The police court at Exeter was situated in an old building, and the Magistrate's room was small and cold. When I was led forth and placed in the dock, I felt at first confused and gazed at the crowded benches before me with a dull sense of annoyance. Presently I made out the troubled, white face of Major Temple, sitting near the rear of the room, and behind him Gibson and two of the other servants. The remainder of the persons in the room were strangers to me, drawn thither, no doubt, by the merest curiosity. I looked up at the Magistrate and found him to be a little, red-faced man, with a stern, but not unkind, face—a man, evidently, who had seen so much of human guilt and "Major Temple," he said, "you are here as a witness in the case of Mr. Owen Morgan, charged with complicity in the murder of Robert Ashton." The Major bowed, but remained silent. "When did you first meet Mr. Morgan?" "The night he first came to my house, five days ago." "Never saw him before?" "Never. Mr. Ashton offered him a place in his motor, on his way to my house. On account of the storm, he stopped there and remained over night." "It is supposed that this murder had as a motive the securing of a valuable emerald in Mr. Ashton's possession. When Mr. Ashton first exhibited it to you, was Mr. Morgan present?" "He was." "Did he know the value of the jewel?" "I do not know. I think the matter was mentioned at the table." "You had agreed to give your daughter's hand in marriage to Mr. Ashton, in return for obtaining for you this jewel. Is that true?" "Yes," the Major faltered. "Was your daughter opposed to this arrangement?" "She was." "And you insisted upon it?" "I had given my word as a gentleman." "The securing of the jewel, then, from Mr. Ashton would have released her from the arrangement?" "If Mr. Ashton had not had it, he could not have carried out his agreement, of course." "At what time did you retire on the night of the murder?" "Shortly before midnight." "After Mr. Ashton?" "Yes—I saw him to his room." "After that you retired at once?" "Yes." "Did you wake during the night?" "Not until I was aroused by Mr. Morgan's cries—about daybreak, or a little before." "Was it light?" "Hardly—it was just before sunrise." "You did not leave your room, from the time you retired, until you heard Mr. Morgan's cries?" "No." "What did you do then?" "I threw on some clothing and ran along the hall into the west wing. I sleep at the other end of the house in the east wing. When I arrived at Mr. Ashton's door, Mr. Morgan was trying to open it. My man, Gibson, who also heard the cries, came along, followed by one of the maids." "Did your daughter join you?" "Yes, almost immediately." "How was she dressed?" "She wore a dressing gown and slippers." "You heard no other cries but Mr. Morgan's?" "No." "What happened then?" "Mr. Morgan and Gibson broke open the door, which was bolted. The maid brought a candle. I ordered my daughter to retire. Mr. Morgan and I entered the room with the candle and closed the door. We found Mr. Ashton on the floor dead." "What did you do?" "I began to search for the emerald Buddha." "What did Mr. Morgan do?" "He first examined the body of the dead man, and then went to the windows and examined the fastenings." "Did he close or open the windows or fastenings?" "I do not know. I paid little attention "Could he have fastened the window without your knowing it?" "I suppose he could—I paid little attention to him." "What happened then?" "After our examination of the room we closed and locked the door. We then had some coffee, after which Mr. Morgan went into Exeter and notified the police." "Major Temple, there is a window at the end of the hallway in the west wing, which opens on to the roof over the porch. Is this window usually bolted?" "Always. I generally see to it myself. I have a valuable collection and am afraid of thieves." "Did you do so that night?" "I did. I saw that it was bolted after seeing Mr. Ashton to his room and before retiring to my own." This comprised the bulk of Major Tem Major Temple was followed by Gibson, who corroborated all that his master had said, and similar testimony was given by the maid. There was a feature of the latter's testimony, however, which bore more directly upon the case and my supposed connection with it. She had been, it seems, on the landing of the main stairway, sitting upon a window seat, after dinner, waiting for Miss Temple to come upstairs. It was her habit to sit there, she said, while waiting for Miss Temple. In this position she was almost directly above the latter and myself during the conversation we had had immediately after dinner on the night of the tragedy. She testified that she could not hear all our conversation—that she made no attempt to do so, as she was not an eavesdropper—but that she had heard Miss "Did you accompany her to her room?" asked the Magistrate. "No, sir. She told me as how she intended to read until quite late, Sir, and that I could go to bed at once, as she would not require my assistance." "Was this unusual?" "It was, a bit, Sir. I 'most always helped her to undress, Sir." "And you went to your room at once?" "Yes, Sir. I did, Sir, and to sleep, Sir." "How were you awakened?" "I heard someone crying 'Help! Help!' I threw on some clothes as quick as I could, Sir, and ran out into the hall. Then I seen the Master run into the hallway of the west The testimony of the other servants was similar to that of Gibson and the maid. They had heard someone crying for help, and had rushed into the hall. Sergeant McQuade's testimony was in some ways the most interesting of all. I began to see that this astute gentleman had by no means been as frank with me as I had been with him, and had made a number of little discoveries of which I had no knowledge up to now. He testified to finding Miss Temple's handkerchief in Mr. Ashton's room on the morning of the murder. He testified to finding the window at the end of the hallway unbolted. He produced photographs and measurements of the bloody handprint found upon Mr. Ashton's window sill and compared them with measurements made of my own hands earlier in the day. It appeared that, while the handprint was small, it could readily The Sergeant's testimony was extremely thorough and exact. He showed conclusively that no one had descended from the porch roof to the ground either by the vines, or by the lightning rod which I had foolishly supposed he had not observed, the day we made our first investigation. He spoke of the woman's footprints in the gravel path, from the corner of the porch to the main entrance. He then took up our trip to London, put in evidence the letter he had received, supposedly from me, summoning him to meet me at the house in Kingsgate street, explaining that the Chinamen had no doubt been uncertain whether I had the stone or had turned it over to him, and to avoid taking chances had decoyed us both. He referred to my offers of assistance in unraveling the case, and my failure to mention to him my suspicions regarding the Oriental perfume, or my taking of the cake of soap from the green room. He described Li Min's attempt to steal my My own examination was short. I told my story as the reader already knows it, and I told it without any hitch or hesitation. If my reasons for taking the cake of soap from Ashton's room seemed weak, I could only inform the magistrate that they were nevertheless the ones which had actuated me. If my failure to speak of the matter to McQuade seemed suspicious, I could only say in reply that I had not thought it of sufficient importance to mention to him. I testified that I had last seen Miss Temple, on that fatal night, when she bade me good-night in the lower hall, and that I did not see her again until the next morning when she came into the hall in answer to my cries. I described minutely the manner in which I was awakened by the short, sharp cry of the murdered man, and the sound of his heavy fall, and fixed the time as not later than half-past five, as I had looked at my watch, mechanically, while hurriedly throwing on my clothes. I felt that I had made a favor As may well be imagined, I had no desire for food. Nor were my concern and inward fear of the afternoon's proceedings a result of any fear that I may have had upon my own account. I realized fully that the testimony of the morning had been heavily against me, but I would have gladly en The Magistrate rapped upon the desk to still the rising buzz of conversation among the spectators, then, turning to the witness, for whom McQuade had placed a chair, began his interrogations. After she had taken the oath, and answered the usual "Miss Temple, you have been arrested in connection with the murder of one Robert Ashton, which occurred at your father's house on the morning of Tuesday last. The object of this hearing is to fix the responsibility for that crime, so far as we can, pending a trial by jury. Tell the Court, if you please, where you first met the deceased." "In Hong Kong," replied Miss Temple, in a scarcely audible voice. "Speak a little louder, please. When was this?" "Last year—in October." "He addressed you at that time, did he not, upon the subject of marriage?" "He did, several times." "What was your reply?" "I refused his advances." "Why?" "I did not care for him, in fact, I disliked him." "You had a strong aversion to him?" "I had. He seemed to me cruel and unscrupulous." "Did your father know of this feeling on your part?" "No. I did not say anything to him about it. He evidently liked Mr. Ashton, probably because of their common interest in Oriental art. I had no wish to prejudice him." "When did you first learn that your father had consented to your marriage with Mr. Ashton?" "Shortly after our return to England. He told me that Mr. Ashton had asked for my hand in marriage, and offered to secure the emerald Buddha for him as an evidence of his love and sincerity. My father, supposing that I would have no objections, foolishly consented to the arrangement." "But you objected?" "Violently at first. Later on, when I saw how deeply my father felt about the matter, and when he told me he had given Mr. Ashton his word of honor, and that the latter had set out upon a life-and-death quest as a result of it, I gave an unwilling consent and agreed to write to Mr. Ashton at Pekin, withdrawing my objections to his suit." "You wrote this letter?" "I did." "When did you first learn that Mr. Ashton had succeeded in his quest?" "At dinner, the night of his arrival. I had not been alone with him, since he came but a short time before the dinner hour. He suddenly rolled the emerald out upon the tablecloth, and looked at me with a glance of triumph." "After dinner you had some conversation with Mr. Morgan. What was it?" "I told Mr. Morgan my story. He was "And he agreed?" "Yes." "What did you do then?" "I retired to my room, dismissed my maid, and threw myself fully dressed upon the bed." "What time was it?" "Close to ten o'clock. I heard the hall clock strike the hour shortly after I reached my room." "Did you go to sleep?" "No. I thought and thought about the terrible situation I was in. I did not want to leave home. I am very fond of my father—he is all I have in the world. Yet I could not make him listen to reason, in "Did you drop your handkerchief?" "I must have done so. The one found in the room belonged to me." "Did you by any chance observe whether "I did. They were all closed. I noticed it instinctively, because, when I first entered the room, I was conscious of the heavy, oppressive atmosphere of the place and, knowing that the room had been long closed, wondered that Mr. Ashton had not opened the windows. I suppose it was because his long stay in the East had rendered him sensitive to our cold English weather." "After you left Mr. Ashton's room, what did you do?" "I retired to my own room, partially undressed, and again threw myself upon the bed." "Did you sleep?" "No. I could not." "When did you again leave your room?" "About five o'clock. I had been thinking all night about leaving the house. I felt that, after the scene the night before "Where did you go?" "I—I left the porch, and set out across the lawns, taking a short cut to the main road to the town." I observed that Miss Temple was showing a greater and greater appearance of distress as the magistrate pursued inexorably the line of questioning that would led her to the disclosures which I knew she feared to make. Her face, white and drawn, twitched pathetically under the stress of her emotions. She spoke in a low, penetrating voice, little more than a whisper, yet so silent was the court-room that what she said was audible to its furthermost corner. As I gazed at her in silent pity, I heard the Magistrate ask the next question. "How far did you go?" "I went—I—I think it must have been about thirty yards—as far as the corner of the house." "The corner of the west wing?" "Yes." Her voice was growing more and more faint. "Why did you not go further? What caused you to stop?" "I—I saw somebody upon the roof of the porch." "Was it light?" "There was a faint light in the sky, of early dawn. I walked over toward the path, and looked up at the porch roof." "What did you see?" "I saw someone get out of the window from the hall, on to the roof. I—I—They walked over to Mr. Ashton's window and seemed to be trying to open it." "Who was it?" The crucial question of all that had been asked her came like the snapping of a lash, and, as she compre "I—I—must I answer that question?" "You must." "But—I—I cannot!" she burst into sobs, and buried her face in her hands. I feared that she was going to faint. The Magistrate looked at her sternly. "Miss Temple," he said, "evidence has been given here this morning which points strongly toward a prisoner in this court as the person guilty of Mr. Ashton's death. Your answer to my question may confirm or disprove his guilt. I direct you to answer my question at once. Whom did you see upon the porch roof?" Miss Temple looked despairingly about her, rose with a ghastly look from her chair, and, facing the magistrate said: "It—it—oh, my God!—it was my father!" Then she collapsed limply against the rail. Major Temple rose from his seat and stood white and trembling. "Muriel!" he I sprang forward with outstretched arms, but Inspector Burns was before me. He placed Miss Temple tenderly in her chair: she was unconscious. |