Through the Wall Part 62

"That's it, only I have a watch that marks the fifths of a second. Are you willing to make the test?"

"Suppose I refuse?"

"Why should you refuse if you are innocent?"

"But if I do?"

The magistrate's face hardened. "If you refuse to-day I shall know how to _force_ you to my will another day. Did you ever hear of the third degree, Groener?" he asked sharply.

As the judge became threatening the prisoner's good nature increased.

"After all," he said carelessly, "what does it matter? Go ahead with your little game. It rather amuses me."

And, without more difficulty, the test began, Hauteville speaking the prepared words and handling the stop watch while Coquenil, sitting beside him, wrote down the answered words and the precise time intervals.

First, they established Groener's average or normal time of reply when there was no emotion or mental effort involved. The judge said "milk" and Groener at once, by a.s.sociation of ideas, said "cream"; the judge said "smoke," Groener replied "fire"; the judge said "early," Groener said "late"; the judge said "water," Groener answered "river"; the judge said "tobacco," Groener answered "pipe." And the intervals varied from four fifths of a second to a second and a fifth, which was taken as the prisoner's average time for the untroubled thought process.

"He's clever!" reflected Coquenil. "He's establis.h.i.+ng a slow average."

Then began the real test, the judge going deliberately through the entire list which included thirty important words scattered among seventy unimportant ones. The thirty important words were:

1. NOTRE DAME. 16. DETECTIVE.

2. EYEHOLE. 17. BRAZIL.

3. WATCHDOG. 18. CANARY BIRD.

4. PHOTOGRAPHER. 19. ALICE.

5. GUILLOTINE. 20. RED SKY.

6. CHAMPS ELYSeES. 21. a.s.sa.s.sIN.

7. FALSE BEARD. 22. BOOTS.

8. BRUSSELS. 23. MARY.

9. GIBELIN. 24. COACHING PARTY.

10. SACRISTAN. 25. j.a.pANESE PRINT.

11. VILLA MONTMORENCY. 26. CHARITY BAZAAR.

12. RAOUL. 27. FOOTPRINTS.

13. DREAMS. 28. MARGARET.

14. AUGER. 29. RED HAIR.

15. JIU JITSU. 30. FOURTH OF JULY.

They went through this list slowly, word by word, with everything carefully recorded, which took nearly an hour; then they turned back to the beginning and went through the list again, so that, to the hundred original words, Groener gave two sets of answering words, most of which proved to be the same, especially in the seventy unimportant words. Thus both times he answered "darkness" for "light," "tea" for "coffee," "clock" for "watch,"

and "handle" for "broom." There were a few exceptions as when he answered "salt" for "sugar" the first time and "sweet" for "sugar" the second time; almost always, however, his memory brought back, automatically, the same unimportant word at the second questioning that he had given at the first questioning.

It was different, however, with the important words, as Hauteville pointed out when the test was finished, in over half the cases the accused had answered different words in the two questionings.

"You made up your mind, Groener," said the judge as he glanced over the sheets, "that you would answer the critical words within your average time of reply and you have done it, but you have betrayed yourself in another way, as I knew you would. In your desire to answer quickly you repeatedly chose words that you would not have chosen if you had reflected longer; then, in going through the list a second time, you realized this and improved on your first answers by subst.i.tuting more innocent words. For example, the first time you answered 'hole' when I said 'auger,' but the second time you answered 'hammer.' You said to yourself: 'Hole is not a good answer because he will think I am thinking, of those eyeholes, so I'll change it to "hammer" which, means nothing.' For the same reason when I said 'Fourth of July' you answered 'banquet' the first time and 'America'

the second time, which shows that the Ansonia banquet was in your mind. And when I said 'watchdog' you answered first 'scent' and then 'tail'; when I said 'Brazil' you answered first 's.h.i.+p' and then 'coffee,' when I said 'dreams' you answered first 'fear' and then 'sleep'; you made these changes with the deliberate purpose to get as far away as possible from a.s.sociations with the crime."

"Not at all," contradicted Groener, "I made the changes because every word has many a.s.sociations and I followed the first one that came into my head.

When we went through the list a second time I did not remember or try to remember the answers I had given the first time."

"Ah, but that is just the point," insisted the magistrate, "in the seventy unimportant words you _did_ remember and you _did_ answer practically the same words both times, your memory only failed in the thirty important words. Besides, in spite of your will power, the test reveals emotional disturbance."

"In me?" scoffed the prisoner.

"Precisely. It is true you kept your answers to the important words within your normal tone of reply, but in at least five cases you went beyond this normal time in answering the _unimportant_ words."

Groener shrugged his shoulders. "The words are unimportant and so are the answers."

"Do you think so? Then explain this. You were answering regularly at the rate of one answer in a second or so when suddenly you hesitated and clenched your hands and waited _four and two fifths seconds_ before answering 'feather' to the simple word 'hat.'"

"Perhaps I was tired, perhaps I was bored."

The magistrate leaned nearer. "Yes, and perhaps you were inwardly disturbed by the shock and strain of answering the _previous_ word quickly and unconcernedly. I didn't warn you of that danger. Do you know what the previous word was?"

"No."

"_It was guillotine!_"

"Ah?" said the prisoner, absolutely impa.s.sive.

"And why did you waver and wipe your brow and draw in your breath quickly and wait _six and one fifth seconds_ before answering 'violin' when I gave you the word 'music'?"

"I'm sure I don't know."

"Then I'll tell you; it was because you were again deeply agitated by the previous word 'coaching party' which you had answered instantly with 'horses.'"

"I don't see anything agitating in the word 'coaching party,'" said Groener.

Hauteville measured the prisoner for a moment in grim silence, then, throwing into his voice and manner all the impressiveness of his office and his stern personality he said: "And why did you start from your seat and tremble nervously and wait _nine and four fifths seconds_ before you were able to answer 'salad' to the word 'potato'?"

Groener stared stolidly at the judge and did not speak.

"Shall I tell you why? It was because your heart was pounding, your head throbbing, your whole mental machinery was clogged and numbed by the shock of the word before, by the terror that went through you _when you answered 'worsted work' to 'Charity Bazaar.'_"

The prisoner bounded to his feet with a hoa.r.s.e cry: "My G.o.d, you have no right to torture me like this!" His face was deathly white, his eyes were staring.

"We've got him going now," muttered Coquenil.

"Sit down!" ordered the judge. "You can stop this examination very easily by telling the truth."

The prisoner dropped back weakly on his chair and sat with eyes closed and head fallen forward. He did not speak.

"Do you hear, Groener?" continued Hauteville. "You can save yourself a great deal of trouble by confessing your part in this crime. Look here!

Answer me!"

With an effort the man straightened up and met the judge's eyes. His face was drawn as with physical pain.

"I--I feel faint," he murmured. "Could you--give me a little brandy?"

"Here," said Coquenil, producing a flask. "Let him have a drop of this."

The guard put the flask to the prisoner's lips and Groener took several swallows.