John Carr - The Judas Window

We had just such a situation here. The prisoner had still been found in a locked room. The circumstantial evidence of the fact was still conclusive. No doubt had been cast on the central point, which was the only real point at issue. However damaged the case for the prosecution had become, Sir Walter Storm must finish this course.

I was recalled by H.M.'s voice.

'Your name's Joseph George Shanks, and you were odd-jobs man at number 12 Grosvenor Street?'

'Yessir,' said the witness. He was a little, broad man, so much like a dwarfed model of John Bull that his Sunday-best clothes sat oddly on him. Two polished knives of white collar stabbed his neck: they seemed to keep his voice light from the effort of keeping his neck high.

'How long did you work there?'

'Ah,' said the other, considering. 'Six years, more or less, I should think.'

'What were your duties, mostly?'

'Mostly keeping Mr Hume's archery things in order; any repairs to 'em; things like that.'

'Take a look at this arrow, which was used to kill the deceased' - the witness carefully wiped his hands on the seat of his Sunday trousers before accepting it - 'and tell the jury whether you've seen it before.'

'You-bet-I-have, sir. I fastened the feathers on. I remember this one. Dye's a mite dark for the kind I meant.'

'You often fastened the deceased's special kind of feathers to the arrows? And dyed the guide-feather? Mr Fleming told us that yesterday.'

'I did that, sir.'

'Now, supposin' I showed you a little piece of feather,' pursued H.M. with argumentative persuasiveness, 'and I asked you to tell me definitely whether it was the piece of feather missing from the middle, there ... could you do that?'

'If it was off this feather, I could, sir. Besides, it 'ud fit.'

'It would. But - just to take a different sort of question for a minute - you worked in that little workshop or shed in the back garden, didn't you?'

'I'm sure I didn't mean to press you, sir,' said the witness generously. 'What was that? Ah. Yes, I did.'

'Did he keep any cross-bows there?'

The stir of creaking that went through the room affected Shanks with a pleasant sense of importance. He relaxed, and leaned his elbows on the rail of the box. Evidently some stern eye was watching over his conduct from the spectators' gallery lover our heads; for he seemed to become sensible of the impropriety of his posture, and straightened up hastily.

'He did, sir. Three of them. Fine nasty-looking things.'

'Where'd he keep 'em?'

'In a big box, sir, like a big tool-box with a handle. Under the carpenter's bench.' The witness blinked with a painful effort at concentration.

'Tell me: did you go down to that shed on the morning of Sunday, January 5th, the day after the murder?'

'Yes, sir. I know it was Sunday, but even so, considering -'

'Did you notice anything different in the shed?'

'I did, sir. Somebody'd been at that tool-box, or what I call a tool-box. It's directly under the bench, you see, sir; and there's shavings and dust (falls on it, like a coating, you see, sir; and so if you loo'k at it you can tell right away, without thinking anything of it, if someone has been at it.'

'Did you look in the box?'

'Yes, sir, of course. And one of the cross-bows were not there.'

'What'd you do when you found this out?'

'Well, sir, of course I spoke to Miss Mary about it; but she said not to bother about such things, considering; and so I didn't.'

'Could you identify that cross bow, if you saw it again?' 'I could, sir.'

From his own hidden lair (which he kept jealously guarded) H.M. made a gesture to Lollypop. There was produced a weapon very similar in appearance to the cross-bow H.M. had used yesterday for the purposes of illustration. It was perhaps not quite so long, and had a broader head; steel studs were set in a line down the stock, and there was a little silver plate let into it.

'Is this, the cross-bow?' said; H.M.

'That's it; yes, sir. Here's even Mr Hume's name engraved on the little plate.'

'Look at the drum of the windlass there, where you'll see the teeth. Just tell me if there's somethin' caught in there - ah, you got itl Take it out. Hold it over so the jury can see. What is it?' j

'It's a bit of feather, sir, blue feather.'

Sir Walter' Storm was on 'his feet. He was not amused now; only grave, heavy and polite.

'My lord, are we to assume that this is being suggested as the mysterious piece of feather about which so many questions have been asked?’

'Only a part of it, milord,' grunted H.M. 'If it's examined, we'll see that there's still a little bit of it missin’. Not much. Only a piece about a quarter by half an inch square. But enough. That, we're suggestin', is the second piece. There are three of them. One's yet to come.' After the amenities, he turned back to the witness. 'Could you say definitely whether or not the piece you've got in your hand came off that broken guide-feather on the arrow?'

'I think I could, sir,' said the witness, and blinked.

'Just look at it, then, and tell us.'

While Shanks screwed up his eyes and hunched his shoulders over it, there was a sound of shuffling or sliding in court. People were frying surreptitiously to rise and get a look. The prisoner, his face sharper now and less muddled, was also staring at it; but he seemed as puzzled as anyone else.

'Ah, this is right, sir,' declared Shanks. 'It come off here.'

'You're sure of that, now? I mean, one part of a broken feather might be deceptive, mightn't it? Even if it's a goose-feather, and even if it's got a special kind of dye on it, can you still identify it as comin' from that particular arrow?'

'This one I can; yes, indeed, yes. I put on this dye myself. I put it on with a brush, like paint. That's what I meant by saying it fitted. There's a slip in the paint here that makes a lighter mark in the blue like a question-mark. You can see the upper part of the question-mark, but the little dot and part of the tail I don't see ...'

"Would you swear,' said H.M. very gently, 'would you swear that the part of feather you see stickin' in that crossbow came from the feather on the arrow in front of you?'

'I would indeed, sir.'

'For the moment,' said H.M., 'that's all.'

The Attorney-General got up with a suavity in which there was some impatience. His eye evidently made Shanks nervous.

'The arrow you have there bears the date 1934, I think. Does that mean you prepared the arrow, or dyed it, in 1934?.

'Yes, sir. About the spring, it would be.'

'Have you ever seen it since, close enough to examine it? What I mean is this: After winning the annual wardmote in 1934, Mr Hume hung that arrow on the wall of his study?'

'Yes, sir.'

'During all that time since, have you ever been close enough to examine it since?'

'No, sir, not until that gentleman' - he nodded towards H.M. - 'asked me to look at it a month ago.'

'Oh I But from 1934 until then you had not actually looked at the arrow?'

'That's so, sir.'

'During that time you must, I presume, have handled and prepared a good many arrows for Mr Hume?' 'Yes, sir.'

'Hundreds, should you say?'

'Well, sir, I shouldn't quite like to go as far as that.' Just try to give an approximate number. Would it be fair to say that you had handled or prepared over a hundred arrows?'

‘Yes, sir, it might be that. They use an awful lot.'

'I see. They use "an awful lot". Do you tell us, then, that out of over a hundred arrows, over a space of years, you can infallibly identify one arrow on which you put dye in 1934? I remind you that you are upon oath.'

At this tremendous reminder, the witness cast an eye up at the public gallery as though for support. 'Well, sir, you see, it's my job -'