Manalive Part 14

Michael Moon rose for the defence with an air of depression which gave little hope at the outset to the sympathizers with the prisoner.

He did not, he said, propose to follow the doctor into the abstract questions. "I do not know enough to be an agnostic,"

he said, rather wearily, "and I can only master the known and admitted elements in such controversies. As for science and religion, the known and admitted facts are plain enough. All that the parsons say is unproved. All that the doctors say is disproved.

That's the only difference between science and religion there's ever been, or will be. Yet these new discoveries touch me, somehow," he said, looking down sorrowfully at his boots. "They remind me of a dear old great-aunt of mine who used to enjoy them in her youth.

It brings tears to my eyes. I can see the old bucket by the garden fence and the line of shimmering poplars behind--"

"Hi! here, stop the 'bus a bit," cried Mr. Moses Gould, rising in a sort of perspiration. "We want to give the defence a fair run--like gents, you know; but any gent would draw the line at shimmering poplars."

"Well, hang it all," said Moon, in an injured manner, "if Dr. Pym may have an old friend with ferrets, why mayn't I have an old aunt with poplars?"

"I am sure," said Mrs. Duke, bridling, with something almost like a shaky authority, "Mr. Moon may have what aunts he likes."

"Why, as to liking her," began Moon, "I--but perhaps, as you say, she is scarcely the core of the question.

I repeat that I do not mean to follow the abstract speculations.

For, indeed, my answer to Dr. Pym is simple and severely concrete.

Dr. Pym has only treated one side of the psychology of murder.

If it is true that there is a kind of man who has a natural tendency to murder, is it not equally true"--here he lowered his voice and spoke with a crushing quietude and earnestness--"is it not equally true that there is a kind of man who has a natural tendency to get murdered? Is it not at least a hypothesis holding the field that Dr. Warner is such a man?

I do not speak without the book, any more than my learned friend.

The whole matter is expounded in Dr. Moonenschein's monumental work, 'The Destructible Doctor,' with diagrams, showing the various ways in which such a person as Dr. Warner may be resolved into his elements.

In the light of these facts--"

"Hi, stop the 'bus! stop the 'bus!" cried Moses, jumping up and down and gesticulating in great excitement. "My princ.i.p.al's got something to say!

My princ.i.p.al wants to do a bit of talkin'."

Dr. Pym was indeed on his feet, looking pallid and rather vicious.

"I have strictly CON-fined myself," he said nasally, "to books to which immediate reference can be made.

I have Sonnenschein's 'Destructive Type' here on the table, if the defence wish to see it. Where is this wonderful work on Destructability Mr. Moon is talking about? Does it exist?

Can he produce it?"

"Produce it!" cried the Irishman with a rich scorn.

"I'll produce it in a week if you'll pay for the ink and paper."

"Would it have much authority?" asked Pym, sitting down.

"Oh, authority!" said Moon lightly; "that depends on a fellow's religion."

Dr. Pym jumped up again. "Our authority is based on ma.s.ses of accurate detail," he said. "It deals with a region in which things can be handled and tested. My opponent will at least admit that death is a fact of experience."

"Not of mine," said Moon mournfully, shaking his head.

"I've never experienced such a thing in all my life."

"Well, really," said Dr. Pym, and sat down sharply amid a crackle of papers.

"So we see," resumed Moon, in the same melancholy voice, "that a man like Dr. Warner is, in the mysterious workings of evolution, doomed to such attacks. My client's onslaught, even if it occurred, was not unique. I have in my hand letters from more than one acquaintance of Dr. Warner whom that remarkable man has affected in the same way.

Following the example of my learned friends I will read only two of them.

The first is from an honest and laborious matron living off the Harrow Road.

"Mr. Moon, Sir,--Yes, I did throw a sorsepan at him. Wot then?

It was all I had to throw, all the soft things being p.o.r.ned, and if your Docter Warner doesn't like having sorsepans thrown at him, don't let him wear his hat in a respectable woman's parler, and tell him to leave orf smiling or tell us the joke.--Yours respectfully, Hannah Miles.

"The other letter is from a physician of some note in Dublin, with whom Dr. Warner was once engaged in consultation.

He writes as follows:--

"Dear Sir,--The incident to which you refer is one which I regret, and which, moreover, I have never been able to explain.

My own branch of medicine is not mental; and I should be glad to have the view of a mental specialist on my singular momentary and indeed almost automatic action. To say that I 'pulled Dr. Warner's nose,'

is, however, inaccurate in a respect that strikes me as important.

That I punched his nose I must cheerfully admit (I need not say with what regret); but pulling seems to me to imply a precision of objective with which I cannot reproach myself. In comparison with this, the act of punching was an outward, instantaneous, and even natural gesture.-- Believe me, yours faithfully, Burton Lestrange.

"I have numberless other letters," continued Moon, "all bearing witness to this widespread feeling about my eminent friend; and I therefore think that Dr. Pym should have admitted this side of the question in his survey.

We are in the presence, as Dr. Pym so truly says, of a natural force.

As soon stay the cataract of the London water-works as stay the great tendency of Dr. Warner to be a.s.sa.s.sinated by somebody.

Place that man in a Quakers' meeting, among the most peaceful of Christians, and he will immediately be beaten to death with sticks of chocolate.

Place him among the angels of the New Jerusalem, and he will be stoned to death with precious stones. Circ.u.mstances may be beautiful and wonderful, the average may be heart-upholding, the harvester may be golden-bearded, the doctor may be secret-guessing, the cataract may be iris-leapt, the Anglo-Saxon infant may be brave-browed, but against and above all these prodigies the grand simple tendency of Dr. Warner to get murdered will still pursue its way until it happily and triumphantly succeeds at last."

He p.r.o.nounced this peroration with an appearance of strong emotion.

But even stronger emotions were manifesting themselves on the other side of the table. Dr. Warner had leaned his large body quite across the little figure of Moses Gould and was talking in excited whispers to Dr. Pym. That expert nodded a great many times and finally started to his feet with a sincere expression of sternness.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he cried indignantly, "as my colleague has said, we should be delighted to give any lat.i.tude to the defence--if there were a defence. But Mr. Moon seems to think he is there to make jokes-- very good jokes I dare say, but not at all adapted to a.s.sist his client.

He picks holes in science. He picks holes in my client's social popularity.

He picks holes in my literary style, which doesn't seem to suit his high-toned European taste. But how does this picking of holes affect the issue?

This Smith has picked two holes in my client's hat, and with an inch better aim would have picked two holes in his head. All the jokes in the world won't unpick those holes or be any use for the defence."

Inglewood looked down in some embarra.s.sment, as if shaken by the evident fairness of this, but Moon still gazed at his opponent in a dreamy way.

"The defence?" he said vaguely--"oh, I haven't begun that yet."

"You certainly have not," said Pym warmly, amid a murmur of applause from his side, which the other side found it impossible to answer.

"Perhaps, if you have any defence, which has been doubtful from the very beginning--"

"While you're standing up," said Moon, in the same almost sleepy style, "perhaps I might ask you a question."

"A question? Certainly," said Pym stiffly. "It was distinctly arranged between us that as we could not cross-examine the witnesses, we might vicariously cross-examine each other.

We are in a position to invite all such inquiry."

"I think you said," observed Moon absently, "that none of the prisoner's shots really hit the doctor."

"For the cause of science," cried the complacent Pym, "fortunately not."

"Yet they were fired from a few feet away."

"Yes; about four feet."

"And no shots. .h.i.t the Warden, though they were fired quite close to him too?" asked Moon.

"That is so," said the witness gravely.