The Washington times., 1920-06-13
A Fascinating Detective Story

verdict, and that each would have
singly and seyerally to account for
A. 10 his own conscience n he were
10 be so misguided from the truth
as 10 condemn an innocent man.
cannot say that at the conclu-
sion OF his speech l had the very
smallest doubt In my owp urtnd as
10 what my verdict wousd be were
| one OF the twelve on whom the
terrible responsibility rested.
should unhesitatingly havs voted
for a verdict OF mot guilty.
But, OF course. we were not yet
hnished with the arguments. We
had heard presumably all that was
extreme on the one side and on the
other as. set out by two OF the most
clever and practlsed barristers In
England. each putting his own case
in the strongest possible form. IL
remained for the judge, that en-
bodiment OF all that was most i'm
partial and most balanced, to set
the relative values OF each piece OF
the respective arguments over
against each other, and to present
the completed result to the jury
as a guide to their final verdict.
SO much. he pointed out. had
been admitted on part OF the de-
fence that the case really narrowed
itself down to few questions. The
prosecution averred that Lady
Carlton came to the Summer-house
while the accused was there and
was murdered by him; the defence
was that Lady Carlton came to the
Summer-house after the accused
had Quilted It. and was there muir \
dered by some other person. That
was the gist OF the case, and 1t
turned largely on the moment at
which Lady Carlton actually did
come to the Summer-house.
Vague suggestions OF reasons TOR
her delay had been put forward,
but none Of them very satisfactory.
OF course. It might have been, as
was incidentally suggested, that
she had delayed for fear OF being
seen by someone, but II so. that
someone would, no doubt, have
been produced by the defence,
which had not been done.
He touched on the position OF
the key. which, so far as it went,
favored the view OF the defence.
because IL Lady Carlton had come
out with her mind so fully made up
on fight with her lover as the
throwing away of the key seemed
to indicate, then the theory OF a
quarrel arising out OF her refusal
to fly with him would not hold
water. Still, as counsel had said,
motives for the quarrels OF lovers
are very recondite as well as nu.
merous. He would wish the jury
to give the point just the weight
that 1t deserved-no more. Then
he passed to the preparations for
the proposed fight. the two rugs
in the car, the light dress Of my
aunt. indicating, in his opinion. In
spite of the ingenious suggestion
OF the defence in regard to 1t, a
considerably more adequate prep.
aration for an elopement hy the
man than by the lady.
In like manner he touched on al!
the principal features Of the case,
softened down, as it seemed to me,
the edges of counsel's argument,
both on the one side and the other,
until 1t appeared mean to my
unpractised mind-as II neither
were left with any keenness to II
at all
And then he came TO the point
on which the defence had dwelt
long as being OF utmost importance
the fact that Captain Wharf had
remained in London all the Satur.
day, whereas, had he known of the
murder, the view OF the defence
was that he certainly would have
fed, II at all, on that day.
IN neither case" said the Judge,
"can we deem the act to have been
that of a man Of any keen intelli
gence. 1t may be that the accused
is not a person Of active imagina-
tion" (as a matter of fact, he had