When Last I Died

The defence of stout denial is always a good one, Mrs. Bradley reflected, particularly if the accused does not commit the error of embroidering the denial by producing facts in support of it. Bella Foxley produced none. In effect, she challenged the prosecution to prove that the bodies which had been found in the crypt were those of the two boys who had escaped from the Institution, and she challenged them to show that she had had any knowledge of the whereabouts of the boys after they had escaped.

"All over bar the shouting," wrote Mr. Pratt to Mrs. Bradley in the court. She grimaced at him in reply. It was Larry against Bella, she knew, for Muriel could not have done more to prejudice the case in favour of the prisoner if she had been on the opposite side; and Larry, poor fellow, still had his boyhood to live down. Bella herself appeared to have no doubt of the result. She remained calm, almost phlegmatic, self-assured and clearheaded.

A scale model of the haunted house had been prepared, and from it Mrs. Bradley had made clear her discovery of the passage connecting the well with the crypt and of her further discovery of how simple a matter it was, with the aid of two boys, to reproduce psychical phenomena of poltergeist character. This, she inferred, had been Bella's motive in assisting the two boys to make their escape from the Institution.

The old caretaker had referred to screams, shouts and moans which had come up 'through the floor' of the house, but his evidence did not stand the test of cross-examination by the defence, for he was confused as to dates, and ended by agreeing (although he did not, to the end, realize this !) that he had imagined the whole thing. Miss Biddle's charwoman fared no better at the hands of Counsel for the Defence.

"You'll never get her, Mother," said Ferdinand, gloomily. "She's as guilty as hell, but old Crodders has got you on toast. You see, you yourself can't speak to anything except the finding of the bodies, and although Muriel ought to have been able to slam the nail on the head that they were the bodies of those particular wretched kids, she didn't do it. Scared of finding her own neck in the noose; that's the trouble with her."

"Oh, I knew she'd make a thoroughly bad witness," said Mrs. Bradley comfortably. Her son gaped at her, but she did not enlarge upon her answer.

The cross-questioning of Bella Foxley nevertheless remained the high spot, as Caroline called it, of the proceedings. There was a 'sensation in court,' for instance, when in reply to questions the prisoner at last admitted that she had known of the presence of two boys in the haunted house, and agreed that the phenomena were fraudulent. She persisted in maintaining, however, that she had had nothing whatever to do with introducing the boys into the house, and declared that they were there at the invitation of those relatives of her own in whose name the house had been rented.

"You helped these boys to escape?" the enquirer persisted.

"No."

"Do you deny that you helped them to file through the window bars of their sleeping quarters?"

"I deny it absolutely."

"Do you deny that you supplied them with the files?"

"Yes, I deny that, too."

"How do you think the boys got in touch with your relatives?"

"I mentioned that two boys had escaped from the Institution and were at large."

"I suggest that your relatives knew from you how to get hold of these boys."

"No, not from me."

"From whom, then?"

"I don't know,"

"I suggest that you know perfectly well."

"I'm sure I don't. It seems to have been coincidence."

The judge intervened at this point to remind the prisoner that she was on oath, 'like any other witness.'

"When you knew that the boys were in the house, did you take any steps to inform the police that you knew where they could be found?" the prosecuting counsel continued.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I believe in the idea of live and let live.' "

"But you knew why these boys had been sent to the Institution?"

"Well, yes, more or less."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean I knew they were supposed to have done something wrong."

"Something so wrong that one of them, at least, was a potential danger to the community."

"I didn't know that. We were never told the reason—not any particular reason, I mean—why any boy was at the Institution."

"Even so, did you not believe it to be your duty, as a citizen, to inform the police as to the whereabouts of the boys?"

"No."

"Would you call yourself an anti-social person?"

"No. I'm unsociable, but I liked the boys."

"When you had made up your mind not to hand the boys over to the police, did you set about organizing their activities so as to benefit yourself and your relations?"

"No."

"You didn't help to exploit these boys for gain?"