"It isn't a lie; it's the truth, and I'll stick to it as long as I have breath in my body," replied Bobtail, warmly.
"You are not under oath now, Robert Taylor."
"I'll say just the same under oath, and before all the lawyers and judges in the State of Maine."
"Mr. Slipwing, do you know this bill?" added the squire, addressing the ill-visaged man.
"I do. I will swear in any court that this is the bill I sent you in the letter from Portland," replied the man.
"You are very sure?"
"Positively so. I remember the bank, and there are three things on the bill which enable me to identify it. The cashier's pen snapped when he wrote his name on the left, and blotted the bill. The corner was torn off, and it was mended in another place with a piece of paper from the edge of a sheet of six-cent postage stamps."
The ill-visaged man spoke confidently, and whatever his character, his testimony was very clear.
"What has all this to do with me?" asked Bobtail, who did not yet understand the situation.
The lawyer smiled, and perhaps he thought that the boy was playing his part extremely well for a novice.