Rankin asked Dearborn only one question. There did not seem to be any use in resisting the matter except on the one point which remained to be proved.
"You do not pretend to identify these bills yourself?"
"No, sir, I don't. But we'll fix that all right for you," he said, triumphantly, as he descended from the box.
The clerk in the Montreal Telegraph Company's office who compared the numbers of the bills with the list of numbers sent from New York, then identified the two recovered bills beyond any doubt. He also swore that he personally deposited the package of bills with the receiving teller of the Victoria Bank.
The receiving teller swore to having received such a package and having handed it to Mr. Hampstead to be used in his department.
Geoffrey Hampstead was recalled, and acknowledged receiving such a package from the other clerk. But what surprised everybody was that he took up the recovered bills and swore positively that the stolen bills were of a light-brown color, and not dark-green, like the ones found on the prisoner.
Geoffrey had seen that the whole case depended on the identification of these bills. If he could break the evidence of the other witnesses sufficiently on this point, there might, he thought, be a chance of having Jack liberated.
A peculiar thing happened here, which startled the dense mass of people looking on.
The prisoner arose to his feet, and, taking hold of the railing to steady himself, said in a rolling, hollow voice, while Geoffrey was swearing that the stolen bills were of a light-brown color:
"Geoffrey, old man, don't tell any lies on my account. The bills were all dark-green." Then he sat down again wearily.