald.”
The mercurial Felix, who had more cleverness in him than people gave him credit for, smiled outright at this eminently feminine way of covering an overpowering curiosity.
“Ah, yes,” he said lightly; “exactly. I daresay Eve only ate the apple because she didn’t like to see such a lot of good fruit go to waste.”
Miss Featherweight eyed him doubtfully. She was not quite certain whether he was in jest or earnest. Just as she was about to reply to the effect that she thought it wicked to make the Bible a subject for joking, the Judge entered and the Court rose.
When the prisoner was brought in, there was a great flutter among the ladies, and some of them even had the bad taste to produce opera-glasses. Brian noticed this, and he flushed up to the roots of his fair hair, for he felt his degradation acutely. He was an intensely proud man, and to be placed in the criminal dock, with a lot of frivolous people, who had called themselves his friends, looking at him as though he were a new actor or a wild animal, was galling in the extreme. He was dressed in black, and looked pale and worn, but all the ladies declared that he was as good-looking as ever, and they were sure he was innocent.
The jury were sworn in, and the Crown Prosecutor rose to deliver his opening address.
Most of those present knew the facts only through the medium of the newspapers, and such floating rumours as they had been able to gather. They were therefore unaware of the true history of events which had led to Fitzgerald’s arrest, and they prepared to listen to the speech with profound attention.
The ladies ceased to talk, the men to stare round, and nothing could be seen but row after row of eager and attentive faces, hanging on the words that issued from the lips of the Crown Prosecutor. He was not a great orator, but he spoke clearly and distinctly, and every word could be heard in the dead silence.
He gave a rapid sketch of the crime—merely a repetition of what had been published in the newspapers—and then proceeded to enumerate the witnesses for the prosecution.
He would call the landlady of the deceased to show that ill-feeling existed between the prisoner and the murdered man, and that the accused had called on the deceased a week prior to the committal of the crime, and threatened his life. (There was great excitement at this, and several ladies decided, on the spur of the moment, that the horrid man was guilty, but the majority of them still refused to believe in the guilt of such a good-looking young fellow.) He would call a witness who could prove that Whyte was drunk on the night of the murder, and went along Russell Street, in the direction of Collins Street; the cabman Royston could swear to the fact that the prisoner had hailed the cab, and after going away for a short time, returned and entered the cab with the deceased. He would also prove that the prisoner left the cab at the Grammar School, in the St. Kilda Road, and on the arrival of the cab at the junction, he discovered the deceased had been murdered. The cabman Rankin would prove that he drove the prisoner from the St. Kilda Road to Powlett Street in East Melbourne, where he got out; and he would call the prisoner’s landlady to prove that the prisoner resided in Powlett Street, and that on the night of the murder he had not reached home till shortly after two o’clock. He would also call the detective who had charge of the case, to prove the finding of a glove belonging to the deceased in the pocket of the coat which the prisoner wore on the night of the murder; and the doctor who had examined the body of the deceased would give evidence that the death was caused by inhalation of chloroform. As he had now fully shown the chain of evidence which he proposed to prove, he would call the first witness, MALCOLM ROYSTON.
ROYSTON, on being sworn, gave the same evidence as he had given at the inquest, from the time that the cab was hailed up to his arrival at the St. Kilda Police Station with the dead body of Whyte. In the cross-examination, Calton asked him if he was prepared to swear that the man who hailed the cab, and the man who got in with the deceased, were one and the same person.
WITNESS: I am.
CALTON: You are quite certain?
WITNESS: Yes; quite certain.
CALTON: Do you then recognise the prisoner as the man who hailed the cab?
WITNESS (hesitatingly): I cannot swear to that. The gentleman who hailed the cab had his hat pulled down over his eyes, so that I could not see his face; but the height and general appearance of the prisoner are the same.
CALTON: Then it is only because the man who got into the cab was dressed like the prisoner on that night that you thought they were both the same?
WITNESS: It never struck me for a minute