each other as he went by?"

"Yes, sir; we always would say, 'God save you,' or the like."

"How was he dressed on these occasions?"

"The way he was always dressed,----how would he be?"

"That's exactly what I 'm asking you."

"Faix! he had his coat and breeches, like any other man."

"I see. He had his coat and breeches, like any other man; now, what
color was his coat?"

"It was gray, sir,----blue-gray. I know it well."

"How do you come to know it well?"

"Bekase my own boy, Ned, sir, bought one off the same piece before he
'listed, and I couldn't forget it."

"Where were you the day after the murder, when the policemen came to
take Sam Eustace?"

"I was sitting at my own door, smoking a pipe, and I see the polis
comin', and so I went in and shut the door."

"What was that for? You had no reason to fear them."

"Ayeh!--who knows?--the polis is terrible!"

"Well, after that?"

"Well, when I heard them pass, I opened the door, and then I saw enough.
They were standing at Sam's house; one of them talking to Sam, and the
other two rummaging about, sticking poles into the thatch, and tumbling
oyer the turf in the stack.

"'Isn't this a pretty business?' says Sam, calling out to me. 'The polis
is come to take me off to prison because some one murdered the master.'
'Well, his soul's in glory, anyhow,' says I, and I shut the doore."

"And saw nothing more?"

"Only the polis lading Sam down the boreen betune them."

"He made no resistance, then?"

"Not a bit; he went as quiet as a child. When he was going by the doore,
I remember he said to one of the polis, 'Would it be plazing to ye to
help me wid my coat; for I cut my finger yesterday?'"

"Did n't I say it was with a reaping-hook?" cried Meekins, who, in
all the earnestness of anxiety, followed every word that fell from the
witness.

His counsel sprang to his feet, and pulled him back by the arm; but not
before the unguarded syllables had been heard by every one around. Such
was the sensation now produced, that for several minutes the proceedings
were interrupted, while the counsel conferred in low whispers together,
and all seemed thunderstruck and amazed. Twice Meekins stood forward to
address the court, but on each occasion he was restrained by the counsel
beside him; and it was only by the use of menaces that Wallace succeeded
in enforcing silence on him. "When the moment of cross-examination
arrives," said he to the jury, "I hope to explain