The Three Clerks Part 75

'Oh! Mr. Tudor did not want his money at an early day--didn't he?

But, nevertheless, he has, I believe, asked for it since, and that very pressingly?'

'He has never asked for it,' said Undy.

'Allow me to remind you, Mr. Scott, that I have the power of putting my client into that witness-box, although he is on his trial; and, having so reminded you, let me again beg you to say whether he has not asked you for repayment of this large sum of money very pressingly.'

'No; he has never done so.'

'By the value of your oath, sir--if it has any value--did not my client beseech you to allow these shares to be sold while they were yet saleable, in order that your niece's trust money might be replaced in the English funds?'

'He said something as to the expediency of selling them, and I differed from him.'

'You thought it would be better for the lady's interest that they should remain unsold?'

'I made no question of the lady's interest. I was not her trustee.'

'But the shares were bought with the lady's money.'

'What shares?' asked Undy.

'What shares, sir? Those shares which you had professed to hold on the lady's behalf, and which afterwards you did not scruple to call your own. Those shares of yours--since you have the deliberate dishonesty so to call them--those shares of yours, were they not bought with the lady's money?'

'They were bought with the money which I borrowed from Mr.

Tudor.'

'And where did Mr. Tudor get that money?'

'That is a question you must ask himself,' said Undy.

'It is a question, sir, that just at present I prefer to ask you.

Now, sir, be good enough to tell the jury, whence Mr. Tudor got that money; or tell them, if you dare do so, that you do not know.'

Undy for a minute remained silent, and Mr. Chaffanbra.s.s remained silent also. But if the fury of his tongue for a moment was at rest, that of his eyes was as active as ever. He kept his gaze steadily fixed upon the witness, and stood there with compressed lips, still resting on his two hands, as though he were quite satisfied thus to watch the prey that was in his power. For an instant he glanced up to the jury, and then allowed his eyes to resettle on the face of the witness, as though he might have said, 'There, gentlemen, there he is--the son of a peer, a member of Parliament; what do you think of him?'

The silence of that minute was horrible to Undy, and yet he could hardly bring himself to break it. The judge looked at him with eyes which seemed to read his inmost soul; the jury looked at him, condemning him one and all; Alaric looked at him with fierce, glaring eyes of hatred, the same eyes that had glared at him that night when he had been collared in the street; the whole crowd looked at him derisively; but the eyes of them all were as nothing to the eyes of Mr. Chaffanbra.s.s.

'I never saw him so great; I never did,' said Mr. Gitemthruet, whispering to his client; and Alaric, even he, felt some consolation in the terrible discomfiture of his enemy.

'I don't know where he got it,' said Undy, at last breaking the terrible silence, and wiping the perspiration from his brow.

'Oh, you don't!' said Mr. Chaffanbra.s.s, knocking his wig back, and coming well out of his kennel. 'After waiting for a quarter of an hour or so, you are able to tell the jury at last that you don't know anything about it. He took the small trifle of change out of his pocket, I suppose?'

'I don't know where he took it from.'

'And you didn't ask?'

'No.'

'You got the money; that was all you know. But this was just at the time that Mr. Tudor became the lady's trustee; I think you have admitted that.'

'It may have been about the time.'

'Yes; it may have been about the time, as you justly observe, Mr.

Scott. Luckily, you know, we have the dates of the two transactions.

But it never occurred to your innocent mind that the money which you got into your hands was a part of the lady's fortune; that never occurred to your innocent mind--eh, Mr. Scott?'

'I don't know that my mind is a more innocent mind than your own,' said Undy.

'I dare say not. Well, did the idea ever occur to your guilty mind?'

'Perhaps my mind is not more guilty than your own, either.'

'Then may G.o.d help me,' said Mr. Chaffanbra.s.s, 'for I must be at a bad pa.s.s. You told us just now, Mr. Scott, that some time since Mr. Tudor advised you to sell these shares--what made him give you this advice?'

'He meant, he said, to sell his own.'

'And he pressed you to sell yours?'

'Yes.'

'He urged you to do so more than once?'

'Yes; I believe he did.'

'And now, Mr. Scott, can you explain to the jury why he was so solicitous that you should dispose of your property?'

'I do not know why he should have done so, unless he wanted back his money.'

'Then he did ask for his own money?'

'No; he never asked for it. But if I had sold the shares perhaps he might have asked for it.'

'Oh!' said Mr. Chaffanbra.s.s; and as he uttered the monosyllable he looked up at the jury, and gently shook his head, and gently shook his hands. Mr. Chaffanbra.s.s was famous for these little silent addresses to the jury-box.

But not even yet had he done with this suspicious loan. We cannot follow him through the whole of his examination; for he kept our old friend under the harrow for no less than seven hours. Though he himself made no further statement to the jury, he made it perfectly plain, by Undy's own extracted admissions, or by the hesitation of his denials, that he had knowingly received this money out of his niece's fortune, and that he had refused to sell the shares bought with this money, when pressed to do so by Tudor, in order that the trust-money might be again made up.

There were those who blamed Mr. Chaffanbra.s.s for thus admitting that his client had made away with his ward's money by lending it to Undy; but that acute gentleman saw clearly that he could not contend against the fact of the property having been fraudulently used; but he saw that he might induce the jury to attach so much guilt to Undy, that Tudor would, as it were, be whitened by the blackness of the other's villany. The judge, he well knew, would blow aside all this froth; but then the judge could not find the verdict.

Towards the end of the day, when Undy was thoroughly worn out--at which time, however, Mr. Chaffanbra.s.s was as brisk as ever, for nothing ever wore him out when he was pursuing his game--when the interest of those who had been sweltering in the hot court all the day was observed to flag, Mr. Chaffanbra.s.s began twisting round his finger a bit of paper, of which those who were best acquainted with his manner knew that he would soon make use.

'Mr. Scott,' said he, suddenly dropping the derisive sarcasm of his former tone, and addressing him with all imaginable courtesy, 'could you oblige me by telling me whose handwriting that is?'

and he handed to him the sc.r.a.p of paper. Undy took it, and saw that the writing was his own; his eyes were somewhat dim, and he can hardly be said to have read it. It was a very short memorandum, and it ran as follows: 'All will yet be well, if those shares be ready to-morrow morning.'

'Well, Mr. Scott,' said the lawyer, 'do you recognize the handwriting?'

Undy looked at it, and endeavoured to examine it closely, but he could not; his eyes swam, and his head was giddy, and he felt sick. Could he have satisfied himself that the writing was not clearly and manifestly his own, he would have denied the doc.u.ment altogether; but he feared to do this; the handwriting might be proved to be his own.

'It is something like my own,' said he.