The attorney paid no attention.
He looked at the witness. “Go on, Mr. Barkman,” he said. “What did they do next?”
“Well,” said the witness, “when they had got the correct combination written down, they put a gun against Mr. Halloway and made him go over to the telephone. They made him call up the watchman at the bank and tell him just what he has sworn here Mr. Halloway told him that night: that his child was sick and the doctor wanted him to come right home. Mr. Halloway had to say just what they told him to say, because there they stood with a gun against him. They could hear every word he said. The bank watchman asked him what he could do about leaving the bank, and they made Mr. Halloway say to him over the telephone, to go ahead out to his house at once and that he himself would drive over in his car and stay in the bank until the watchman got back; then they hung up the receiver.”
The lawyer put a query:
“How do you suppose they were standing while Mr. Halloway was calling the bank?”
The witness got up.
“Mr. Halloway was of course facing the telephone and the man with the gun was standing behind him with the muzzle jammed against his back. That would be the way they would be standing.”
He was about to sit down, but the lawyer interrupted him:
“Just a minute.”
He turned to the prisoner sitting on his left.