第157章

'The world has been very heavy on him,' said John Eames, who had now been left free to join the conversation, Mr Summerkin having gone away to his lady-love. 'You must not judge him as you do other men.'

'That is just it,' said Mr Walker. 'And to what result will that bring us?'

'That we ought to stretch a point in his favour,' said Toogood.

'But why?' asked the attorney from Silverbridge. 'What do we mean when we say that one man isn't to be trusted as another? We simply imply that he is not what we call responsible.'

'And I don't think Mr Crawley is responsible,' said Johnny.

'Then how can he be fit to have charge of a parish?' said Mr Walker.

'You see where the difficulty is. How it embarrasses one all round. The amount of evidence as to the cheque is, I think, sufficient to get a verdict in an ordinary case, and the Crown has not alternative but so to treat it. Then his friends come forward--and from sympathy with his sufferings, I desire to be ranked among the number--and say, 'Ah, but you should spare this man, because he is not responsible.' Were he one who filled no position requiring special responsibility, that might be very well. His friends might undertake to look after him, and the prosecution might perhaps be smothered. But Mr Crawley holds a living, and if he escape he will be triumphant--especially triumphant over the bishop. Now, if he has really taken this money, and if his only excuse be that he did not know when he took it whether he was stealing or whether he was not--for the sake of justice that ought not to be allowed.'

'You think he certainly did steal the money?' said Johnny.

'You have heard the evidence, no doubt?' said Mr Walker.

'I don't feel quite sure about it, yet,' said Mr Toogood.

'Quite sure of what?' said Mr Walker.

'That the cheque got dropped in his house.'

'It was at any rate traced to his hands.'

'I have no doubt about that,' said Toogood.

'And he can't account for it,' said Walker.

'A man isn't bound to show where he got his money,' said Johnny.

'Suppose that sovereign is marked,' and Johnny produced a coin from his pocket, 'and I don't know but what it is; and suppose it is proved to have belonged to someone who lost it, and then to be traced to my own hands--how am I to say where I got it? If I were asked I should simply decline to answer.'

'But a cheque is not a sovereign, Mr Eames,' said Walker. 'It is presumed that a man can account for the possession of a cheque. It may be that a man should have a cheque in his possession and not be able to account for it, and should yet be open to no grave suspicion. In such a case a jury has to judge. Here is the fact: that Mr Crawley has the cheque, and brings it in to use some considerable time after it is drawn; and the additional fact that the drawer of the cheque had lost it, as he thought, in Mr Crawley's house, and had looked for it there, soon after it was drawn, and long before it was paid. A jury must judge;but, as a lawyer, I should say that the burden of disproof lies with Mr Crawley.'

'Did you find out anything, Mr Walker,' said Toogood, 'about the man who drove Mr Soames that day?'

'No--nothing.'

'The trap was from "The Dragon" at Barchester, I think?'

'Yes--from "The Dragon of Wantly".'

'A respectable sort of house?'

'Pretty well for that, I believe. I've heard that the people are poor,' said Walker.

'Somebody told me that they'd had a queer lot about the house, and that three or four of them left just then. I think I heard that two or three men from the place went to New Zealand together. It just came out in conversation while I was in the inn-yard.'

'I have never heard anything of it,' said Walker.

'I don't say that it can help us.'

'I don't see that it can,' said Walker.

After that there was a pause, and Mr Toogood pushed about the old port, and made some very stinging remark as to the claret-drinking propensities of the age. 'Gladstone claret the most of it is, I fancy,' said Mr Toogood. 'I find that port wine which my father bought in the wood five-and-twenty years ago is good enough for me.' Mr Walker said that it was quite good enough for him, almost too good, and that he thought that he had had enough of it. The host threatened another bottle, and was up to draw the cork--rather to the satisfaction of John Eames, who liked his uncle's port--but Mr Walker stopped him. 'Not a drop more for me,' he said. 'You are quite sure?' 'Quite sure.' And Mr Walker moved towards the door.

'It's a great pity, Mr Walker,' said Toogood, going back to that old subject, 'that the dean and his wife should be away.'

'I understand that they both will be home before the trial,' said Mr Walker.

'Yes--but you know how very important it is to learn beforehand exactly what your witnesses can prove and what they can't prove. And moreover, though neither the dean nor his wife might perhaps be able to tell us anything themselves, they might help to put us on the proper scent. Ithink I'll send somebody after them. I think I will.'

'It would be a heavy expense, Mr Toogood.'

'Yes,' said Toogood mournfully, thinking of his twelve children; 'it would be a heavy expense. But I never like to stick at a thing when it ought to be done. I think I shall send a fellow after them.'

'I'll go,' said Johnny.

'How can you go?'

'I'll make old Snuffle give me leave.'

'But will that lessen the expense?' said Mr Walker.

'Well, yes, I think it will,' said John, modestly.

'My nephew is a rich man, Mr Walker,' said Mr Toogood.

'That alters the case,' said Mr Walker. And thus, before they left the dining-room, it was settled that John Eames should be taught his lesson and should seek both Mrs Arabin and Dr Arabin on their travels.