The Evil Genius: A Domestic Story

About this issue

A domestic story by Wilkie Collins, presented here as part of the Select Fiction Library. The excerpt depicts the jury's deliberation in the trial of the Honorable Roderick Westerfield, younger brother of Lord Le Basque, accused of willfully casting away the British merchant vessel John Jerminan to fraudulently obtain insurance money and steal Brazilian diamonds from the cargo. The narrative traces Westerfield's character through testimony: his court-martial dismissal from the Royal Navy after striking a superior officer, his redemption as first mate then captain of the John Jerminan, and his subsequent financial ruin through gambling debts incurred on shore leave. The jury deliberates the central question: whether his documented pecuniary embarrassment—combined with the missing diamonds and the second mate's subsequent suicide—proves his guilt in deliberately wrecking the ship. The foreman methodically presents evidence while individual jurymen argue conflicting interpretations of the facts and witnesses' accounts.