“Am I obliged, your Honour, to answer—”
“Answer yes or no,” said the Court, leaning forward and fixing the witness with a very severe stare. (Sampson regarded him as distinctly human, after all.) Miss Hildebrand's, eyes were still lowered. The aged prisoner, however, was looking a hole through the now miserable witness.
“He threatened to kill me,” exclaimed Stevens violently. “He acted like a crazy man over a perfectly innocent—”
“He ordered you out, didn't he?” came the deadly question.
Mr. Stevens swallowed hard. “Yes.”
“And you maintain that he took that step because he misunderstood something or other, eh?”
“Most certainly.”
“Well, what was it he misunderstood?”
“I must decline to answer. I stand on my rights.”
“Wasn't it because Mrs. Hildebrand complained to him that you had been—er—unnecessarily offensive to her?”