Littell looked after him thoughtfully for a moment before he gathered together his papers and himself prepared to leave. As he did so I joined him, anticipating that we should have an evening in each other's society; but it was not to be, for I found him in a mood stern and taciturn and disinclined to talk about the case, and so after several ineffectual attempts at conversation I left him.
My evening—spent alone therefore—was a dull one and the night long, and I was glad to find myself again at the trial table on the following morning. Here, all about me, the surroundings were unchanged in any way and it was hard to realize that there had been an interval of emptiness and silence within those walls.
As soon as court opened the State called Benton to the stand, and then the real battle of the trial began. He presented a different subject for the handling of the defence, for he not only testified to important matters, but he was the first witness to show any bias, and Littell gave more marked attention to his testimony. Under lengthy examination the witness told his story to the smallest particular, including the tales he had brought to me about the visits of the defendant to White's house, his demands upon him for money, and his assertions of his right to the money left by his father, and he also threw out some hints of threats and quarrels—all tending as much by insinuation as fact to cast suspicion upon the prisoner.
After the State had extracted all it could from him, he was turned over to Littell, and then the wisdom of that lawyer's previous course was demonstrated, for when, instead of waiving the witness from the stand or asking a few indifferent questions as he had done on other occasions, he turned and faced him preparatory to full cross-examination, both Judge and jury showed a newly awakened interest.
Littell allowed a few minutes to elapse while he scrutinized the witness, before he put his first question, and it was apparent to me that the delay was trying to Benton, who was already in a nervous state, for he moved restlessly and directed his gaze anxiously to the lawyer.
At length Littell began his cross-examination, and after taking him categorically over each item in his testimony, pinning him definitely in each instance as to time and place and separating fact from conjecture, he asked him pointedly if he had told the Coroner's jury as he had this one that Winters was in the habit of visiting White; or that he demanded money of him, or that he claimed White's money to have been by right his.
The witness admitted that he had not told them any of these things.
"Why did you not?" Littell continued.
Benton seemed embarrassed, but at length said he supposed he had not done so because he did not think of them at the time.
Littell waited patiently till the answer was forthcoming, and then continued: