“That is all, Mr. Barriscale.”
Suave and smiling, Brownell waved the manufacturer from the stand.
To draw from a witness an admission of hatred for the person against whom he is testifying is to give a body blow to the value of his testimony, and in this respect Brownell was well satisfied with his cross-examination of the Barriscales, both father and son.
Then came the star witness for the prosecution in the person of Chick Dalloway. Poor Chick! For two hours he had been waiting outside the court-room in abject misery. Since the day when Brownell revealed to him the probable result of having given certain information to McCormack’s enemies, he had scarcely eaten or slept. Once he had gone to McCormack himself, to bewail his unfortunate revelations. It was pitiful to see him. Hal tried to cheer and comfort him, but he would not be comforted. Now, at the trial, under the badgering of Barriscale’s lawyer he was about to clinch the fate of the best friend he had on earth. He knew it. He knew that after he had said what he would be compelled to say, Halpert McCormack would be discredited as a citizen and disgraced as a soldier; and he, Chick Dalloway, would be absolutely powerless to prevent it.
He walked up between the rows of chairs, moving from side to side as he went. His knees were strangely weak. His face was pale and drawn, and his eyes seemed to be looking into some far distance.
He took the oath and dropped into the witness-chair by the table, and waited for the torture that he knew would be his, and for the tragedy that was bound to swallow up his beloved lieutenant.
[CHAPTER XV]
The buzz of excitement due to Chick’s appearance on the witness stand had scarcely subsided, and the first question had not yet been asked him, when a man, breathless and perturbed, entered the court-room, pushed his way up to the table where the Barriscales were sitting, and announced, in a loud whisper, that a riot was at that moment in progress at the Barriscale mills. Immediately all was confusion. People began hastily to leave the room, and the president of the court martial, after consulting with his associates, and with counsel on both sides, announced an adjournment until the following Tuesday.