ck the flight of
something which he expected to wing in and assail the jury.

Said Hammer, after wiping his glistening forehead with a yellow silk
handkerchief:

"Yes. And now, Mrs. Greening, I will ask you if at any time your husband
ever told you what was said, if anything, by any party inside of that
house when he run up to the kitchen door that night and knocked?"

"I object!" said the prosecutor sharply, flinging out his ready hand.

"Don't answer that question!" warned the judge.

Mrs. Greening had it on her lips; anybody who could read print on a
signboard could have told what they were shaped to say. She held them
there in their preliminary position of enunciation, pursed and wrinkled,
like the tied end of a sausage-link.

"I will frame the question in another manner," said Hammer, again
feeling the need of his large handkerchief.

"There is no form that would be admissible, your honor," protested the
prosecutor. "It is merely hearsay that the counsel for the defense is
attempting to bring out and get before the jury. I object!"

"Your course of questioning, Mr. Hammer, is highly improper, and in
flagrant violation to the established rules of evidence," said the
judge. "You must confine yourself to proof by this witness of what she,
of her own knowledge and experience, is cognizant of. Nothing else is
permissible."

"But, your honor, I intend to show by this witness that when Sol
Greening knocked on that door----"

"I object! She wasn't present; she has testified that she was at home at
that time, and in bed."

This from the prosecutor, in great heat.

"Your honor, I intend to prove--" began Hammer.

"This line of questioning is not permissible, as I told you before,"
said the judge in stern reproof.

But Hammer was obdurate. He was for arguing it, and the judge ordered
the sheriff to conduct the jury from the room. Mrs. Greening, red and
uncomfortable, and all at sea over it, continued sitting in the
witness-chair while Hammer laid it off according to his view of it, and
the prosecutor came back and tore his contentions to pieces.

The judge, for no other purpose, evidently, than to prove to the
defendant and public alike that he was unbiased and fair--knowing
beforehand what his ruling must be--indulged Hammer until he expended
his argument. Then he laid the matter down in few words.

Mrs. Greening had not been present when her husband knocked on the door
of Isom Chase's kitchen that night;