“And you took her there?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What time was this?”

  “I picked her up a little before five o’clock. Around a quarter to five, I guess.”

  “And what time did you get to the Union Station?”

  “A little after five o’clock.”

  “On the third of June?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Cross-examine,” Hamilton Burger said.

  Mason smiled affably. “When did you next see the defendant, Mr Keddie?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know?” Mason asked in simulated surprise.

  “No, sir. I know that I saw her the next day in a lineup, and I may have seen her again that evening, but I just can’t be sure. You see, we have so many passengers and sometimes we don’t look back when–”

  “Now just a moment,” Mason said. “Never mind making an argument. Just answer the question.”

  “Your Honour, I submit that’s part of his answer,” Hamilton Burger said. “A witness always has a right to explain his answer. I submit the witness be allowed to finish.”

  “I think it would be better for you to bring these matters out on redirect examination,” Judge Sedgwick ruled. “You’ll have ample opportunity to bring out the complete situation on redirect examination.”

  “Very well,” Hamilton Burger said, yielding with poor grace.

  “Now, when you testified on the preliminary examination,” Mason said, “you were very positive that you hadn’t seen the defendant from the time you picked her up on the afternoon of June third until you saw her in the lineup on June fourth, isn’t that right?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “That’s all,” Mason said.

  “Were you mistaken at the time of the preliminary examination?” Hamilton Burger asked.

  “I was confused.”

  “Were you mistaken?”

  “Yes, sir, I was.”

  “That’s all.”

  “Just a minute,” Mason said. “You say you were mistaken, Mr Keddie?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you mean by that that you swore to something that wasn’t so?”

  “Oh, Your Honour,” Hamilton Burger said, “I object to that as not proper cross-examination. That’s an attempt to browbeat the witness.”

  “I’m not browbeating the witness,” Mason said. “I’m just asking him if he swore to something that wasn’t so.”

  “It was an honest mistake,” Hamilton Burger said.

  “Are you now trying to testify,” Mason asked, “as to the state of mind of this witness?”

  “I’m telling the Court the facts.”

  “I want the witness to tell the facts,” Mason said.

  “The objection is overruled,” Judge Sedgwick said.

  “You testified to something that wasn’t so?” Mason asked.

  “Yes, sir, I was mistaken. I was confused.”

  “You aren’t confused now?”

  “No, sir.”

  “How did you happen to recognize your mistake?”

  “Why, the district attorney found the person who had rented the cab. He pointed her out to me and told me she was a friend of the–”

  “Just testify to what you know of your own knowledge,” Hamilton Burger said. “Don’t testify to hearsay.”

  “No, no, go right ahead,” Mason said to the witness. “Tell me what Hamilton Burger told you.”

  Judge Sedgwick smiled.

  “Your Honour, that’s improper. That’s hearsay evidence,” Burger protested. “What I may have said to the witness is entirely outside of the issues.”

  “He’s giving his reasons, Your Honour,” Mason said in a conversational tone of voice which was in sharp contrast to Hamilton Burger’s excited tones.

  “Go ahead,” Judge Sedgwick said, smiling. “Answer the question.”

  “Go ahead,” Mason told the witness. “You were saying that Hamilton Burger told you – What did he tell you?”

  “Well, he told me that he’d had detectives trace down all of the close friends of the defendant to see if they could find the person who had been in the cab with her, and he pointed out this witness who has just been on the stand and told me she was the one, and then I recognized her.”

  Mason smiled. “The district attorney pointed her out to you?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Where did he point her out to you?”

  “In his office.”

  “Did she see you at that time?”

  “No, sir. I was in another room. It was a room that had one of those trick mirrors – it was a window on my side but a mirror on her side.”

  “The district attorney put you in that room?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And then put Mrs Marvel on the other side of this trick mirror?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And then the district attorney came into the room and pointed out Mrs Marvel to you and told you she was the one?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “So that made you feel that you had testified erroneously at the preliminary hearing?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And sworn to something that wasn’t so?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “At the preliminary heating, before you had had the benefit of the advice of the district attorney, you said you had never seen the defendant again until you saw her in the lineup on the fourth, isn’t that right?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Well,” Mason said affably, “you’re to be congratulated on having the district attorney take such pains with you. If it hadn’t been for his interference, you’d have testified to the same thing now that you testified to at the time of the preliminary examination, wouldn’t you?”

  “I suppose so. Yes.”

  “So your testimony today has been inspired by statements made to you by the district attorney?”

  “Well, I guess so, yes.”

  “Thank you,” Mason said. “That’s all.”

  Hamilton Burger, angry and exasperated, said, “Very well, that’s all. I have no further questions. I’ll call Stephen Ardmore to the stand.”

  Ardmore came forward, was sworn, testified that he was a detective and had been a detective on the third of June of the present year.

  “Did you have occasion to examine the house occupied by the defendant and her husband, Enright Harlan?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “When was that examination made?”

  “On the fourth of June of this year.”

  “Did you have occasion to examine certain wearing apparel belonging to the defendant?”

  “I did.”

  “I call your attention to a certain pair of gloves and ask you if you examined those gloves?”

  “I did.”

  “What did you find, if anything?”

  “When I placed those gloves under a vacuum cleaner in which there was a filter to trap any dust recovered from those gloves, I found certain foreign substances in the filter paper.”

  “Did you identify some of those foreign substances?”

  “Yes, I identified one of them.”

  “And what was it?”

  “Several granules of sugar.”

  “Sugar?” Hamilton Burger asked, smiling at the jury.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You mean common household sugar?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “So then what did you do?”

  “So then I went to the house occupied by the defendant and her husband and examined the various sugar containers.”

  “And what did you find, if anything?”

  “In the bottom of a sugar bowl I found a set of car keys.”

  “Did you indeed?” Hamilton Burger said. “Did you mark them for identification?”

  “I did.”

  “I hand you a set of keys and call your attention to the mark etched in the keys and ask you if that is the set of keys that you found?”

  “Yes, sir, a set of two keys.”

  “Did you subsequently determine what locks those keys fit?”

  “Yes, sir, I did.”

  “What locks were they?”

  “This one is the key to the ignition of the automobile driven by George C Lutts on the day of his death, and this is the key to the trunk of that automobile.”

  “You tried them to make certain they worked?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Cross-examine,” Hamilton Burger said.

  Mason grinned. “You don’t know who put those keys in the sugar bowl, do you, Mr Ardmore?”

  “I only know that there was sugar on the gloves of the defendant.”

  “Answer the question. You don’t know who put those keys in the sugar bowl?”

  “No, sir.”

  “And prior to the time you discovered those keys, you had been searching the house?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Other police officers had been searching the house?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “The husband was living in the house?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Some witnesses had been interrogated in the house?”

  “Some, yes, sir.”

  “Why didn’t you look in the sugar bowl before all these other persons had an opportunity to go through the house, planting evidence wherever they wanted?”

  “You can’t do everything at once, Mr Mason.”

  “Then why didn’t you shut up the house until after you had searched it?”

  “Well, we … we didn’t know what we were going to find.”

  “So you feel you should know what you’re going to find before you take any steps to see that evidence isn’t planted?”

  “I don’t think this evidence was planted.”

  “I’m not asking you what you think,” Mason said. “I’m asking you why you didn’t look in that sugar bowl before anyone had an opportunity to plant something there.”

  “Because I didn’t know there was anything in the sugar bowl.”

  “And,” Mason said, “you didn’t search the gloves, the wearing apparel, or even look under the fingernails of any other person in that house to see if you could find any sugar?”

  “Well, no, sir.”

  “This woman’s husband was there all the time. Didn’t you examine his fingers to see if you could find traces of sugar under the nails?”

  “No, sir.”

  “That’s all,” Mason said.

  “No further questions,” Hamilton Burger said.

  Hamilton Burger called Janice Condon to the stand. She testified that she had been employed as Enright Harlan’s secretary for a period of some three years, covering the time when the revolver which had been introduced in evidence had been purchased. She had been instructed by her employer to go to the gun store and pick up the gun, which had previously been ordered by Harlan, and to sign his name to the register of firearms; that she knew it was irregular and that the dealer knew it was irregular, but Harlan was a very good customer and the dealer had conveniently turned his back while she was signing Harlan’s name and had winked at the irregularity.

  “Cross-examine,” Hamilton Burger said to Perry Mason.

  “No questions,” Mason said casually. “We would have stipulated to the testimony of this witness. There was no necessity of calling her.”

  “You could have said so earlier,” Hamilton Burger snapped.

  “You didn’t ask me,” Mason retorted, smiling.

  “That will do,” Judge Sedgwick said. “Proceed with your case, Mr District Attorney.”

  Hamilton Burger said, “Your Honour, I note that it is after four o’clock. I have one more witness. I may state that I have been taken entirely by surprise in this case. We started getting the jury yesterday afternoon. This morning we had the jury by ten-thirty. I had expected that it would take me at least three days to put on my case. I call to the Court’s attention that so far there have been very few questions asked on cross-examination, there have been almost no objections to evidence on the part of the defence. This has made for a very unusual situation. I find that I am running far ahead of schedule. I think it would be in order to request an adjournment at this time.”

  Judge Sedgwick, obviously completely puzzled by Mason’s tactics, looked down at the lawyer.

  Mason smiled and said, “Well, Your Honour, we’ve made remarkable headway, and I frankly confess that I see no reason to object to evidence which I think is pertinent and have no desire to cross-examine witnesses who are obviously telling the truth. It seems to me, therefore, that counsel can put on his last remaining witness and then the people can, in all probability, rest their case by the time we usually adjourn.”

  “No, Your Honour,” Hamilton Burger said. “This witness will undoubtedly be subjected to a long and gruelling cross-examination. He is a surprise witness and–”

  “And therefore,” Mason interrupted, “the prosecution obviously would like to take advantage of a surprise attack. The defendant insists that we proceed in the ordinary course of events and that this witness be called now. We resist any motion for an adjournment at this time.”

  Judge Sedgwick said, “I think the defence position is well taken, Mr Prosecutor. You may call your witness.”

  With poor grace, Hamilton Burger said, “Ezekiel Elkins.”

  Ezekiel Elkins came forward and took the witness stand. He gave his name, age, occupation, and settled back with tight-lipped determination.

  “You are a director of the Sylvan Glade Development Company and a stockholder in that company?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “George C Lutts, the decedent, was also a stockholder and a director?” Hamilton Burger asked.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Were there any unusual developments in connection with your directors’ meeting on the third of June of this year?”

  “There certainly were.”

  “I will state to Court and counsel,” Hamilton Burger said, “that I am going to connect up these matters.”

  “No objection,” Mason said. “Go right ahead.”

  “Describe what happened at the directors’ meeting,” Hamilton Burger said.

  Elkins gave a brief picture of what had happened at the meeting.

  “Now then, what did you do after the meeting?” Hamilton Burger asked.

  “I thought that George Lutts was slipping one over and–”

  “Never mind what you thought,” Burger interrupted sharply. “I am asking you what you did.”

  “Well, I decided to follow George Lutts because I thought he might be in–”

  “Never mind what you thought. You followed George Lutts, did you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where did he go?”

  “Well, he went out to lunch with Doxey, his son-in-law and secretary of the company, and then he got in his car and drove to the Acme Coiffure and Beauty Salon.”

  “And then what?”

  “He parked his car and waited.”

  “For about how long?”

  “Oh, I’d say for two or three minutes.”

  “Where were you?”

  “About half a block behind.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “Then the defendant came out of the beauty parlour, and George Lutts opened his car door and called to her.”

  “And what did she do?”

  “She got in the car with him.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then they talked for a little while.”

  “And then what?”

  “And then Lutts drove down about half a block to this parking lot, where the defendant had her car.”

  “And then what?”

  “Then the defendant got out and went up to where her car was parked–”

  “Now, just a minute,” Hamilton Burger said. “Do you know, of your own knowledge, that it was her car?”

  “No, sir, I don’t.”

  “Then, just tell what you know of your own knowledge, please.”

  “Well, she went to a car. She opened the glove compartment, and I don’t know what she did.”

  “You could see her open the glove compartment?”

  “Well, I saw her hands up there on the dash, about where the glove compartment was.”

  “And then what?”

  “Then she got back out of the car and closed the door and walked back out to where Lutts was sitting in his car.”

  “And then what?”

  “Then she got in the car with Lutts and they drove away.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I followed along until I got to a point where I realized they were going up to the Sylvan Glade Property and–”

  “Never mind what you realized. Just how far did you follow them?”

  “Well, I followed them out to within about half a mile of where the road turns off to the Sylvan Glade Property.”

  “Then what did you do?” Hamilton Burger asked.

  The witness seemed embarrassed.

  “Go on,” Hamilton Burger said.

  “Well, I was concentrating on following the car in front of me and I … well, I cut in on another car.”

  “And then what happened?”

  “I cut in front of him, and he speeded up and got over on my left side and ran me off the road, so I had to stop.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then there was an altercation.”

  “What do you mean by an altercation?”

  “I wanted to hurry on, so I could follow Lutts and the defendant, and this man became abusive and I was in a hurry and impatient and lost my temper and … well, I said some things and he said some things and–”

  “Go on,” Hamilton Burger said.

  “And he poked me in the eye,” Elkins admitted.

  “And then what?”

  “Well, then several cars stopped and … and I took a swing back at him, and he hit me in the stomach and … well, I got sick. I had the wind knocked out of me.”

  “And then what?”

  “Then he got in his car and drove away.”

  “And left you standing there?”

  “Yes. But I wasn’t standing – I was all doubled up.”

  “So then what did you do?”

  “I turned around and went home.”

  “And when did you next see Mr Lutts?”

  “I saw his body at the funeral.”

  “You may inquire,” Hamilton Burger said.