"Wilkie Collins - The Evil Genius" - читать интересную книгу автора (Collins Wilkie)

any reasonable prospect of being able to repay the money-lenders into whose
hands he had fallen. When he left Rio on the homeward voyage, there is no sort
of doubt that he was returning to England to face creditors whom he was unable
to pay. There, gentlemen, is a noticeable side to his character which we may
call the gambling side, and which (as I think) was too leniently viewed by the
judge."
He evidently intended to add a word or two more. But the disagreeable invalid
insisted on being heard.
"In plain English," he said, "you are for finding the prisoner guilty."
"In plain English," the foreman rejoined, "I refuse to answer that question."
"Why?"
"Because it is no part of my duty to attempt to influence the verdict."
"You have been trying to influence the verdict, sir, ever since you entered this
room. I appeal to all the gentlemen present."
The patience of the long-suffering foreman failed him at last. "Not another word
shall pass my lips," he said, "until you find the prisoner guilty or not guilty
among yourselves--and then I'll tell you if I agree to your verdict."
He folded his arms, and looked like the image of a man who intended to keep his
word.
The hungry juryman laid himself back in his chair, and groaned. The amateur
artist, who had thus far found a fund of amusement in his blotting-paper, yawned
discontentedly and dropped his pen. The courteous gentleman who suffered from
fidgets requested leave to walk up and down the room; and at the first turn he
took woke the drowsy little man, and maddened the irritable invalid by the
creaking of his boots. The chorus of five, further than ever from arriving at an
opinion of their own, looked at the silent juryman. Once more he smiled
mysteriously; and once more he offered an explanation of what was passing in his
mind--except that he turned his bald head slowly in the direction of the
foreman. Was he in sympathy with a man who had promised to be as silent as
himself?
In the meantime, nothing was said or done. Helpless silence prevailed in every
part of the room.
"Why the devil doesn't somebody begin?" cried the invalid. "Have you all
forgotten the evidence?"
This startling question roused the jury to a sense of what was due to their
oaths, if not to themselves. Some of them recollected the evidence in one way,
and some of them recollected it in another; and each man insisted on doing
justice to his own excellent memory, and on stating his own unanswerable view of
the case.
The first man who spoke began at the middle of the story told by the witnesses
in court. "I am for acquitting the captain, gentlemen; he ordered out the boats,
and saved the lives of the crew."--"And I am for finding him guilty, because the
ship struck on a rock in broad daylight, and in moderate weather."--"I agree
with you, sir. The evidence shows that the vessel was steered dangerously near
to the land, by direction of the captain, who gave the course."--"Come, come,
gentlemen! let us do the captain justice. The defense declares that he gave the
customary course, and that it was not followed when he left the deck. As for his
leaving the ship in moderate weather, the evidence proves that he believed he
saw signs of a storm brewing."--"Yes, yes, all very well, but what were the
facts? When the loss of the ship was reported, the Brazilian authorities sent