“No, sir, never, to anybody.”
“And you have never known the gentleman standing there as anybody but Mr. Anderson?”
“No, sir, never heard any other name but Anderson.”
The Coroner glanced at the Counsel.
“I think this may be a convenient opportunity for Mr. Aylmore to give the explanation he offered a few minutes ago,” he said. “Do you suggest anything?”
“I suggest, sir, that if Mr. Aylmore desires to give any explanation he should return to the witness-box and submit himself to examination again on his oath,” replied the Counsel. “The matter is in your hands.”
The Coroner turned to Aylmore.
“Do you object to that?” he asked.
Aylmore stepped boldly forward and into the box.
“I object to nothing,” he said in clear tones, “except to being asked to reply to questions about matters of the past which have not and cannot have anything to do with this case. Ask me what questions you like, arising out of the evidence of the last two witnesses, and I will answer them so far as I see myself justified in doing so. Ask me questions about matters of twenty years ago, and I shall answer them or not as I see fit. And I may as well say that I will take all the consequences of my silence or my speech.”