ned silent, getting strength, as it
were, and saying to himself, "What does he know?" and then, with a
composed look of inquiry at the judge, who appeared to take no notice,
he said: "I have already, in evidence, given my name to the court."
"Witness, what is your name?" again almost shouted the lawyer, with a
note of indignation in his voice, as though here was a dangerous fellow
committing a misdemeanour in their very presence. He spread out his
hands to the jury, as though bidding them observe, if they would, this
witness hesitating in answer to a simple, primary question--a witness
who had just sworn a man's life away!
"What is your name?"
"James Gathorne Kerry, as I have already given it to the court," was the
calm reply.
"Where do you live?"
"In Askatoon, as I have already said in evidence; and if it is necessary
to give my domicile, I live at the house of Mrs. Tyndall Tynan, Pearl
Street--as you know so well."
The tone in which he uttered the last few words was such that even the
judge pricked up his ears.
A look of hatred came into the decadent but able lawyer's face.
"Where do you live when you are at home?"
"Mrs. Tynan's house is the only home I have at present."
He was outwitting the pursuer so far, but it only gained him time, as he
knew; and he knew also that no suggestive hint concerning the episode at
Mrs. Tynan's, when Burlingame was asked to leave her house, would be of
any avail now.
"Where were you born?"
"In Ireland."
"What part of Ireland?"
"County Kerry."
"What place--what town or city or village in County Kerry?"
"In neither."
"What house, then--what estate?" Burlingame was more than nettled; and
he sharpened his sword.
"The estate of Castlegarry."
"What was your name in Ireland?"
In the short silence that followed, the quick-drawn breath of many
excited and some agitated people could be heard. Among the latter were
Mrs. Tynan and her daughter and Malachi Deely; among those who held
their breath in suspense were John Sibley, Studd Bradley the financier,
and the Young Doctor. The swish of a skirt seemed ridiculously loud
in the hush, and the scratching of the judge's quill pen was noisily
irritating.
"My name in Ireland was James Shiel Gathorne Crozier, commonly called
Shiel Crozier," came the even reply from the witness-box.
"James Shiel Gathorne Crozier in Ireland, but James Gathorne Kerry
here!" Burlingame turned to the jury significantly. "Wh
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