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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.
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