“Yes.”
“Was not this trouble of a somewhat serious nature—a personal encounter between you and Stone, which led you to entertain the most intense feelings of animosity toward him?”
“I object, Your Honor,” cried Lawyer Frances. “I can’t see what this has to do with the present case.”
“Your Honor,” beamed Marsh placidly, “I propose to establish that this feeling of animosity which young Hayden entertained toward Stone has a great deal to do with the case. I propose to show a motive on Hayden’s part which might lead him into an effort to injure my client.”
“Go on,” said the judge. “Objection overruled.”
The lawyer repeated the question, and, after a bit of hesitation, Hayden answered:
“We had a fight in Hilton, but even before that I had no use for Stone. He was a cheap, ruffianly fellow, and nobody thought anything of him in that town. His father——”
“Never mind that,” interrupted Marsh sharply. “Answer my questions, that’s all. You admit a feeling of dislike for Stone?”
“Nobody ever liked him—before he came here; and he wouldn’t have had any friends here if, by accident, he hadn’t——”
“We’ll cut that out also. Is it not true that on finding Stone in this town you exerted your utmost efforts to turn your schoolmates against him and to force him out of school? Did you not induce your father to go to Principal Richardson of the academy for the purpose of urging him to turn Benjamin Stone out?”