Judge Barnes said sternly, “That will do, Sergeant Holcomb.”
Mason said, “Isn’t it a fact, Sergeant, that you confused those bullets? Didn’t you first hand Mr. Hogan the Trent bullet under the impression that it was the Cullens bullet?”
“No, sir,” Holcomb said, “I told you once, and I’m telling you again, and I’ll tell you a thousand times, that I put the Cullens bullet in my left vest pocket, and the Trent bullet in my right vest pocket.”
“But when you handed those bullets to the ballistics expert, you first took the bullet from your right waistcoat pocket, did you not?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“It’s natural for a person to do that when he’s right-handed,” Sergeant Holcomb said.
Mason smiled. “And, by the same token, Sergeant, and following the same line of reasoning, it’s natural for a right-handed person to put an object given him first in his right-hand pocket, and an object given him after that in his left-hand pocket, isn’t it?”
Sergeant Holcomb’s face flared into color again. For a moment he was silent. Then he said, “I’m not talking about what’s natural when I tell you where I put those bullets. I know where I put them. I put the Cullens bullet in my left pocket, and the Trent bullet in my right pocket.”
“Notwithstanding the fact that you received the Cullens bullet first,” Mason said, “and that your natural tendency would be to put that bullet in your right-hand vest pocket, you put that bullet in your left vest pocket?”