“Poor gink!” said Mr. Hines to himself. “I guess he’s sorry by this time that he didn’t take that money and beat it while he had the chance. Wonder how he’ll look in a suit of stripes and with his hair close cropped.”
There was a broad grin upon his face as he entered the courtroom and seated himself on one of the rear benches. Catching the presiding judge’s eye leveled sternly upon him, and suddenly realizing that his levity was hardly decorous, he hurriedly assumed a serious mien.
He found it difficult to refrain from chuckling as the case progressed, however, for as witness after witness took the stand to testify against Sheridan, and the strong chain of circumstantial evidence was presented link by link to the jury, the prisoner’s counsel, eminent lawyer though he was, seemed to become more and more baffled and depressed.
Ex-Judge Lawrence was famed for his skill as a cross-examiner. This was the only point on which Coggswell and Hines had been apprehensive. They feared that there was a possibility of some of the witnesses going to pieces under the vigorous, searching questioning of counsel for the defense.
But, to Hines’ great relief, the ex-judge, in this case, gave no evidence of being an expert at the art of cross-examination. He did not succeed in “rattling” a single witness; in fact, he handled them all so mildly and apparently with so little spirit that Hines muttered to himself contemptuously:
“Huh! Him a great lawyer! Guess he’s been very much overrated. Why, I know a whole lot of ordinary police-court counselors that could give him cards and spades.”
William Warren, wholesale liquor dealer, was the first witness to take the stand. He testified that he had sent his good friend Michael Harrington, a saloon keeper, a gold watch by registered mail. He had placed the watch in the package in the presence of two witnesses, who had also been with him when he handed in the package at the registry window of a downtown post office.
Judge Lawrence asked this witness but four questions in cross-examination:
“Are you acquainted with Samuel J. Coggswell, Mr. Warren?”
“I never had the pleasure of meeting the gentleman.”