Mason sighed with satisfaction.

"Now," he said, "we're getting somewhere."

"We'll call Winifred Laxter to the stand," Truslow said, "as our next witness."

He lowered his voice slightly and said to Judge Pennymaker, "The Court will undoubtedly bear with us that this is a hostile witness, and permit the use of leading questions."

"You may examine the witness," Judge Pennymaker said, "and rulings will be made when the necessity for leading questions becomes apparent."

"Very well. Take the stand, Miss Laxter."

Winifred Laxter walked forward, as a princess might approach the sword of a headsman.

She held up her right hand, took the oath and then walked to the witness chair and sat down.

"Your name is Winifred Laxter and you are engaged to the defendant?"

"I am."

"You were acquainted with Charles Ashton?"

"I was."

"You are familiar with the cat now in court, with a tag around its neck upon which the word 'Clinker' appears?"

Winifred Laxter bit her lip and said, "I knew the caretaker's cat."

"Is this the caretaker's cat that you have mentioned?"

Winifred Laxter looked pleadingly at Perry Mason, but Perry Mason remained silent. She took a deep breath, hesitated, seemed about to shake her head, but the cat, with a throaty "meow," jumped from the table, crossed the courtroom, leapt into her lap and curled up contentedly. Some of the spectators tittered. The Judge pounded with his gavel. The girl glanced once more at Perry Mason.

"Answer the question, Winifred," Perry Mason said, "and tell the truth."

"Yes," she said, "this is Clinker."

"Did you have Clinker in your possession on the night the night the caretaker was murdered?"

"Answer the question," Mason told her, as she looked helplessly at him.

"I'm not going to answer."

"Answer the question, Winifred," Mason repeated.

She stared steadily at him, then said slowly, "Yes, I did."

"Who gave you the cat?"

Her manner was vengeful now. "A friend of mine gave me the cat and I gave it to Perry Mason—that is, Perry Mason took it with him. He said that the police mustn't find it in my apartment."

Spectators stirred restlessly.

"Was this friend Douglas Keene?" Truslow asked.

"I refuse to answer."

"Go on and answer," Mason ordered.

Judge Pennymaker cleared his throat. In a voice which obviously contained sympathy for the young woman, he said, "Of course, gentlemen, it is only fair to advise this witness that the answer might incriminate her, in that it would make her an accessory…"

"There is no necessity," Perry Mason said. "I am representing the interest of this witness. Go ahead and answer the question, Winifred."

"Yes," she said.

"You may crossexamine," Truslow announced.

"No crossexamination," Mason said.

Truslow got to his feet. His manner was cold and purposeful.

"Your Honor," he said, "I regret being forced to do this, but it appears that the murder of Charles Ashton is inseparably connected with the murder of Edith DeVoe. The murderer must have taken the crutch from Ashton's room to the place where Edith was murdered. The murderer must have sawed up the crutch, taken out the diamonds and used a part of the crutch as a club with which to injure fatally Edith DeVoe. Therefore, the murderer of Charles Ashton must be the murderer of Edith DeVoe. It therefore becomes necessary to prove that Ashton was murdered before the cat was taken from the Laxter house and that the cat did not return to the Laxter house at any time after the murder. It is, as I see it, incumbent upon the Prosecution to account for the time of the caretaker's cat from the moment it was taken into the custody of the defendant in this action until the police recovered it. Therefore, I am going to ask that Della Street take the stand."

Della Street gasped with surprise.

"Take the stand, Della," Perry said.

Della Street stepped forward and was sworn.

"Your name is Della Street and you are the secretary of Perry Mason, who is appearing as an attorney in this case. On the night of the twentythird, did Perry Mason appear at your apartment carrying the cat known as Clinker and which is now in Court?"

"Answer the question," Perry Mason told her.

"I don't know," she said defiantly.

"Don't know?" Truslow asked.

"No," she said.

"What do you mean by that answer?"

"I mean that I don't know."

"Why don't you know?"

"Because I don't know whether this cat is the cat which belonged to the caretaker."

"But Winifred Laxter says it is."

"I am not responsible for what Winifred Laxter testified to; I am testifying under oath."

"But the cat shows that it knows Winifred Laxter."

"I am not responsible," she told Truslow icily, "for the cat's circle of acquaintances."

There was a laugh from the spectators. Judge Pennymaker smiled, even as he called the courtroom to order.

"But you admit that Perry Mason brought a cat to your apartment."

"I admit nothing of the sort. The question is not pertinent unless it has to do with the murder, and it can have nothing to do with the murder unless the cat which you claim was brought to my apartment was the caretaker's cat, and I have no knowledge whatever on that. I think you will have to ask these questions of Mr. Mason."

Truslow smiled ruefully and said to the court, "Perhaps the legal knowledge this young woman has acquired is responsible for some of Counselor Mason's success."

"She seems to have a very excellent grasp of the legal points involved," Judge Pennymaker observed.

Mason smiled.

"I am going to call Perry Mason to the stand," Truslow said. "I am aware that the procedure is unusual, but I am also aware that it is unusual for Counsel to take so active a part in the cases involving his clients as Perry Mason apparently takes. I am not asking for any confidential communication which came to him from one of his clients; I am going to ask him only what he did in connection with sheltering a criminal."

"Very well," Judge Pennymaker ordered; "Perry Mason will take the stand."

Mason stepped to the witness stand, took the oath and sat down. Judge Pennymaker looked at him with some sympathy, then said to Truslow, "After all, Counselor, while your comment as to Counselor Mason's methods of representing a client may have some justification, the fact remains that Counselor Mason is an attorney at law. He is not restricted to the representation of any one client. If it should appear, as I think it will appear, that he also represented Winifred Laxter, the Court will hold as a privileged communication anything which Winifred Laxter may have said to him. As you have so aptly pointed out, Counselor Mason's methods are perhaps somewhat unusual, but you must admit that his history shows a long line of successes which have been achieved, not through a defense of the guilty, but through strikingly original methods of demonstrating the innocence of his clients."

"I'm not talking about the past," Truslow said grimly, "I'm talking about the present."

"I thank your Honor for holding out a lifeline to me," Mason said smilingly, "but I hardly think it will be necessary."

Truslow said, "Your name is Perry Mason? You are an attorney at law?"

"That is right."

"You are the attorney representing Douglas Keene?"

"I am."

"Did you go to the waffle place operated by Winifred Laxter on the night of the twentythird?"

"I did."

"Did you take into your possession a cat at that place?"

"I did."

"What did you do with that cat?"

Perry Mason smiled. "I'll even go farther than your question, Mr. Truslow, the cat was given to me with the statement that it was Clinker, the caretaker's cat, and Winifred Laxter stated that the cat had been in her possession ever since shortly after eleven o'clock when it had been delivered to her by Douglas Keene, the defendant in this case.