Colin Campbell Ross

“ Matthews then said: “I want you to tell the detectives you made a key,” and she said that she also wanted him to tell the detectives that he was in the saloon on the Saturday, and asked Ross if he knew anything of the murder, and that Ross replied: “I have never been a ‘shelf’”—a “shelf” being, in criminal language, an informer. Matthews then said to him: “I’ve got a friend down at the corner in a motor, who is very much interested in this case, and I want you to tell him what I have said to you.” He accompanied her to the corner of Westgarth Street, where he found Detective Piggott in a car. ”

“ Stanley said (according to her) : “He is not well; he has gone home.” Immediately [Pg 115] after, she said, she heard Colin laugh, and she said to Stanley: “I thought Colin was not in?” Stanley said (according to her) : “He must have come in by the other door.” In his supplementary statement, made on January 5, which was taken down in answer to questions, Colin Ross said: “I was home all day Thursday—I was not well. I did not leave the shop on Friday and say that I was ill. I was not away from the saloon on the afternoon of Friday. I can give no reason why my brother should say I was ill.” ”

“ In neither case was there a direct admission, but in each there was the suggestion that Ross knew all about the tragedy if he would only speak.
There is another fact which shows that Ivy Matthews gave more information to the detectives than the evidence given in court would suggest. In her evidence at the inquest Matthews said that, when she was conversing with Stanley, she said: “Where is Colin?”—an unlikely thing, since she was not on speaking terms with Colin. ”

“ I said to all present: ‘Fold those blankets, and carefully place them in the car; they must go to the Government Analyst.’” They did go to the Government Analyst next day. Where they were kept in the meantime was not disclosed on the trial, except that Ross, at about 2 o’clock on the afternoon of his arrest, saw them lying across the back of a chair in the clerk’s room of the Detective Office. The detectives, in the room of the Government Analyst (Mr. Price) , next day, spread the “reddish brown blanket” over a wooden screen, and removed from it in his presence twenty-two hairs. ”

“ If that is doubted, let anyone who does not know the locality try to describe Ross’s alleged route after reading the description once. If [Pg 51] one knows the locality, he has a mental picture, as the words are spoken, which he can reproduce. If he does not, the words are words merely, and cannot be repeated without rehearsal. But the point is that, on getting this alleged confession, the detectives should have got half a dozen men to take the road, or the two roads if necessary, in a face in order to discover the serge. ”

“ If the guilt or innocence of Ross depends upon the question of whether he was, or was not, in the saloon at midnight, it may be taken to be established, as clearly and definitely as human testimony can establish any fact, that Ross is innocent. Those who heard the evidence of Patterson, Studd, and Bradley, (to be mentioned later) as to Ross going home on the last tram to Maidstone, the suburb out from Footscray where Ross lived, and had [Pg 103] the advantage of private consultations with these witnesses, cannot entertain the slightest doubt that Ross was on the tram. ”

“ No insinuation is made against the fairness with which the detectives presented the case against Ross. In particular, Piggott’s account of the conversations with Ross give, with great frankness, Ross’s answers, when it would have been perfectly easy for the detective, had he desired to be unfair, to minimise the emphasis Ross put upon his denials. There are two passages in Taylor’s great work on “Evidence,” however, which are peculiarly applicable to this case. One deals with the caution necessary in considering all police evidence. ”

“ Yet on the 31st of December, according to the Matthews evidence, we have them addressing one another as “Ive” and “Colin,” and we have Ross handing his life over to the unsafe keeping of this “woman scorned.” [Pg 57]
The strongest appeals were made through the press for anyone who saw the child to inform the police. But Ivy Matthews, if her evidence is true, not only saw the child in the saloon on the Friday, but on the Saturday she had a full confession from Ross. Yet she remained silent, according to herself and the detectives, until she gave her evidence at the inquest. ”

“ Gladys Wain, it should be remarked, though a married woman, is very small, and extremely girlish in appearance. Yet we are asked to believe that Ross, by a quite casual remark on January 16, made an admission, the most important by far he had made during the course of the police investigation, and that one of the detectives in charge of the case turned away from him without the slightest comment on his startling admission. ”

“ She gave a very minute description of the child’s hair and clothing, considering the very cursory glance she admitted having had. Colin, she said, must have noticed her, but he did not acknowledge her in any way.
Matthews said nothing of how long she stayed. Next day, at the Melbourne Hotel, at 3 o’clock, where she had an appointment, she read in “Truth,” so she said, of the murder of the little girl, and she went [Pg 26] straight to Ross’s wine cafe. “He was busy serving behind the bar,” she continued, “and I walked past the wine cafe door twice. ”

“ It is needless to set out in detail the evidence called to support the story told by the three foregoing witnesses. Suffice it to say that Tom Ross, Ronald Ross, Gladys Wain, Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs. Kee, Oscar Dawsey, Herbert Studd, James Patterson, F. G. Bradley, Mrs. Tom Ross, Mrs. Linderman, and Miss Alice Ballantyne were all called, and each testified to his or her own portion of the story. There were some persons at Ballantyne’s house on Thursday, January 5, who were not called, for the reason that the evidence seemed overwhelming that Colin Ross was at Ballantyne’s soon after 9 on that date. ”

“ Of this reward, Ivy Matthews has received £437/10/-, and Olive Maddox £214/5/-. If we know all the services rendered by each, the positions should have been reversed, for it was Olive Maddox who first gave the information which put the police on what they, no doubt, still honestly believe was the right trail. But do we know all? It will be shown later that, at the time Colin Ross’s doom was sealed, we did not. ”

“ She makes Colin Ross in his confession, as retailed at the trial, get the girl to come out of the cubicle in the afternoon, and stay in the beaded room for an hour or so, while he talks to Gladys Wain; she makes him bring the girl back to the cubicle when Gladys Wain is gone; she makes him cause the girl’s death there after 6 o’clock, and then carry the dead body back to the beaded room, in order that he may make love to Gladys Wain in the cubicle later on; she makes him come back, after seeing Gladys Wain home, and carry the dead body back from the beaded room to the cubicle. ”

“ The only thing that had kept this grand old hero back, had been, as they say in India, “pice, pice,” or money, money. Red-tape is never friendly to the poor man, no matter how brave, or what his talents are. Sir Colin Campbell had displayed a dauntless contempt of danger, wherever his country’s honour was at stake; and he lived to receive [28] from his countrymen addresses of the highest thanks and some of the most eloquent eulogies that were ever penned or spoken about a British soldier. ”

“ The outer line of the rebel defences having been occupied in force by his troops, the first instalment of Sir Colin's plan had been successfully accomplished; and this, too, with little loss, owing to the effect of Outram's enfilading fire from the left bank.
Sir Colin Campbell was unquestionably a deliberate man. This was not so in his original nature, which was quick and ardent; but in the course of his long military life he had seen much evil come of hurry. Fighting man as he was, there probably never was a greater economist of the lives of his soldiers. ”

“ Just before we started I saw Sir Colin drinking his tea, the same kind as that served out to the men, out of a Ninety-Third soldier's canteen. Writing of the relief of Lucknow, Lady Inglis in her lately-published journal states, under date the 18th of November, 1857, two days after the time of which I write: "Sir Colin Campbell is much liked; he is living now exactly as a private soldier, takes his rations and lies down wherever he can to rest. This the men like, and he is a fine soldier. A Commander-in-Chief just now has indeed no enviable position." ”

“ Campbell then called upon the 93rd, and told them he would lead them himself, as the place must be carried. The lives of the women and children inside the Residency were at stake. A dozen voices from the ranks called out that they would carry the place, right enough, but Sir Colin must not expose his own life. “We can lead ourselves,” cried one after another. Whether even the 93rd could have clambered over the lofty and unbroken walls of the Shah Nujeef may be doubted, but at this moment the wit and daring of a Scotch soldier saved the situation. ”

“ Colin Campbell had a special position and a special duty, of a kind seldom entrusted to a subaltern and markedly indicative of the estimation which he had thus early earned. He was placed in the centre of the Royals with twenty men of his (the light) company, having the light company of the Royals as his immediate support and under his orders, and accompanied by a ladder-party under an engineer officer. His specific orders were on reaching the crest of the breach to gain the ramparts on the left, sweep the curtain to the high work in the centre of the main front, and there establish himself. ”

“ To the physical animation acquired in college he had many times given thanks for helping him to endure this later life, in which a walk uptown after working hours was the chief outlet for his tremendous energy of body.
When we have said additionally that Colin was of a very short purse, and had no backing of family in New York—seeing that his relatives were unimportant residents of a small Western town—that he was hopelessly in love with Kathleen Blair, and that at college he had been dubbed Colin chiefly because his real name was John Walter Mackintosh, the tale is told. ”

“ Campbell, Colin (1754-1814) : before Campbell was promoted insert He was colonel of the 5th garrison battalion 1808-12 and of the 55th foot 1812 till death 351 i 29 Campbell, Sir Colin (1776-1847) : after some years insert He was lieutenant-governor of Tobago in 1828 and of Portsmouth 1828-35 31 ⁠for In 1839 read In November 1840 17 f.e. ⁠after Piccadilly insert He had been colonel of 99th foot 1834-6 and of 72nd foot from 1836 till his death 351 i 7 f.e. Campbell, Sir Colin, Lord Clyde : for Colin read John 353 i 39, 40 ⁠for he it was . . . . ”

“ The arrival of the regiment at Newcastle was welcomed by the magistrates, colliery owners, and county gentlemen of Northumberland, who in their apprehension of a Chartist rising leaned upon its commanding officer for the maintenance of order. At no period of his career did Colin Campbell evince greater wisdom and shrewdness than during this critical and sensitive time. ”

“ He debouches in extended order on the doomed house; gets his range and has the barrage well in hand (the quantity and quality of Madame's gesticulations furnish the key to this) before Colin drifts off the horizon and shows a peaked face with haunting eyes over George's shoulder. Colin does not speak. That is not his métier. He is the star shell illuminating the position; and usually in about six minutes' time it is safe for John to put in an appearance with the kit. ”

“ Without entering upon any superfluous explanations, Colin paid over the desired sum, and, after neatly forging Mark's signature, made his way back to the car. He was leaning over the side door, storing away his trophy, when a gruff voice suddenly addressed him from the pavement behind.
"Doctor Gray, unless I'm much mistaken!"
Turning round promptly, he found himself face to face with the burly, shrewd-eyed figure of Inspector Marsden.
"I thought I was right," continued the detective. "It's part of my business to recognize people by their back view." ”

“ Nancy's a million times too good for you, but——"
As he spoke the telephone bell rang sharply, and Colin, who was sitting nearest the door, jumped to his feet.
"I'll go," he said. "You finish your speech, Mark. It would be a pity to break off just when you're getting really truthful."
He hurried out into the hall and took down the receiver.
"Is that 276 Shadwell?"
"It is," he answered.
"Inspector Marsden of Scotland Yard speaking. Is Doctor Gray in?"
"He's not only in, but he's talking to you," returned Colin. ”

“ Penwarren had invested for me, and that gave me the chance of coming to London and setting up as a typist." She stopped short, and glanced at Colin with a sudden trace of embarrassment. "I don't know why I am telling you all this," she added. "I'm afraid I must be boring you horribly."
Colin shook his head. "I never felt more interested in my life. I thought that things like that only happened in books and plays."
"I wish they did," said Nancy. "I simply hate not knowing who I am. It makes one feel like a lost dog."
"But how about our genial friend in the car?" inquired Colin. ”

“ She disappeared in the direction of the back regions, and having deposited his hat and coat on the hall table, Colin led the way upstairs.
As they reached the first landing a door on the right opened, and Mark himself appeared on the threshold. He had a large cherry-wood pipe in his mouth, and he had discarded his frock coat in favour of a Norfolk jacket.
"Hullo, Colin!" he exclaimed. "I thought I heard your musical voice. Why the devil——"
He stopped short as he suddenly caught sight of Nancy.
"You shouldn't swear in front of ladies," said Colin reprovingly. ”