"How did you obtain the letters of Nicholas Johnson and James Ramsey? I ask this, because they are not addressed to you."
"I procured them of Sam Yates, in anticipation of the trial now in progress here. The witnesses were dead, and I thought they would help me in establishing the genuineness of their signatures."
"What reason had you to anticipate this trial?"
"Well, sir, I am accustomed to providing for all contingencies. That is the way I was made, sir. It seemed to me quite probable that Benedict, if living, would forget what he had done before his insanity, and that, if he were dead, some friend of his boy would engage in the suit on his behalf. I procured the autographs after I saw his boy in your hands, sir."
"So you had not seen these particular signatures at the time when the alleged assignment was made."
"No, sir, I had not seen them."
"And you simply procured them to use as a defense in a suit which seemed probable, or possible, and which now, indeed, is in progress of trial?"
"That is about as clear a statement of the fact as I can make, sir;" and Mr. Belcher bowed and smiled.
"I suppose, Mr. Belcher," said Mr. Balfour, "that it seems very strange to you that the plaintiff should have forgotten his signature."
"Not at all, sir. On the contrary, I regard it as the most natural thing in the world. I should suppose that a man who had lost his mind once would naturally lose his memory of many things."