from which I assumed there had been a female aboard. Upon a pillow and some bedding in a bunk I saw what I thought was clearly the impression of where a child had lain.’
‘A child?’
‘Yes, sir. There was an outline most clearly marked. A small child, little more than a baby. In the cabin there were also some toys and a child’s clothing… dresses, things like that.’
‘The bed was unmade?’
‘Yes, sir. As I said, everything had the appearance of being hastily left. It was wet, too. I thought that was because of rain or squally weather coming in through the fanlight.’
‘What else did you find?’
‘There were two boxes, containing both men’s and women’s clothing. There was a work bag, containing needles, threads and buttons. And some books, all of a religious nature. There was a case of plotting instruments, a writing desk, a dressing case, some dirty clothes in a bag, a clock which had stopped, a sewing machine under a sofa and a rosewood harmonium or melodeon beneath the fanlight. Because of its positioning, it had got wet.’
Remembering how a long silence had upset the man before Pisani’s intervention, Flood stood for several moments without putting another question. Deveau began shifting, gazing towards the Dei Gratia lawyer and then beyond, to where Captain Morehouse sat in the well of the court.
‘Surely you discovered something else?’ said Flood finally. ‘Something more out of keeping than those articles about which you have spoken so far?’
‘Sir?’
‘What did you come upon beneath the captain’s bunk?’
Deveau’s face cleared.
‘A sword,’ he said.
From beneath the covering, the Attorney-General took the weapon in its scabbard and held it aloft. This had been the moment, he thought, when he could have produced the incontrovertible evidence of the fool Patron.
‘This sword?’ he said.
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Why did I have to prompt you about its finding?’
‘Sir?’
‘You appeared to have forgotten it.’
‘You confused me by saying it was out of keeping with everything else,’ said the man.
‘You weren’t surprised to find such a thing beneath a bunk!’
‘No, sir.’
‘A sword, Mr Deveau! Does your own captain arm himself in such a manner?’
‘I did not regard it as a weapon.’
‘Not a weapon! Really, Mr Deveau, you are straining the incredulity of this court. What is a sword, if it is not a weapon?’
‘I thought of it as nothing more than a souvenir that the master of the vessel had obtained during his travels somewhere and put out of mind beneath his bunk.’
‘Out of mind?’
‘Yes, sir. It did not appear to have been put there with any care.’
‘Thrust there for concealment, perhaps?’
‘My impression was rather that it had just been put there… a convenient storage place.’
Again Flood allowed the silence, to show the disbelief.
‘What did you do with the sword?’
‘Do, sir?’
‘Didn’t you examine it?’
‘I believe I half-pulled it from its case… I can’t rightly recall.’
‘You can’t rightly recall, Mr Deveau?’
‘I have said, sir, that I did not attach over-much importance to it. I believe I might have half-taken it out.’
‘Why?’
Deveau shrugged. ‘It’s a sort of instinctive action, with a sword, isn’t it?’
‘I would not know. Perhaps you are better versed in the instinctive uses of swords than most people at this enquiry. Did you examine it, having extracted it?’
‘I believe I looked at it…’ The man’s head was bent, in a genuine effort for recollection. He looked up, hopefully: ‘I did look at it,’ he said. ‘I remember thinking it was of ornate design, the sort of thing one sees in Italy. There’s a kind of crest upon the hilt.’
‘The Gross of Savoy, I believe,’ prompted Flood.
‘I was unaware of what it was, sir. I thought of it only as a design.’
‘So we have established that you did examine the sword. Tell this enquiry what you discovered.’
‘Nothing,’ said Deveau immediately.
‘Nothing! We’ll have a little more attention to detail than that, Mr Deveau. I’ll repeat the question. What did you find upon the blade of the weapon?’
‘Nothing that occurs to my memory now.’
Flood shifted irritably. The man was more obtuse than clever, he decided.
‘Were there not stains upon the blade?’
‘I believe there were some marks. Rust, I took them to be.’
‘Was it not really stains, Mr Deveau? Stains of blood, which had been hastily wiped?’
‘I have said that almost everything in the cabin was very wet. I took the marks to be rust, caused by the sword becoming damp.’
‘Were the marks positive spotting, as happens when metal commences to rust?’
‘Not exactly, sir.’
Flood felt the stir of excitement. It was coming, he thought. Very slowly. But he was extracting the evidence he wanted. He would have to be careful his accent didn’t begin overwhelming him, making the words difficult to comprehend:
‘Explain exactly what they were?’
Deveau hesitated, seeking the words.
‘Smeared,’ he conceded finally.
‘Does rust smear?’
‘I considered it was rust recently forming… that I caused the effect by withdrawing the blade from its scabbard.’
‘Isn’t the real explanation that it was not rust at all?’ demanded Flood suddenly. ‘Isn’t the real explanation that it was unquestionably blood that had been hastily wiped after some horrific attack upon the captain and his family aboard the Mary Celeste?’
Flood had expected Deveau to react in confusion, but instead the man stood regarding him curiously.
‘I know nothing of that, sir,’ he said.
‘Don’t you, Mr Deveau?’ Flood extended his hand, as if offering the sword he still held towards the man. ‘Don’t you know how these suspicious stains came to be upon this weapon?’
Deveau frowned again, this time with the growing awareness of what Flood was suggesting.
‘No, sir,’ he said anxiously. ‘As God is my witness, I do not.’
‘Alas,’ said Flood, ‘God appears to have absented himself that day from the side of Captain Briggs and his unfortunate family. Let’s proceed with what else you found.’
‘After the captain’s cabin, we went to the galley,’ took up the witness. ‘The door was open. There was about a foot of water there, where the sea had come in. The stove was knocked out of place and the cooking utensils scattered everywhere — ’
‘As might have happened had there been an altercation… a fight perhaps?’ intruded Flood.
‘I thought it the effect of the ship being tossed about by the weather. That and perhaps the sea flooding in.’
‘There was no evidence of victuals, indicating a meal?’
