"Explain 'lanyard."' "A cord--a sort of rope."
"It could not have fallen over the side and hung there?"
"It was fastened with a Blackwell hitch."
"Show us what you mean."
On cross-examination by Singleton's attorney, Burns was forced to
relate the incident of the night before his injury--that Mrs. Johns
had asked to see the axe, and he had shown it to her. He maintained
stoutly that she had not been near the bunk, and that the axe was
there when he locked the door.
Adams, called, testified to seeing a curious, misty-white object on
the forecastle-head. It had seemed to come over the bow. The
marlinespike he threw had had no lanyard.
Mrs. Turner and Miss Lee escaped with a light examination. Their
evidence amounted to little, and was practically the same. They
had retired early, and did not rouse until I called them. They
remained in their rooms most of the time after that, and were busy
caring for Mr. Turner, who had been ill. Mrs. Turner was good
enough to say that I had made them as safe and as comfortable as
possible.
The number of witnesses to be examined, and the searching grilling
to which most of them were subjected, would have dragged the case
to interminable length, had it not been for the attitude of the
judges, who discouraged quibbling and showed a desire to reach the
truth with the least possible delay. One of the judges showed the
wide and unbiased attitude of the court by a little speech after an
especially venomous contest.
"Gentlemen," he said, "we are attempting to get to a solution of
this thing. We are trying one man, it is true, but, in a certain
sense, we are trying every member of the crew, every person who
was on board the ship the night of the crime. We have a curious
situation. The murderer is before us, either in the prisoner's
dock or among the witnesses. Let us get at the truth without
bickering."
Mrs. Johns was called, following Miss Lee. I watched her carefully
on the stand. I had never fathomed Mrs. Johns, or her attitude
toward the rest of the party. I had thought, at the beginning of
the cruise, that Vail and she were incipient lovers. But she had
taken his death with a calmness that was close to indifference.
There was something strange and inexplicable in her tigerish
championship of Turner--and it remains inexplicable even now. I
have wondered since--was she in love with Turner, or was she only
a fiery partisan? I wonder!
She testified with an insolent coolness that clearly irritated the
prosecution--thinking over her replies, refusing to recall certain
things, and eyeing the jury with long, slanting glances that set
them, according to their type, either wriggling or ogling.
The first questions were the usual ones. Then: "Do you recall the night of the 31st of July?"