you will very soon confirm
them."

The judge briefly scanned the papers before him; and, by a gesture, the
command was issued, and Meekins, who never uttered a word, was conducted
within the dock.

"I will merely ask the witness two or three questions more," added
Hipsley, turning towards the jailer, who alone, of all the assembly,
looked on without any wonderment.

"Now, witness, when did you see the prisoner wear the blue-gray coat?
After the death of Mr. Godfrey, I mean."

"I never seen him wear it again," was the answer.

"How could ye?" cried Meekins, in a hoarse voice. "How could ye? I
sailed for America the day after I was set at liberty."

"Be silent, sir," said the prisoner's counsel, who, suffering greatly
from the injury of these interruptions, now assumed a look of angry
impatience; while, with the craft of his calling, he began already to
suspect that a mine was about to be sprung beneath him.

"You have told us," said Hipsley,--and, as he spoke, his words came
with an impressive slowness that made them fall deep into every
heart around,--"You have told us that the coat worn habitually by the
prisoner, up to the day of Mr. Godfrey's murder, you never saw on him
after that day. Is that true?"

"It is, sir."

"You have also said that this coat----part of a piece from which your
son had a coat----was of a peculiar color?"

"It was, sir; and more than that, they had both the same cut, only Sam's
had horn buttons, and my son's was metal."

"Do you think, then, from the circumstances you have just mentioned,
that you could know that coat if you were to see it again?"

A pause followed, and the witness, instead of answering, sat with his
eyes fixed upon the dock, where the prisoner, with both hands grasping
the iron spikes, stood, his glaring eyeballs riveted upon the old man's
face, with an expression of earnestness and terror actually horrible to
witness.

"Look at me, Morris," said Hipsley, "and answer my question. Would you
know this coat again?"

"That is, would you swear to it?" interposed the opposite counsel.

"I believe I would, sir," was the answer.

"You must be sure, my good man. Belief is too vague for us here," said
the prisoner's lawyer.

[Illustration: 498]

"Is this it?" said the solicitor, as, breaking the seals of the parcel
before him, he held up a coat, which, ragged and eaten by worms, seemed
of a far darker color than that described by witness.

The old man took it