Mason said, “Well, Sergeant, since you seem to be unable to answer that question, let’s get back to the alarm clock. As I remember it, you made some experiments with similar alarm clocks, didn’t you, to find out how long it would take them to run down?”
“We made experiments with that same alarm clock,” the sergeant said. “We made experiments with other alarm clocks and we wired the manufacturer.”
“What did you find out?” Mason asked.
“According to the manufacturer, the alarm clocks would run down thirty to thirty-six hours after they’d been completely wound. According to an experiment we made with that clock, it ran down in thirty-two hours and twenty minutes after it was wound.”
“In that case,” Mason said, “the alarm clock must have been wound about twenty minutes after six o’clock, is that right?”
“Well, what’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing,” Mason said. “I’m simply asking you to interpret the evidence for the benefit of the jury, which is the thing you set out to do, Sergeant.”
“Well, all right, then the clock was wound at twenty minutes past six. What of it?”
“Would you say at twenty minutes past six in the morning, or at twenty minutes past six in the evening?” Mason asked.
“In the evening,” Sergeant Holcomb said. “The alarm went off at five-thirty. He wouldn’t have wound the alarm clock in the morning, and if he had, he’d have wound up the alarm again. It was wound up at six-twenty in the evening.”