As Berry and I Were Saying

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the witness had used: but Bodkin was always very charming and, with the generosity of the Crown, nearly always gave way.
    “Of his great experience, Gill had realized from the beginning that, once the case reached a jury, the defendant was doomed. That was vision. He saw, and his sight was good. Nine counsel out of ten would have decided that the accused was bound to be committed for trial and would have reserved their defence. But Gill was the tenth. So the battle royal was fought in the Petty Sessional Court. It was really fought between Gill and the Justices, for Bodkin never pressed his cases, and in this particular case the evidence spoke for itself.
    “From first to last, Gill did the whole case magnificently. He was on his mettle, and, so far as I saw, he never put a foot wrong. He examined and cross-examined to perfection. I’ve told you already how he made the Bench grant bail. On the last day, he made a supreme effort to persuade them to dismiss the case. If ever I saw a case which should have gone for trial, it was this one. But Gill very nearly did it. After his truly brilliant performance, the Justices retired to consider what they should do. And then at last they came back and announced that they had come to the conclusion that it was a case for a jury to decide. I can’t say we were disappointed. You may cry for the moon, but you can’t be disappointed if you don’t get it. Gill had made an impossible demand. His triumph lay in the fact that his demand had been considered for very nearly an hour.
    “I’m afraid I’ve strayed from the point I was trying to make.”
    My sister smiled.
    “Always do that for me. I wouldn’t have missed a word.”
    “You’re very sweet. Well, the prisoner was sent for trial. But when the solicitors asked which Judge would try the case, to the general consternation, it proved to be Phillimore. Now Phillimore was, as I’ve said, a Puritan. He carried to excess an outlook which was inhumanly strict. If he was trying a man for stealing a duck and the fact emerged that the prisoner had a glad eye, that prisoner was doomed. Phillimore couldn’t help it; that was the way he was made. And when we learned that he was to be the Judge that would try the case – well, we knew that if he did, the man might as well plead guilty as fight so hopeless a fight.
    “So Charles Gill got going. The Attorney General was approached and he at once agreed that the case was not one which Phillimore should try. And so it stood over until the next Assize.
    “The fellow went down all right, as he richly deserved. But we were, at least, spared Phillimore’s reactions which would have sent us mad. And Phillimore was spared, too: for he was a genuine, though most objectionable, Puritan, and I really believe that the evidence would have shortened his life.”
    “Did it shorten yours?”
    “No. But then I am not a Puritan and I am pretty tough. But it certainly shook me. But it was the dramatic situation that hit you between the eyes. There was the play before you, complete in every detail, a stronger, more terrible play than dramatists, ancient or modern, have ever dared to create. And it wasn’t a play at all. It was the real thing.”
    “I believe you,” said Berry, “but may we have the name?”
    “I’d rather not give it. But this was in 1914, and the prisoner was sentenced at Lewes at the Summer Assize. Perhaps I’ve said too much, but I’d like to add one thing. The magistrates granted bail. As some time must elapse before he was tried, the accused asked the Crown’s permission to visit America. Now the offence with which he was charged was not an extraditable offence: so, had he declined to return, he could not have been brought back. So the Crown, rather naturally, hesitated to comply with his request. But he promised that he would return to stand his trial. So they let him go. And he kept his word and came back – for seven years.”

4
    “I feel,” said Berry, “that the

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