e "believed."

"Object!" shouted Steger, repeatedly. "I move that that be stricken from
the record as incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial. The witness is
not allowed to say what he thinks, and the prosecution knows it very
well."

"Your honor," insisted Shannon, "I am doing the best I can to have the
witness tell a plain, straightforward story, and I think that it is
obvious that he is doing so."

"Object!" reiterated Steger, vociferously. "Your honor, I insist that
the district attorney has no right to prejudice the minds of the jury by
flattering estimates of the sincerity of the witness. What he thinks of
the witness and his sincerity is of no importance in this case. I must
ask that your honor caution him plainly in this matter."

"Objection sustained," declared Judge Payderson, "the prosecution will
please be more explicit"; and Shannon went on with his case.

Stener's testimony, in one respect, was most important, for it made
plain what Cowperwood did not want brought out--namely, that he and
Stener had had a dispute before this; that Stener had distinctly told
Cowperwood that he would not loan him any more money; that Cowperwood
had told Stener, on the day before he secured this check, and again on
that very day, that he was in a very desperate situation financially,
and that if he were not assisted to the extent of three hundred thousand
dollars he would fail, and that then both he and Stener would be ruined.
On the morning of this day, according to Stener, he had sent Cowperwood
a letter ordering him to cease purchasing city loan certificates for the
sinking-fund. It was after their conversation on the same afternoon that
Cowperwood surreptitiously secured the check for sixty thousand
dollars from Albert Stires without his (Stener's) knowledge; and it was
subsequent to this latter again that Stener, sending Albert to demand
the return of the check, was refused, though the next day at five
o'clock in the afternoon Cowperwood made an assignment. And the
certificates for which the check had been purloined were not in the
sinking-fund as they should have been. This was dark testimony for
Cowperwood.

If any one imagines that all this was done without many vehement
objections and exceptions made and taken by Steger, and subsequently
when he was cross-examining Stener, by Shannon, he errs greatly. At
times the chamber was coruscating with these two gentlemen's bitter
wrangles, and his honor was compelled t