and unusually tall, and with his beak-like nose, he always looks
strangely impressive when he seriously tackles a witness. He did it this
time with a vengeance, I can tell you. He was all over the pompous
little jeweller in a moment.

"'Had Mr. Campbell made a special entry in his book, as to the visit of
the lady in question?'

"'No.'

"'Had he any special means of ascertaining when that visit did actually
take place?'

"'No--but--'

"'What record had he of the visit?'

"Mr. Campbell had none. In fact, after about twenty minutes of
cross-examination, he had to admit that he had given but little thought
to the interview with the lady at the time, and certainly not in
connection with the murder of Lady Donaldson, until he had read in the
papers that a young lady had been arrested.

"Then he and his clerk talked the matter over, it appears, and together
they had certainly recollected that a lady had brought some beautiful
earrings for sale on a day which _must have been_ the very morning after
the murder. If Sir James Fenwick's object was to discredit this special
witness, he certainly gained his point.

"All the pomposity went out of Mr. Campbell, he became flurried, then
excited, then he lost his temper. After that he was allowed to leave the
court, and Sir James Fenwick resumed his seat, and waited like a
vulture for its prey.

"It presented itself in the person of Mr. Campbell's clerk, who, before
the Procurator Fiscal, had corroborated his employer's evidence in every
respect. In Scotland no witness in any one case is present in court
during the examination of another, and Mr. Macfarlane, the clerk, was,
therefore, quite unprepared for the pitfalls which Sir James Fenwick had
prepared for him. He tumbled into them, head foremost, and the eminent
advocate turned him inside out like a glove.

"Mr. Macfarlane did not lose his temper; he was of too humble a frame of
mind to do that, but he got into a hopeless quagmire of mixed
recollections, and he too left the witness-box quite unprepared to swear
as to the day of the interview with the lady with the diamond earrings.

"I dare say, mind you," continued the man in the corner with a chuckle,
"that to most people present, Sir James Fenwick's cross-questioning
seemed completely irrelevant. Both Mr. Campbell and his clerk were quite
ready to swear that they had had an interview concerning some diamond
earrings with a lady, of whose identity with the accused t