s to prevent the police
stumbling across them and so getting on the track of her husband. But as
I have already told you, Hill knew about the letters, and on the night of
the murder had them in his possession. On the night after the murder,
while Inspector Chippenfield was making investigations at Riversbrook,
Hill had managed to obtain the opportunity to put the letters back. He
naturally thought that if the police discovered some of Sir Horace's
private papers in his possession they would conclude that he had had
something to do with the murder.

"The next point of any consequence is Holymead's defence of Birchill
and the deliberate way in which he blackened your father's name while
cross-examining Hill. If we regard Holymead's conduct solely from the
standpoint of a barrister doing his best for his client his defence of
Birchill is not so remarkable. But we have to remember that your
father and Holymead had been life-long friends. His acceptance of the
brief for the defence was in itself remarkable. The fee, as I took the
trouble to find out, was not large; indeed, for a man of Holymead's
commanding eminence at the bar it might be called a small one, and he
should have returned the brief because the fee was inadequate. We have,
therefore, two things to consider--his defence of the man charged with
the murder of your father, and his readiness to do the work without
regard to the monetary side of it. Much was said at the time in some of
the papers about a barrister being a servant of the court and compelled
by the etiquette of the bar to place his services at the disposal of
anyone who needs them and is prepared to pay for them. A great deal of
nonsense has been said and written on that subject. A barrister can
return a brief because for private reasons he does not wish to have
anything to do with the case. It was Holymead's duty to do his best to
get Birchill off whether he believed his client was guilty or innocent.
Could Holymead have done his best for Birchill if he had believed that
Birchill was the murderer of his lifelong friend? Would he have trusted
himself to do his best? No, Holymead knew that Birchill was innocent;
he knew who the guilty man was, and, knowing that, knowing that his
action in defending the man charged with the murder of an old friend
would weigh with the jury, he took up the case because he felt there
was a moral obligation on him to get Birchill off. His conduct of the
defence, during which