"Sustained," said Judge Lapworth.
"Dr. Pettigrew," I said, "what were your findings in reference to Exhibit A?"
He shrugged. "The thing is a plastic box with a dial set in one side, a plastic lens in one end, and a couple of strips of silver along two other sides. Inside, there are a lot of markings in black ink on white paint." He gestured toward the exhibit table. "Just what you've seen; that's all there is to it."
"What sort of tests did you perform to determine this, Dr. Pettigrew?" I asked.
He took a long time answering that one. He had X-rayed the thing thoroughly, tested it with apparatus I'd never heard of, taken scrapings from all over it for microchemical analysis, and even tried it himself on a roulette wheel. He hadn't been able to make it work.
"And what is your conclusion from these findings?" I asked.
Again he shrugged. "The thing is just a box, that's all. It has no special properties."
"Would you say that it could be responsible for the phenomena we have just seen? By that, I mean the peculiar action of the roulette wheel, demonstrated here by the prosecution."
"Definitely not," he stated flatly. "The box could not possibly have any effect on either the wheel or the ball."
"I see. Thank you, doctor; that's all. Cross-examine."