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His diction grew richer as he began examining documents handed him by Murphy (a move which Murphy evidently made to prevent any implication that Wadleigh, not Hiss, might have stolen the pumpkin papers from the State Department files). The witness said he had never seen them before. Of one, he said: -'. . . it is a sufficiently rich fountain . . . an unusually rich fountain that I would have been interested in had I seen it."
As Defense Attorney Stryker moved in for cross-examination the audience sat forward expectantly. But the great Thespian was surprisingly gentle. Beyond seeming to lose his temper once, and announcing twice for the jury's benefit that he, himself (unlike Wadleigh), had never gone to Oxford, he hardly seemed to warm up. He attempted unsuccessfully to get Wadleigh to say he had stolen documents from desks other than his own (including Hiss's) and turned the witness loose. At week's end the Government rested its case.
This week Alger Hiss will have his chance to sit in the witness chair.