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“I have come to the conclusion reluctantly that it is my duty on the evidence adduced to commit the accused to prison to await surrender to the foreign State on a warrant from the Secretary of State, if he sees fit to issue it. I have heard the accused’s evidence to the effect that he had an antecedent justification removing the act complained of from the category of crime, supported by the affidavit of a witness which is contradicted by the affidavit of four others. I have no means of judging between the conflicting evidence of these two affidavits except in so far that it is in the proportion of four to one, and I must therefore dismiss it from my mind. In face of the sworn testimony of six witnesses that the shooting was deliberate, I do not think that the unsupported word of the accused to the contrary would justify me in the case of an offence committed in this country in refusing to commit for trial; and I am therefore unable to accept it as justification for a refusal to commit for trial in respect of an offence committed in another country. I make no hesitation in confessing my reluctance to come to this conclusion, but I consider that I have no other course open to me. The question, I repeat, is not whether the accused is guilty or i
Di
She herself sat as if stu
She came to herself conscious that tears were stealing down her mother’s face, and that her father was standing up.
“Come!” he said: “Let’s get out of here!”
At that moment she was more sorry for her father than for any other of them all. Since this thing began he had said so little and had felt so much. It was ghastly for him! Di
“We must just ‘take cabs and go about!’ Better come to Mount Street and consult what we can each best do.”
When half an hour later they assembled in Aunt Em’s drawing-room, those three were still absent.
“What’s happened to them?” asked Sir Lawrence.
“I expect they went after Hubert’s lawyer,” answered Di
In Sir Lawrence’s opinion Bobbie Ferrar was still their man. If he could do nothing with ‘Walter,’ nothing could be done. He proposed to go again to him and to the Marquess.
The General said nothing. He stood a little apart, staring at one of his brother-inlaw’s pictures, evidently without seeing it. Di
She herself stood close to Fleur, with the instinctive feeling that from that clear, quick brain might come a suggestion of real value.
“The Squire carries weight with the Government; I might go to Bentworth,” she heard Hilary say, and the Rector add:
“Ah! I knew him at Eton, I’ll come with you.”
She heard her Aunt Wilmet’s gruff: “I’ll go to Hen again about Royalty.” And Michael’s:
“In a fortnight the House will be sitting”; and Fleur’s impatient:
“No good, Michael. The Press is no use either. I’ve got a hunch.”
‘Ah!’ she thought, and moved closer.
“We haven’t gone deep enough. What’s at the back of it? Why should the Bolivian Government care about a half-caste Indian? It’s not the actual shooting, it’s the slur on their country. Floggings and shootings by foreigners! What’s wanted is something done to the Bolivian Minister that will make him tell ‘Walter’ that they don’t really care.”
“We can’t kidnap him,” muttered Michael; “it’s not done in the best circles.”
A faint smile came on Di
“I’ll see,” said Fleur, as if to herself. “Di
“I ought to be with mother and father.”
“They’ll be here, Em’s just asked them. Well, if you stay here too, come round as much as you can; you might help.”
Di
“We’ll go now,” said Fleur, “and I’ll get on to Alison at once.”
Michael lingered to squeeze Di
“Buck up, Di
When all except her own people had gone, Di
“It’s going to be all right, Dad dear. You could see the magistrate was really sorry. He hadn’t the power, but the Home Secretary must have.”
“I was thinking,” said the General, “what the people of this country would do if we didn’t sweat and risk our lives for them.” He spoke without bitterness, or even emphasis: “I was thinking why we should go on doing our jobs, if our words aren’t to be believed. I was wondering where that magistrate would be—oh! I dare say he’s all right according to his lights—if boys like Hubert hadn’t gone off before their time. I was wondering why we’ve chosen lives that have landed me on the verge of bankruptcy, and Hubert in this mess, when we might have been snug and comfortable in the City or the Law. Isn’t a man’s whole career to weigh a snap when a thing like this happens? I feel the insult to the Service, Di
She watched the convulsive movement of his thin brown hands, clasped as if he were standing at ease, and her whole heart went out to him, though she could perfectly well see the unreason of the exemption he was claiming. “It is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass than for one tittle of the Law to fail.” Wasn’t that the text she had just read in what she had suggested might be made into a secret naval code?