“The evidence is perfectly proper,” Burger retorted, “in that it shows that at a prior time the defendant had knowledge of his homicidal tendencies while walking in his sleep; that he made no effort to curb those tendencies when he realized he was once more walking in his sleep. I am predicating this part of my argument on the theory which the Defense itself has outlined.”

  Judge Markham rapped with his gavel and said, “It is not incumbent upon the Prosecution to anticipate the Defense. Whether evidence in rebuttal can include incidents taking place prior to the crime and separated from it by a period of twelve months is something which will be determined when the question arises. In the meantime, the objection of the Defense is well taken, the Court will order that that portion of the opening speech be withdrawn from the jury, and the jurors are specifically instructed to disregard it. The jurors are also instructed that the opening statement made by the district attorney merely outlines what he expects to prove and is made for the purpose of clarifying the issues in the minds of the jurors. The statements made by the district attorney are not to be considered as evidence.

  “Go on, Mr. District Attorney.”

  “We expect to show,” Hamilton Burger resumed, “by the defendant’s own niece, that prior to the commission of the crime, in fact two days before, she had found the same weapon with which the murder was subsequently committed under the pillow of the defendant’s bed. Upon this evidence, Gentlemen, and upon such other evidence as may be introduced in rebuttal, the Prosecution will ask at your hands a conviction of first degree murder.”

  Hamilton Burger sat down. Judge Markham asked Perry Mason, “Do you desire to make an opening statement, Counselor?”

  “I will withhold my statement until just before I start to put on my case,” Mason said.

  “Very well, the Prosecution will call its first witness.”

  “I shall prove the Corpus Delecti by calling Frank B. Maddox,” Burger said.

  Maddox came forward and was sworn.

  “Your name is Frank B. Maddox and you reside in Chicago?”

  “Yes.”

  “You were present in the house of the defendant during the night of the thirteenth of this month and the morning of the fourteenth?”

  “I was.”

  “Do you know if P. L. Rease was related to the defendant?”

  “He was the defendant’s half-brother.”

  “How long had you been in the defendant’s house prior to the thirteenth?”

  “I arrived on the tenth.”

  “On the morning of the fourteenth did you have occasion to see Mr. P. L. Rease?”

  “I did.”

  “Where was he?”

  “In his bedroom.”

  “Was he alive or dead?”

  “He was dead, lying in bed flat on his back, with a light blanket drawn up under his chin. There was a cut in the blanket, where a knife had been thrust through the covering and into Mr. Rease’s body. The blanket was soaked in blood, and Mr. Rease was dead.”

  “I shall recall this witness later on,” Hamilton Burger said, “for further questions, but at the present time I am merely showing the Corpus Delicti and I shall ask permission to withdraw him temporarily.”

  “Very well,” Judge Markham said.

  “Do you wish to cross-examine?” Burger inquired.

  “Yes,” Mason said. “You say you were in the house during the evening of the thirteenth, Mr. Maddox?”

  “Yes.”

  “And during the morning of the fourteenth?”

  “Yes.”

  “When did you first leave the house on the morning of the fourteenth?”

  “Is that material?” Burger asked, frowning.

  “I think so.”

  “I don’t. I object to it on the ground that it is immaterial, that it is not proper cross-examination.”

  Judge Markham hesitated a moment.

  “I will,” Perry Mason said, “amend the question, to make it as follows: When did you first leave the house on the morning of the fourteenth prior to the time the body was discovered?”

  “That question is plainly within the scope of cross-examination,” Judge Markham ruled. “Answer it.”

  “I didn′t leave the house at all,” Maddox said.

  Mason raised his eyebrows. “Didn’t you leave the house about three o’clock in the morning?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “You went to your room the evening of the thirteenth at what time?”

  “Approximately nine-thirty I should judge.”

  “Did you go to bed immediately after going to your room?”

  “No, my attorney, Mr. Duncan, went to my room with me. We were engaged in a long conference.”

  “What time did you arise on the morning of the fourteenth?” Mason asked.

  “I was aroused by you and Dr. Kelton invading my room, trying to find out who had been killed......”

  “Move to strike out that portion of the answer as a conclusion of the witness,” Mason said.

  “It will go out,” Judge Markham ruled. “The jury will disregard it.”

  “What time was it?”

  “Around eight o’clock, I think.”

  “And you wish the jury to understand, Mr. Maddox, that you were continuously in the house from the time you retired on the evening of the thirteenth to eight o’clock in the morning of the fourteenth?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Didn’t you go to the Pacific Greyhound Stage Depot at approximately three o’clock in the morning on the fourteenth and place a long distance call for Mrs. Doris Sully Kent in Santa Barbara?”

  Maddox clamped his lips tightly together and shook his head.

  “You’ll have to answer the question audibly,” the court reporter announced.

  “I most certainly did not,” Maddox said, speaking distinctly.

  “You didn’t?” Mason asked, surprise in his voice.

  “No, sir.”

  “Were you up at approximately three o’clock in the morning?”

  “I wasn’t even awake.”

  “Didn’t you,” Mason asked, “engage in a conference with Mr. Duncan, your attorney, some time around three o’clock in the morning of the fourteenth?”

  “No, sir, absolutely not.”

  “At any time between midnight of the thirteenth and five o’clock in the morning of the fourteenth?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  Mason said, “That’s all.”

  Hamilton Burger called a draftsman who produced plans of the Kent residence. The plans were offered in evidence and received without objection. The coroner fixed the time of death as some time between two-thirty and three-thirty on the morning of the fourteenth.

  Detective Sergeant Holcomb took the witness stand and identified the carving knife, with its blade stained a sinister rusty red, as the weapon which had been found under the pillow of Kent’s bed. Perry Mason, who had not cross-examined the other witnesses, asked Sergeant Holcomb, “What happened to the pillowcase and the sheets on that bed?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “Well, I was told that they had been put in the laundry by the housekeeper.”

  “She didn’t save them?”

  “No.”

  “Why didn’t you produce them as evidence?”

  “Because I didn’t think I needed to.”

  “Isn’t it a fact that there were no blood stains whatever on the pillow or on the sheet?”

  “I don’t think so. I think there were blood stains, but I can’t remember.”

  Mason said sneeringly, “If there had been blood stains you’d have thought the articles of sufficient importance to impound them as evidence, wouldn’t you?”

  “Objected to as argumentative,” Burger stormed.

  “Merely for the purpose of refreshing the witness’s recollection,” Mason said. “He has testified that he doesn’t know whether there were any blood stains.”

  “Let him answer the question,” Judge Markham ruled.

  “I don’t know,” Sergeant Holcomb admitted, and then added, “You should know, Mr. Mason. You were the one who discovered the carving knife.”

  Spectators in the courtroom tittered.

  Perry Mason said, “Yes, I know. Are you asking me to tell you, Sergeant?”

  Judge Markham pounded his gavel. “That will do,” he ordered. “The witness will be interrogated by proper questions. There will be no more exchanges between the witness and counsel.”

  “And,” Mason charged, raising his voice, “since the sheet and pillowcase were free of blood stains and might, therefore, be evidence which would militate against the theory of the Prosecution, you saw to it that these articles found their way into the laundry while you were in exclusive charge of the premises, and before the Defense had a chance to preserve them, didn’t you?”

  With a roar, Burger was on his feet, objecting, argumentative, improper, no proper foundation laid, insulting, not proper cross-examination, incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.”

  Perry Mason merely smiled.

  “The witness may answer,” Judge Markham ruled. “As asked, the question goes to the bias or interest of the witness.”

  “No,” Sergeant Holcomb said, “I didn’t have anything to do with the sheets.”

  “But you did suggest to the housekeeper she had better clean up the room?”

  “Perhaps I did.”

  “And make the bed?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “That,” Mason announced with a triumphant glance at the jury, “is all.”

  “Call John J. Duncan,” Blaine announced as Hamilton Burger settled back in his chair, to let his deputy take the lead for a while.

  Duncan strutted pompously forward and was sworn.

  “Your name is John J. Duncan. You are an attorney from Illinois, and you know the defendant, Peter Kent?”

  “Yes.”

  “You were, I believe, in his house on the thirteenth and the morning of the fourteenth of this month?”

  “That’s right. I engaged in a business conference with Mr. Kent and with Mr. Perry Mason, his attorney. There were also present at the conference Helen Warrington, Mr. Kent’s secretary, and my client, Frank B. Maddox. I believe there was also present a Dr. Kelton.”

  “What time did you retire?”

  “Around eleven o’clock. I had a talk with my client in his bedroom after the meeting with these other gentlemen split up.”

  “Did you see Mr. Kent later on during the evening?”

  “I saw him early on the morning of the fourteenth.”

  “At what time?”

  “At precisely three o’clock in the morning.”

  “Where did you see him?”

  “In the patio of the house.”

  “Can you point out on the map, People’s Exhibit Number One, the exact spot where you first saw the defendant at that time?”

  Duncan indicated a point on the diagram.

  “And where on the diagram is your bedroom located?”

  Duncan indicated.

  “And from your bedroom you could plainly see the defendant?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “When did you first see him?”

  “I was awakened by a shadow falling across my face. I woke up and saw someone moving across the porch. I jumped up, looked at the clock to see what time it was, and went to the window. I saw Peter Kent, the defendant, attired only in a nightgown, walking across the patio. He had a knife in his hand. He walked to a coffee table, paused for a few moments and then crossed the patio and vanished through the door on the other side.”

  “By ‘the door on the other side’ you mean the spot which I am now indicating on the map, People’s Exhibit Number One, and marked for identification ‘Door on North Side of Patio’?”

  “I do.”

  “And approximately where was this coffee table located?”

  Duncan made a mark with a crayon on the map.

  “You say you looked at the clock?”

  “I did.”

  “And what time was it?”

  “Three o’clock.”

  “Did you turn on a light to see the clock?”

  “I did not. The clock had a luminous dial and I was able to see the position of the hands.”

  “Did you look at the clock before or after you observed the figure in the patio?”

  “Both. I looked at it as soon as I sat up in bed, and I looked at it when I returned to bed after seeing the defendant cross the patio and vanish through that door.

  “What did you do, if anything?”

  “I was very much concerned, put on a bathrobe, opened the door from my bedroom into the corridor, looked up and down the corridor, saw no one and then decided that, since I was in a hostile house, I’d mind my own business. I went back to bed and eventually went to sleep.”

  “I think, if the court please,” Mason said, “we are entitled to have stricken from the answer of the witness the fact that he was in a hostile house. That is a conclusion of the witness and the answer, insofar as it relates to his motives, is not responsive to the question, and is, in addition, objectionable.”

  “It may be stricken out,” Judge Markham ruled.

  Blaine turned to Perry Mason and said, “You may cross-examine, Mr. Mason. Perhaps you’ll want to ask him why he went back to his sleep.”

  Judge Markham frowned at Blaine and said, “That will do, Mr. Blaine.”

  “Yes,” Mason said easily, “I will ask him just that. Mr. Duncan, how did it happen that you were able to go back to bed and go to sleep after seeing so startling a sight?”

  Duncan leaned forward impressively. “Because I was tired,” he said. “I’d been listening to you talk all the evening.”

  The courtroom burst into a roar of laughter. The bailiff pounded with his gavel. Judge Markham waited until order had been restored, then said to the witness, “Mr. Duncan, you’re an attorney. You need no instructions as to the duties of a witness. You will please refrain from attempting to provoke laughter or from adding to your answers comments which are uncalled for. You will also refrain from indulging in personalities with counsel.”

  Duncan hesitated a moment, then said, in a surly manner, “Yes, Your Honor.”

  Judge Markham stared steadily at the witness, seemed about to add something to his admonition, but slowly settled, back in his chair, nodded to Mason and said, “Proceed, Counselor.”

  “If the Court please,” Mason said, “I am perfectly willing to take the answer of the witness at its face value. I am not asking to have any part of it stricken out. I would like to cross-examine him upon that statement.”

  “Very well,” Judge Markham said, “you may cross-examine him on that statement just as much as you want to, Counselor.”

  Mason rose to his feet, stared steadily at Duncan.

  “So you were so tired from hearing me talk all evening that you were able to go back to sleep, is that right?”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “You talked with your client for an hour or so after you both sought your rooms?”

  “Yes.”

  “My talk hadn’t made you so sleepy that you couldn’t stay awake to discuss certain matters of strategy with your client?”

  “I talked with him.”

  “And went to bed about eleven o’clock?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yet, after four hours of sleep, the soothing effect of my conversation was still so great that the startling apparition of a man clad only in a nightdress, carrying a carving knife and prowling around in the moonlight didn’t interfere with your slumbers, is that right?”

  “I was awakened. I looked up and down the corridor,” Duncan said.

  Mason continued to bore in. “And went back to sleep Mr. Duncan?”

  “I went back to sleep.”

  “Within a very few minutes?”

  “Within a very few minutes.”

  “And you have testified on oath that you were able to do this because of the wearying effect of my conversation?”

  “You know what I meant.”

  “The only means I have of knowing what you meant, Mr. Duncan, is what you said, and that, of course, is the only way that the jury has of knowing what you meant. Now, let’s be frank with the jury. I didn’t talk at our conference more than a very few minutes, did I?”

  “I didn’t time you.”

  “For the most part my conversation consisted in saying ‘No’ to your demands, didn’t it?”

  “I don′t think we need to go into that.”

  “But when you said my talk had made you so tired that you had no difficulty in going back to sleep, you were exaggerating the facts of the case, weren’t you?”

  “I went back to sleep.”

  “Yes, Mr. Duncan, and the real reason you went back to sleep is because you didn’t see anything particularly alarming about the figure when you first noticed it, isn’t that right?”

  “A man walking around at night with a carving knife is alarming to me,” Duncan snapped. “I don’t know whether it would alarm you or not.”

  “Exactly,” Mason said. “And if you had seen a carving knife in the hand of the person you saw walking about the patio at three o’clock in the morning of the fourteenth, you would have been sufficiently startled to have notified the police or aroused the household, wouldn’t you?”

  “I don’t understand your question. I saw the figure, I saw the knife and I went back to sleep.”

  “I’ll get at it another way,” Mason said. “Isn’t it a fact that you didn’t see the carving knife clearly?”

  “No, I saw it.”

  “This same carving knife?” Mason asked, gesturing toward the blood-stained knife which had been introduced in evidence.

  “That same one,” Duncan snapped.

  Mason said nothing but stood smiling at him.

  Duncan fidgeted uncomfortably and said, “At any rate, a knife which looked very much like that.”

  Mason stepped back to the counsel table, opened his briefcase and pulled out a brown paper parcel, took off the paper and produced a hom-handled carving knife.