“Yes, that too.”
“Yet cannot say which of these two overcoats you put on when you left your home, an hour or so after finishing your dinner?”
Trapped by his own lawyer—visibly and remorselessly trapped! The blood, shooting suddenly into the astounded prisoner’s face, was reflected on the cheeks of the other lawyers present. Even Mr. Fox betrayed his surprise; but it was a surprise not untinged by apprehension. Mr. Moffat must feel very sure of himself to venture thus far. I, who feared to ask myself the cause of this assurance, could only wait and search the partially visible face of little Ella for an enlightenment, which was no more to be found there than in the swollen features of the outraged Arthur. The excitement which this event caused, afforded the latter some few moments in which to quell his own indignation; and when he spoke, it was passionately, yet not without some effort at restraint.
“I cannot. I was in no condition to notice. I was bent on going into town, and immediately upon coming downstairs went straight to the rack and pulled on the first things that offered.”
It appeared to be a perfect give-a-way. And it was, but it was a give-a-way which, I feared, threatened Carmel rather than her brother.
Mr. Moffat, still nervous, still avoiding the prisoner’s eye, relentlessly pursued his course, unmindful—wilfully so, it appeared—of the harm he was doing himself, as well as the witness.
“Mr. Cumberland, were a coat and hat all that you took from that hall?”
“No, I took a key—a key from the bunch which I saw lying on the table.”
“Did you recognise this key?”
“I did.”