The moment she was dead to run away to that other girl.
You don’t deny that, do you?”
“I’ve explained why I did that,” reiterated Clyde.
“Explained!
Explained!
And you expect any fair-minded, decent, intelligent person to believe that explanation, do you?”
Mason was fairly beside himself with rage and Clyde did not venture to comment as to that.
The judge anticipated Jephson’s objection to this and bellowed,
“Objection sustained.”
But Mason went right on.
“You couldn’t have been just a little careless, could you, Griffiths, in the handling of the boat and upset it yourself, say?”
He drew near and leered.
“No, sir, I wasn’t careless.
It was an accident that I couldn’t avoid.”
Clyde was quite cool, though pale and tired.
“An accident.
Like that other accident out there in Kansas City, for instance.
You’re rather familiar with accidents of that kind, aren’t you, Griffiths?” queried Mason sneeringly and slowly.
“I’ve explained how that happened,” replied Clyde nervously.
“You’re rather familiar with accidents that result in death to girls, aren’t you?
Do you always run away when one of them dies?”
“Object,” yelled Belknap, leaping to his feet.
“Objection sustained,” called Oberwaltzer sharply.
“There is nothing before this court concerning any other accident.
The prosecution will confine itself more closely to the case in hand.”
“Griffiths,” went on Mason, pleased with the way he had made a return to Jephson for his apology for the Kansas City accident, “when that boat upset after that accidental blow of yours and you and Miss Alden fell into the water — how far apart were you?”
“Well, I didn’t notice just then.”
“Pretty close, weren’t you?
Not much more than a foot or two, surely — the way you stood there in the boat?”
“Well, I didn’t notice.
Maybe that, yes, sir.”
“Close enough to have grabbed her and hung on to her if you had wanted to, weren’t you?
That’s what you jumped up for, wasn’t it, when she started to fall out?”
“Yes, that’s what I jumped up for,” replied Clyde heavily, “but I wasn’t close enough to grab her.
I know I went right under, and when I came up she was some little distance away.”
“Well, how far exactly?
As far as from here to this end of the jury box or that end, or half way, or what?”
“Well, I say I didn’t notice, quite. About as far from here to that end, I guess,” he lied, stretching the distance by at least eight feet.
“Not really!” exclaimed Mason, pretending to evince astonishment.
“This boat here turns over, you both fall in the water close together, and when you come up you and she are nearly twenty feet apart.
Don’t you think your memory is getting a little the best of you there?”
“Well, that’s the way it looked to me when I came up.”
“Well, now, after that boat turned over and you both came up, where were you in relation to IT?
Here is the boat now and where were you out there in the audience, as to distance, I mean?”
“Well, as I say, I didn’t exactly notice when I first came up,” returned Clyde, looking nervously and dubiously at the space before him.
Most certainly a trap was being prepared for him.
“About as far as from here to that railing beyond your table, I guess.”
“About thirty to thirty-five feet then,” suggested Mason, slyly and hopefully.
“Yes, sir.
About that maybe.