“Not at all pleasant,” Charlie replied heartily.
“Always snapping and snarling and finding fault, wasn't he?”
“Yes, sir, always.”
“Now about this threat of which we have heard so much on the part of your brother, did it impress you much? Were you frightened at it? Did you think that your brother intended to kill your stepfather?”
“No, sir, I am sure he didn't; he just said it in a passion. He had been knocked about until he could hardly stand, and he just said the first thing that came into his head, like fellows do.”
“You don't think that he went out with any deliberate idea of killing your stepfather?”
“No, sir; I am sure he only went out to walk about till he got over his passion, just as he had done before.”
“It was his way, was it, when anything put him out very much, to go and walk about till he got cool again?”
“Yes, sir.”
For the defense Mr. Simmonds was called, and produced the threatening letters which Mr. Mulready had laid before him. He stated that that gentleman was much alarmed, and had asked that a military force should be called into the town, and that he himself and his colleague had considered the danger so serious that they had applied for and obtained military protection.