Read Online B-Berry and I Look Back by Dornford Yates - Free Book Online Page A

remains had been found. Very well. It was the Coroner’s duty to inquire into the circumstances of that unfortunate person’s death. Whether or no Crippen was involved remained to be seen.”
    “Did the jury return a verdict of wilful murder?”
    “I think so. I can’t be sure. It didn’t make any difference, for he was already under arrest.”
    “What evidence was given?”
    “Well, the police spoke to the discovery of the remains. And the police-surgeon gave evidence. Pepper, the Home Office expert, may have been there. I think Mrs Nash gave evidence – she was a friend of Belle Elmore’s and was really responsible for setting the ball rolling. But for that courageous lady, nothing would have been done. Oh, and Le Neve’s landlady went into the box.”
    “That’s interesting. What did she say?”
    I hesitated. Then –
    “Well, it’s all in the files of The Times , so I may as well say. She said that one night Le Neve ‘had the horrors’. What precisely she meant, you can guess as well as can I. A severe emotional outburst – tears and wailing and lamentation. Any way the landlady ministered to her, and after a long time she managed to calm her down. But she never forgot that night – or that painful scene. If you’ll forgive me, I’d like to leave it there.”
    There was a little silence.
    Then –
    “This,” I said, “has remembered something else. It’s only a side-light on a certain cause célèbre , but it may interest you.
    “A man was arraigned for wilful murder at the Old Bailey. He was defended by Marshall Hall and he was acquitted. He did very well in the box. He was very cool and collected. The first question Marshall Hall asked him was, ‘Did you murder Agatha Collins?’ I think the question surprised him as much as it did the Court, for he hesitated a moment. Then he shrugged his shoulders and simply said, ‘It’s absurd.’ Which was, of course, a very good answer – and a very much better one than Marshall Hall deserved. Most men would have just said, ‘No’, which would have cut no ice. I may say that ‘Agatha Collins’ was not the victim’s real name.”
    “Why didn’t Marshall Hall deserve it?”
    “Because in asking that question he took a great risk. And counsel for the defence shouldn’t take any risks. That was a question from which Marshall Hall could have hoped to gain nothing, which, coming from his own counsel, was quite liable to shake the defendant up. It might easily have provoked an outburst: and when a man loses control, he may say anything.
    “You and I are so familiar with the procedure, that such a question wouldn’t worry us: but the average man knows nothing of courts of law: everything’s strange to him, and, if he is on trial for his life, formidable. In this case, he’d just been sworn – sworn on the Word of God to speak nothing but the truth. And then came this awful question…
    “I remember that a member of the Bar who was in court said to me afterwards, ‘Did you see him hesitate? He didn’t know whether he ought to say yes or no.’”
    Jonah began to shake with laughter.
    “Yes, he was being funny. All the same, it was a very dangerous question. In this case it came right off. But Marshall Hall was lucky to get away with it.
    “I’m well aware that I’m criticizing a man whose little finger was thicker than my loins, who was very kind to me. He was a splendid and famous advocate; and, as such, deserves to be remembered. But he was impetuous: and now and again, as I have said before, he would do a foolish thing. Still, he was in the front rank of his contemporaries, and not one of his successors has come anywhere near him.”
    “What of Patrick Hastings?”
    “He was not in the same street. Such was his reputation between the wars that I made a point of going to hear him in a cause célèbre … I believe he was very successful; but, quite honestly, he simply didn’t compare with Marshall Hall. With all his faults, Marshall