ht coat on, like the coats gentlemen wear when they go to
the theatre, and something muffled round his throat, and his hat pulled
down over his face."

"Like a person who wished to conceal himself?"

"Yes, sir," said the witness.

"And how, then, if he was muffled about the throat, and his hat pulled
over his face, in the half light late in the evening, could you see that
he had a large moustache?"

The witness stood and stared with his mouth open, and made no reply.

The counsel, with a louder voice and those intonations of contemptuous
insinuation which are calculated to make a man feel that he is convicted
of the basest perjury, and is being held up to the reprobation of the
world, repeated the question, "How could you see that he had a large
moustache?"

"I saw it," said the witness, hotly, "because I knew the gentleman."

"And how did you know the gentleman? You thought you recognised the
gentleman, and therefore, though you could not possibly perceive it, you
saw his moustache? I fear that is not an answer that will satisfy the
jury."

"I submit," said the counsel for the defence, "that it is very evident
what the witness means. He recognised a man with whose appearance he was
perfectly familiar."

"I saw him," said the witness, "as clear as I see you, sir."

"What! in the dark, late on a September night, with a coat collar up to
his ears, and a hat pulled down over his face! You see my learned friend
in broad daylight, and with the full advantage of standing opposite
to him and studying his looks at your leisure. You might as well say
because you know the gentleman that you could see his half was dark and
abundant under his wig."

At this a laugh ran through the court, at which Philip, listening, was
furiously indignant, as it interrupted the course of the investigation.
It was through the sound of this laugh that he heard the witness demand
loudly, "How could I be mistaken, when I saw Mr. Compton every day?"

Mr. Compton! Philip's heart began to beat like the hammers of a
steam-engine. Was this, then, the real issue? And who was Mr. Compton?
He could not have told how it was that he somehow identified the man
whom the witness had seen, or had not seen, with the man who had the
opera-glass, and who had fixed a dreadful blank stare upon the other in
the witness-box during a great part of this discussion. Was it he who
was on his trial, and not Brown? And who was he? And where was it that
Philip had