“Any objection?” Judge Cadwell asked.

  Mason smiled. “Not in the least, Your Honor. I am glad to have this done if counsel will first prove the witness is unavailable. This action on the part of counsel, using the identical evidence used in the other trial shows the solidity of our plea of once in jeopardy.”

  “The actions aren’t the same,” Farris said. “The parties are the same, that’s all.”

  Judge Cadwell stroked his chin. “Of course,” he said, “that does tend to give force to the defendant’s plea of once in jeopardy. However, the Court has ruled on that, and that ruling will stand. Make your showing, Mr. Prosecutor. Counsel will be advised that any objection which counsel wishes to take to any question as contained in the transcript may be made at this time and the Court will then rule on that objection.”

  Farris produced an investigator for the district attorney’s office who testified that Myrtle Anne Haley had moved from her residence and had left no forwarding address, that he had talked with all of her friends and acquaintances but no one knew where she had gone, that he had made every effort to find her and serve a subpoena on her without avail. She had been employed by a subsidiary of the Balfour Allied Associates and she had left abruptly without even calling for her last paycheck. The intimation was strongly that pressure brought to bear by the Balfour company had caused this prime witness for the prosecution to absent herself.

  “Cross-examination?” Judge Cadwell asked Mason.

  Mason shook his head. “No cross-examination.”

  “Very well,” Judge Cadwell said, “I will grant the motion of the prosecution that the testimony of Myrtle Anne Haley may be read in the record, after that testimony is properly authenticated, there being no objection.”

  The court reporter was thereupon duly sworn and read the transcript of Myrtle Anne Haley’s testimony.

  With the manner of a magician bringing a startling trick to a breath-taking conclusion, Roger Farris called out in a ringing voice, “Will Mr. Banner Boles take the stand?”

  Banner Boles came forward, held up his hand, was sworn, gave his name, age, residence, and occupation, and settled himself comfortably in the witness stand.

  “Are you acquainted with the defendant, Theodore Balfour, Jr.?” Farris asked.

  “Yes, sir. Certainly.”

  “How long have you known him?”

  “For some ten years.”

  “What were you doing on the nineteenth of September of this year?”

  “I was working for the Balfour Allied Associates.”

  “Specifically what duties did you perform that night?”

  “Mr. Guthrie Balfour was leaving for El Paso. From there he was going to Mexico. It was part of my assignment to see that he got safely aboard the train.”

  “Somewhat in the nature of a bodyguard?”

  “Well, more in the nature of a general trouble shooter.”

  “You saw him on the train for El Paso?”

  “I did.”

  “Who else?”

  “His wife, Dorla Balfour”

  “She boarded the same train with him?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Where had you been prior to the time you went to the depot?”

  “There had been a little social gathering, something in the nature of a going-away party at the home of Mrs. Florence Ingle who is a friend of the Balfours.”

  “And you had been at that party?”

  “I had, yes, sir.”

  “And what happened after you escorted Mr. and Mrs. Guthrie Balfour to the train?”

  “I went back to my office.”

  “You have an office uptown?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “It is not at the Balfour Allied Associates?”

  “I have an office there too, but I have an uptown office which is kept open twenty-four hours a day.”

  “For what purpose, may I ask?”

  “People call me when something comes up and there is any trouble.”

  “And were you called on the evening of the nineteenth?”

  “No, sir.”

  “You were not?”

  “No, sir.”

  “I thought—Oh, I beg your pardon, it was early in the morning of the twentieth. Were you called then?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Who called you?”

  “The defendant.”

  “You are referring to the defendant, Theodore Balfour, Jr.?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Do you know where he was calling you from?”

  “I only know where he said he was calling me from.”

  “And where was that?”

  “It was a telephone booth at a service station at the intersection of Sycamore Road and State Highway. The service station was closed but he was calling from the booth.”

  “And what did he say?”

  “He asked me to join him at once. He said he was in trouble.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I jumped in my car and got out there as quick as I could.”

  “How long did it take?”

  “About twenty minutes, I guess.”

  “Did you give the defendant any instructions before you left?”

  “I told him to wait there until I arrived.”

  “Was he there when you arrived?”

  “No, sir. He was not.”

  “Where was he?”

  “Well, I cruised around for a while trying to find—”

  “Never mind that. Tell us where you finally found the defendant.”

  “I found him at home.”

  “That is, at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Guthrie Balfour?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “That was where he was living?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “As a trouble shooter for the Balfour Allied Associates you knew that, did you?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And what did you do?”

  “I didn’t want to get everybody up. I wanted to find out if the defendant was home,”

  “In your capacity with the organization, do you have keys for the residences of the executives of the Balfour Allied Associates?”

  “I have pass keys I can use if there is an emergency.”

  “And did you use one of those keys?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Where did you go first?”

  “First I looked in the garage to see if the car the defendant had been driving was in the garage.”

  “You found that it was in the garage?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What was its condition?”

  “Well, I used my flashlight and walked around the car looking for signs of trouble because, from the tone of voice in which the defendant had telephoned me, I thought he had been—”

  “Never mind what you thought,” Farris interrupted sharply. “Just tell what you did.”

  “I looked the car over.”

  “What did you find?”

  “I found that the right front headlight was smashed, that there was a dent in the right fender, and there were a few flecks of blood on the front bumper near the right-hand side; that is, I assumed the spots were blood. They were red spots which had crusted and looked like blood.”

  “So then what did you do?”

  “So then I switched off my flashlight, closed the garage door, went to the house, inserted my key in the front door, opened the front door, and walked upstairs.”

  “And where did you go?”

  “To the room occupied by the defendant.”

  “You had been in that room before?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “You knew where it was?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And what did you do?”

  “I tapped on the door and said, This is Banner, Ted. Let me in.

  Did you receive any response?”

  “No, sir.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I went inside the room.”

  “And what did you find?”

  “I found the defendant very drunk, in what I would call an alcoholic stupor, lying fully clothed on the bed.”

  “What about his shoes? Were they on or off?”

  “They were on.”

  “What time was this?”

  “Tills was about two o’clock in the morning. I had left the service station at one-fifty, and I guess it took me about five minutes to look through the garage and study the automobile.”

  “Now, when you say, ‘the automobile,’ what automobile “I mean the automobile photographs of which have been introduced in evidence, the one having license number GMB 665.”

  “Did you have any conversation with the defendant there in his room at that time?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Who else was present?”

  “No one.”

  “Just the two of you?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I had quite a time getting the defendant so he could wake up and talk.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I took off his coat. I took off his overshirt. I took off his ondeishirt. I got towels, soaked them in cold water, and put them on his abdomen and on his neck. I sat him up in bed and shook him. I put cold compresses on his eyes and on the back of his neck, and finally he became conscious, or wakened, or whatever you want to call it.”

  “He recognized you?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “And what was the conversation you had with him at that time as nearly as you can remember?”

  “Well, I asked him what he wanted, and he told me he had been in a jam but he had finally figured how to get out of it all by himself.”

  “What did he tell you?”

  “He told me that he had been gambling at cards pretty heavy, that he had run out of cash and had been using the credit that he had with a certain syndicate, that he had sustained losses and that those losses had piled up and the syndicate had called on him to pay.”

  “He told you all this?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “How did he speak?”

  “His voice was thick. He was quite intoxicated, but I got it out of him a bit at a time.”

  “Go ahead. Then what did he tell you?”

  “He told me that he had received a couple of telephone calls from the syndicate saying he had to pay up or else. After that he said he had received an anonymous, unsigned letter saying that if he didn’t pay up they were going to send their ‘collector.”

  “Did he tell you what he thought the threat meant when they said that they were going to send their collector?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He said that that meant someone to beat him up. He said that they got pretty tough with fellows that didn’t pay, that the first time they beat them up, and the second time they took them for a one-way ride.”

  “Go on,” Farris said, glancing triumphantly at the Jurors who were sitting on the edges of their chairs, leaning forward, drinking in Boles’ words with rapt attention. “What else did he say?”

  “Well, he said that he had tried to raise twenty thousand dollars, that he didn’t dare to go to Addison Balfour, that he had hoped an opportunity would present itself to speak to Guthrie Balfour before he took off for Mexico, but that, in the crush of the party, there had been no opportunity. He knew that he would have to approach the subject very tactfully. Otherwise, he would be rebuffed.

  “He stated that he had some money that was in a trust fund which had been left him by his parents, and that he had been trying to reach the trustee in order to get some money from him, but that the trustee was out of town on a vacation, that he was hoping he could stall the matter along until the return of the trustee.”

  “Did he say anything else?”

  “He said that he had talked to one of his father’s friends, a Florence Ingle.”

  “That was the woman who had given the party?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did he say when he had talked with her?”

  “He said that night. He said that he had asked her for twenty thousand dollars but that she had been unable or unwilling to give it to him.”

  “Then what did he say?”

  “He said that he drank more than was good for him, that he was rather intoxicated by somewhere around ten o’clock, that a young woman had driven his car home for him, and had put the car in the garage.”

  “Did he tell you the name of the young woman?”

  “He said that he didn’t know the young woman’s identity. But I thought he did. However, I didn’t—”

  “Never mind what you thought!” Farris shouted. “You’re familiar with the rules of examination, Mr. Boles. Kindly refrain from giving any of your conclusions. Tell us only what the defendant said to you and what you said to the defendant.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Now, what did the defendant say to you about having been brought home?”

  “Well, the defendant said he had been brought home by this young woman, that she had taken his shoes off, that he had stretched out on the bed, that he had been pretty drunk and that he had gone to the bathroom and been sick, that after that he felt a little better. He suddenly remembered that the trustee who handled his trust fund sometimes came back early from a vacation, and checked in at a motel on the outskirts of town, that this man was an elderly man with poor eyesight who disliked to drive at night, and that, when he returned from a trip and it was late, he would stay at a motel on the outskirts of town rather than drive in. He said he decided to drive out and see if the trustee had returned.”

  “And then what?”

  “So he put on his shoes, let himself out of the house, and went to the garage. He said, however, that because of the threats which had been made and because of the late hour, he had opened his gun cabinet and had taken a .22 automatic which he had put in his pocket.”

  “Go on. What else did he say?”

  “He said that, when he reached the garage, he thought he saw a shadowy figure; that, because he had been drinking, he finally decided it was just his imagination; that he opened the garage door and stepped inside; and that, just as he had his hand on the handle of the car door, someone put his hand on his shoulder from behind and said, ‘Okay, buddy. I’m the collector.’”

  “Go on,” Farris said. “What else?”

  “He said he was frozen with terror for the moment and that then the man who had said he was a collector hit him a hard blow in the chest, a blow that slammed him back against the wall of the garage; that the man had then said, ‘That’s a sample! Now get in the car. You and I are going for a little ride. I’m going to teach you not to welch on bets.’”

  “Go on,” Farris said. “What else?”

  “And then the defendant told me that almost without thinking and in actual fear of his life he had jerked out the .22 automatic and had fired from the hip; that he was an exceptionally good shot; and that he had shot directly at the man’s head. The man staggered back, half-sprawled against the front seat. He was not dead, but was unconscious.

  “The defendant said that he knew he had to do something at once; that he had lifted this man into the front seat of the automobile; that he closed the car door; that he jumped in the other side, and drove, anxious only to get away from the house for fear that someone might have heard the shot. He said he drove down to the State Highway; that he turned left and stopped at the closed service station on Sycamore; that he called me from the phone booth there and asked me to come at once. He wanted me to tell him what could be done and how he could arrange for medical attention for the man in the car.

  “He then told me that after he had hung up and returned to the car, he discovered the man was no longer breathing; that he put his hand on his wrist and there was no pulse; that the man had died while he was telephoning.

  “He said that changed the situation materially; that he had then tried to call me again, but that my assistant who answered, the telephone assured him I had already left.”

  “Go on,” Farris said, “what else did he tell you? Did he tell you what he did after that?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What was it?”

  “He said that he felt that the problem was simplified because he had only a dead man to deal with. He said that the shock had sobered him up pretty much, that he searched the body and took everything in the line of papers that the man might have—all means of identification; that he took the man’s wallet; that he even took his handkerchief, so it would not be possible to trace a laundry mark; that he took his key ring, his pocket knife, all of his personal belongings.”

  “Then what?”

  “He said that he ran the car out Sycamore Road and then got out and placed the body on the front bumper; that he drove as fast as he could and then suddenly slammed on the brakes; that the body rolled off the bumper and skidded and rolled for some considerable distance along the highway; that he then deliberately ran over the head, then turned the car around and ran over the head again; that he ran over the head several times, so as to be sure that not only would the features be unrecognizable but that it would prevent the bullet hole from showing.”

  “Did he tell you anything about a bullet being in the head?”

  “He told me that he thought the bullet had gone clean through the head and was in the garage somewhere.”

  “Go on,” Farris said.

  “Well, the defendant asked me to take charge of things from there on. I told him that there was nothing much I could do; that he had already done everything; that I felt the best thing to do was to go and find the body and report the matter to the police, stating that he had acted in self-defense and in fear of his life; that this man had assaulted him first.”

  “So what was done?”

  “I told him to wait there, that I would go and find the body. He described exactly where he had left it.”

  “And what happened?.”

  “I found I was too late. By the time I got there a police car was there and I felt that, under the circumstances, I didn’t want to assume the responsibility of notifying the police. I thought that I would wait until I had an opportunity to think the matter over.”