Picture Play Magazine (Oct-Nov 1915)

PICTURE-PLAY WEEKLY 25 "Then I can come to you." "Frances !" "I mean it !" "You cannot," returned Dick, trembling. "And, even if you could, I could not let you. But come !" He turned from her, as the only way of ending it. "They are waiting for us. And, besides, we can have this out before I go. We shall know my chances better then ; for, as Bradley has just told us, the real trial may be held this morning. If he can get nothing to clear me now, he never can !" "Then come — quickly !" They returned to the others. "If you are all ready," Bradley began patiently, "I wish to ask Marsh first who was the foreman for the final forging of the Sommers gun." The little man clenched his hands uneasily. "Why, I wasn't in charge of things then," he replied. "Mr. Durant and Mr. Pinckney were both still here. I was merely present." "Exactly. So, being present. Marsh," Bradley replied, "surely you saw who the foreman was." "Why — yes, sir," replied Marsh reluctantly. "It was Smith, I think." "Whom you sent for specially that afternoon, did you not?" "Why, I — I heard so." "You heard he was sent for? But you could see he was drunk, couldn't you ?" "Why, yes." Marsh's eyes wandered to Sommers and to Pinckney, and then were held by Bradley again. "That is, he appeared to be." "Why did you put him in charge of that gun, then?" "Why — Mr. Pinckney was there." Marsh was appealing openly for aid. "Yes, I was there, Mr. Bradley," Etherington put in quickly. "Smith appeared drunk, but he really was sick. I thought him the best man, in spite of his condition, however, and gave him something to steady him. I told Lieutenant Sommers that at the time." "I am not questioning you, Mr. Pinckney," answered Bradley. "I am asking Marsh if he himself did not see, that evening, that Smith was not only so drunk that he could not do his work at all, but so out of his head that he attacked Lieutenant Sommers and O'Leary with a hammer." "Mr. Durant, I don't want to obstruct," Etherington protested quickly, "but I must object to this senseless persecuting of poor Marsh. Miss Durant and Lieutenant Sommers are both here; and, if Mr. Bradley wishes to prove the attacks he mentions, surely he can from them." "I am not trying merely to prove the fact of those attacks, Mr. Pinckney," Bradley replied calmly. "I wish to prove Marsh's knowledge of those facts." "Why?" "You will see. Now answer me, Marsh — did you see the attacks which I have just recounted?" "Yes, sir." "Now, was Smith discharged for them ?" "Why — yes, sir," replied Marsh, glancing quickly at Pinckney. "At once." "Quite so. But wasn't he hired again ?" "Here, sir? No." "I saw to it personally, Bradley," Pinckney put in again, "that Smith should be prevented from ever obtaining employment at Durant." "Quite so — at Durant, Mr. Pinckney," Bradley caught him up at once. "But how about your works at Meadville?" "Meadville?" "Yes — where Smith is employed in your works at present. You discharged him ostentatiously yourself, Mr. Pinckney ; but, Marsh, you employed him again and put him to work at Meadville after Mr. Pinckney was gone — under his orders, eh ?" "Why — why " stammered Marsh. "You need not answer. During the ten days I had to wait around before I could investigate facts inside the office, I found out a few things outside. I merely wanted to establish now from yourself that you personally knew of Smith's conduct here that night ; in spite of which — or, perhaps, on account of which — you got him another excellent place at Meadville." The secret-service man sat back and glanced over his notes. Pinckney was glaring impotently at Marsh, who could only look down at the floor. Mr. Durant remained attentively silent. But Frances, with brightening eyes, stole her hand over to touch Dick's confidently. "Marsh," Bradley began again, "if that gun went into the finishing furnace at three-thirty, when should it have come out?" "At half past ten, as it did," Marsh replied confidently to this, "as Lieuten ant Sommers himself knows. Mr. Durant saw it in himself at half past three." "Then it was properly in seven hours ?" "Yes, sir." "At a proper, constant, and even heat, Marsh?" "Why, of course, sir !" Marsh managed to reply. "But neither Marsh nor myself, nor any one who knows anything of guns," Pinckney volunteered again, "believed that, even under the most ideal conditions maintained throughout, Sommers' gun would stand any test." "But if the heat were not properly maintained in that furnace, Marsh," Bradley continued, not heeding the interruption, "it would surely weaken and ruin the gun, would it not?" "Why, of course, sir. But, as I showed in the records I kept to give Lieutenant Sommers, and which he approved, sir, I was sure the temperatures were properly kept." "Then you did not suspect, did you, that the heat was reduced during the three hours Smith kept O'Leary and all the rest of the regular furnace gang out of the furnace room?" "Of course not !" "Or that anything else was done to ruin the gun?" "Why — of course not, sir." "Then why did you write to warn the men making the test to be sure and stay within their shelters when the Sommers gun was tested?" "Why— I didn't sir! I " "Yes, you did, Marsh ! You didn't sign it, and you tried to disguise your hand. But you wrote it. You thought it was lost, because it was not mentioned in the newspapers. But we found it on the body of one of the gunners." "Then it did get to them in time!" burst from the nervous little man uncontrollably. "And still they were killed?" "Yes, Marsh ; for the man who got it did not know what it was, and did not take time to open it. You should not have denied it, for it was decidedly in your favor, not against you. Now tell us what made you write it." "I have just told you that Marsh, and we all, knew that the principle of the gun was unsound. Marsh was nervous about it. That was all." Pinckney tried to save things again. "Then why didn't you warn them yourself, Mr. Pinckney; and why did