And then the elder daughter, Stella, testifying that during the latter part of October or the first of November, shortly after Roberta had taken the room, she had passed her and a man, whom she was now able to identify as Clyde, standing less than a hundred feet from the house, and noticing that they were evidently quarreling she had paused to listen.
She was not able to distinguish every word of the conversation, but upon leading questions from Mason was able to recall that Roberta had protested that she could not let him come into her room —“it would not look right.”
And he had finally turned upon his heel, leaving Roberta standing with outstretched arms as if imploring him to return.
And throughout all this Clyde staring in amazement, for he had in those days — in fact throughout his entire contact with Roberta — imagined himself unobserved.
And decidedly this confirmed much of what Mason had charged in his opening address — that he had willfully and with full knowledge of the nature of the offense, persuaded Roberta to do what plainly she had not wanted to do — a form of testimony that was likely to prejudice the judge as well as the jury and all these conventional people of this rural county.
And Belknap, realizing this, trying to confuse this Stella in her identification of Clyde.
But only succeeding in eliciting information that some time in November or the early part of December, shortly after the above incident, she had seen Clyde arrive, a box of some kind under his arm, and knock at Roberta’s door and enter, and was then positive that he was the same young man she had seen that moonlight night quarreling with Roberta.
And next, Whiggam, and after him Liggett, testifying as to the dates of arrival of Clyde at the factory, as well as Roberta, and as to the rule regarding department heads and female help, and, in so far as they could see, the impeccable surface conduct of both Clyde and Roberta, neither seeming to look at the other or at any one else for that matter. (That was Liggett testifying.)
And after them again, others.
Mrs. Peyton to testify as to the character of his room and his social activities in so far as she was able to observe them.
Mrs. Alden to testify that at Christmas the year before Roberta had confessed to her that her superior at the factory — Clyde Griffiths, the nephew of the owner — was paying attention to her, but that it had to be kept secret for the time being.
Frank Harriet, Harley Baggott, Tracy Trumbull and Eddie Sells to testify that during December last Clyde had been invited here and there and had attended various social gatherings in Lycurgus.
John Lambert, a druggist of Schenectady, testifying that some time in January he had been applied to by a youth, who he now identified as the defendant, for some medicine which would bring about a miscarriage.
Orrin Short to testify that in late January Clyde had asked him if he knew of a doctor who could aid a young married woman — according to Clyde’s story, the wife of an employee of Griffiths & Company — who was too poor to afford a child, and whose husband, according to Clyde, had asked him for this information.
And next Dr. Glenn, testifying to Roberta’s visit, having previously recalled her from pictures published in the papers, but adding that professionally he had been unwilling to do anything for her.
And then C. B. Wilcox, a farmer neighbor of the Aldens, testifying to having been in the washroom back of the kitchen on or about June twenty-ninth or thirtieth, on which occasion Roberta having been called over the long distance telephone from Lycurgus by a man who gave his name as Baker, he had heard her say to him:
“But, Clyde, I can’t wait that long.
You know I can’t.
And I won’t.”
And her voice had sounded excited and distressed.
Mr. Wilcox was positive as to the name Clyde.
And Ethel Wilcox, a daughter of this same C. B. — short and fat and with a lisp — who swore that on three preceding occasions, having received long distance requests for Roberta, she had proceeded to get her. And each time the call was from Lycurgus from a man named Baker.
Also, on one occasion, she had heard her refer to the caller as Clyde.
And once she had heard her say that “under no circumstances would she wait that long,” although what she meant by that she did not know.
And next Roger Beane, a rural free delivery letter-carrier, who testified that between June seventh or eighth to July fourth or fifth, he had received no less than fifteen letters from Roberta herself or the mail box at the crossroads of the Alden farm, and that he was positive that most of the letters were addressed to Clyde Griffiths, care of General Delivery, Lycurgus.
And next Amos Showalter, general delivery clerk at Lycurgus, who swore that to the best of his recollection, from or between June seventh or eighth and July fourth or fifth, Clyde, whom he knew by name, had inquired for and received not less than fifteen or sixteen letters.
And after him, R. T. Biggen, an oil station manager of Lycurgus, who swore that on the morning of July sixth, at about eight o’clock, having gone to Fielding Avenue, which was on the extreme west of the city, leading on the northern end to a “stop” on the Lycurgus and Fonda electric line, he had seen Clyde, dressed in a gray suit and wearing a straw hat and carrying a brown suit-case, to one side of which was strapped a yellow camera tripod and something else — an umbrella it might have been.
And knowing in which direction Clyde lived, he had wondered at his walking, when at Central Avenue, not so far from his home, he could have boarded the Fonda–Lycurgus car.
And Belknap in his cross-examination inquiring of this witness how, being one hundred and seventy-five feet distant, he could swear that it was a tripod that he saw, and Biggens insisting that it was — it was bright yellow and wood and had brass clops and three legs.
And then after him, John W. Troescher, station master at Fonda, who testified that on the morning of July sixth last (he recalled it clearly because of certain other things which he listed), he had sold Roberta Alden a ticket to Utica.
He recalled Miss Alden because of having noted her several times during the preceding winter.
She looked quite tired, almost sick, and carried a brown bag, something like the brown bag there and then exhibited to him.
Also he recalled the defendant, who also carried a bag.
He did not see him notice or talk to the girl.
And next Quincy B. Dale, conductor of the particular train that ran from Fonda to Utica. He had noticed, and now recalled, Clyde in one car toward the rear.
He also noticed, and from photographs later published, had recalled Roberta.
She gave him a friendly smile and he had said that such a bag as she was carrying seemed rather heavy for her and that he would have one of the brakemen carry it out for her at Utica, for which she thanked him.
He had seen her descend at Utica and disappear into the depot.
He had not noticed Clyde there.
And then the identification of Roberta’s trunk as having been left in the baggage room at the station at Utica for a number of days.
And after that the guest page of the Renfrew House, of Utica, for July sixth last, identified by Jerry K. Kernocian, general manager of said hotel, which showed an entry —“Clifford Golden and wife.”
And the same then and there compared by handwriting experts with two other registration pages from the Grass Lake and Big Bittern inns and sworn to as being identically the same handwriting.
And these compared with the card in Roberta’s suit-case, and all received in evidence and carefully examined by each juror in turn and by Belknap and Jephson, who, however, had seen all but the card before.
And once more a protest on the part of Belknap as to the unwarranted and illegal and shameful withholding of evidence on the part of the district attorney.
And a long and bitter wrangle as to that, serving, in fact, to bring to a close the tenth day of the trial. ? Chapter 22
A nd then, on the eleventh day, Frank W. Schaefer, clerk of the Renfrew House in Utica, recalling the actual arrival of Clyde and Roberta and their actions; also Clyde’s registration for both as Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Golden, of Syracuse.
And then Wallace Vanderhoff, one of the clerks of the Star Haberdashery in Utica, with a story of Clyde’s actions and general appearance at the time of his buying a straw hat.
And then the conductor of the train running between Utica and Grass Lake.
And the proprietor of the Grass Lake House. And Blanche Pettingill, a waitress, who swore that at dinner she overheard Clyde arguing with Roberta as to the impossibility of getting a marriage license there — that it would be better to wait until they reached some other place the next day — a bit of particularly damaging testimony, since it pre-dated by a day the proposed confession which Clyde was supposed to have made to Roberta, but which Jephson and Belknap afterward agreed between themselves might easily have had some preliminary phases.
And after her the conductor of the train that carried them to Gun Lodge.