“Davis,” called Lawyer Marsh sharply, “will you please stand up.”
Shaking like a leaf, Spotty lifted himself upon his pins.
“Hold up your right hand,” requested the lawyer, stepping quickly toward him and seizing his wrist. “Here, Your Honor, you may see the torn place in this lad’s coat-sleeve, and you may also perceive beyond question that the shred of fabric discovered by Piper clinging to the nail in Bernard Hayden’s locker corresponds with the material of this garment.”
“I never——” began Spotty chokingly; but the lawyer released him, and the judge, rapping his desk, sternly ordered him to sit down and be silent.
Triumphantly Piper proceeded. “By this time, Your Honor, I was absolutely convinced that I was on the right trail, and thenceforth I shadowed the suspect with the persistence of a bloodhound, never once letting him escape from beneath my hawklike eye. About an hour before court opened Davis entered the store of one Theodore Welcome, who is proprietor in this town of a bazaar at which tobacco in its various forms may be purchased. I was at his heels, lingering at a little distance in a careless, insouciant manner; and from the open doorway of Mr. Welcome’s store I saw Davis purchasing a pack of cigarettes, for which he tendered a piece of silver money.
“Then arose some discussion over the silver piece, which the proprietor of the store stated amounted only to the value of twenty cents, but which the before-mentioned Davis had apparently fancied was a quarter. The instant Davis departed I hurried to Mr. Welcome and asked the privilege of examining that piece of money, which he kindly showed me. The moment my eagle eye fell upon it I knew it was a coin on which there was a premium, as it bore the date of 1878. This piece of money I secured from Mr. Welcome, giving him fifty cents for it, and it is here among the exhibits as evidence in this case. There is upon it a mutilation, a tiny cross cut or scratched by some sharp instrument.
“Your Honor, I knew the moment my eyes fell on that mark that I had previously seen that twenty-cent piece in the possession of my highly esteemed friend, Roger Eliot, who carried it as a pocket piece. Therefore I was assured beyond doubt that it must be a part of the plunder, the sum missing when the money was recovered from its place of concealment. I had often heard Eliot refuse to part with that silver piece, upon which he stated in my hearing that there was a premium of two dollars.”
By this time there was a profound sensation in the courtroom. As he proceeded, the somewhat extravagant language of Piper was overlooked by all, and now, with this climax, the judge was compelled to rap repeatedly to restore quiet and order in the room.
Lawyer Marsh, grave but well satisfied, took the piece of money from the table and requested Piper to identify it, which he did. Roger Eliot likewise examined the coin, and stated that it belonged to him and had been stolen, with the rest of his money and his watch, from his locker.
“Your Honor,” said Sleuth, eager to proceed, “having learned from the lips of the said Davis that, after leaving the football field last night, he visited the room of the defendant while the said defendant was absent, I immediately arrived at the deduction that——”