Dr. Smithson: Obviously not if she was under constant supervision.
O’Connor: Thank you. (O’Connor sits. Golding rises.)
Golding: My lord.
Judge (with a slight smile and an air of knowing what’s coming): Yes, Mr. Golding?
Golding: Well — yes, indeed, my lord. I merely beg to remind the jury of what your Lordship has already laid down. The defendant is not on trial for concocting lethal capsules and I submit that the evidence we have just heard is irrelevant. I have no questions to put to Dr. Smithson.
Judge (to Smithson): Thank you, Dr. Smithson. You may go if you wish.
Dr. Smithson: Thank you, my lord. (He leaves the witness box.)
O’Connor: My lord, in view of the development of this trial since Dr. Swale gave evidence and particularly in view of subsequent evidence, I ask for leave to re-open my cross-examination of him. I ask for him to be recalled.
Judge: What do you say to this, Mr. Golding? Do you object?
Golding: My lord, I can find no conceivable reason for this procedure, but—I do not object.
Judge (after a moment’s pause): Very well, Mr. Defense Counsel. Go back to the witness box, please, Dr. Swale.
(Dr. Swale takes the stand.)
O’Connor: Dr. Swale, you realize that you are still on oath, do you not?
Dr. Swale: I do.
O’Connor: You heard the evidence given by the previous witness?
Dr. Swale: Yes.
O’Connor: Do you agree with it?
Dr. Swale: I am not a pathologist, but I would expect it to be correct.
O’Connor: With respect to the deterioration within an hour of a capsule containing cyanide?
Dr. Swale: I have had no experience of potassium cyanide, but yes, I would, of course, expect Dr. Smithson to be right.
O’Connor: Yes. Dr. Swale, I’m going to take you back if you please to April 4th, the evening when you were called in to the Ecclestones’ and saw the dead Alsatian. You will remember that you removed what was left of the liver that had been fed to the dog and subsequently had it analyzed and that cyanide-of-potassium was found in massive quantities.
Dr. Swale: Yes.
O’Connor: There was also, in the same safe, the material for a mixed grill which was intended for the Major’s dinner that night.
Dr. Swale: So I understand.
O’Connor: Did you do anything about this meat?
Dr. Swale: I have already deposed that I said it should be destroyed.
O’Connor: And was it destroyed?
Dr. Swale: It was. I have already said so.
O’Connor: By whom?
Dr. Swale: By Mrs. Ecclestone and myself. In their incinerator.
O’Connor: As she subsequently deposed. After you had given your evidence.
Dr. Swale: Quite.
O’Connor: Dr. Swale, did it not occur to you that this meat which was destined for the Major’s dinner should also be analyzed?
Dr. Swale: No. I was simply concerned to get rid of it.
O’Connor: Upon further consideration would you now say it would have been better to have sent it, or a portion of it, for analysis?
Dr. Swale: Perhaps it might have been better. But the circumstances of the dog’s death—their description of its symptoms and its appearance so strongly suggested a convulsive poison such as cyanide—I really didn’t think.
O’Connor: I’m sorry, doctor, but you told us just now, you’ve had no experience of cyanide.
Dr. Swale: No experience in practice but naturally during the course of training I did my poisons.
O’Connor: Is Mrs. Ecclestone a vegetarian?
Dr. Swale (a slight pause): I believe so.
O’Connor: You believe so, Dr. Swale? But as Mrs. Ecclestone has told us, you are a member of their intimate circle. You are her doctor, are you not?
Dr. Swale (less cool): Yes, of course I am.
O’Connor: Surely, then, you know definitely whether or not she’s a vegetarian?
Dr. Swale: Yes. All right. I simply said “I believe so” as one does in voicing an ordinary agreement. I know so, if you prefer it. She is a vegetarian.
O’Connor: Are you in the habit of visiting her on Friday afternoons?
Dr. Swale: Not “in the habit” of doing so. I sometimes used to drop in on Fridays to swop crosswords with the Major.
O’Connor: But Major Ecclestone was always at his club on Fridays.
Dr. Swale: He used to leave his crossword out for me. I visit The Hermitage private hospital on Fridays and it’s close by. I did sometimes — quite often — drop in at The Elms.
O’Connor (blandly): For a cup of tea, perhaps?
Dr. Swale: Certainly. For a cup of tea.
O’Connor: You heard the evidence of Thomas Tidwell, didn’t you?
Dr. Swale (contemptuously): If you can call it that.
O’Connor: What would you call it?
Dr. Swale: An example of small-town lying gossip dished out by a small-town oaf.
O’Connor: To what part of his evidence do you refer?
Dr. Swale: Clearly, since it concerns me, to the suggestion that I went to the house for any other purpose than the one I have given.
O’Connor: What do you say to Miss Freebody’s views on the subject?
Dr. Swale: I would have thought it was obvious that they are those of a mentally disturbed spinster of uncertain age.
Miss Freebody (sharply): Libel! Cad! Murderer!
(The Judge turns and stares at her. The Wardress admonishes her. She subsides.)
O’Connor: You are not Miss Freebody’s doctor, are you?
Dr. Swale: No, thank God.
(Laughter)
Usher: Silence in court.
O’Connor: When you paid your earlier visit to The Elms on the afternoon in question, did you carry your professional bag with you?
Dr. Swale (after a pause): I expect so.
O’Connor: Why? It was not a professional call.
Dr. Swale: I’m not in the habit of leaving it in the car.
O’Connor: What was in it?
Dr. Swale: You don’t want an inventory, do you? The bag contains the normal impedimenta of a doctor in general practice.
O’Connor: And nothing else?
Dr. Swale: I’m not in the habit of using my case as a shopping bag.
O’Connor: Not for butcher’s meat, for instance?
Golding: My lord, I do most strenuously object.
Dr. Swale: This is intolerable. Have I no protection against this sort of treatment?
Judge: No. Answer.
Dr. Swale: No. I do not and never have carried butcher’s meat in my bag.
(Defense Counsel sits.)
Judge (to Golding): Mr. Golding, do you wish to re-examine?
Golding: No, my lord.
Judge (to Swale): Thank you, doctor.
Dr. Swale: My lord, may I speak to you?
Judge: No, Dr. Swale.
Dr. Swale: I demand to be heard.
Judge: You may do no such thing, you may—
Dr. Swale (shouting him down): My lord, it is perfectly obvious that counsel for the defense is trying to protect his client by throwing up a series of infamous suggestions intended to implicate a lady and myself in this miserable business.
Judge (through this): Be quiet, sir. Leave the witness box.
Dr. Swale: I refuse. I insist. We are not legally represented. I am a professional man who must be very gravely damaged by these baseless innuendoes.
Judge: For the last time I warn you—
Dr. Swale (shouting him down): I had nothing, I repeat, nothing whatever to do with the death of the Ecclestones’ dog (Judge gestures to Usher), nor did I tamper with any of the meat in the safe. I protest, my lord. I protest.
(The Usher and a police constable close in on him and the scene ends in confusion.)
(Gwendoline Miggs is sworn in on the stand. She is a large, determined-looking woman of about sixty.)
O’Connor: Your name is Sarah Gwendoline Miggs?
Miggs: Yes.