An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser [360]
“Yes, go on!” interrupted Belknap, eagerly.
“Well,” continued Jephson, “he’ll do his best to take care of her and support her out of the money he’ll have after he marries the rich girl.”
“Yes.”
“Well, she wants him to marry her and drop this Miss Finchley!”
“I see.”
“And he agrees?”
“Sure.”
“Also she’s so grateful that in her excitement, or gratitude, she jumps up to come toward him, you see?”
“Yes.”
“And the boat rocks a little, and he jumps up to help her because he’s afraid she’s going to fall, see?”
“Yes, I see.”
“Well, now if we wanted to we could have him have that camera of his in his hand or not, just as you think fit.”
“Yes, I see what you’re driving at.”
“Well, whether he keeps it in his hand or doesn’t, there’s some misstep on his part or hers, just as he says, or just the motion of the two bodies, causes the boat to go over, and he strikes her, or not, just as you think fit, but accidentally, of course.”
“Yes, I see, and I’ll be damned!” exclaimed Belknap. “Fine, Reuben! Excellent! Wonderful, really!”
“And the boat strikes her too, as well as him, a little, see?” went on Jephson, paying no attention to this outburst, so interested was he in his own plot, “and makes him a little dizzy, too.”
“I see.”
“And he hears her cries and sees her, but he’s a little stunned himself, see? And by the time he’s ready to do something—”
“She’s gone,” concluded Belknap, quietly. “Drowned. I get you.”
“And then, because of all those other suspicious circumstances and false registrations—and because now she’s gone and he can’t do anything more for her, anyhow—her relatives might not want to know her condition, you know—”
“I see.”
“He slips away, frightened, a moral coward, just as we’ll have to contend from the first, anxious to stand well with his uncle and not lose his place in this world. Doesn’t that explain it?”
“About as well as anything could explain it, Reuben, I think. In fact, I think it’s a plausible explanation and I congratulate you. I don’t see how any one could hope to find a better. If that doesn’t get him off, or bring about a disagreement, at least we might get him off with, well, say, twenty years, don’t you think?” And very much cheered, he got up, and after eyeing his long, thin associate admiringly, added: “Fine!” while Jephson, his blue eyes for all the world like windless, still pools, looked steadily back.
“But of course you know what that means?” Jephson now added, calmly and softly.
“That we have to put him on the witness stand? Surely, surely. I see that well enough. But it’s his only chance.”
“And he won’t strike people as a very steady or convincing fellow, I’m afraid—too nervous and emotional.”
“Yes, I know all that,” replied Belknap, quickly. “He’s easily rattled. And Mason will go after him like a wild bull. But we’ll have to coach him as to all this—drill him. Make him understand that it’s his only chance—that his very life depends on it. Drill him for months.”
“If he fails, then he’s gone. If only we could do something to give him courage—teach him to act it out.” Jephson’s eyes seemed to be gazing directly before him at the very courtroom scene in which Clyde on the stand would have Mason before him. And then picking up Roberta’s letters (copies of them furnished by Mason) and looking at them, he concluded: “If it only weren’t for these— here.” He weighed them up and down in his hand. “Christ!” he finally concluded, darkly. “What a case! But we’re not licked yet, not by a darn sight! Why, we haven’t begun to fight yet. And we’ll get a lot of publicity, anyhow. By the way,” he added, “I’m having a fellow I know down near Big Bittern dredge for that camera tonight. Wish me luck.”
“Do I?” was all Belknap replied.
Chapter 17
The struggle and excitement of a great murder trial! Belknap and Jephson, after consulting with Brookhart and Catchuman, learning that they considered Jephson’s plan “perhaps the only way,” but