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Where Hiss's first lawyer, Lloyd Stryker, had snarled and roared, Lawyer Cross closed almost impersonally with Chambers in crossexamination. His object, the same as Stryker's: to destroy the credibility of the Government's chief witness.
Hadn't Chambers falsified an application for a passport in 1935, signing the name of David Breen? Chambers admitted that he had. What was Chambers' conception of an oath? "I had a Communist's conception of an oath. That it had no binding force on a Communist." Chambers admitted that as a Communist courier he had been "in fact a traitor." Cross went into his more recent, non-Communist past. Chambers admitted that he had lied when he first told a grand jury that he knew of no espionage activities.
By Key or Bell. With almost melancholy indifference, Chambers began once again to recite the drab facts of his early career. In the closing hours of the trial's fifth day, Cross brought the questioning back to the chief and only really relevant aspect of the case: the old relationship of the two men. How had Chambers returned the documents to Hiss's house, as he stated, sometimes as late as 2 a.m.? How had he gotten in? Said Chambers: "I believe I had a key." He might simply have rung the bell, he was not sure. But Hiss's door, ran the burden of his testimony, always opened to him.