An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser [400]
“No, sir.”
“So it never occurred to you after you swam to shore yourself that you might still call for aid and so save her life even then?”
“No, sir, it didn’t occur to me. I thought she was dead by then.”
“I see. But when she was still alive out there in the water—how about that? You’re a pretty good swimmer, aren’t you?”
“Yes, sir, I swim fairly well.”
“Well enough, for instance, to save yourself by swimming over five hundred feet with your shoes and clothes on. Isn’t that so?”
“Well, I did swim that distance then—yes, sir.”
“Yes, you did indeed—and pretty good for a fellow who couldn’t swim thirty-five feet to an overturned boat, I’ll say,” concluded Mason.
Here Jephson waved aside Belknap’s suggestion that he move to have this comment stricken out.
Clyde was now dragged over his various boating and swimming experiences and made to tell how many times he had gone out on lakes in craft as dangerous as canoes and had never had an accident.
“The first time you took Roberta out on Crum Lake was in a canoe, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“But you had no accident then?”
“No, sir.”
“You cared for her then very much, didn’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“But the day she was drowned in Big Bittern, in this solid, round-bottomed row-boat, you didn’t care for her any more.”
“Well, I’ve said how I felt then.”
“And of course there couldn’t be any relation between the fact that on Crum Lake you cared for her but on Big Bittern—”
“I said how I felt then.”
“But you wanted to get rid of her just the same, didn’t you? The moment she was dead to run away to that other girl. You don’t deny that, do you?”
“I’ve explained why I did that,” reiterated Clyde.
“Explained! Explained! And you expect any fair-minded, decent, intelligent person to believe that explanation, do you?” Mason was fairly beside himself with rage and Clyde did not venture to comment as to that. The judge anticipated Jephson’s objection to this and bellowed, “Objection sustained.” But Mason went right on. “You couldn’t have been just a little careless, could you, Griffiths, in the handling of the boat and upset it yourself, say?” He drew near and leered.
“No, sir, I wasn’t careless. It was an accident that I couldn’t avoid.” Clyde was quite cool, though pale and tired.
“An accident. Like that other accident out there in Kansas City, for instance. You’re rather familiar with accidents of that kind, aren’t you, Griffiths?” queried Mason sneeringly and slowly.
“I’ve explained how that happened,” replied Clyde nervously.
“You’re rather familiar with accidents that result in death to girls, aren’t you? Do you always run away when one of them dies?”
“Object,” yelled Belknap, leaping to his feet.
“Objection sustained,” called Oberwaltzer sharply. “There is nothing before this court concerning any other accident. The prosecution will confine itself more closely to the case in hand.”
“Griffiths,” went on Mason, pleased with the way he had made a return to Jephson for his apology for the Kansas City accident, “when that boat upset after that accidental blow of yours and you and Miss Alden fell into the water—how far apart were you?”
“Well, I didn’t notice just then.”
“Pretty close, weren’t you? Not much more than a foot or two, surely—the way you stood there in the boat?”
“Well, I didn’t notice. Maybe that, yes, sir.”
“Close enough to have grabbed her and hung on to her if you had wanted to, weren’t you? That’s what you jumped up for, wasn’t it, when she started to fall out?”
“Yes, that’s what I jumped up for,” replied Clyde heavily, “but I wasn’t close enough to grab her. I know I went right under, and when I came up she was some little distance away.”
“Well, how far exactly? As far as from here to this end of the jury box or that end, or half way, or what?”
“Well, I say I didn’t notice, quite. About as far from here to that end, I guess,” he lied, stretching the distance by at least eight feet.
“Not really!” exclaimed Mason, pretending to evince astonishment. “This boat here turns over, you both fall in the water close together, and when you come up you and she are nearly twenty feet apart. Don