Again and again Colonel Andrews demanded order in the court-room, but the spectators were utterly demoralized and refused to be quiet. It was only after Mrs. Bennett had been carried unconscious into another room that the confusion somewhat abated. Nancy, trembling in every limb, in the reaction which followed her terror and shock, collapsed in her chair, incapable of speech. Mrs. Arnold, whose complexion had turned pasty from her emotions, clung frantically to Mrs. Warren and begged tearfully to be taken home.
Colonel Andrews, purple in the face with his exertions, bellowed in a voice at last heard above the racket: "This unseemly behavior must cease! Major Lane, call the guard and clear the room!"
Silence quickly followed the order, and Warren turned and addressed the excited court:
"I ask your indulgence for precipitating such a scene. I returned to this room intending to ask a stay of proceedings so that I could have time to gather evidence against Mrs. Bennett; but, on hearing the judge advocate's argument against postponement, I saw my opportunity to force a confession from the guilty woman by giving details of Captain Lloyd's murder which would induce her to think there had been an eye-witness to her crime.
"Sitting there, confident that another was practically convicted for Captain Lloyd's murder, the shock of my unexpected words affected her as I hoped they would, and she betrayed herself."
"Is that the only evidence you can offer to prove Mrs. Bennett's guilt?" demanded the judge advocate, harshly.
"My next witness is Miss Mary Phelps, a nurse of the United States Sanitary Commission," was Warren's noncommittal reply.
After the usual preliminaries Miss Phelps told how she found the hypodermic syringe and why she gave it to Doctor Ward. She was then excused, and her place taken by Doctor Ward, who in a few concise words described how he discovered that the syringe was not his, and that it contained a solution which, on examination, proved to be a form of curari. He produced the syringe and gave it to the judge advocate.
As he left the court-room Doctor John Boyd's name was called, and the famous surgeon limped into the room and to the witness chair, followed by a low ripple of excited comment from the spectators which was quickly quelled by Colonel Andrews' peremptory demand for silence. When Doctor Boyd had satisfactorily answered the judge advocate's first question after being sworn, Warren began his direct examination.
"Doctor, are you acquainted with the poison known as curari or curarine?"