The Court was, if possible, more crowded than ever when the case was resumed. The atmosphere was oppressive in the extreme, and the attention of everyone was strained to the utmost when Dr. Haddon rose to open the defence.
"May it please your worship. This case has been described by my learned friend as unprecedented in the annals of Australian history. I have no doubt that such is the case, but I sincerely hope from this day onward it may become a common occurrence."
The effect of this opening was electrical and caused a sensation in the Court. The Justices whispered portentously among themselves, in doubt whether the counsel should not be pulled up short.
"I repeat my words," continued the advocate. "I hope it will become a common occurrence, and furthermore I venture to say that there is not an Australian present in this building who will not agree with me when he has heard the evidence. Now the plaintiff, Villiers Wyckliffe, has informed us through his counsel that he lived the life of an English gentleman. The only comment I make on that is to say that his class will need all the help Heaven can give them, for I shall prove their representative to be a villain of the deepest dye. He has acknowledged his connection with the Detlij Club, an infamous institution which is the expression of the depravity, the callousness, the cynicism, the degradation of English Society. He acknowledged also that he was the owner of this stick, and, in spite of his denial, I shall have little difficulty in proving to the satisfaction of the Court that the notches were placed there by his own hand, and that each notch represented was airily described as a broken heart. When I mention to your worship that the notches are fifty in number it will give some indication of the plaintiffs character."
Dr. Haddon had struck the right key-note, and everyone in Court hung upon his words. The silence was profound, and each listener's eager attention grew in intensity as he proceeded to detail the peculiar power of fascination—snake-like, he called it—possessed by the plaintiff. Without any assistance from turgid rhetoric, or indignant denunciation, he depicted it in a manner so simple, yet so direct, that his audience shivered in response. Then, with consummate art, he played upon their sensibilities by picturing the simple homeliness of Amy Johnson's happy family circle, on to the fervour of Reg's devotion, the complete happiness of the young couple up to their disunion under the diabolical arts of Wyckliffe. Gently, but still with a power that swayed them in their own despite, he wrung their sympathies from them with a pathetic recital of Amy's death, showed the blank in the happy home, and roused them to a pitch of enthusiasm over his client's oath of vengeance.
"I have witnesses from England," he continued, "who will speak to his dastardly gallantries there. I have girls from all parts of Australia"—here a constable whispered in his ear. "This constable tells me, your worship, that he has some difficulty in keeping the witnesses I have just alluded to under control. They have expressed a unanimous wish to have an interview with the plaintiff."
The suggestion of Wyckliffe being handed over to the tender mercies of his Australian victims seemed to tickle the audience and a faint ripple of laughter went round the crowded Court. Wyck, who had been growing more and more fidgetty, here held an excited conversation with his counsel, who rose and said:
"Your worship, my client complains of feeling unwell. May we adjourn?"
"I object to an adjournment," said Dr. Haddon, promptly.
"Then my client instructs me to withdraw the case, as he does not wish to carry the matter further."