Ngaio Marsh - Collected Short Fiction of Ngaio Marsh

O’Connor: Did you do anything about this meat?

Dr. Swale: I have already deposed that I said it should be destroyed.

O’Connor: And was it destroyed?

Dr. Swale: It was. I have already said so.

O’Connor: By whom?

Dr. Swale: By Mrs. Ecclestone and myself. In their incinerator.

O’Connor: As she subsequently deposed. After you had given your evidence.

Dr. Swale: Quite.

O’Connor: Dr. Swale, did it not occur to you that this meat which was destined for the Major’s dinner should also be analyzed?

Dr. Swale: No. I was simply concerned to get rid of it.

O’Connor: Upon further consideration would you now say it would have been better to have sent it, or a portion of it, for analysis?

Dr. Swale: Perhaps it might have been better. But the circumstances of the dog’s death—their description of its symptoms and its appearance so strongly suggested a convulsive poison such as cyanide—I really didn’t think.

O’Connor: I’m sorry, doctor, but you told us just now, you’ve had no experience of cyanide.

Dr. Swale: No experience in practice but naturally during the course of training I did my poisons.

O’Connor: Is Mrs. Ecclestone a vegetarian?

Dr. Swale (a slight pause) : I believe so.

O’Connor: You believe so, Dr. Swale? But as Mrs. Ecclestone has told us, you are a member of their intimate circle. You are her doctor, are you not?

Dr. Swale (less cool) : Yes, of course I am.

O’Connor: Surely, then, you know definitely whether or not she’s a vegetarian?

Dr. Swale: Yes. All right. I simply said “I believe so” as one does in voicing an ordinary agreement. I know so, if you prefer it. She is a vegetarian.

O’Connor: Are you in the habit of visiting her on Friday afternoons?

Dr. Swale: Not “in the habit” of doing so. I sometimes used to drop in on Fridays to swop crosswords with the Major.

O’Connor: But Major Ecclestone was always at his club on Fridays.

Dr. Swale: He used to leave his crossword out for me. I visit The Hermitage private hospital on Fridays and it’s close by. I did sometimes — quite often — drop in at The Elms.

O’Connor (blandly) : For a cup of tea, perhaps?

Dr. Swale: Certainly. For a cup of tea.

O’Connor: You heard the evidence of Thomas Tidwell, didn’t you?

Dr. Swale (contemptuously) : If you can call it that.

O’Connor: What would you call it?

Dr. Swale: An example of small-town lying gossip dished out by a small-town oaf.

O’Connor: To what part of his evidence do you refer?

Dr. Swale: Clearly, since it concerns me, to the suggestion that I went to the house for any other purpose than the one I have given.

O’Connor: What do you say to Miss Freebody’s views on the subject?

Dr. Swale: I would have thought it was obvious that they are those of a mentally disturbed spinster of uncertain age.

Miss Freebody (sharply) : Libel! Cad! Murderer!

(The Judge turns and stares at her. The Wardress admonishes her. She subsides.)

O’Connor: You are not Miss Freebody’s doctor, are you?

Dr. Swale: No, thank God.

(Laughter)

Usher: Silence in court.

O’Connor: When you paid your earlier visit to The Elms on the afternoon in question, did you carry your professional bag with you?

Dr. Swale (after a pause) : I expect so.

O’Connor: Why? It was not a professional call.

Dr. Swale: I’m not in the habit of leaving it in the car.

O’Connor: What was in it?

Dr. Swale: You don’t want an inventory, do you? The bag contains the normal impedimenta of a doctor in general practice.

O’Connor: And nothing else?

Dr. Swale: I’m not in the habit of using my case as a shopping bag.

O’Connor: Not for butcher’s meat, for instance?

Golding: My lord, I do most strenuously object.

Dr. Swale: This is intolerable. Have I no protection against this sort of treatment?

Judge: No. Answer.

Dr. Swale: No. I do not and never have carried butcher’s meat in my bag.

(Defense Counsel sits.)

Judge (to Golding): Mr. Golding, do you wish to re-examine?

Golding: No, my lord.

Judge (to Swale): Thank you, doctor.

Dr. Swale: My lord, may I speak to you?

Judge: No, Dr. Swale.

Dr. Swale: I demand to be heard.

Judge: You may do no such thing, you may—

Dr. Swale (shouting him down) : My lord, it is perfectly obvious that counsel for the defense is trying to protect his client by throwing up a series of infamous suggestions intended to implicate a lady and myself in this miserable business.

Judge (through this) : Be quiet, sir. Leave the witness box.

Dr. Swale: I refuse. I insist. We are not legally represented. I am a professional man who must be very gravely damaged by these baseless innuendoes.

Judge: For the last time I warn you—

Dr. Swale (shouting him down) : I had nothing, I repeat, nothing whatever to do with the death of the Ecclestones’ dog (Judge gestures to Usher), nor did I tamper with any of the meat in the safe. I protest, my lord. I protest.

(The Usher and a police constable close in on him and the scene ends in confusion.)

(Gwendoline Miggs is sworn in on the stand. She is a large, determined-looking woman of about sixty.)

O’Connor: Your name is Sarah Gwendoline Miggs?

Miggs: Yes.

O’Connor: And where do you live, Miss Miggs?

Miggs: Flat 3, Flask Walk, Fulchester.

O’Connor: You are a qualified medical nurse, now retired?

Miggs: I am.

O’Connor: Will you give us briefly an account of your professional experience?

Miggs: Fifteen years in general hospital and twenty years in ten hospitals for the mentally disturbed.

O’Connor: The last one being at Fulchester Grange Hospital where you nursed for some two years before retiring?

Miggs: Correct.

O’Connor: And have you, since the sitting of this court, been looking after the defendant, Miss Mary Emmaline Freebody?

Miggs: Right.

O’Connor: Miss Miggs, will you tell his Lordship and the jury how the days are spent since you took this job?

Miggs: I relieve the night nurse at 8:00 a.m. and am with the case until I’m relieved in the evening.

Judge: With the “case”?

O’Connor: Miss Freebody, my lord.

Judge (fretfully) : Why can’t we say so, for pity’s sake? Very well.

O’Connor: Do you remain with Miss Freebody throughout the day?

Miggs: Yes.

O’Connor: Never leave her?

Miggs: Those are my instructions and I carry them out.

(Dr. Swale, who has been looking fixedly at the witness, writes a note, signals to the Usher and gives him the note. The Usher takes it to Mr. Golding, who reads it and shows it to his junior and the solicitor for the prosecution.)

O’Connor: Do you find Miss Freebody at all difficult?

Miggs: Not a bit.

O’Connor: She doesn’t try to — to shake you off? She doesn’t resent your presence?

Miggs: Didn’t like it at first. There was a slight resentment but we soon got over that. We’re very good friends, now.

O’Connor: And you have never left her?

Miggs: I said so, didn’t I? Never.

O’Connor: Thank you, Miss Miggs. (Defense Counsel sits.)

Golding (rising) : Yes. Nurse Miggs, you have told the court, have you not, that since you qualified as a mental nurse, you have taken posts in ten hospitals over a period of twenty years, the last appointment being of two years’ duration at Fulchester Grange?

Miggs: Correct.

Golding: Have you, in addition to these engagements, taken private patients?