"Well, more or less I suppose I did."
"And would it be too much if I suggested to you that it was solely because of her husband's violent disposition that Robert Fielding thought his cousin should have either some one to protect her, or some means of protecting herself? That he had that particular thought in his mind, and that thought only, when he showed you this revolver?"
The sailor seemed to find some difficulty in understanding the suggestions; and even after Ronnie had repeated them piecemeal, he refused, sailor-like, to commit himself.
Nervously, the cross-examination went on. "Now about this revolver: did you gather that Robert Fielding had only just bought it, or that he had had it in his possession for some considerable time? It's an old-fashioned navy revolver, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"He must have had it some time--ever since he left the service, probably?"
"Probably."
"He didn't, at any rate, tell you he'd just bought the weapon?"
"No."
"Coming back to the question of Towers, did Fielding tell you anything about his habits?"