d Mr. Cavendish. "Is your signature at the foot of that
assignment?"

"It is not, sir."

"Perhaps those are not the signatures of the witnesses," said Mr.
Cavendish, with an angry sneer.

"Two of them, I have no doubt, are forgeries," responded Mr. Balfour,
with an excited voice.

Mr. Cavendish knew that it would do no good to manifest anger; so he
laughed. Then he sat down by the side of Mr. Belcher, and said something
to him, and they both laughed together.

"That's all," he said, nodding to the witness.

"May it please the Court," said Mr. Balfour, "we got along so well with
the question of identity that, with the leave of the defendant's
counsel, I propose, in order to save the time of the Court, that we push
our inquiries directly into the validity of this assignment. This is the
essential question, and the defendant has only to establish the validity
of the instrument to bring the case to an end at once. This done, the
suit will be abandoned."

"Certainly," said Mr. Cavendish, rising. "I agree to the scheme with the
single provision on behalf of the defendant, that he shall not be
debarred from his pleading of a denial of profits, in any event."

"Agreed," said Mr. Balfour.

"Very well," said Mr. Cavendish. "I shall call Cornelius Phipps, the
only surviving witness of the assignment."

But Cornelius Phipps did not appear when he was called. A second call
produced the same result. He was not in the house. He was sought for in
every possible retreat about the house, but could not be found.
Cornelius Phipps had mysteriously disappeared.

After consulting Mr. Belcher, Mr. Cavendish announced that the witness
who had been called was essential at the present stage of the case. He
thought it possible that in the long confinement of the court-room,
Phipps had become suddenly ill, and gone home. He hoped, for the honor
of the plaintiff in the case, that nothing worse had happened, and
suggested that the Court adjourn until the following day.

And the Court adjourned, amid tumultuous whispering. Mr. Belcher was
apparently oblivious of the fact, and sat and stared, until touched upon
the shoulder by his counsel, when he rose and walked out upon a world
and into an atmosphere that had never before seemed so strange and
unreal.

CHAPTER XXVII.

IN WHICH PHIPPS IS NOT TO BE FOUND, AND THE GENERAL IS CALLED UPON TO DO
HIS OWN LYING.

At the appointed hour on the following morning, the Court resumed it