FALDER.Only through her--he's a brute.
THE JUDGE.I can't allow indiscriminate abuse of a person not present.
FROME.[Bowing]If your lordship pleases.[To FALDER]You admit altering this cheque?
FALDER bows his head.
FROME.Carry your mind,please,to the morning of Friday,July the 7th,and tell the jury what happened.
FALDER.[Turning to the jury]I was having my breakfast when she came.Her dress was all torn,and she was gasping and couldn't seem to get her breath at all;there were the marks of his fingers round her throat;her arm was bruised,and the blood had got into her eyes dreadfully.It frightened me,and then when she told me,I felt--Ifelt--well--it was too much for me![Hardening suddenly]If you'd seen it,having the feelings for her that I had,you'd have felt the same,I know.
FROME.Yes?
FALDER.When she left me--because I had to go to the office--I was out of my senses for fear that he'd do it again,and thinking what Icould do.I couldn't work--all the morning I was like that--simply couldn't fix my mind on anything.I couldn't think at all.I seemed to have to keep moving.When Davis--the other clerk--gave me the cheque--he said:"It'll do you good,Will,to have a run with this.
You seem half off your chump this morning."Then when I had it in my hand--I don't know how it came,but it just flashed across me that if I put the 'ty'and the nought there would be the money to get her away.It just came and went--I never thought of it again.Then Davis went out to his luncheon,and I don't really remember what Idid till I'd pushed the cheque through to the cashier under the rail.
I remember his saying "Gold or notes?"Then I suppose I knew what I'd done.Anyway,when I got outside I wanted to chuck myself under a bus;I wanted to throw the money away;but it seemed I was in for it,so I thought at any rate I'd save her.Of course the tickets Itook for the passage and the little I gave her's been wasted,and all,except what I was obliged to spend myself,I've restored.Ikeep thinking over and over however it was I came to do it,and how Ican't have it all again to do differently!
FALDER is silent,twisting his hands before him.
FROME.How far is it from your office to the bank?
FALDER.Not more than fifty yards,sir.
FROME.From the time Davis went out to lunch to the time you cashed the cheque,how long do you say it must have been?
FALDER.It couldn't have been four minutes,sir,because I ran all the way.
FROME.During those four minutes you say you remember nothing?
FALDER.No,sir;only that I ran.
FROME.Not even adding the 'ty'and the nought?'
FALDER.No,sir.I don't really.
FROME sits down,and CLEAVER rises.
CLEAVER.But you remember running,do you?
FALDER.I was all out of breath when I got to the bank.
CLEAVER.And you don't remember altering the cheque?
FALDER.[Faintly]No,sir.
CLEAVER.Divested of the romantic glamour which my friend is casting over the case,is this anything but an ordinary forgery?Come.
FALDER.I was half frantic all that morning,sir.
CLEAVER.Now,now!You don't deny that the 'ty'and the nought were so like the rest of the handwriting as to thoroughly deceive the cashier?
FALDER.It was an accident.
CLEAVER.[Cheerfully]Queer sort of accident,wasn't it?On which day did you alter the counterfoil?
FALDER.[Hanging his head]On the Wednesday morning.
CLEAVER.Was that an accident too?
FALDER.[Faintly]No.
CLEAVER.To do that you had to watch your opportunity,I suppose?
FALDER.[Almost inaudibly]Yes.
CLEAVER.You don't suggest that you were suffering under great excitement when you did that?
FALDER.I was haunted.
CLEAVER.With the fear of being found out?
FALDER.[Very low]Yes.
THE JUDGE.Didn't it occur to you that the only thing for you to do was to confess to your employers,and restore the money?
FALDER.I was afraid.[There is silence]
CLEAVER.You desired,too,no doubt,to complete your design of taking this woman away?
FALDER.When I found I'd done a thing like that,to do it for nothing seemed so dreadful.I might just as well have chucked myself into the river.
CLEAVER.You knew that the clerk Davis was about to leave England --didn't it occur to you when you altered this cheque that suspicion would fall on him?
FALDER.It was all done in a moment.I thought of it afterwards.
CLEAVER.And that didn't lead you to avow what you'd done?
FALDER.[Sullenly]I meant to write when I got out there--I would have repaid the money.
THE JUDGE.But in the meantime your innocent fellow clerk might have been prosecuted.
FALDER.I knew he was a long way off,your lordship.I thought there'd be time.I didn't think they'd find it out so soon.
FROME.I might remind your lordship that as Mr.Walter How had the cheque-book in his pocket till after Davis had sailed,if the discovery had been made only one day later Falder himself would have left,and suspicion would have attached to him,and not to Davis,from the beginning.
THE JUDGE.The question is whether the prisoner knew that suspicion would light on himself,and not on Davis.[To FALDER sharply]Did you know that Mr.Walter How had the cheque-book till after Davis had sailed?
FALDER.I--I--thought--he…
THE JUDGE.Now speak the truth-yes or no!
FALDER.[Very low]No,my lord.I had no means of knowing.
THE JUDGE.That disposes of your point,Mr.Frome.
[FROME bows to the JUDGE]
CLEAVER.Has any aberration of this nature ever attacked you before?
FALDER.[Faintly]No,sir.
CLEAVER.You had recovered sufficiently to go back to your work that afternoon?
FALDER.Yes,I had to take the money back.
CLEAVER.You mean the nine pounds.Your wits were sufficiently keen for you to remember that?And you still persist in saying you don't remember altering this cheque.[He sits down]
FALDER.If I hadn't been mad I should never have had the courage.
FROME.[Rising]Did you have your lunch before going back?
FALDER.I never ate a thing all day;and at night I couldn't sleep.