Witness for the Defence by A. E. W. Mason

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  THE WITNESS FOR THE DEFENCE

  BY A.E.W. MASON

  1914

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER

  I. HENRY THRESK

  II. ON BIGNOR HILL

  III. IN BOMBAY

  IV. JANE REPTON

  V. THE QUEST

  VI. IN THE TENT AT CHITIPUR

  VII. THE PHOTOGRAPH

  VIII. AND THE RIFLE

  IX. AN EPISODE IN BALLANTYNE'S LIFE

  X. NEWS FROM CHITIPUR

  XI. THRESK INTERVENES

  XII. THRESK GIVES EVIDENCE

  XIII. LITTLE BEEDING AGAIN

  XIV. THE HAZLEWOODS

  XV. THE GREAT CRUSADE

  XVI. CONSEQUENCES

  XVII. TROUBLE FOR MR. HAZLEWOOD

  XVIII. MR. HAZLEWOOD SEEKS ADVICE

  XIX. PETTIFER'S PLAN

  XX. ON THE DOWNS

  XXI. THE LETTER IS WRITTEN

  XXII. A WAY OUT OF THE TRAP

  XXIII. METHODS FROM FRANCE

  XXIV. THE WITNESS

  XXV. IN THE LIBRARY

  XXVI. TWO STRANGERS

  XXVII. THE VERDICT

  THE WITNESS FOR THE DEFENCE

  CHAPTER I

  HENRY THRESK

  The beginning of all this difficult business was a little speech whichMrs. Thresk fell into a habit of making to her son. She spoke it thefirst time on the spur of the moment without thought or intention. Butshe saw that it hurt. So she used it again--to keep Henry in hisproper place.

  "You have no right to talk, Henry," she would say in the hard practicalvoice which so completed her self-sufficiency. "You are not earning yourliving. You are still dependent upon us;" and she would add with a noteof triumph: "Remember, if anything were to happen to your dear father youwould have to shift for yourself, for everything has been left to me."

  Mrs. Thresk meant no harm. She was utterly without imagination and had nospecial delicacy of taste to supply its place--that was all. People andwords--she was at pains to interpret neither the one nor the other andshe used both at random. She no more contemplated anything happening toher husband, to quote her phrase, than she understood the effect herbarbarous little speech would have on a rather reserved schoolboy.

  Nor did Henry himself help to enlighten her. He was shrewd enough torecognise the futility of any attempt. No! He just looked at hercuriously and held his tongue. But the words were not forgotten. Theyroused in him a sense of injustice. For in the ordinary well-to-docircle, in which the Thresks lived, boys were expected to be an expenseto their parents; and after all, as he argued, he had not asked to beborn. And so after much brooding, there sprang up in him an antagonism tohis family and a fierce determination to owe to it as little as he could.

  There was a full share of vanity no doubt in the boy's resolve, but theantagonism had struck roots deeper than his vanity; and at an age whenother lads were vaguely dreaming themselves into Admirals andField-Marshals and Prime-Ministers Henry Thresk, content with lowerground, was mapping out the stages of a good but perfectly feasiblecareer. When he reached the age of thirty he must be beginning to makemoney; at thirty-five he must be on the way to distinction--his name mustbe known beyond the immediate circle of his profession; at forty-five hemust be holding public office. Nor was his profession in any doubt. Therewas but one which offered these rewards to a man starting in life withoutmoney to put down--the Bar.

  So to the Bar in due time Henry Thresk was called; and when somethingdid happen to his father he was trained for the battle. A bank failed andthe failure ruined and killed old Mr. Thresk. From the ruins just enoughwas scraped to keep his widow, and one or two offers of employment weremade to Henry Thresk.

  But he was tenacious as he was secret. He refused them, and with thehelp of pupils, journalism and an occasional spell as an electionagent, he managed to keep his head above water until briefs beganslowly to come in.

  So far then Mrs. Thresk's stinging speeches seemed to have beenjustified. But at the age of twenty-eight he took a holiday. He went downfor a month into Sussex, and there the ordered scheme of his life wasthreatened. It stood the attack; and again it is possible to plead in itsfavour with a good show of argument. But the attack, nevertheless, bringsinto light another point of view.

  Prudence, for instance, the disputant might urge, is all very well in theordinary run of life, but when the great moments come conduct wantsanother inspiration. Such an one would consider that holiday with athought to spare for Stella Derrick, who during its passage saw much ofHenry Thresk. The actual hour when the test came happened on one of thelast days of August.