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(Grin from Tidwell to Swale)
Golding: Yes. Had you seen anything of the accused during the day?
Mrs. Ecclestone: Yes, indeed I had. That morning the paper boy delivered her Telegraph with our Times. I didn’t want to see her; I slipped out by our front gate and up to her front door. I was going to put her Telegraph through the flap when the door opened and there she was. Stock still and sort of glaring over my head.
Golding: That must have been disconcerting.
Mrs. Ecclestone: It was awful. It seemed to last for ages, and then I held out her paper and she snatched it.
Golding: Did she speak?
Mrs. Ecclestone: She whispered.
Golding: What did she whisper?
Mrs. Ecclestone: That I needn’t imagine this would stop justice from taking its course. And then the door was slammed in my face.
Miss Freebody: Quite right.
Golding: And then?
Mrs. Ecclestone: I went back. And my migraine started.
Golding: Mrs. Ecclestone, do you know what happened to the wrapping paper round the dog’s liver?
Mrs. Ecclestone: Yes. My husband had dropped it on the ground and Jim — Dr. Swale — said it shouldn’t be left lying about and he put it into the incinerator.
Golding: Did you notice what paper it was?
Mrs. Ecclestone: It was the same as the other parcel — the Daily Telegraph.
Golding: Thank you.
(He sits. Defense Counsel rises.)
O’Co
Mrs. Ecclestone: I suppose they could have.
O’Co
Mrs. Ecclestone (deprecatingly): Oh — enemies!
O’Co
Mrs. Ecclestone: None of them threatened to kill my husband. Hers did.
O’Co
Mrs. Ecclestone: There were some, I think.
O’Co
Mrs. Ecclestone: I don’t know.
O’Co
Mrs. Ecclestone: No. No. I don’t know. I don’t remember.
O’Co
Mrs. Ecclestone: Bang was rather jealous. Alsatians can be.
O’Co
Mrs. Ecclestone: He was rather a one — I mean a two-person — dog.
(Mrs. Ecclestone and Dr. Swale exchange a brief look.)
O’Co
Mrs. Ecclestone: I think — once. Before he got to know him.
O’Co
Mrs. Ecclestone: No. I don’t remember about it. It was nothing.
O’Co
Mrs. Ecclestone: Well, yes, naturally.
O’Co
Mrs. Ecclestone: Dr. Swale is in our circle of friends.
O’Co
Mrs. Ecclestone: Yes.
(She has become increasingly uneasy. Major Ecclestone has been eyeing Dr. Swale with mounting distaste.)
O’Co
Mrs. Ecclestone: I — don’t know who you — I — I — (She looks at Dr. Swale. We see him very briefly close his eyes in assent) Why yes, as a matter of fact — I’d forgotten all about it, he did.
O’Co
(Defense Counsel sits. Prosecution Counsel rises.)
Golding: As this earlier visit of Dr. Swale’s has been introduced, Mrs. Ecclestone, I think that perhaps, don’t you, that we’d better dispose of it? Dr. Swale, you’ve told the court, is an old friend and a member of your social circle. Is that right?
Mrs. Ecclestone (she has pulled herself together): Yes.
Golding: Was there anything at all out-of-the-way about his dropping in?
Mrs. Ecclestone: No, of course not. He often looks in. He and my husband do crosswords and swop them over. I’d quite forgotten but I think that was what he’d come for — to collect the Times crossword and leave the Telegraph one. (She catches her breath, realizing a possible implication.)
Golding: Did you see him?
Mrs. Ecclestone (fractional hesitation): I — think — yes, I remember I heard someone come in and I thought it was my husband, home early. So I called out. And Dr. Swale came upstairs — and knocked and said who it was.
Golding: Exactly. Thank you so much, Mrs. Ecclestone. (He sits.)
Judge: You may go and sit down, Mrs. Ecclestone.
Mrs. Ecclestone: Thank you, my lord.
(She does so. As she goes to the witness seats, she and the accused look at each other. Mrs. Ecclestone gets past the other witnesses, who leave room for her. She sits between Dr. Swale and her husband, looking at neither of them.)
Golding: That concludes the case for the prosecution, my lord.
(Defense Counsel rises.)
O’Co
(The accused is escorted to the witness box and takes the oath. The Clerk asks her to remove her glove.)
O’Co
Miss Freebody: I am.
O’Co
Miss Freebody: I did not.
O’Co
Miss Freebody: Certainly.
O’Co
Miss Freebody: I do.
O’Co
Miss Freebody (breaking out): Learnt of it! Learnt of it! I heard the screams. The screams. I still hear them. (To Judge) Still. All the time. Asleep and awake. I am haunted by them.
(Major snorts.)
O’Co
Miss Freebody: Indoors. In my house.
O’Co
Miss Freebody: I rushed out. Of course. I thought he was in my garden. I hunted everywhere. The screams stopped but I hunted. And then I heard that man — that monster — that fiend—
O’Co
Miss Freebody (she gives a contemptuous assent): Laughing. He was laughing. Devil! He was talking to it. To that brute. And do you know what he said?
Golding (rising): My lord! Really—
Miss Freebody (shouting): He said “Good dog.” That’s what he said: “Good dog.” (She bursts out crying.)
Judge: If you would like to sit down, you may.
(The Wardress moves to lower the flap-seat in the box.)
Miss Freebody: I don’t want to sit down. Go away. (She blows her nose.)
O’Co
Miss Freebody: Idiocy! Legal humbug! Balderdash!
Judge: That will do.