"Did you have a silver tea set of the value of--er--at least five hundred dollars in the house?"
"It was worth fifteen thousand," corrected Mr. Hepplewhite.
"Oh! Now, have you been served by the defendant's attorneys with a summons and complaint in an action for false arrest in which damages are claimed in the sum of one hundred thousand dollars?"
"I object!" shouted Mr. Tutt. "It is wholly irrelevant."
"I think it shows the importance of the result of this trial to the witness," argued O'Brien perfunctorily. "It shows this case isn't any joke--even if some people seem to think it is."
"Objection sustained," ruled the court. "The question is irrelevant. The jury is supposed to know that every case is important to those concerned--to the defendant as well as to those who charge him with crime."
The old lawyer slowly unfolded his tall frame and gazed quizzically down upon the shivering Hepplewhite.
"You have been sued by my client for one hundred thousand dollars, haven't you?" he demanded.
"Overruled," snapped the court. "It is a proper question for cross-examination. It may show motive."
Mr. Hepplewhite sat helplessly until the shooting was over.
"Answer the question!" suddenly shouted Mr. Tutt.
"Don't think!" retorted the court sarcastically. "The time to think has gone by. Answer!"
"I don't know what the question is," stammered Mr. Hepplewhite, thoroughly frightened.
"Lord! Lord!" groaned O'Brien in plain hearing of the jury.
Mr. Tutt sighed sympathetically in mock resignation.
"My dear sir," he began in icy tones, "when you had my client arrested and charged with being a burglar, had you made any personal inquiry as to the facts?"
"I didn't have him arrested!" protested the witness.
"You deny that you ordered Bibby to charge the defendant with burglary?" roared Mr. Tutt. "Take care! You know there is such a crime as perjury, do you not?"
"No--I mean yes," stuttered Mr. Hepplewhite abjectly. "That is, I've heard about perjury--but the police attended to everything for me."
"Aha!" cried Mr. Tutt, snorting angrily like the war horse depicted in the Book of Job. "The police 'attended' to my client for you, did they? What do you mean--for you? Did you pay them for their little attention?"