"Then the evidence you desire to submit is not in rebuttal?" queried the Judge.
"I do not like to say that," rejoined the District Attorney, adroitly. "I think it may bear directly upon the question whether the prisoner could catch the train at Monteith Quarry if he left the widow's house after the murder. If the evidence I am about to offer be true, he certainly could."
Thoroughly alarmed now and filled with the dismay which a mysterious threat is always calculated to produce, Mr. Orcutt darted a wild look of inquiry at Imogene, and finding her immovable behind her thick veil, turned about and confronted the District Attorney with a most sarcastic smile upon his blanched and trembling lips.
"Does my learned friend suppose the court will receive any such ambiguous explanation as this? If the testimony sought from this witness is by way of rebuttal, let him say so; but if it is not, let him be frank enough to admit it, that I may in turn present my objections to the introduction of any irrelevant evidence at this time."
"The testimony I propose to present through this witness is in the way of rebuttal," returned Mr Ferris, severely. "The argument advanced by the defence, that the prisoner could not have left Mrs. Clemmens' house at ten minutes before twelve and arrived at Monteith Quarry Station at twenty minutes past one, is not a tenable one, and I purpose to prove it by this witness."
Mr. Orcutt's look of anxiety changed to one of mingled amazement and incredulity.
"By this witness! You have chosen a peculiar one for the purpose," he ironically exclaimed, more and more shaken from his self-possession by the quiet bearing of his opponent, and the silent air of waiting which marked the stately figure of her whom, as he had hitherto believed, he thoroughly comprehended. "Your Honor," he continued, "I withdraw my objections; I should really like to hear how Miss Dare or any lady can give evidence on this point."
And he sank back into his seat with a look at his client in which professional bravado strangely struggled with something even deeper than alarm.
"This must be an exciting moment to the prisoner," whispered Hickory to Byrd.
"So, so. But mark his control, will you? He is less cut up than Orcutt."