Cleave was smiling.

“Would it surprise you to know, Mr. Pitt, that the maid who dusted and polished the billiard room is no longer certain that the scratch you so providentially noticed was a new one? She now says it may well have been there earlier, and she had merely not noticed it before.”

Pitt was uncertain how to reply. The question was awkwardly phrased.

“I don’t know her well enough to be surprised or not,” he said carefully. “Witnesses sometimes do alter their testimony… for a variety of reasons.”

Cleave looked offended. “What are you suggesting, sir?”

Juster interrupted again. “My lord, my learned friend asked the witness if he was surprised. The witness merely answered the question. He made no implication at all.”

Cleave did not wait for the judge to intervene. “Let us see what we are left with in this extraordinary case. Mr. Adinett visited his old friend Mr. Fetters. They spent a pleasant hour and a half together in the library. Mr. Adinett left. I presume you are in agreement with this?” He raised his eyebrows enquiringly.

“Yes,” Pitt conceded.

“Good. To continue, some twelve or fifteen minutes later the library bell rang, the butler answered it, and as he was approaching the library door he heard a cry and a thud. When he opened the door, to his distress, he saw his master lying on the floor and the steps over on their side. Very naturally, he concluded that there had been an accident-as it turned out, a fatal one. He saw no one else in the room. He turned and left to call for assistance. Do you agree so far?”

Pitt forced himself to smile. “I don’t know. Since I had not yet given my evidence, I wasn’t here for the butler’s testimony.”

“Does it fit with the facts you know?” Gleave snapped above another ripple of laughter.

“Yes.”

“Thank you. This is a most serious matter, Mr. Pitt, not an opportunity for you to entertain the onlookers and parade what you may perceive to be your sense of humor!”